Nuclear Interactions and Classes of Nuclear Reaction

Abstract

Despite the long history of nuclear physics, we are still unable to write down, in simple terms, the exact formula for the two-nucleon interaction. The reason lies in the complex nature of nuclear forces and in the complex structure of the nucleons themselves, which, at the low energies of interest to us, behave as indestructible, elementary particles. The discussion of this problem is beyond the scope of this course, therefore we will confine ourselves to stating the currently known properties of the nucleon–nucleon interaction.