SU(3) Symmetry in Atomic Nuclei

Book excerpt: This book provides an understandable review of SU(3) representations, SU(3) Wigner–Racah algebra and the SU(3) ⊃ SO(3) integrity basis operators, which are often considered to be difficult and are avoided by most nuclear physicists. Explaining group algebras that apply to specific physical systems and discussing their physical applications, the book is a useful resource for researchers in nuclear physics. At the same time it helps experimentalists to interpret data on rotational nuclei by using SU(3) symmetry that appears in a variety of nuclear models, such as the shell model, pseudo-SU(3) model, proxy-SU(3) model, symplectic Sp(6, R) model, various interacting boson models, various interacting boson–fermion models, and cluster models. In addition to presenting the results from all these models, the book also describes a variety of statistical results that follow from the SU(3) symmetry.