This thesis reports the measurement of muon neutrino and antineutrino disappearance and electron neutrino and antineutrino appearance in a muon neutrino and antineutrino beam using the T2K experiment. It describes a result in neutrino physics that is a pioneering indication of charge-parity (CP) violation in neutrino oscillation; the first to be obtained from a single experiment. Neutrinos are some of the most abundant-but elusive-particles in the universe, and may provide a promising place to look for a potential solution to the puzzle of matter/antimatter imbalance in the observable universe. It has been firmly established that neutrinos can change flavour (or 'oscillate'), as recognised by the 2015 Nobel Prize. The theory of neutrino oscillation allows for neutrinos and antineutrinos to oscillate differently (CP violation), and may provide insights into why our universe is matter-dominated. Bayesian statistical methods, including the Markov Chain Monte Carlo fitting technique, are used to simultaneously optimise several hundred systematic parameters describing detector, beam, and neutrino interaction uncertainties as well as the six oscillation parameters.

Tackling galactic evolution in a truly novel way, this outstanding thesis statistically explores the long-term evolution of galaxies, using recent theoretical breakthroughs that explicitly account for their self-gravity. While treating processes statistically, the astrophysical differences on each scale are also captured. As the archetype of self-amplified diffusion, the implications of the thesis go far beyond astrophysics. Gravity is the driving force in galaxies, from their far outskirts to their innermost cores. These "extended kinetic theories" offer unique physical insights into the competing dynamical processes at play, complementing N-body approaches. The thesis successfully gauges the role of nature and nurture in establishing the galaxies' observed properties, using kinetic equations to capture both sources of fluctuations. Further, it shows how secular diffusion shapes the phase space structure of cold stellar disks. The thesis subsequently determines the characteristic timescales and examines the signatures of secular evolution in this framework on two scales: from the kinetic evolution in galactic disks and their thickening via giant molecular clouds; all the way down to the stellar resonant relaxation of the central cluster and its black hole.

This volume, written by a highly cited author, presents the history of quantum theory together with open questions and remaining problems in terms of the plausibility of quantum chemistry and physics. It also provides insights into the theory of matter-wave mechanics. The content is aimed at students and lecturers in chemistry, physics and the philosophy of science.

This book journeys into one of the most fascinating intellectual adventures of recent decades - understanding and exploring the final fate of massive collapsing stars in the universe. The issue is of great interest in fundamental physics and cosmology today, from both the perspective of gravitation theory and of modern astrophysical observations. This is a revolution in the making and may be intimately connected to our search for a unified understanding of the basic forces of nature, namely gravity that governs the cosmological universe, and the microscopic forces that include quantum phenomena. According to the general theory of relativity, a massive star that collapses catastrophically under its own gravity when it runs out of its internal nuclear fuel must give rise to a space-time singularity. Such singularities are regions in the universe where all physical quantities take their extreme values and become arbitrarily large. The singularities may be covered within a black hole, or visible to faraway observers in the universe. Thus, the final fate of a collapsing massive star is either a black hole or a visible naked singularity. We discuss here recent results and developments on the gravitational collapse of massive stars and possible observational implications when naked singularities happen in the universe. Large collapsing massive stars and the resulting space-time singularities may even provide a laboratory in the cosmos where one could test the unification possibilities of basic forces of nature.

This book is the first all-encompassing exploration of the role of demons in philosophical and scientific thought experiments. In Part I, the author explains the importance of thought experiments in science and philosophy. Part II considers Laplace's Demon, whose claim is that the world is completely deterministic. Part III introduces Maxwell's Demon, who - by contrast - experiences a world that is probabilistic and indeterministic. Part IV explores Nietzsche's thesis of the cyclic and eternal recurrence of events. In each case a number of philosophical consequences regarding determinism and indeterminism, the arrows of time, the nature of the mind and free will are said to follow from the Demons's worldviews. The book investigates what these Demons - and others - can and cannot tell us about our world.

This thesis presents significant new results on the problem of understanding the origin of dark energy in cosmology. The work develops an original approach based on modifications of General Relativity at cosmological scales, introducing non -local effective terms that can in principle emerge from fundamental local theories. Both the phenomenological consequences and theoretical aspects of the proposal are developed in depth. The thesis also contains significant new material compared to that published by the author in scientific journals.

This thesis represents a unique mix of theoretical work discussing the Lorentz theory of gravity and experimental work searching for supersymmetry with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. It begins by reviewing a set of widely-discussed theoretical solutions to the cosmological constant problem, including a natural solution provided by the recently developed Lorentz gauge theory of gravity. The Schwartzschild metric, de Sitter space, and quantum versions of the theory are also discussed. The thesis then looks to supersymmetry for an alternative solution. The idea behind supersymmetry is reviewed and an experimental search for supersymmetry is presented. A major contribution was to estimate one of the most significant backgrounds in this search, which arises from top-antitop quark pair production or W boson production in association with multiple jets where the W boson decays into the hadronically-decaying tau leptons and neutrinos. This background was estimated through a novel method involving kinematically analogous events but including a well-measured muon. This search significantly extends limits on supersymmetric partners of gluons from previous searches.

In this book, leading theorists present new contributions and reviews addressing longstanding challenges and ongoing progress in spacetime physics. In the anniversary year of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, developed 100 years ago, this collection reflects the subsequent and continuing fruitful development of spacetime theories. The volume is published in honour of Carl Brans on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Carl H. Brans, who also contributes personally, is a creative and independent researcher and one of the founders of the scalar-tensor theory, also known as Jordan-Brans-Dicke theory. In the present book, much space is devoted to scalar-tensor theories. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Brans has worked on new models of spacetime, collectively known as exotic smoothness, a field largely established by him. In this Festschrift, one finds an outstanding and unique collection of articles about exotic smoothness. Also featured are Bell's inequality and Mach's principle. Personal memories and historical aspects round off the collection.

This book offers a comprehensive and unitary study of the philosophy of Francis Bacon, with special emphasis on the medical, ethical and political aspects of his thought. It presents an original interpretation focused on the material conditions of nature and human life. In particular, coverage in the book is organized around the unifying theme of Bacon's notion of appetite, which is considered in its natural, ethical, medical and political meanings. The book redefines the notions of experience and experiment in Bacon's philosophy of nature, shows the important presence of Stoic themes in his work as well as provides an original discussion of the relationships between natural magic, prudence and political realism in his philosophy. Bringing together scholarly expertise from the history of philosophy, the history of science and the history of literature, this book presents readers with a rich and diverse contextualization of Bacon's philosophy.

This book is about dark matter's particle nature and the implications of a new symmetry that appears when a hypothetical dark matter particle is heavy compared to known elementary particles. Dark matter exists and composes about 85% of the matter in the universe, but it cannot be explained in terms of the known elementary particles. Discovering dark matter's particle nature is one of the most pressing open problems in particle physics. This thesis derives the implications of a new symmetry that appears when the hypothetical dark matter particle is heavy compared to the known elementary particles, a situation which is well motivated by the null results of searches at the LHC and elsewhere. The new symmetry predicts a universal interaction between dark matter and ordinary matter, which in turn may be used to determine the event rate and detectable energy in dark matter direct detection experiments. The computation of heavy wino and higgsino dark matter presented in this work has become a benchmark for the field of direct detection. This thesis has also spawned a new field of investigation in dark matter indirect detection, determining heavy WIMP annihilation rates using effective field theory methods. It describes a new formalism for implementing Lorentz invariance constraints in nonrelativistic theories, with a surprising result at 1/M^4 order that contradicts the prevailing ansatz in the past 20 years of heavy quark literature. The author has also derived new perturbative QCD results to provide the definitive analysis of key Standard Model observables such as heavy quark scalar matrix elements of the nucleon. This is an influential thesis, with impacts in dark matter phenomenology, field theory formalism and precision hadronic physics.

The main focus of this book is on the interconnection of two unorthodox scientific ideas, the varying-gravity hypothesis and the expanding-earth hypothesis. As such, it provides a fascinating insight into a nearly forgotten chapter in both the history of cosmology and the history of the earth sciences. The hypothesis that the force of gravity decreases over cosmic time was first proposed by Paul Dirac in 1937. In this book the author examines in detail the historical development of Dirac's hypothesis and its consequences for the structure and history of the earth, the most important of which was that the earth must have been smaller in the past.

This prize-winning Ph.D. thesis by Chris Harrison adopts a multi-faceted approach to address the lack of decisive observational evidence, utilising large observational data sets from several world-leading telescopes. Developing several novel observational techniques, Harrison demonstrated that energetic winds driven by Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are found in a large number of galaxies, with properties in agreement with model predictions. One of the key unsolved problems in astrophysics is understanding the influence of AGN, the sites of growing supermassive black holes, on the evolution of galaxies. Leading theoretical models predict that AGN drive energetic winds into galaxies, regulating the formation of stars. However, until now, we have lacked the decisive observational evidence to confirm or refute these key predictions. Careful selection of targets allowed Harrison, to reliably place these detailed observations into the context of the overall galaxy population. However, in disagreement with the model predictions, Harrison showed that AGN have little global effect on star formation in galaxies. Theoretical models are now left with the challenge of explaining these results.

In order to outline possible future directions in galaxy research, this book wants to be a short stopover, a moment of self-reflection of the past century of achievements in this area. Since the pioneering years of galaxy research in the early 20th century, the research on galaxies has seen a relentless advance directly connected to the parallel exponential growth of new technologies. Through a series of interviews with distinguished astronomers the editors provide a snapshot of the achievements obtained in understanding galaxies. While many initial questions about their nature have been addressed, many are still open and require new efforts to achieve a solution. The discussions may reveal paradigms worthwhile revisiting. With the help of some of those scientists who have contributed to it, the editors sketch the history of this scientific journey and ask them for inspirations for future directions of galaxy research.

This definitive guide provides advanced students and researchers with a detailed yet accessible overview of all of the central topics of meteor science. Leading figures from the field summarise their active research on themes ranging from the physical composition of meteoroids to the most recent optical and radar observations and ongoing theoretical developments. Crucial practical issues are also considered, such as the risk posed by meteoroids - to spacecraft, and on the ground - and future avenues of research are explored. Taking advantage of the latest dynamical models, insights are offered into meteor flight phenomena and the evolution of meteoroid streams and complexes, as well as describing the in-depth laboratory analysis of recovered material. The rapid rate of progress in twenty-first-century research makes this volume essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how recent developments broaden our understanding of meteors, meteoroids and their origins.

Are humans a galactic oddity, or will complex life with human abilities develop on planets with environments that remain habitable for long enough? In a clear, jargon-free style, two leading researchers in the burgeoning field of astrobiology critically examine the major evolutionary steps that led us from the distant origins of life to the technologically advanced species we are today. Are the key events that took life from simple cells to astronauts unique occurrences that would be unlikely to occur on other planets? By focusing on what life does - it's functional abilities - rather than specific biochemistry or anatomy, the authors provide plausible answers to this question. Systematically exploring the various pathways that led to the complex biosphere we experience on planet Earth, they show that most of the steps along that path are likely to occur on any world hosting life, with only two exceptions: One is the origin of life itself - if this is a highly improbable event, then we live in a rather "empty universe". However, if this isn't the case, we inevitably live in a universe containing a myriad of planets hosting complex as well as microbial life - a "cosmic zoo". The other unknown is the rise of technologically advanced beings, as exemplified on Earth by humans. Only one technological species has emerged in the roughly 4 billion years life has existed on Earth, and we don't know of any other technological species elsewhere. If technological intelligence is a rare, almost unique feature of Earth's history, then there can be no visitors to the cosmic zoo other than ourselves. Schulze-Makuch and Bains take the reader through the history of life on Earth, laying out a consistent and straightforward framework for understanding why we should think that advanced, complex life exists on planets other than Earth. They provide a unique perspective on the question that puzzled the human species for centuries: are we alone?

The Universe Within is a thrilling journey from today all the way back to the Big Bang, which shows the deep connections between the human body and the universe, from Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish What links the birth of the moon to our body clocks? How did the creation of the Atlantic Ocean affect how we have children? What does the water inside us and on Earth have to do with the deepest stretches of space? Humanity's status in the cosmos can seem insignificant. Yet, as Neil Shubin shows, the one place where the universe, solar system and planet merge is inside your body. Exploring the smallest atomic structures and vastest reaches of space, Shubin uncovers a sublime truth: that in every one of us lies the most profound story of all - how we and our world came to be. Neil Shubin is a palaeontologist in the great tradition of his mentors, Ernst Mayr and Stephen Jay Gould. He has discovered fossils around the world that have changed the way we think about many of the key transitions in evolution and has pioneered a new synthesis of expeditionary palaeontology, developmental genetics and genomics. He trained at Columbia, Harvard and Berkeley and is currently a Professor in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago. 'A new, fresh way of telling the story of life, the universe and everything ... hugely enjoyable' Tim Radford, Guardian 'Shubin is not only a distinguished scientist, but a wonderfully lucid and elegant writer; he is an irrepressibly enthusiastic teacher ... a science writer of the first rank' Oliver Sacks 'Glorious, uplifting ... It tracks the very atoms in our bodies back to the Big Bang, and shows how all the molecules that comprise us have roots in the formation of Earth ... What is special about the book is its sweep, its scope, its panorama' Wall Street Journal

A self-contained text, systematically presenting the determination and classification of exact solutions in three-dimensional Einstein gravity. This book explores the theoretical framework and general physical and geometrical characteristics of each class of solutions, and includes information on the researchers responsible for their discovery. Beginning with the physical character of the solutions, these are identified and ordered on the basis of their geometrical invariant properties, symmetries, and algebraic classifications, or from the standpoint of their physical nature, for example electrodynamic fields, fluid, scalar field, or dilaton. Consequently, this text serves as a thorough catalogue on 2+1 exact solutions to the Einstein equations coupled to matter and fields. The solutions are also examined from different perspectives, enabling a conceptual bridge between exact solutions of three- and four-dimensional gravities, and therefore providing graduates and researchers with an invaluable resource on this important topic in gravitational physics. Including contributions by David Chow, Christopher N. Pope and Ergin Sezgin (chapters 16-19).

Gravitational lensing is a consequence of general relativity, where the gravitational force due to a massive object bends the paths of light originating from distant objects lying behind it. Using very little general relativity and no higher level mathematics, this text presents the basics of gravitational lensing, focusing on the equations needed to understand the phenomena. It then applies them to a diverse set of topics, including multiply imaged objects, time delays, extrasolar planets, microlensing, cluster masses, galaxy shape measurements, cosmic shear, and lensing of the cosmic microwave background. This approach allows undergraduate students and others to get quickly up to speed on the basics and the important issues. The text will be especially relevant as large surveys such as LSST and Euclid begin to dominate the astronomical landscape. Designed for a one semester course, it is accessible to anyone with two years of undergraduate physics background.

Relativistic kinetic theory has widespread application in astrophysics and cosmology. The interest has grown in recent years as experimentalists are now able to make reliable measurements on physical systems where relativistic effects are no longer negligible. This ambitious monograph is divided into three parts. It presents the basic ideas and concepts of this theory, equations and methods, including derivation of kinetic equations from the relativistic BBGKY hierarchy and discussion of the relation between kinetic and hydrodynamic levels of description. The second part introduces elements of computational physics with special emphasis on numerical integration of Boltzmann equations and related approaches, as well as multi-component hydrodynamics. The third part presents an overview of applications ranging from covariant theory of plasma response, thermalization of relativistic plasma, comptonization in static and moving media to kinetics of self-gravitating systems, cosmological structure formation and neutrino emission during the gravitational collapse.

This book contains the elaborated and updated versions of the 24 lectures given at the 43rd Saas-Fee Advanced Course. Written by four eminent scientists in the field, the book reviews the physical processes related to star formation, starting from cosmological down to galactic scales. It presents a detailed description of the interstellar medium and its link with the star formation. And it describes the main numerical computational techniques designed to solve the equations governing self-gravitating fluids used for modelling of galactic and extra-galactic systems. This book provides a unique framework which is needed to develop and improve the simulation techniques designed for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. Presented in an accessible manner it contains the present day state of knowledge of the field. It serves as an entry point and key reference to students and researchers in astronomy, cosmology, and physics.

On megaparsec scales, matter and galaxies have aggregated into a complex network of interconnected filaments, wall-like structures and compact clusters surrounded by large near-empty void regions. Dubbed the 'Cosmic Web', theoretical and observational studies have led to its recognition as a key aspect of structure in the Universe, representing a universal phase in the gravitationally driven emergence and evolution of cosmic structure. IAU Symposium 308 marked the centenary of the birth of the Russian physicist and cosmologist Yakov B. Zeldovich (1914-87), who was instrumental in the development of this view of structure formation. His seminal work paved the way towards an understanding of the complex web-like structure observed in our Universe. This volume synthesizes the insights obtained from many different observational and theoretical studies, and helps prepare researchers and students working in this vibrant field for the many upcoming surveys.

Delineating the huge strides taken in cosmology in the past ten years, this much-anticipated second edition of Malcolm Longair's highly appreciated textbook has been extensively and thoroughly updated. It tells the story of modern astrophysical cosmology from the perspective of one of its most important and fundamental problems - how did the galaxies come about? Longair uses this approach to introduce the whole of what may be called "classical cosmology". What's more, he describes how the study of the origin of galaxies and larger-scale structures in the Universe has provided us with direct information about the physics of the very early Universe.

The proceedings of IAU S317 offer an updated view of the stellar halos of galaxies, from the local universe to more distant systems, discussing differences and similarities among them. They review the results of ongoing large photometric and spectroscopic surveys and compare them to the predictions of new generation simulations at the forefront of our technical capabilities. Structures are analysed on both large and small scales, with attention given to the kinematical and chemical properties of their smallest and oldest components. A number of excellent reviews on state-of-the-art research, covering fields such as first stars, galactic archaeology, stellar halos in cosmological simulations, discrete constituents of stellar halos - from field, isolated stars to globular clusters and planetary nebulae - are accompanied by contributed papers presenting the results of original research by top-level specialists in the area. IAU S317 benefits researchers with interests encompassing stellar and galactic astrophysics and galaxy evolution.

Will the universe expand forever? Or will it collapse in a Big Crunch within the next few billion years? If the Big Bang theory is correct in presenting the origins of the universe as a smooth fireball, how did the universe come to contain structures as large as the recently discovered "Great Wall" of galaxies, which stretches hundreds of millions of light years? Such are the compelling questions that face cosmologists today, and it is the excitement and wonder of their research that Michael Lemonick shares in this lively tour of the current state of astrophysics and cosmology. Here we visit observatories and universities where leading scientists describe how they envision the very early stages, the history, and the future of the universe. The discussions help us to make sense of many recent findings, including cosmic ripples, which supply evidence of the first billionth of a second of the universe; anomalous galactic structures such as the Great Wall, the Great Void, and the Great Attractor; and the mysterious presence of dark matter, massive but invisible. Lemonick assembles this information into a comprehensive, up-to-date picture of modern cosmology, and a portrait of its often contentious practitioners. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book gives an accessible account of the history of the Universe; not only what happened, but why it happened. An author of textbooks on the early Universe and inflation, David Lyth now explains both cosmology and the underlying physics to the general reader. The book includes a detailed account of the almost imperceptible structure in the early Universe, and its probable origin as a quantum fluctuation during an early epoch known as the epoch of inflation. It also explains how that early structure is visible now in the cosmic microwave radiation which is our main source of information about the early Universe, and how it gave rise to galaxies and stars. The main text of the book assumes no knowledge of mathematics or physics so that it is accessible to everybody, while an appendix contains more advanced material. As a result the book will be useful for a wide spectrum of readers, including high-school students, undergraduates, postgraduates and professional physicists working in areas other than cosmology. It will also serve as "additional reading" for university courses in general astronomy, astrophysics or cosmology itself.