Superstring theory is a promising theory which can potentially unify all the forces and the matters in particle physics. A new multi-dimensional object which is called "D-brane" was found. It drastically changed our perspective of a unified world. We may live on membrane-like hypersurfaces in higher dimensions ("braneworld scenario"), or we can create blackholes at particle accelarators, or the dynamics of quarks is shown to be equivalent to the higher dimensional gravity theory. All these scenarios are explained in this book with plain words but with little use of equations and with many figures. The book starts with a summary of long-standing problems in elementary particle physics and explains the D-branes and many applications of them. It ends with future roads for a unified ultimate theory of our world.

The study of quantum fluids, stimulated by the discovery of superfluidity in liquid helium, has experienced renewed interest after the observation of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in ultra-cold atomic gases and the observation a new type of quantum fluid with specific characteristics derived from its intrinsic out-of-equilibrium nature. The main objective of this book is to take a snapshot of the state-of-the-art of this fast moving field with a special emphasis on the hot topics and new trends. Bringing together the most active specialists of the two areas (atomic and polaritonic quantum fluids), we expect that this book will facilitate the exchange and the collaboration between these two communities working on subjects with very strong analogies.

This book presents the Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in Quantum Physics, held in Palermo, Italy, from 18 to 23 May 2015. Non-Hermitian operators, and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in particular, have recently received considerable attention from both the mathematics and physics communities. There has been a growing interest in non-Hermitian Hamiltonians in quantum physics since the discovery that PT-symmetric Hamiltonians can have a real spectrum and thus a physical relevance. The main subjects considered in this book include: PT-symmetry in quantum physics, PT-optics, Spectral singularities and spectral techniques, Indefinite-metric theories, Open quantum systems, Krein space methods, and Biorthogonal systems and applications. The book also provides a summary of recent advances in pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians and PT-symmetric Hamiltonians, as well as their applications in quantum physics and in the theory of open quantum systems.

This multidisciplinary book provides up-to-date coverage of carrier and spin dynamics and energy transfer and structural interaction among nanostructures. Coverage also includes current device applications such as quantum dot lasers and detectors, as well as future applications to quantum information processing.

The book will serve as a reference for anyone working with or planning to work with quantum dots.

This book discusses the study of double charm B decays and the first observation of B0->D0D0Kst0 decay using Run I data from the LHCb experiment. It also describes in detail the upgrade for the Run III of the LHCb tracking system and the trigger and tracking strategy for the LHCb upgrade, as well as the development and performance studies of a novel standalone tracking algorithm for the scintillating fibre tracker that will be used for the LHCb upgrade. This algorithm alone allows the LHCb upgrade physics program to achieve incredibly high sensitivity to decays containing long-lived particles as final states as well as to boost the physics capabilities for the reconstruction of low momentum particles.

This textbook extends from the basics of femtosecond physics all the way to some of the latest developments in the field. In this updated edition, the chapter on laser-driven atoms is augmented by the discussion of two-electron atoms interacting with strong and short laser pulses, as well as by a review of ATI rings and low energy structures in photo-electron spectra. In the chapter on laser-driven molecules a discussion of 2D infrared spectroscopy is incorporated. Theoretical investigations of atoms and molecules interacting with pulsed lasers up to atomic field strengths on the order of 10^16 W/cm(2) are leading to an understanding of many challenging experimental discoveries. The presentation starts with a brief introduction to pulsed laser physics. The basis for the non-perturbative treatment of laser-matter interaction in the book is the time-dependent Schroedinger equation. Its analytical as well as numerical solution are laid out in some detail. The light field is treated classically and different possible gauges for the field-matter interaction are discussed. Physical phenomena, ranging from paradigmatic Rabi-oscillations in two-level systems to the ionization of atoms, the generation of high-order harmonics, the ionization and dissociation of molecules, as well as the control of chemical reactions are presented and discussed on a fundamental level. In this way, the theoretical background for state of the art experiments with strong and short laser pulses is given. The new text is augmented by several additional exercises and now contains a total of forty-eight problems, whose worked-out solutions are given in the last chapter. In addition, some detailed calculations are performed in the appendices. Furthermore, each chapter ends with references to more specialized literature.

Cold atomic gases trapped and manipulated on atom chips allow the realization of seminal one-dimensional (1d) quantum many-body problems in an isolated and well controlled environment. In this context, this thesis presents an extensive experimental study of non-equilibrium dynamics in 1d Bose gases, with a focus on processes that go beyond simple dephasing dynamics. It reports on the observation of recurrences of coherence in the post-quench dynamics of a pair of 1d Bose gases and presents a detailed study of their decay. The latter represents the first observation of phonon-phonon scattering in these systems. Furthermore, the thesis investigates a novel cooling mechanism occurring in Bose gases subjected to a uniform loss of particles. Together, the results presented show a wide range of non-equilibrium phenomena occurring in 1d Bose gases and establish them as an ideal testbed for many-body physics beyond equilibrium.

This doctoral thesis focuses on the search for new phenomena in top-antitop quark (tt) final states with additional b-quark jets at the LHC. It uses the full Run 1 dataset collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV. The final state of interest consists of an isolated lepton, a neutrino and at least six jets with at least four b-tagged jets, a challenging experimental signature owing to the large background from tt+heavy-flavor production. This final state is characteristic of ttH production, with the Higgs boson decaying into bb, a process that allows direct probing of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. This signature is also present in many extensions of the Standard Model that have been proposed as solutions to the hierarchy problem, such as supersymmetry or composite Higgs models, which predict the pair production of bosonic or fermionic top quark partners, or the anomalous production of four-top-quark events. All these physics processes have been searched for using an ambitious search strategy that has been developed on the basis of a combination of state-of-art theoretical predictions and a sophisticated statistical analysis to constrain in-situ the large background uncertainties. As a result, the most restrictive bounds to date on the above physics processes have been obtained.

This volume documents the first International Workshop on Atomic Scale Interconnection Machines organised by the European Integrated Project AtMol in June 2011 in Singapore. The four sessions, discussed here in revised contributions by high level speakers, span the subjects of multi-probe UHV instrumentation, atomic scale nano-material nanowires characterization, atomic scale surface conductance measurements, surface atomic scale mechanical machineries. This state-of-the-art account brings academic researchers and industry engineers access to the tools they need to be at the forefront of the atomic scale technology revolution.

Consequences of quantum gravity on grander scales are expected to be enormous: only such a theory can show how black holes really behave and where our universe came from. Applications of loop quantum gravity to cosmology have especially by now shed much light on cosmic evolution of a universe in a fundamental, microscopic description. Modern techniques are explained in this book which demonstrate how the universe could have come from a non-singular phase before the big bang, how equations for the evolution of structure can be derived, but also what fundamental limitations remain to our knowledge of the universe before the big bang.

The following topics will be covered in this book:

Hamiltonian cosmology: a general basic treatment of isotropy, perturbations and their role for observations; useful in general cosmology.
Effective equations: an efficient way to evaluate equations of quantum gravity, which is also useful in other areas of physics where quantum theory is involved.
Loop quantization: a new formalism for the atomic picture of space-time; usually presented at a sophisticated mathematical level, but evaluated here from an intuitive physical side.

The book will start with physical motivations, rather than mathematical developments which is more common in other expositions of this field. All the required mathematical methods will be presented, but will not distract the reader from seeing the underlying physics. Simple but representative models will be presented first to show the basic features, which are then used to work upwards to a general description of quantum gravity and its applications in cosmology. This will make the book accessible to a more general physics readership.

This book takes the reader for a short journey over the structures of matter showing that their main properties can be obtained even at a quantitative level with a minimum background knowledge including, besides first year calculus and physics, the extensive use of dimensional analysis and the three cornerstones of science, namely the atomic idea, the wave-particle duality and the minimization of energy as the condition for equilibrium. Dimensional analysis employing the universal physical constants and combined with "a little imagination and thinking", to quote Feynman, allow an amazing short-cut derivation of several quantitative results concerning the structures of matter. In the current 2nd edition, new material and more explanations with more detailed derivations were added to make the book more student-friendly. Many multiple-choice questions with the correct answers at the end of the book, solved and unsolved problems make the book also suitable as a textbook. This book is of interest to students of physics, engineering and other science and to researchers in physics, material science, chemistry and engineering who may find stimulating the alternative derivation of several real world results which sometimes seem to pop out the magician's hat.

The project reported here was a search for new super symmetric particles in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. It has produced some of the world's best exclusion limits on such new particles. Furthermore, dedicated simulation studies and data analyses have also yielded essential input to the upgrade activities of the CMS collaboration, both for the Phase-1 pixel detector upgrade and for the R&D studies in pursuit of a Phase-2 end cap calorimeter upgrade.

This thesis provides an introduction to the physics of the Standard Model and beyond, and to the methods used to analyse Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data. The 'hierarchy problem', astrophysical data and experiments on neutrinos indicate that new physics can be expected at the now accessible TeV scale. This work investigates extensions of the Standard Model with gravitons and gravitinos (in the context of supergravity). The production of these particles in association with jets is studied as one of the most promising avenues for researching new physics at the LHC. Advanced simulation techniques and tools, such as algorithms allowing the computation of Feynman graphs and helicity amplitudes are first developed and then employed.

Several of the very foundations of the cosmological standard model the baryon asymmetry of the universe, dark matter, and the origin of the hot big bang itself still call for an explanation from the perspective of fundamental physics. This workadvocates one intriguing possibility for a consistent cosmology that fills in the theoretical gaps while being fully in accordance with the observational data. At very high energies, the universe might have been in a false vacuum state that preserved B-L, the difference between the baryon number B and the lepton number L as a local symmetry. In this state, the universe experienced a stage of hybrid inflation that only ended when the false vacuum became unstable and decayed, in the course of a waterfall transition, into a phase with spontaneously broken B-L symmetry. This B-L Phase Transition was accompanied by tachyonic preheating that transferred almost the entire energy of the false vacuum into a gas of B-L Higgs bosons, which in turn decayed into heavy Majorana neutrinos. Eventually, these neutrinos decayed into massless radiation, thereby producing the entropy of the hot big bang, generating the baryon asymmetry of the universe via the leptogenesis mechanism and setting the stage for the production of dark matter. Next to a variety of conceptual novelties and phenomenological predictions, the main achievement of the thesis is hence the fascinating notion that the leading role in the first act of our universe might have actually been played by neutrinos.
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This thesis presents an exact theoretical study of dynamical correlation functions in different phases of a two-dimensional quantum spin liquid. By calculating the dynamical spin structure factor and the Raman scattering cross section, this thesis shows that there are salient signatures-qualitative and quantitative-of the Majorana fermions and the gauge fluxes emerging as effective degrees of freedom in the exactly solvable Kitaev honeycomb lattice model. The model is a representative of a class of spin liquids with Majorana fermions coupled to Z2 gauge fields. The qualitative features of the response functions should therefore be characteristic for this broad class of topological states.

Gaining a theoretical understanding of the properties of ultra-relativistic dense matter has been one of the most important and challenging goals in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In this thesis, the author analyzes dense quark matter in QCD with gauge group SU(2) using low-energy effective theoretical techniques and elucidates a novel connection between statistical properties of the Dirac operator spectrum at high baryon chemical potential and a special class of random matrix theories. This work can be viewed as an extension of a similar correspondence between QCD and matrix models which was previously known only for infinitesimal chemical potentials. In future numerical simulations of dense matter the analytical results reported here are expected to serve as a useful tool to extract physical observables such as the BCS gap from numerical data on the Dirac spectrum.

This work addresses dynamical aspects of quantum criticality in two space dimensions. It probes two energy scales: the amplitude (Higgs) mode, which describes fluctuations of the order parameter amplitude in the broken symmetry phase and the dual vortex superfluid stiffness. The results demonstrate that the amplitude mode can be probed arbitrarily close to criticality in the universal line shape of the scalar susceptibility and the optical conductivity. The hallmark of quantum criticality is the emergence of softening energy scales near the phase transition. In addition, the author employs the charge-vortex duality to show that the capacitance of the Mott insulator near the superfluid to insulator phase transition serves as a probe for the dual vortex superfluid stiffness. The numerical methods employed are described in detail, in particular a worm algorithm for O(N) relativistic models and methods for numerical analytic continuation of quantum Monte Carlo data. The predictions obtained are particularly relevant to recent experiments in cold atomic systems and disordered superconductors.

This thesis provides a detailed introduction to quantum oscillation measurement and analysis and offers a connection between Fermi surface properties and superconductivity in high-temperature superconductors. It also discusses the field of iron-based superconductors and tests the models for the appearance of nodes in the superconducting gap of a 111-type pnictide using quantum oscillation measurements combined with band structure calculation. The same measurements were carried out to determine the quasiparticle mass in BaFe2(As1-xPx)2, which is strongly enhanced at the expected quantum critical point. While the lower superconducting critical field shows evidence of quantum criticality, the upper superconducting critical field is not influenced by the quantum critical point. These findings contradict conventional theories, demonstrating the need for a theoretical treatment of quantum critical superconductors, which has not been addressed to date. The quest to discover similar evidence in the cuprates calls for the application of extreme conditions. As such, quantum oscillation measurements were performed under high pressure in a high magnetic field, revealing a negative correlation between quasiparticle mass and superconducting critical temperature.

This monograph provides a mathematical foundation to the theory of quantum information and computation, with applications to various open systems including nano and bio systems. It includes introductory material on algorithm, functional analysis, probability theory, information theory, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. Apart from standard material on quantum information like quantum algorithm and teleportation, the authors discuss findings on the theory of entropy in C*-dynamical systems, space-time dependence of quantum entangled states, entangling operators, adaptive dynamics, relativistic quantum information, and a new paradigm for quantum computation beyond the usual quantum Turing machine. Also, some important applications of information theory to genetics and life sciences, as well as recent experimental and theoretical discoveries in quantum photosynthesis are described.

This volume is the result of two international workshops; "Infinite Analysis 11 Frontier of Integrability" held at University of Tokyo, Japan in July 25th to 29th, 2011, and "Symmetries, Integrable Systems and Representations" held at Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France in December 13th to 16th, 2011.

Included are research articles based on the talks presented at the workshops, latest results obtained thereafter, and some review articles. The subjects discussed range across diverse areas such as algebraic geometry, combinatorics, differential equations, integrable systems, representation theory, solvable lattice models and special functions.

Through these topics, the readerwill find some recent developments in the field of mathematical physics and their interactions with several other domains.
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This text focuses on the algebraic formulation of quantum field theory, from the introductory aspects to the applications to concrete problems of physical interest. The book is divided in thematic chapters covering both introductory and more advanced topics. These include the algebraic, perturbative approach to interacting quantum field theories, algebraic quantum field theory on curved spacetimes (from its structural aspects to the applications in cosmology and to the role of quantum spacetimes), algebraic conformal field theory, the Kitaev's quantum double model from the point of view of local quantum physics and constructive aspects in relation to integrable models and deformation techniques. The book is addressed to master and graduate students both in mathematics and in physics, who are interested in learning the structural aspects and the applications of algebraic quantum field theory.

This thesis presents a theoretical investigation into the creation and exploitation of quantum correlations and entanglement among ultracold atoms. Specifically, it focuses on these non-classical effects in two contexts: (i) tests of local realism with massive particles, e.g., violations of a Bell inequality and the EPR paradox, and (ii) realization of quantum technology by exploitation of entanglement, for example quantum-enhanced metrology. In particular, the work presented in this thesis emphasizes the possibility of demonstrating and characterizing entanglement in realistic experiments, beyond the simple "toy-models" often discussed in the literature. The importance and relevance of this thesis are reflected in a spate of recent publications regarding experimental demonstrations of the atomic Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, observation of EPR entanglement with massive particles and a demonstration of an atomic SU(1,1) interferometer. With a separate chapter on each of these systems, this thesis is at the forefront of current research in ultracold atomic physics.

Coherence, entanglement, and interference arise from quantum superposition, the most distinctive and puzzling feature of quantum physics. Silverman, whose extensive experimental and theoretical work has helped elucidate these processes, presents a clear and engaging discussion of the role of quantum superposition in diverse quantum phenomena such as the wavelike nature of particle propagation, indistinguishability of identical particles, nonlocal interactions of correlated particles, topological effects of magnetic fields, and chiral asymmetry in nature. He also examines how macroscopic quantum coherence may be able to extricate physics from its most challenging quandary, the collapse of a massive degenerate star to a singularity in space in which the laws of physics break down.

Explained by a physicist with a concern for clarity and experimental achievability, the extraordinary nature of quantum superposition will fascinate the reader not only for its apparent strangeness, but also for its comprehensibility.

Richard Feynman's never previously published doctoral thesis formed the heart of much of his brilliant and profound work in theoretical physics. Entitled "The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics," its original motive was to quantize the classical action-at-a-distance electrodynamics. Because that theory adopted an overall space-time viewpoint, the classical Hamiltonian approach used in the conventional formulations of quantum theory could not be used, so Feynman turned to the Lagrangian function and the principle of least action as his points of departure. The result was the path integral approach, which satisfied - and transcended - its original motivation, and has enjoyed great success in renormalized quantum field theory, including the derivation of the ubiquitous Feynman diagrams for elementary particles. Path integrals have many other applications, including atomic, molecular, and nuclear scattering, statistical mechanics, quantum liquids and solids, Brownian motion, and noise theory. It also sheds new light on fundamental issues like the interpretation of quantum theory because of its new overall space-time viewpoint. The present volume includes Feynman's Princeton thesis, the related review article "Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics" Reviews of Modern Physics 20 (1948), 367-387], Paul Dirac's seminal paper "The Lagrangian in Quantum Mechanics'' Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, Band 3, Heft 1 (1933)], and an introduction by Laurie M Brown.