This book discusses the upgrade of the Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector, which consists in the addition of a salt of gadolinium into the detector's water, the goal being to endow it with a very high-efficiency ability to detect neutrons: the SuperK-Gd project. This will substantially improve the scientific value of the SK detector because, among others, neutron production is related to the matter-antimatter character of the interacting neutrino. In this book the authors develop several procedures for maximizing the impact of neutron tagging in various physics analyses involving a broad range of neutrino energy. They thoroughly study the impact of new backgrounds introduced by Gd in key physics analyses, most remarkably including the search for the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background. At GeV energies, the neutron tagging improvements are evaluated by performing a complete neutrino oscillation sensitivity study using atmospheric and long baseline neutrinos, with a focus on the neutrino mass hierarchy and the leptonic CP violation. In order to prove the relevance of neutron tagging with the available data, the authors apply the neutron-tagging tools developed here to the 4th phase of the SK detector, which is already capable of detecting a low fraction of the neutrons produced through hydrogen-neutron captures. A global oscillation analysis of the SK's atmospheric neutrino data is also conducted.

"What Bodanis does brilliantly is to give us a feel for Einstein as a person. I don't think I've ever read a book that does this as well . . . Whenever there's a chance for storytelling, Bodanis triumphs." --Popular Science "Fascinating." --Forbes Widely considered the greatest genius of all time, Albert Einstein revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos with his general theory of relativity and helped lead us into the atomic age. Yet in the final decades of his life, he was ignored by most working scientists, and his ideas were opposed by even his closest friends. How did this happen? Best-selling biographer David Bodanis traces the arc of Einstein's life--from the skeptical, erratic student to the world's most brilliant physicist to the fallen-from-grace celebrity. An intimate biography in which "theories of the universe morph into theories of life" (Times, London), Einstein's Greatest Mistake reveals what we owe Einstein today--and how much more he might have achieved if not for his all-too-human flaws.

This thesis introduces a new theoretical tool to explore the notion of time and temporal order in quantum mechanics: the relativistic quantum "clock" framework. It proposes novel thought experiments showing that proper time can display quantum features, e.g. when a "clock" runs different proper times in superposition. The resulting new physical effects can be tested in near-future laboratory experiments (with atoms, molecules and photons as "clocks"). The notion of time holds the key to the regime where quantum theory and general relativity overlap, which has not been directly tested yet and remains largely unexplored by the theory. The framework also applies to scenarios in which causal relations between events become non-classical and which were previously considered impossible to address without refuting quantum theory. The relativistic quantum "clock" framework offers new insights into the foundations of quantum theory and general relativity.

"The General Theory of Relativity: A Mathematical Exposition" will serve readers as a modern mathematical introduction to the general theory of relativity. Throughout the book, examples, worked-out problems, and exercises (with hints and solutions) are furnished. Topics in this book include, but are not limited to:
tensor analysis
the special theory of relativity
the general theory of relativity and Einstein's field equations
spherically symmetric solutions and experimental confirmations
static and stationary space-time domains
black holes
cosmological models
algebraic classifications and the Newman-Penrose equations
the coupled Einstein-Maxwell-Klein-Gordon equations
appendices covering mathematical supplements and special topics
Mathematical rigor, yet very clear presentation of the topics make this book a unique text for both university students and research scholars.

Anadijiban Das has taught courses on Relativity Theory at The University College of Dublin, Ireland, Jadavpur University, India, Carnegie-Mellon University, USA, and Simon Fraser University, Canada. His major areas of research include, among diverse topics, the mathematical aspects of general relativity theory.

Andrew DeBenedictis has taught courses in Theoretical Physics at Simon Fraser University, Canada, and is also a member of The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences. His research interests include quantum gravity, classical gravity, and semi-classical gravity."

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 is based on lectures given at the first edition of the Domoschool, the International Alpine School in Mathematics and Physics, held in Domodossola, Italy, in July 2018. It is divided into two parts. Part I consists of four sets of lecture notes. These are extended versions of lectures given at the Domoschool, written by well-known experts in mathematics and physics related to General Relativity. Part II collects talks by selected participants, focusing on research related to General Relativity.

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.

This unique thesis covers all aspects of theories of gravity beyond Einstein's General Relativity, from setting up the equations that describe the evolution of perturbations, to determining the best-fitting parameters using constraints like the microwave background radiation, and ultimately to the later stages of structure formation using state-of-the-art N-body simulations and comparing them to observations of galaxies, clusters and other large-scale structures. This truly ground-breaking work puts the study of modified gravity models on the same footing as the standard model of cosmology. Since the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe, marked by the awarding of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, there has been a growing interest in understanding what drives that acceleration. One possible explanation lies in theories of gravity beyond Einstein's General Relativity. This thesis addresses all aspects of the problem, an approach that is crucial to avoiding potentially catastrophic biases in the interpretation of upcoming observational missions.

The book presents pedagogical reviews of important topics on high energy physics to the students and researchers in particle physics. The book also discusses topics on the Quark-Gluon plasma, thermal field theory, perturbative quantum chromodynamics, anomalies and cosmology. Students of particle physics need to be well-equipped with basic understanding of many concepts underlying the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. This is particularly true today when experimental results from colliders, such as large hadron collider (LHC) and relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC), as well as inferences from cosmological observations, are expected to further expand our understanding of particle physics at high energies. This volume is the second in the Surveys in Theoretical High Energy Physics Series (SThEP). Topics covered in this book are based on lectures delivered at the SERC Schools in Theoretical High Energy Physics at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and the University of Hyderabad.

Devised at the beginning of the 20th century by french physicists Charles Fabry and Alfred Perot, the Fabry-Perot optical cavity is perhaps the most deceptively simple setup in optics, and today a key resource in many areas of science and technology. This thesis delves deeply into the applications of optical cavities in a variety of contexts: from LIGO's 4-km-long interferometer arms that are allowing us to observe the universe in a new way by measuring gravitational waves, to the atomic clocks used to realise time with unprecedented accuracy which will soon lead to a redefinition of the second, and the matterwave interferometers that are enabling us to test and measure gravity in a new scale. The work presented accounts for the elegance and versatility of this setup, which today underpins much of the progress in the frontier of atomic and gravitational experimental physics.

This thesis addresses two very different but equally important topics in the very broad fields of astrophysics and cosmology: (I) the generation of cosmological magnetic fields and (II) gravitational fragmentation of the Cosmic Web. All mathematical developments are completed by illuminating physical interpretations, and the thesis, which is guided by existing observations, is purely theoretical. In part I, the author further develops a magnetogenesis model proposed in the literature, providing an unprecedented level of physical understanding. He demonstrates that the physics of photoionisation is very likely to have premagnetised, at a relevant level, the entire Universe at the early epoch of the formation of the first luminous sources. In part II, the author adapts the tools of plasma spectral theory to the context of gravitational instability of the baryonic gas within the stratified structures of the Cosmic Web. He skillfully derives the wave equation governing the growth of perturbations and explores various equilibrium configurations, in planar and cylindrical geometries characteristic of cosmic walls and filaments, for isothermal and polytropic conditions, with or without an external gravitational background. Clearly structured and written in pedagogical style, this outstanding thesis puts the results into perspective and highlights the merits and limitations of the various approaches explored.

This book contains selected papers from the First International Conference on the Ontology of Spacetime. Its fourteen chapters address two main questions: first, what is the current status of the substantivalism/relationalism debate, and second, what about the prospects of presentism and becoming within present-day physics and its philosophy? The overall tenor of the four chapters of the book's first part is that the prospects of spacetime substantivalism are bleak, although different possible positions remain with respect to the ontological status of spacetime. Part II and Part III of the book are devoted to presentism, eternalism, and becoming, from two different perspectives. In the six chapters of Part II it is argued, in different ways, that relativity theory does not have essential consequences for these issues. It certainly is true that the structure of time is different, according to relativity theory, from the one in classical theory. But that does not mean that a decision is forced between presentism and eternalism, or that becoming has proved to be an impossible concept. It may even be asked whether presentism and eternalism really offer different ontological perspectives at all. The writers of the last four chapters, in Part III, disagree. They argue that relativity theory is incompatible with becoming and presentism. Several of them come up with proposals to go beyond relativity, in order to restore the prospects of presentism.
- Space and time in present-day physics and philosophy
- Introduction from scratch of the debates surrounding time
- Broad spectrum of approaches, coherently represented

This book explores the use of numerical relativity (NR) methods to solve cosmological problems, and describes one of the first uses of NR to study inflationary physics. NR consists in the solution of Einstein's Equation of general relativity, which governs the evolution of matter and energy on cosmological scales, and in systems where there are strong gravitational effects, such as around black holes. To date, NR has mainly been used for simulating binary black hole and neutron star mergers like those detected recently by LIGO. Its use as a tool in fundamental problems of gravity and cosmology is novel, but rapidly gaining interest. In this thesis, the author investigates the initial condition problem in early universe cosmology - whether an inflationary expansion period could have "got going" from initially inhomogeneous conditions - and identifies criteria for predicting the robustness of particular models. State-of-the-art numerical relativity tools are developed in order to address this question, which are now publicly available.

This work discusses the problem of physical meaning of the three main dynamical properties of matter motion, namely gravitation, inertia and weightlessness. It considers that Newtonian gravitation and Galileo's inertia are the centrifugal effects of interaction energy of a self-gravitating n-body system and its potential field. A self-gravitating celestial body appears to be an excellent natural centrifuge that is rotated by the energy of interacting elementary particles. Weightlessness is a consequence of the centrifugal effect of elementary particles interaction that appears at differentiation of a body matter with respect to density. The author analyzes the problem of creation of mass particles and elements from the elementary particles of "dark matter", and discusses the basic physics of the Jacobi dynamics from the viewpoint of quantum gravitation. Chapters assert that the fundamentals of Jacobi dynamics completely correspond to conditions of natural centrifuges. The centrifuge is an excellent experimental model for the study of dynamical effects in solving the many body problem. In this book, readers may follow the demonstration of some of those studies and follow derivations, solutions and conclusions that provide a solid basis for further research in celestial mechanics, geophysics, astrophysics, geo- and planetary sciences.

This book evaluates and suggests potentially critical improvements to causal set theory, one of the best-motivated approaches to the outstanding problems of fundamental physics. Spacetime structure is of central importance to physics beyond general relativity and the standard model. The causal metric hypothesis treats causal relations as the basis of this structure. The book develops the consequences of this hypothesis under the assumption of a fundamental scale, with smooth spacetime geometry viewed as emergent. This approach resembles causal set theory, but differs in important ways; for example, the relative viewpoint, emphasizing relations between pairs of events, and relationships between pairs of histories, is central. The book culminates in a dynamical law for quantum spacetime, derived via generalized path summation.

Cosmology has become a very active research field in the last decades thanks to the impressing improvement of our observational techniques which have led to landmark discoveries such as the accelerated expansion of the universe, and have put physicists in front of new mysteries to unveil, such as the quest after the nature of dark matter and dark energy. These notes offer an approach to cosmology, covering fundamental topics in the field: the expansion of the universe, the thermal history, the evolution of small cosmological perturbations and the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Some extra topics are presented in the penultimate chapter and some standard results of physics and mathematics are available in the last chapter in order to provide a self-contained treatment. These notes offer an in-depth account of the above-mentioned topics and are aimed to graduate students who want to build an expertise in cosmology.

This thesis presents the state of the art in the study of Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetry and its applications in the simplified setting of three dimensions. It focuses on presenting all the background material in a pedagogical and self-contained manner to enable readers to fully appreciate the original results that have been obtained while learning a number of fundamental concepts in the field along the way. This makes it a highly rewarding read and a perfect starting point for anybody with a serious interest in the four-dimensional problem.

This book is part of a large and growing body of work on the observation of analogue gravity effects, such as Hawking radiation, in laboratory systems. The book is highly didactic, skillfully navigating between concepts ranging from quantum field theory on curved space-times, nonlinear fibre optics and the theoretical and experimental foundations in the physics of optical analogues to the Event Horizon. It presents a comprehensive field-theoretical framework for these systems, including the kinematics governing the fields. This allows an analytical calculation of the all-important conversion of vacuum fluctuations into Hawking radiation. Based on this, emission spectra are computed, providing unique insights into the emissions from a highly dispersive system. In an experimental part, the book develops a clear and systematic way to experimentally approach the problem and demonstrates the construction of an experimental setup and measurements of unprecedented sensitivity in the search for stimulation of the Hawking effect.

This new text looks at Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force between quarks, which form the fundamental building blocks of nuclear matter. With a primary focus on experiments, the authors also include an extensive theoretical introduction to the field, as well as many exercises with solutions explained in detail.

This is the second edition of a well-received book that is a modern, self-contained introduction to the theory of gravitational interactions. The new edition includes more details on gravitational waves of cosmological origin, the so-called brane world scenario, and gravitational time-delay effects.The first part of the book follows the traditional presentation of general relativity as a geometric theory of the macroscopic gravitational field, while the second, more advanced part discusses the deep analogies (and differences) between a geometric theory of gravity and the gauge theories of the other fundamental interactions. This fills a gap within the traditional approach to general relativity which usually leaves students puzzled about the role of gravity. The required notions of differential geometry are reduced to the minimum, allowing room for aspects of gravitational physics of current phenomenological and theoretical interest, such as the properties of gravitational waves, the gravitational interactions of spinors, and the supersymmetric and higher-dimensional generalization of the Einstein equations. This textbook is primarily intended for students pursuing a theoretical or astroparticle curriculum but is also relevant for PhD students and young researchers.

Topological surgery is a mathematical technique used for creating new manifolds out of known ones. In this book the authors observe that it also occurs in natural phenomena of all scales: 1-dimensional surgery happens during DNA recombination and when cosmic magnetic lines reconnect; 2-dimensional surgery happens during tornado formation and cell mitosis; and they conjecture that 3-dimensional surgery happens during the formation of black holes from cosmic strings, offering an explanation for the existence of a black hole's singularity. Inspired by such phenomena, the authors present a new topological model that extends the formal definition to a continuous process caused by local forces. Lastly, they describe an intrinsic connection between topological surgery and a chaotic dynamical system exhibiting a "hole drilling" behavior. The authors' model indicates where to look for the forces causing surgery and what deformations should be observed in the local submanifolds involved. These predictions are significant for the study of phenomena exhibiting surgery and they also open new research directions. This novel study enables readers to gain a better understanding of the topology and dynamics of various natural phenomena, as well as topological surgery itself and serves as a basis for many more insightful observations and new physical implications.

This book focuses on the equation of state (EoS) of compact stars, particularly the intriguing possibility of the "quark star model." The EoS of compact stars is the subject of ongoing debates among astrophysicists and particle physicists, due to the non-perturbative property of strong interaction at low energy scales. The book investigates the tidal deformability and maximum mass of rotating quark stars and triaxially rotating quark stars, and compares them with those of neutron stars to reveal significant differences. Lastly, by combining the latest observations of GW170817, the book suggests potential ways to distinguish between the neutron star and quark star models.

This thesis covers a diverse set of topics related to space-based gravitational wave detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The core of the thesis is devoted to the preprocessing of the interferometric link data for a LISA constellation, specifically developing optimal Kalman filters to reduce arm length noise due to clock noise. The approach is to apply Kalman filters of increasing complexity to make optimal estimates of relevant quantities such as constellation arm length, relative clock drift, and Doppler frequencies based on the available measurement data. Depending on the complexity of the filter and the simulated data, these Kalman filter estimates can provide up to a few orders of magnitude improvement over simpler estimators. While the basic concept of the LISA measurement (Time Delay Interferometry) was worked out some time ago, this work brings a level of rigor to the processing of the constellation-level data products. The thesis concludes with some topics related to the eLISA such as a new class of phenomenological waveforms for extreme mass-ratio inspiral sources (EMRIs, one of the main source for eLISA), an octahedral space-based GW detector that does not require drag-free test masses, and some efficient template-search algorithms for the case of relatively high SNR signals.