100 Years of Fundamental Theoretical Physics in the Palm of Your Hand
100 Years of Fundamental Theoretical Physics in the Palm of Your Hand

Author: E. B. Manoukian

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-10-20

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 3030510816

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This book aims to integrate, in a pedagogical and technical manner, with detailed derivations, all essential principles of fundamental theoretical physics as developed over the past 100 years. It covers: Quantum physics and Stability Problems in the Quantum World, Minkowski Spacetime Physics Particle Classifications and Underlying Symmetries, Symmetry Violations, Quantum Field Theory of Particle Interactions, Higgs Field Physics, Supersymmetry: A Theory with Mathematical Beauty Superstrings, Gravity and Supergravity, General Relativity Predictions, including Frame Dragging, Intricacies of Black Hole Physics, Perturbative and Non-perturbative Quantum Gravity Intricacies of Modern Cosmology, including Inflation and Power Spectrum If you are in the process of learning, or are lecturing on, any of the subjects above, then this is your book - irrespective of your specialty. With over-specialization and no time to master all the fields given above, students, and perhaps many physicists, may find it difficult to keep up with all the exciting developments going on, and are even less familiar with their underlying technicalities: e.g. they might have heard that the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, but have no idea on how this number is actually computed. This unique book will be of great value to graduate students, instructors and researchers interested in the intricacies and derivations of the many aspects of modern fundamental theoretical physics. And, although a graduate level book, some chapters may also be suitable for advanced undergraduates in their final year.

Approaches to Fundamental Physics
Approaches to Fundamental Physics

Author: Ion-Olimpiu Stamatescu

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2007-09-28

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 3540711171

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This book offers a portrait of the research landscape of present-day fundamental theoretical physics. It presents contributions on particle theory, quantum field theory, general relativity, quantum gravity, string theory and cosmology. The book examines a way of communicating about methods, achievements and promises of the different approaches which shape the development of this field.

A History of the Ideas of Theoretical Physics
A History of the Ideas of Theoretical Physics

Author: S. D'Agostino

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 9401090343

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This book presents a perspective on the history of theoretical physics over the past two hundreds years. It comprises essays on the history of pre-Maxwellian electrodynamics, of Maxwell's and Hertz's field theories, and of the present century's relativity and quantum physics. A common thread across the essays is the search for and the exploration of themes that influenced significant con ceptual changes in the great movement of ideas and experiments which heralded the emergence of theoretical physics (hereafter: TP). The fun. damental change involved the recognition of the scien tific validity of theoretical physics. In the second half of the nine teenth century, it was not easy for many physicists to understand the nature and scope of theoretical physics and of its adept, the theoreti cal physicist. A physicist like Ludwig Boltzmann, one of the eminent contributors to the new discipline, confessed in 1895 that, "even the formulation of this concept [of a theoretical physicist] is not entirely without difficulty". 1 Although science had always been divided into theory and experiment, it was only in physics that theoretical work developed into a major research and teaching specialty in its own right. 2 It is true that theoretical physics was mainly a creation of tum of-the century German physics, where it received full institutional recognition, but it is also undeniable that outstanding physicists in other European countries, namely, Ampere, Fourier, and Maxwell, also had an important part in its creation.

Frank Wilczek: 50 Years Of Theoretical Physics
Frank Wilczek: 50 Years Of Theoretical Physics

Author: Antti Niemi

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2022-03-18

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9811255180

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Frank Wilczek is one of the foremost theoretical physicists of the past half-century. He has made several fundamental contributions that shape our understanding of high energy physics, cosmology, condensed matter physics, and statistical physics. In all these fields his many discoveries continue to play a key role in shaping the direction of modern theoretical physics.Among Wilczek's major achievements is the discovery of asymptotic freedom, which predicts and explains the ultraviolet behavior of non-abelian gauge theories. The axion, which he co-discovered and named, has emerged as the prevalent candidate for explaining the origin of dark matter in the Universe. His invention of color-flavor locking explains chiral symmetry breaking in high density quantum chromodynamics. His introduction of fractional statistics and anyons are pivotal to our understanding of the fractional quantum Hall effect and form the building blocks of topological quantum computing. His invention of the time crystal concept has catalyzed extensive investigations of dynamical phases of physical systems.Frank Wilczek received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is also the recipient of several Prizes and honorary awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Lorentz Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society, and the King Faisal International Prize for Science of the King Faisal Foundation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is also a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden.He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. He also holds a professorship at Stockholm University, is a Distinguished Professor at Arizona State University, and is the founding director of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and Chief Scientist of the Wilczek Quantum Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.This volume serves as a tribute to Frank Wilczek's legendary scientific contributions, commemorating his 70th birthday and the first 50 years of his career as a theoretical physicist. The contributors include several of his PhD students, close collaborators, and both past and present colleagues.

Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You
Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You

Author: Marcus Chown

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2008-09-04

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 057124601X

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The two towering achievements of modern physics are quantum theory and Einstein's general theory of relativity. Together, they explain virtually everything about the world we live in. But, almost a century after their advent, most people haven't the slightest clue what either is about. Did you know that there's so much empty space inside matter that the entire human race could be squeezed into the volume of a sugar cube? Or that you grow old more quickly on the top floor of a building than on the ground floor? And did you realize that 1% of the static on a TV tuned between stations is the relic of the Big Bang? Marcus Chown, the bestselling author of What A Wonderful World and the Solar System app, explains all with characteristic wit, colour and clarity, from the Big Bang and Einstein's general theory of relativity to probability, gravity and quantum theory. 'Chown discusses special and general relativity, probablity waves, quantum entanglement, gravity and the Big Bang, with humour and beautiful clarity, always searching for the most vivid imagery.' Steven Poole, Guardian

Quantum Generations
Quantum Generations

Author: Helge Kragh

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-06-16

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 0691214190

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At the end of the nineteenth century, some physicists believed that the basic principles underlying their subject were already known, and that physics in the future would only consist of filling in the details. They could hardly have been more wrong. The past century has seen the rise of quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology, particle physics, and solid-state physics, among other fields. These subjects have fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time, and matter. They have also transformed daily life, inspiring a technological revolution that has included the development of radio, television, lasers, nuclear power, and computers. In Quantum Generations, Helge Kragh, one of the world's leading historians of physics, presents a sweeping account of these extraordinary achievements of the past one hundred years. The first comprehensive one-volume history of twentieth-century physics, the book takes us from the discovery of X rays in the mid-1890s to superstring theory in the 1990s. Unlike most previous histories of physics, written either from a scientific perspective or from a social and institutional perspective, Quantum Generations combines both approaches. Kragh writes about pure science with the expertise of a trained physicist, while keeping the content accessible to nonspecialists and paying careful attention to practical uses of science, ranging from compact disks to bombs. As a historian, Kragh skillfully outlines the social and economic contexts that have shaped the field in the twentieth century. He writes, for example, about the impact of the two world wars, the fate of physics under Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, the role of military research, the emerging leadership of the United States, and the backlash against science that began in the 1960s. He also shows how the revolutionary discoveries of scientists ranging from Einstein, Planck, and Bohr to Stephen Hawking have been built on the great traditions of earlier centuries. Combining a mastery of detail with a sure sense of the broad contours of historical change, Kragh has written a fitting tribute to the scientists who have played such a decisive role in the making of the modern world.

The Universe in Your Hand
The Universe in Your Hand

Author: Christophe Galfard

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2016-04-19

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 125006953X

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"If Ms. Frizzle were a physics student of Stephen Hawking, she might have written THE UNIVERSE IN YOUR HAND, a wild tour through the reaches of time and space, from the interior of a proton to the Big Bang to the rough suburbs of a black hole. It's friendly, excitable, erudite, and cosmic." —Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times besteselling author of How Not To Be Wrong Quantum physics, black holes, string theory, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, parallel universes: even if we are interested in these fundamental concepts of our world, their language is the language of math. Which means that despite our best intentions of finally grasping, say, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, most of us are quickly brought up short by a snarl of nasty equations or an incomprehensible graph. Christophe Galfard's mission in life is to spread modern scientific ideas to the general public in entertaining ways. Using his considerable skills as a brilliant theoretical physicist and successful young adult author, The Universe in Your Hand employs the immediacy of simple, direct language to show us, not explain to us, the theories that underpin everything we know about our universe. To understand what happens to a dying star, we are asked to picture ourselves floating in space in front of it. To get acquainted with the quantum world, we are shrunk to the size of an atom and then taken on a journey. Employing everyday similes and metaphors, addressing the reader directly, and writing stories rather than equations renders these astoundingly complex ideas in an immediate and visceral way. Utterly captivating and entirely unique, The Universe in Your Hand will find its place among other classics in the field.

The Road to Reality
The Road to Reality

Author: Roger Penrose

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 1144

ISBN-13:

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The Road to Reality is the most important and ambitious work of science for a generation. It provides nothing less than a comprehensive account of the physical universe and the essentials of its underlying mathematical theory. It assumes no particular specialist knowledge on the part of the reader, so that, for example, the early chapters give us the vital mathematical background to the physical theories explored later in the book. Roger Penrose's purpose is to describe as clearly as possible our present understanding of the universe and to convey a feeling for its deep beauty and philosophical implications, as well as its intricate logical interconnections. The Road to Reality is rarely less than challenging, but the book is leavened by vivid descriptive passages, as well as hundreds of hand-drawn diagrams. In a single work of colossal scope one of the world's greatest scientists has given us a complete and unrivalled guide to the glories of the universe that we all inhabit.

Einstein: On Theoretical Physics
Einstein: On Theoretical Physics

Author: Albert Einstein

Publisher: Nutty Physics

Published: 2024-05-01

Total Pages: 28

ISBN-13:

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Einstein's View on Theoretical Physics! This short booklet is based on the address (or, its transcript) delivered before the Prussian Academy of Science by Einstein, in 1914, right after he was elected to a member of the Academy. Whether you agree with his opinion or not, Einstein was a deep thinker, and he always had unique views on the topics that were of general interest to people who cared about science (and, humanity). This article, in particular, provided his insight on the role of "principles" in the development of fundamental theories in physics. A must-read for Einstein enthusiasts, or any serious students of physics! This short article/transcript (roughly ~7 minutes) was originally published in German, and it is now in the public domain. This booklet attempts at a new translation to give a somewhat clearer account of what Einstein wanted to convey in his original address. A completely new English translation - 2024!