Nuclei far from stability. Production and experimental study of ground-states

The experimental methods currently used for the production, selection and identification of nuclei far from the β stability, are reviewed. The techniques used to study the most important groundstate properties of these nuclei such as decay modes, half-lives, masses, radii and moments are also presented. These techniques, which are briefly described, have been mostly developed in the last ten years. A few historial points are mentioned. Among the many results obtained, some examples have been selected in order to illustrate the physical information obtained in these studies