Hyperfine school

I've been off work sick for a few days with the lurgy.  Ugh.  Ah well, these things happen, and it is winter flu season after all.  It's also exam marking season, and I'm back in at work with lots of marking to do which I had planned to get done earlier in the week.  

I also have an email that I thought I'd share here.  It's from a MOOC (free, online, university-level course) on hyperfine interactions; those interactions between electrons and nuclei that give rise to tiny splittings of atomic energy levels.  From the point of view of nuclear physics, they're useful because they give us a probe of nuclear properties, using theory that is quite well understood (and so relatively model-independent)

It looks very interesting, and great that Ghent University are providing the material, and support, for this course.  I don't know what textbook (if any) they use, but I include a picture of me reading the book I found most useful on the subject as an undergraduate. I paste the whole email from the course organisers below, for those interested in taking part which can be done starting next week in a supported way, or any time, in a totally self-study way:

On 12 February 2020, a new edition of http://www.hyperfinecourse.org will start. It is a free open online course about the physics of hyperfine interactions and experimental methods based thereupon. You can take this course self-paced at any time of the year, or - if you start on Feb 12 or before - you can take it in sync with students at Ghent University. In the latter case, you can ask questions and get feedback just as these students do.

The course is scheduled for 12 weeks, and requires about 5 hours of work per week. Emphasis is on conceptual understanding, less on mathematical derivations. The level is advanced bachelor or (early) master. A general science background at bachelor level is the expected entry level.

This is the list of topics covered:

the nucleus
the physics framework (classical/quantum)
electric monopole shift
magnetic hyperfine interaction
electric quadrupole interaction
+++
laser spectroscopy
Mössbauer spectroscopy
synchrotron radiation methods
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR, a.k.a. MRI)
nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR)
ENDOR (Electron Nuclear DOuble Resonance)
electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)
low-temperature nuclear orientation (LTNO)
NMR on oriented nuclei (NMR/ON)
perturbed angular correlation spectroscopy (PAC)

Students get every week a set of videos, with associated tasks. Reports are submitted 24 hours before the weekly feedback webinar. During this weekly webinar, common problems encountered in the tasks are discussed, and questions raised by students during the past week are addressed. The webinars are livestreamed and recorded for later use.

If you want to offer this course as a formal course to students at your place, please get in touch and we’ll see how this can be organized.

Feel free to have a look at http://www.hyperfinecourse.org. A short registration is required (temporarily or permanent, as you wish), after which you have access to all material.

You receive this one-time email because you are known to be interested in hyperfine interactions, or because you have been previously registered as a student in this course.

Yours sincerely,
Stefaan Cottenier
Ghent University
Belgium