Preface

The 28th edition of the "Symposium on Nuclear Physics" was held in the Hacienda Cocoyoc, Mexico, from January 4th to 7th, 2005. After a long tradition in Oaxtepec, and moved the last three years to Taxco, this time went to a beautiful Hacienda with very nice outdoors areas in Cocoyoc, Morelos, Mexico.

It was 28 years ago that the Symposium on Nuclear Physics was conceived as a small meeting designed to bring together some of the leading scientists on Nuclear Physics. During these 28 years, the conference has become one of the best known international conferences in the field, being one of its most distinctive features its ability to gather a wide range of experimental and theoretical specialists in different nuclear physics subjects, in a relaxed and informal environment.

This year, 47 colleagues attended our symposium, about half of which came from abroad and 13 of them were graduated students. A total of 23 invited talks and 14 posters were presented. The subjects discussed covered different aspects of nuclear and sub–nuclear structure, radioactive beams, nuclear astrophysics, relativistic heavy–ion collisions and other related subjects. The present volume contains the written version of the invited talks, all of them subjected to strict refereeing. The summary talk presented by Prof. Stuart Pittel is at the electronic location of the symposium (http://www.smf.mx/ dfn/SNP2005/index.html).

As it is customary, many of the foreign participants stayed for a while longer in Mexico after the end of the conference to initiate or continue collaborations with their Mexican colleagues.

Congratulations and thanks to all our colleagues who have enthusiastically taken part in these meetings, keeping alive the symposium throughout the years. In particular, we would like to thank the members of the international advisory committee for their valuable suggestions and the referees for their dedication in helping us maintain the standars of the papers. The meeting was enjoyable and memorable.

Peter O. Hess (ICN–UNAM)
Enrique Martínez Quiroz (ININ)
Carlos E. Vargas (FFIA–UV)