Written by a former International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear inspector and nuclear security expert, this book provides a comprehensive and authentic overview of current global nuclear developments. The author provides detailed insights into current and past nuclear crises and reveals the technical capabilities, political strategies and motives of nuclear weapon owners. By analyzing the nuclear programs and strategies of various countries, including the USA, Russia, China, Great Britain and France, this book highlights the existing global nuclear threat and the risks it entails for humanity. It also describes the current blockades and suggests possible ways out. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars and policymakers interested in gaining new insights into sensitive or complex nuclear programs in various countries.

In 1954, Charles Townes invented the laser's microwave cousin, the maser. The next logical step was to extend the same physical principles to the shorter wavelengths of light, but the idea did not catch fire until October 1957, when Townes asked Gordon Gould about Gould's research on using light to excite thallium atoms. Each took the idea and ran with it. The independent-minded Gould sought the fortune of an independent inventor; the professorial Townes sought the fame of scientific recognition. Townes enlisted the help of his brother-in-law, Arthur Schawlow, and got Bell Labs into the race. Gould turned his ideas into a patent application and a million-dollar defense contract. They soon had company. Ali Javan, one of Townes's former students, began pulling 90-hour weeks at Bell Labs with colleague Bill Bennett. And far away in California a bright young physicist named Ted Maiman became a very dark horse in the race. While Schawlow proclaimed that ruby could never make a laser, Maiman slowly convinced himself it would. As others struggled with recalcitrant equipment and military secrecy, Maiman built a tiny and elegant device that fit in the palm of his hand. His ruby laser worked the first time he tried it, on May 16, 1960, but afterwards he had to battle for acceptance as the man who made the first laser. Beam is a fascinating tale of a remarkable and powerful invention that has become a symbol of modern technology.

Researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students of high energy physics

This thesis presents significant new observations of nuclear wobbling, and thus expands our understanding of nuclear triaxiality and its prevalence in the nuclear chart. Triaxial nuclear shapes are a very rare phenomena and their experimental identification often relies on two unique signatures - nuclear wobbling motion and chiral rotation. While nuclear chirality is a well-studied phenomenon, experimental observations of wobbling nuclei are rather limited. With the identification of 135Pr and 187Au as wobblers, this work establishes triaxiality to be a general phenomenon present in different regions of the nuclear chart, irrespective of any particular spin or deformation. A major focus of this work is the detailed investigation of the different kinds of wobbling modes. Depending on the geometry of the nuclear system, wobbling can be classified into two types - longitudinal and transverse. This work has, for the first time, reported evidence of the possible coexistence of both forms of wobbling in a single nucleus. Another important result reported in this work is the very first observation of co-existing chiral and wobbling modes in the 135Pr nucleus. This thesis details the experimental methods that led to this breakthrough, along with pertinent theoretical interpretations.

Some countries have moved beyond the design and operation of nuclear electricity generating systems to confronting the issue of nuclear waste disposal, whole others are still committed to further nuclear facility construction. Volume 24 chronicles these key developments and examines nuclear reactor accidents at Chernobyl, Bhopal, and TMI. The text also analyzes current international knowledge of neutron interactions; deterministic methods based on mean values for assessing radiation distributions; practical applications of the TIBERE models to explicit computation of leakage terms in realistic reactor geometry; and a technique to deal with the issues of finance, risk assessment, and public perception.

This book offers a modern way of dealing with the problems of equilibrium states of Bose systems. Starting with the variation principle of statistical mechanics and the energy-entropy balance principle as equilibrium criteria, results for general boson systems and models are explicitly derived using simple functional analytic calculus.

Bridging the gap between general theoretical physics and the phenomenological research in the field of Bose systems, this book provides an insight into the fascinating quantum world of bosons. Key topics include the occurrence of BEC and its intimate structural relation with the phenomena of spontaneous symmetry breaking and off-diagonal long range order; the condensate equation; the issue concerning the choice of boundary conditions; solvable versus non-solvable boson models; the set of quasi-free boson states; the role of dissipative perturbations; and the surprising but general relation between general quantum fluctuations and boson systems.

Only some knowledge of quantum mechanics and undergraduate algebra and analysis is assumed. This textbook brings students and researchers smoothly from general concepts to vivid applications.

To all four of us, Carsten was the best possible friend and colleague. To Finn, he was a fellow student in the history of science for several years at the Niels Bohr Institute; to Relge, he was a welcome resource for personal and intellectual interac tion in an otherwise less than fertile environment for the history of science; Roger was Carsten's friend and advisor, not least in the development of the dissertation on which the present book is based; and as director of the Niels Bohr Archive, Erik was his main advisor in his historical work. Because he was the person closest to Carsten's work on his Ph. D. dissertation on the history of beta decay, on which the present book is based, it is only fitting that Erik stands as single author of the words in Carsten's memory at the very beginning of this book. Before his untimely death shortly after the completion of the Ph. D. disser tation, Carsten had himself plans to develop the dissertation into a book. Being a true perfectionist, he wanted to rework the manuscript substantively, especially with regard to relating it to the broader discussion among historians of science."

This book introduces readers to basic approaches in and principles of marine nuclear power design, including overall reactor design, in-core design, coolant systems and devices, I&C system design, safety system design, and dynamic analysis assessment. It comprehensively reviews both the fundamentals of and latest trends in nuclear-powered devices, covering their entire lifespan, from design and testing to operation and decommissioning. Further, it explores in detail various real-world conditions in the marine context - such as insufficient space for equipment deployment and frequently changing operating conditions as well as swinging and tilting. Offering extensive information on the design and operation of marine nuclear power systems, the book is a valuable resource for researchers and professionals in the area of marine science and nuclear engineering, and graduate students intending to embark on a career in the field.

Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom is the first book that focuses in detail on the birth and development of Bohr's atomic theory and gives a comprehensive picture of it. At the same time it offers new insight into Bohr's peculiar way of thinking, what Einstein once called his 'unique instinct and tact'. Contrary to most other accounts of the Bohr atom, the book presents it in a broader perspective which includes the reception among other scientists and the criticism launched against it by scientists of a more conservative inclination. Moreover, it discusses the theory as Bohr originally conceived it, namely, as an ambitious theory covering the structure of atoms as well as molecules. By discussing the theory in its entirety it becomes possible to understand why it developed as it did and thereby to use it as an example of the dynamics of scientific theories.

This book provides advanced students and postdocs, as well as current practitioners of any field of nuclear physics involving fission an understanding of the nuclear fission process. Key topics covered are: fission cross sections, fission fragment yields, neutron and gamma emission from fission and key nuclear technologies and applications where fission plays an important role. It addresses both fundamental aspects of the fission process and fission-based technologies including combining quantitative and microscopic modeling.

This thesis is a tour-de-force combination of analytic and computational results clarifying and resolving important questions about the nature of quantum phase transitions in one- and two-dimensional magnetic systems. The author presents a comprehensive study of a low-dimensional spin-half quantum antiferromagnet (the J-Q model) in the presence of a magnetic field in both one and two dimensions, demonstrating the causes of metamagnetism in such systems and providing direct evidence of fractionalized excitations near the deconfined quantum critical point. In addition to describing significant new research results, this thesis also provides the non-expert with a clear understanding of the nature and importance of computational physics and its role in condensed matter physics as well as the nature of phase transitions, both classical and quantum. It also contains an elegant and detailed but accessible summary of the methods used in the thesis-exact diagonalization, Monte Carlo, quantum Monte Carlo and the stochastic series expansion-that will serve as a valuable pedagogical introduction to students beginning in this field.

This book provides an intuitive yet sound understanding of how structure and properties of solids may be related. The natural link is provided by the band theory approach to the electronic structure of solids. The chemically insightful concept of orbital interaction and the essential machinery of band theory are used throughout the book to build links between the crystal and electronic structure of periodic systems. In such a way, it is shown how important tools for understanding properties of solids like the density of states, the Fermi surface etc. can be qualitatively sketched and used to either understand the results of quantitative calculations or to rationalize experimental observations. Extensive use of the orbital interaction approach appears to be a very efficient way of building bridges between physically and chemically based notions to understand the structure and properties of solids.

Existing texts on the statistical mechanics of liquids treat only spherical molecules. However, nearly all fluids of practical interest are composed of non-spherical molecules that are often dipolar or exhibit other kinds of electrostatic forces. This book describes the statistical mechanical theory of fluids of non-spherical molecules and its application to the calculation of physical properties, and is a sequel to Theory of Molecular Fluids. Volume 1: Fundamentals by C.G. Gray and K.E. Gubbins. The emphasis is on the new phenomena that arise due to the non-spherical nature of the intermolecular forces, such as new phase transitions, structural features and dielectric effects. It contains chapters on the thermodynamic properties of pure and mixed fluids, surface properties, X-ray and neutron diffraction structure factors, dielectric properties and spectroscopic properties. The book is aimed at beginning graduate students and research workers in chemistry, physics, materials science and engineering.

This book covers the fundamental aspects of fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers, and includes a wide range of material from laser physics fundamentals to state-of-the-art topics in this rapidly growing field of quantum electronics. This expanded and updated new edition includes substantial new material on nonlinear frequency conversion and Raman fiber lasers and amplifiers, as well as an expanded list of references inclusive of the recent literature in the field. Emphasis is placed on the nonlinear processes taking place in fiber lasers and amplifiers, their similarities, differences to, and their advantages over other solid-state lasers. The reader will learn the basic principles of solid-state physics and optical spectroscopy of laser active centers in fibers, the main operational laser regimes, and will receive practical recommendations and suggestions on fiber laser research, laser applications, and laser product development. The book will be useful for students, researchers, and professional physicists and engineers who work with lasers in the optical and telecommunications field, as well as those in the chemical and biological industries.

This is a textbook on the theory and calculation of molecular electromagnetic and spectroscopic properties designed for a one-semester course with lectures and exercise classes. The idea of the book is to provide thorough background knowledge for the calculation of electromagnetic and spectroscopic properties of molecules with modern quantum chemical software packages.
The book covers the derivation of the molecular Hamiltonian in the presence of electromagnetic fields, and of time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theory in the form of response theory. It defines many molecular properties and spectral parameters and gives an introduction to modern computational chemistry methods.

This collection of lectures treats the dynamics of open systems with a strong emphasis on dissipation phenomena related to dynamical chaos. This research area is very broad, covering topics such as nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, environment-system coupling (decoherence) and applications of Markov semi-groups to name but a few. The book addresses not only experienced researchers in the field but also nonspecialists from related areas of research, postgraduate students wishing to enter the field and lecturers searching for advanced textbook material.

This comprehensive text presents not only a detailed exposition of the basic principles of nuclear physics but also provides a contemporary flavour by covering the recent developments in the field. Starting with a synoptic view of the subject, the book explains various physical phenomena in nuclear physics along with experimental methods of measurement. Nuclear forces as encountered in two body problems are detailed next followed by the problems of radioactive decay. Nuclear reactions are then comprehensively explained along with the various models of reaction mechanism. This is followed by recent developments like the pre-equilibrium model and heavy ions induced reaction.

Quantum logic gates are the crucial information-processing operation of quantumcomputers. Two crucial performance metrics for logic gates are their precision andspeed. Quantum processors based on trapped ions have always been the touchstonefor gate precision, but have suffered from slow speed relative to other quantum logicplatforms such as solid state systems. This thesis shows that it is possible to acceleratethe logic "clock speed" from kHz to MHz speeds, whilst maintaining a precision of99.8%. This is almost as high as the world record for conventional trapped-ion gates,but more than 20 times faster. It also demonstrates entanglement generation in atime (480ns) shorter than the natural timescale of the ions' motion in the trap, whichstarts to probe an interesting new regime of ion trap physics. In separate experiments, some of the first "mixed-species" quantum logic gates areperformed, both between two different elements, and between different isotopes.The mixed-isotope gate is used to make the first test of the quantum-mechanical Bellinequality between two different species of isolated atoms.

Multiply charged ions have always been in the focus of atomic physics, astrophysics, plasma physics, and theoretical physics. Within the last few years, strong progress has been achieved in the development of ion sources, ion storage rings, ion traps, and methods to cool ions. As a consequence, nowadays, experiments with ensembles of multiply charged ions of brilliant quality are performed in many laboratories. The broad spectrum of the experiments demonstrates that these ions are an extremely versatile tool for investigations in pure and applied physics. It was the aim of this ASI to bring together scientists working in different fields of research with multiply charged ions in order to get an overview of the state of the art, to sound out possibilities for fruitful cooperations, and to discuss perspectives for the future. Accordingly, the programme of the ASI reached from established areas like QED calculations, weak interactions, x-ray astronomy, x-ray lasers, multi photon excitation, heavy-ion induced fusion, and ion-surface interactions up to the very recently opened areas like bound-beta decay, laser and x-ray spectroscopy, and spectrometry of ions in rings and traps, and the interaction of highly charged ions with biological cells. Impressive progress in nearly all of the fields could be reported during the meeting which is documented by the contributions to this volume. The theoretical understand ing of QED and correlation effects in few-electron heavy ions is rapidly developing."

This book describes collisions between atoms that have been cooled to extremely low temperatures by optical and evaporative cooling techniques. John Weiner reviews the elements of the quantum theory of scattering, and summarizes the theory and experimental techniques of optical cooling and trapping. He also describes applications to precision spectroscopy, the determination of atomic properties, control of inelastic collisions by laser fields, and the manipulation of Bose-Einstein condensates (mesoscopic quantum systems).

This book provides details of the basic frameworks and characteristics of processes occurring in electronically excited states of small molecules, complexes, and clusters. It discusses the perturbations in electronically excited valence states of molecules induced by intramolecular interaction and intermolecular interactions, which occur in collisions and optically populated, weakly bound complexes. Further, it describes the kinetics and mechanisms of photoprocesses in simple molecules and recombination accompanied by radiation. The book also offers information on general kinetics for gas-phase processes and basic theoretical frameworks for elementary processes. It features many useful problems, making it a valuable resource for students and researchers in molecular spectroscopy/molecular physics and chemical physics/physical chemistry.

My aim in this book has been to give an account of the theoretical methods of analysis of multiphoton processes in atomic physics. In this account I have emphasized systematic methods as opposed to ad hoc approaches. Both perturbative and nonperturbative methods are presented with il- lustrative results of concrete applications. The perturbation theory is the primary tool of analysis of nonresonant multiphoton processes. It is developed here in conjunction with a diagrammatic language and is also renormalized to free it from the unwanted divergences which accompany the ordinary treatment when higher-order corrections are considered. The nonperturbative methods (i.e., methods other than that of power series ex- pansion in the field strength) become particularly important for consistent treatments of problems involving, for example, intermediate resonances, high field strengths, and finite pulse duration. The specifically nonpertur- bative methods for multiphoton transitions are presented in Chapters 6-11. The methods of resolvent equations and of effective Hamiltonians are developed for both the stationary and the time-dependent fields. The densi- ty matrix method is presented in conjunction with the problems of relaxa- tion and of fluctuating fields. The Floquet theory is presented both in the energy domain and in the time domain. Also treated are the methods of continued fractions, recursive iterative equations, and chain Hamiltonians.

Theoretical and experimental studies of phase transitions are at the forefront of modern condensed-matter physics. The seminal insight into the role played by fluctuations led to the renormalization group, an approach that has proved extremely useful in many other fields as well. This text considers a wide variety of problems in the theory of phase transitions, revealing their common features as well as their distinctions. Formal aspects are developed as required in discussions of particular systems, and theory is compared to experiment wherever possible. This book begins with a review of the classical approach, including the main aspects of a self-consistent treatment of systems with broken symmetry and a discussion of the Ginzburg-Landau functional. It then turns to a treatment of the renormalization group, discussing both Wilson's formulation based on Kadanoff's scale invariance as well as the approach using field theory. The authors then turn to a generalized approach using scale equations, which eliminates many of the problems of the other formulations. Subsequent chapters discuss applications of this approach: first to simple models; then to more realistic systems such as complex Heisenberg magnets, antiferromagnets, ferroelectrics, impure systems, and high-T(subscript c) superconductors. Finally, in the last two chapters many of these systems are analyzed within the framework of exactly solvable models. Suitable for advanced undergraduates as well as graduate students in physics, the text assumes some knowledge of statistical mechanics, but is otherwise self-contained.

Following an explosion of research on Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) ignited by demonstration of the effect by 2001 Nobel prize winners Cornell, Wieman and Ketterle, this book surveys the field of BEC studies. Written by experts in the field, it focuses on Bose-Einstein condensation as a universal phenomenon, covering topics such as cold atoms, magnetic and optical condensates in solids, liquid helium and field theory. Summarising general theoretical concepts and the research to date - including novel experimental realisations in previously inaccessible systems and their theoretical interpretation - it is an excellent resource for researchers and students in theoretical and experimental physics who wish to learn of the general themes of BEC in different subfields.

"If there would be no God ~ then what a staff-captain am I?" ~ said one of the characters in a novel by Dostoevskii. In a similar way we can exclaim: "If there would be no nonlinearity ~ than what physics would that be'?". Really, the most interesting and exciting effects are described by non linear equations, and vanish in the linear approximation. For example, the general theory of relativity by A.Einstein comes to mind first - one of the most beautiful physical theories, which is in fact essentially nonlinear. Next, the phase transitions crystal ~ liquid and liquid ~ gas are due to the anhar monicity of inter-particle interactions, to dissociation and infinite motion. Similarly, transitions into the superconducting state or the superftuid would be impossible with purely harmonic interaction potentials. Another bril liant achievement in nonlinear physics was the construction of a laser and the subsequent development of nonlinear optics. The latter describes the in teraction of the matter with light of super-high intensity, when multi-quanta intra-molecular transitions become essential. Last, we should note here the very beautiful mathematical theory ~ the theory of catastrophes. Its subject is the study of invariant general properties of multi-dimensional surfaces in the vicinity of bifurcation points with respect to continuous transformations.