There are very few with Philip Morrison's gifts, few who can lead us with firm knowledge whispering just the right encouragement as he guides us across the great ideas of science. Take this journey with one of the most astute navigators and you'll find yourself compelled to go deeper into some of the most daring adventures of modern science. Nothing is too grand or seemingly too trivial - the nature of time, the fabric of the atom, what it means to explore scientific horizons, the galaxies, even the search for unknown intelligence in the vast as-yet-uncharted universe. Then as deftly as Morrison takes us on a dazzling tour of the stars, he gently settles down for an intimate stop in the nursery where children have their first encounters with the things of everyday life, everyday things that cause us to wonder and make for discovery. With an equally firm grasp, Morrison, who witnessed the first tests of the atom bomb, takes us unflinchingly through some of the most frightening terrain of modern times, where the arms race can cause our ultimate destruction, but where sanity can still bring us peace. This extraordinary collection of essays by one of the most profound commentators on the successes and failures of the scientific enterprize concludes with lively portraits of men of science - Neils Bohr, Richard Feynman, Charles Babbage, among other notable friends and heroes.

Quantum mechanics was developed during the first few decades of the twentieth century via a series of inspired guesses made by various physicists, including Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, and Dirac. All these scientists were trying to construct a self-consistent theory of microscopic dynamics that was compatible with experimental observations.The purpose of this book is to present quantum mechanics in a clear, concise, and systematic fashion, starting from the fundamental postulates, and developing the theory in as logical a manner as possible. Topics covered in the book include the fundamental postulates of quantum mechanics, angular momentum, time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theory, scattering theory, identical particles, and relativistic electron theory.

This book discusses the main concepts of the Standard Model of elementary particles in a compact and straightforward way. The theoretical results are derived using the physical phenomena as a starting point. This inductive approach allows a deep understanding of the methods used for solving problems in this field. This second, revised edition is expanded with biographical notes contextualizing the main results in quantum field theory.

Covers the State of the Art in Superfluidity and Superconductivity Superfluid States of Matter addresses the phenomenon of superfluidity/superconductivity through an emergent, topologically protected constant of motion and covers topics developed over the past 20 years. The approach is based on the idea of separating universal classical-field superfluid properties of matter from the underlying system's "quanta." The text begins by deriving the general physical principles behind superfluidity/superconductivity within the classical-field framework and provides a deep understanding of all key aspects in terms of the dynamics and statistics of a classical-field system. It proceeds by explaining how this framework emerges in realistic quantum systems, with examples that include liquid helium, high-temperature superconductors, ultra-cold atomic bosons and fermions, and nuclear matter. The book also offers several powerful modern approaches to the subject, such as functional and path integrals. Comprised of 15 chapters, this text: Establishes the fundamental macroscopic properties of superfluids and superconductors within the paradigm of the classical matter field Deals with a single-component neutral matter field Considers fundamentals and properties of superconductors Describes new physics of superfluidity and superconductivity that arises in multicomponent systems Presents the quantum-field perspective on the conditions under which classical-field description is relevant in bosonic and fermionic systems Introduces the path integral formalism Shows how Feynman path integrals can be efficiently simulated with the worm algorithm Explains why nonsuperfluid (insulating) ground states of regular and disordered bosons occur under appropriate conditions Explores superfluid solids (supersolids) Discusses the rich dynamics of vortices and various aspects of superfluid turbulence at T 0 Provides account of BCS theory for the weakly interacting Fermi gas Highlights and analyzes the most crucial developments that has led to the current understanding of superfluidity and superconductivity Reviews the variety of superfluid and superconducting systems available today in nature and the laboratory, as well as the states that experimental realization is currently actively pursuing

Quantum mechanics was developed during the first few decades of the twentieth century via a series of inspired guesses made by various physicists, including Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, and Dirac. All these scientists were trying to construct a self-consistent theory of microscopic dynamics that was compatible with experimental observations.The purpose of this book is to present quantum mechanics in a clear, concise, and systematic fashion, starting from the fundamental postulates, and developing the theory in as logical a manner as possible. Topics covered in the book include the fundamental postulates of quantum mechanics, angular momentum, time-independent and time-dependent perturbation theory, scattering theory, identical particles, and relativistic electron theory.

In last years increasing attention has been again devoted to interpretations of quantum theory. In the same time interesting quantum optical experiments have been performed using nonlinear optical processes, in particular frequency down conversion, which provided new information about nature of a photon on the basis of interference and correlation (coincidence) phenomena. Such single-photon and twin-photon effects of quantum optics provide new point of view of interpretations of quantum theory and new tests of its principles. The purpose of this book is to discuss these questions. To follow this goal we give brief reviews of principles of quantum theory and of quantum theory of measurement. As a fundamental theoretical tool the coherent state technique is adopted based on a general algebraic treatment, including the de scription of interaction of radiation and matter. Typical quantum behaviour of physical systems is exhibited by nonclassical optical phenomena, which can be examined using photon interferences and correlations. These phenomena are closely related to violation of various classical inequalities and Bell's in equalities. The most important part of this book discusses quantum optical experiments supporting quantum theory. This book may be considered as a continuation of previous monographs by one of the authors on Coherence of Light (Van Nostrand Reinhold, London 1972, second edition D. Reidel, Dordrecht 1985) and on Quantum Statistics of Linear and Nonlinear Optical Phenomena (D. Reidel, Dordrecht 1984, second edition Kluwer, Dordrecht 1991), which may serve as a preparation for reading this book."

This unique book demonstrates the undivided unity and infinite diversity of quantum mechanics using a single phenomenon: quantum bounces of ultra-cold particles.Various examples of such 'quantum bounces' are: gravitational quantum states of ultra-cold neutrons (the first observed quantum states of matter in a gravitational field), the neutron whispering gallery (an observed matter-wave analog of the whispering gallery effect well known in acoustics and for electromagnetic waves), and gravitational and whispering gallery states for anti-matter atoms that remain to be observed.These quantum states are an invaluable tool in the search for additional fundamental short-range forces, for exploring the gravitational interaction and quantum effects of gravity, for probing physics beyond the standard model, and for furthering studies into the foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum optics, and surface science.

This unique book demonstrates the undivided unity and infinite diversity of quantum mechanics using a single phenomenon: quantum bounces of ultra-cold particles.Various examples of such 'quantum bounces' are: gravitational quantum states of ultra-cold neutrons (the first observed quantum states of matter in a gravitational field), the neutron whispering gallery (an observed matter-wave analog of the whispering gallery effect well known in acoustics and for electromagnetic waves), and gravitational and whispering gallery states for anti-matter atoms that remain to be observed.These quantum states are an invaluable tool in the search for additional fundamental short-range forces, for exploring the gravitational interaction and quantum effects of gravity, for probing physics beyond the standard model, and for furthering studies into the foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum optics, and surface science.

'Kenneth Wilson was a brilliant and creative contributor to the work on renormalization groups and phase transitions. He applied his multifaceted genius to condensed matter physics as well as nuclear and elementary particle physics.'by Murray Gell-MannThe purpose of bringing out this volume is to commemorate the memory of Ken Wilson and to preserve the legacy of his ground-breaking advances. This volume brings together a collection of articles written by colleagues of Ken Wilson as well as fellow physicists and scholars - some of who knew him personally and others who are knowledgeable about his sterling contributions to the foundations of theoretical physics.To commemorate the memory of Ken Wilson, many leading and illustrious physicists have contributed to this volume - Ian Affleck, Belal E Baaquie, Ken Bowler, Edouard Brezin, Tohru Eguchi, Michael E Fisher, Paul Ginsparg, Domenico Giuliano, Stanislaw Glazek, Bailin Hao, Kerson Huang, Roman Jackiw, Richard Kenway, H R Krishnamurthy, N D Mermin, Stuart Pawley, Michael Peskin, Alexander Polyakov, John Schwarz, R Shankar, Akira Ukawa, David Wallace, Franz Wegner, Steven Weinberg, and Anthony Zee.

'Kenneth Wilson was a brilliant and creative contributor to the work on renormalization groups and phase transitions. He applied his multifaceted genius to condensed matter physics as well as nuclear and elementary particle physics.'by Murray Gell-MannThe purpose of bringing out this volume is to commemorate the memory of Ken Wilson and to preserve the legacy of his ground-breaking advances. This volume brings together a collection of articles written by colleagues of Ken Wilson as well as fellow physicists and scholars - some of who knew him personally and others who are knowledgeable about his sterling contributions to the foundations of theoretical physics.To commemorate the memory of Ken Wilson, many leading and illustrious physicists have contributed to this volume - Ian Affleck, Belal E Baaquie, Ken Bowler, Edouard Brezin, Tohru Eguchi, Michael E Fisher, Paul Ginsparg, Domenico Giuliano, Stanislaw Glazek, Bailin Hao, Kerson Huang, Roman Jackiw, Richard Kenway, H R Krishnamurthy, N D Mermin, Stuart Pawley, Michael Peskin, Alexander Polyakov, John Schwarz, R Shankar, Akira Ukawa, David Wallace, Franz Wegner, Steven Weinberg, and Anthony Zee.

Proceedings of the 51st Course of the International School of Subnuclear Physics on 'Reflections on the next step for LHC', Erice, 24 June - 3 July 2013.

This century has seen the development of technologies for manipulating and controlling matter and light at the level of individual photons and atoms, a realm in which physics is fully quantum-mechanical. The dominant experimental technology is the laser, and the theoretical paradigm is quantum optics.The Quantum World of Ultra-Cold Atoms and Light is a trilogy, which presents the quantum optics way of thinking and its applications to quantum devices. This book - The Physics of Quantum-Optical Devices - provides a comprehensive treatment of theoretical quantum optics. It covers applications to the optical manipulation of the quantum states of atoms, laser cooling, continuous measurement, quantum computers and quantum processors, superconducting systems and quantum networks. The subject is consistently formulated in terms of quantum stochastic techniques, and a systematic and thorough development of these techniques is a central part of the book. There is also a compact overview of the ideas of quantum information theory.The main aim of the book is to present the theoretical techniques necessary for the understanding of quantum optical devices, with special attention to those devices used in quantum information processing and quantum simulation. Although these techniques were developed originally for the optical regime, they are also applicable to electromagnetic radiation from the microwave realm to the ultra-violet, and for atomic systems, Josephson junction systems, quantum dots and nano-mechanical systems.

This thesis represents one of the most comprehensive and in-depth studies of the use of Lorentz-boosted hadronic final state systems in the search for signals of Supersymmetry conducted to date at the Large Hadron Collider. A thorough assessment is performed of the observables that provide enhanced sensitivity to new physics signals otherwise hidden under an enormous background of top quark pairs produced by Standard Model processes. This is complemented by an ingenious analysis optimization procedure that allowed for extending the reach of this analysis by hundreds of GeV in mass of these hypothetical new particles. Lastly, the combination of both deep, thoughtful physics analysis with the development of high-speed electronics for identifying and selecting these same objects is not only unique, but also revolutionary. The Global Feature Extraction system that the author played a critical role in bringing to fruition represents the first dedicated hardware device for selecting these Lorentz-boosted hadronic systems in real-time using state-of-the-art processing chips and embedded systems.

This century has seen the development of technologies for manipulating and controlling matter and light at the level of individual photons and atoms, a realm in which physics is fully quantum-mechanical. The dominant experimental technology is the laser, and the theoretical paradigm is quantum optics.The Quantum World of Ultra-Cold Atoms and Light is a trilogy, which presents the quantum optics way of thinking and its applications to quantum devices. This book - The Physics of Quantum-Optical Devices - provides a comprehensive treatment of theoretical quantum optics. It covers applications to the optical manipulation of the quantum states of atoms, laser cooling, continuous measurement, quantum computers and quantum processors, superconducting systems and quantum networks. The subject is consistently formulated in terms of quantum stochastic techniques, and a systematic and thorough development of these techniques is a central part of the book. There is also a compact overview of the ideas of quantum information theory.The main aim of the book is to present the theoretical techniques necessary for the understanding of quantum optical devices, with special attention to those devices used in quantum information processing and quantum simulation. Although these techniques were developed originally for the optical regime, they are also applicable to electromagnetic radiation from the microwave realm to the ultra-violet, and for atomic systems, Josephson junction systems, quantum dots and nano-mechanical systems.

This book is a sequel to the volume of selected papers of Dyson up to 1990 that was published by the American Mathematical Society in 1996. The present edition comprises a collection of the most interesting writings of Freeman Dyson, all personally selected by the author, from the period 1990-2014.The five sections start off with an Introduction, followed by Talks about Science, Memoirs, Politics and History, and some Technical Papers. The most noteworthy is a lecture entitled Birds and Frogs to the American Mathematical Society that describes two kinds of mathematicians with examples from real life. Other invaluable contributions include an important tribute to C. N. Yang written for his retirement banquet at Stony Brook University, as well as a historical account of the Operational Research at RAF Bomber Command in World War II provocatively titled A Failure of Intelligence. The final section carries the open-ended question of whether any conceivable experiment could detect single gravitons to provide direct evidence of the quantization of gravity - Is a Graviton Detectable? Various possible graviton-detectors are examined.This invaluable compilation contains unpublished lectures, and surveys many topics in science, mathematics, history and politics, in which Freeman Dyson has been so active and well respected around the world.

This unique volume presents an original approach to physical acoustics with additional emphasis on the most useful surface acoustic waves on solids. The study is based on foundational work of Leon Brillouin, and application of the celebrated invariance theorem of Emmy Noether to an element of volume that is representative of the wave motion.This approach provides an easy interpretation of typical wave motions of physical acoustics in bulk, at surfaces, and across interfaces, in the form of the motion of associated quasi-particles. This type of motion, Newtonian or not, depends on the wave motion considered, and on the original modeling of the continuum that supports it. After a thoughtful review of Brillouin's fundamental ideas related to radiative stresses, wave momentum and action, and the necessary reminder on modern nonlinear continuum thermomechanics, invariance theory and techniques of asymptotics, a variety of situations and models illustrates the power and richness of the approach and its strong potential in applications. Elasticity, piezoelectricity and new models of continua with nonlinearity, viscosity and some generalized features (microstructure, weak or strong nonlocality) or unusual situations (bounding surface with energy, elastic thin film glued on a surface waveguide), are considered, exhibiting thus the versatility of the approach.This original book offers an innovative vision and treatment of the problems of wave propagation in deformable solids. It opens up new horizons in the theoretical and applied facets of physical acoustics.

Forces of the Quantum Vacuum presents a number of theoretical approaches to Casimir, van der Waals and Casimir-Polder forces that have been fruitfully employed in mainstream research, and also reviews the experimental evidence for Casimir forces. Beginning with basic ideas in quantum mechanics and building its way to a sophisticated form of macroscopic QED, the book provides an inspiring training manual for graduate students to develop in a natural progression the ideas needed for modern theoretical research on Casimir forces.

Forces of the Quantum Vacuum presents a number of theoretical approaches to Casimir, van der Waals and Casimir-Polder forces that have been fruitfully employed in mainstream research, and also reviews the experimental evidence for Casimir forces. Beginning with basic ideas in quantum mechanics and building its way to a sophisticated form of macroscopic QED, the book provides an inspiring training manual for graduate students to develop in a natural progression the ideas needed for modern theoretical research on Casimir forces.

This captivating book presents a new, unified picture of the everyday world around us. It provides rational, scientific support for the idea that there may well be more to our reality than meets the eye...Accessible and engaging for readers with no prior knowledge of quantum physics, author Ruth Kastner draws on the popular transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics to explain our 'quantum reality.' Her book focuses on modern-day examples and deals with big philosophical questions as well as ideas from physics.If you have any interest in quantum physics, this book is for you - whether you be a physics student or academic, or simply an inquisitive reader who wants to delve deeper into the reality of the world around you. Dr Ruth Kastner has received two National Science Foundation awards for the study of interpretational issues in quantum theory.

This book is a sequel to the volume of selected papers of Dyson up to 1990 that was published by the American Mathematical Society in 1996. The present edition comprises a collection of the most interesting writings of Freeman Dyson, all personally selected by the author, from the period 1990-2014.The five sections start off with an Introduction, followed by Talks about Science, Memoirs, Politics and History, and some Technical Papers. The most noteworthy is a lecture entitled Birds and Frogs to the American Mathematical Society that describes two kinds of mathematicians with examples from real life. Other invaluable contributions include an important tribute to C. N. Yang written for his retirement banquet at Stony Brook University, as well as a historical account of the Operational Research at RAF Bomber Command in World War II provocatively titled A Failure of Intelligence. The final section carries the open-ended question of whether any conceivable experiment could detect single gravitons to provide direct evidence of the quantization of gravity - Is a Graviton Detectable? Various possible graviton-detectors are examined.This invaluable compilation contains unpublished lectures, and surveys many topics in science, mathematics, history and politics, in which Freeman Dyson has been so active and well respected around the world.

N atur non facit saltus? This book is devoted to the fundamental problem which arises contin uously in the process of the human investigation of reality: the role of a mathematical apparatus in a description of reality. We pay our main attention to the role of number systems which are used, or may be used, in this process. We shall show that the picture of reality based on the standard (since the works of Galileo and Newton) methods of real analysis is not the unique possible way of presenting reality in a human brain. There exist other pictures of reality where other num ber fields are used as basic elements of a mathematical description. In this book we try to build a p-adic picture of reality based on the fields of p-adic numbers Qp and corresponding analysis (a particular case of so called non-Archimedean analysis). However, this book must not be considered as only a book on p-adic analysis and its applications. We study a much more extended range of problems. Our philosophical and physical ideas can be realized in other mathematical frameworks which are not obliged to be based on p-adic analysis. We shall show that many problems of the description of reality with the aid of real numbers are induced by unlimited applications of the so called Archimedean axiom."

This captivating book presents a new, unified picture of the everyday world around us. It provides rational, scientific support for the idea that there may well be more to our reality than meets the eye...Accessible and engaging for readers with no prior knowledge of quantum physics, author Ruth Kastner draws on the popular transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics to explain our 'quantum reality.' Her book focuses on modern-day examples and deals with big philosophical questions as well as ideas from physics.If you have any interest in quantum physics, this book is for you - whether you be a physics student or academic, or simply an inquisitive reader who wants to delve deeper into the reality of the world around you. Dr Ruth Kastner has received two National Science Foundation awards for the study of interpretational issues in quantum theory.

This pioneering book addresses the question: Are the standard procedures of canonical quantization fully satisfactory, or is there more to learn about assigning a proper quantum system to a given classical system? As shown in this book, the answer to this question is: The standard procedures of canonical quantization are not the whole story!This book offers alternative quantization procedures that complete the story of quantization. The initial chapters are designed to present the new procedures in a clear and simple manner for general readers. As is necessary, systems that exhibit acceptable results with conventional quantization lead to the same results when the new procedures are used for them. However, later chapters examine selected models that lead to unacceptable results when quantized conventionally. Fortunately, these same models lead to acceptable results when the new quantization procedures are used.

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.

If there is a central conceptual framework that has reliably borne the weight of modern physics as it ascends into the twenty-first century, it is the framework of quantum mechanics. Because of its enduring stability in experimental application, physics has today reached heights that not only inspire wonder, but arguably exceed the limits of intuitive vision, if not intuitive comprehension. For many physicists and philosophers, however, the currently fashionable tendency toward exotic interpretation of the theoretical formalism is recognized not as a mark of ascent for the tower of physics, but rather an indicator of sway-one that must be dampened rather than encouraged if practical progress is to continue. In this unique two-part volume, designed to be comprehensible to both specialists and non-specialists, the authors chart out a pathway forward by identifying the central deficiency in most interpretations of quantum mechanics: That in its conventional, metrical depiction of extension, inherited from the Enlightenment, objects are characterized as fundamental to relations-i.e., such that relations presuppose objects but objects do not presuppose relations. The authors, by contrast, argue that quantum mechanics exemplifies the fact that physical extensiveness is fundamentally topological rather than metrical, with its proper logico-mathematical framework being category theoretic rather than set theoretic. By this thesis, extensiveness fundamentally entails not only relations of objects, but also relations of relations. Thus, the fundamental quanta of quantum physics are properly defined as units of logico-physical relation rather than merely units of physical relata as is the current convention. Objects are always understood as relata, and likewise relations are always understood objectively. In this way, objects and relations are coherently defined as mutually implicative. The conventional notion of a history as "a story about fundamental objects" is thereby reversed, such that the classical "objects" become the story by which we understand physical systems that are fundamentally histories of quantum events. These are just a few of the novel critical claims explored in this volume-claims whose exemplification in quantum mechanics will, the authors argue, serve more broadly as foundational principles for the philosophy of nature as it evolves through the twenty-first century and beyond.