Nuclear Isomers: A Primer

Nuclear isomers are the long-lived excited states of nuclei. Therefore, they constitute the meta-stable landscape of nuclei. The first isomer was probably identified as early as 1921. Since then, the number of isomers has been growing steadily picking up pace in recent times.

Interest in nuclear isomers has grown in recent years for many reasons. The experimental capabilities to observe isomers have been expanding to cover a wider time scale. This has opened up new windows to observe and dec...