This book presents quantum kinetic theory in a comprehensive way. The focus is on density operator methods and on non-equilibrium Green functions. The theory allows to rigorously treat nonequilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems. Of particular interest are ultrafast processes in plasmas, condensed matter and trapped atoms that are stimulated by rapidly developing experiments with short pulse lasers and free electron lasers. To describe these experiments theoretically, the most powerful approach is given by non-Markovian quantum kinetic equations that are discussed in detail, including computational aspects.

The work presented in this thesis involves a number of sophisticated experiments highlighting novel applications of the Pixel Imaging Mass Spectrometry (PImMS) camera in the field of photoinduced molecular dynamics. This approach represents the union of a new enabling technology (a multiple memory register, CMOS-based pixel detector) with several modern chemical physics approaches and represents a significant leap forward in capabilities. Applications demonstrated include three-dimensional imaging of photofragment Newton spheres, simultaneous electron-ion detection using a single sensor, and ion-ion velocity correlation measurements that open the door to novel covariance imaging experiments. When combined with Coulomb explosion imaging, such an approach is demonstrated to allow the measurement of molecular structure and motion on a femtosecond timescale. This is illustrated through the controlled photoexcitation of torsional motion in biphenyl molecules and the subsequent real-time measurement of the torsional angle.

This graduate-level textbook on quantum theory covers important recent developments and most aspects of the theory with detailed presentations. It is also a reference and research work which provides background for research in this discipline. In addition to traditional topics, coverage includes: Wigner's Theorem of symmetry transformations, Bose-Fermi oscillators, coherent states, the non-relativistic Lamb shift, Ramsey oscillatory fields methods, the AB effect, Schroedinger's cat and quantum decoherence, quantum teleportation and cryptography, quantum dynamics of the Stern-Gerlach effect.

This book offers a collection of texts by Carl Friedrich von Weizsaecker (1912-2007), a major German universal scientist who was also a pioneer in physics, philosophy, religion on issues of politics and peace research. He worked with Werner Heisenberg and Otto Hahn in the German "Uranverein", obtained a patent for plutonium during World War II and was an opponent of the nuclear armament of the German armed forces (1957). Furthermore, he published a study on the inability to defend Germany (1971) that was instrumental in the debate on defensive defense since the mid 1970s. He wrote on war and peace, peace and truth, policy implications of nuclear energy, on ethical issues of modern strategy, on consequences of war and war prevention and on the theory of power. He coined the term "world domestic policy" which still covers a valid theory for political, institutional secured world peace in the atomic age.

This text provides an introduction to the science that governs the interaction of light and matter (in the gas phase). It provides readers with the basic knowledge to exploit the light-matter interaction to develop quantitative tools for gas analysis (i.e. optical diagnostics) and understand and interpret the results of spectroscopic measurements. The authors pair the basics of gas-phase spectroscopy with coverage of key optical diagnostic techniques utilized by practicing engineers and scientists to measure fundamental flow-field properties. The text is organized to cover three sub-topics of gas-phase spectroscopy: (1) spectral line positions, (2) spectral line strengths, and (3) spectral lineshapes by way of absorption, emission, and scattering interactions. The latter part of the book describes optical measurement techniques and equipment. Key subspecialties include laser induced fluorescence, tunable laser absorption spectroscopy, and wavelength modulation spectroscopy. It is ideal for students and practitioners across a range of applied sciences including mechanical, aerospace, chemical, and materials engineering.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to photoelectron angular distributions and their use in the laboratory to study light-matter interactions. Photoelectron angular distribution measurements are useful because they can shed light on atomic and molecular electronic configurations and system dynamics, as well as provide information about quantum transition amplitudes and relative phases that are not obtainable from other types of measurements. For example, recent measurements of molecular-frame photoelectron angular distributions have been used to extract photoelectron emission delays in the attosecond range which can provide ultra-sensitive maps of molecular potentials. Additionally, photoelectron angular distribution measurements are an essential tool for studying negative ions. Here, the author presents a detailed, yet easily accessible, theoretical background necessary for experimentalists performing photoelectron angular distribution measurements to better understand their results. The various physical influences on photoelectron angular distributions are revealed through analytical models with the use of angular momentum coupling algebra and spherical tensor operators. The classical and quantum treatments of photoelectron angular distributions are covered clearly and systematically, and the book includes, as well, a chapter on relativistic interactions. Furthermore, the primary methods used to measure photoelectron angular distributions in the laboratory, such as photodetachment electron spectroscopy, velocity-map imaging, and cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy, are described. This book features introductory material as well as new insights on the topic, such as the use of angular momentum transfer theory to understand the process of photoelectron detachment in atoms and molecules. Including key derivations, worked examples, and additional exercises for readers to try on their own, this book serves as both a critical guide for young researchers entering the field and as a useful reference for experienced practitioners.

In this work the question whether noncommutative geometry allows for supersymmetric theories is addressed. Noncommutative geometry has seen remarkable applications in high energy physics, viz. the geometrical interpretation of the Standard Model, however such a question has not been answered in a conclusive way so far.The book starts with a systematic analysis of the possibilities for so-called almost-commutative geometries on a 4-dimensional, flat background to exhibit not only a particle content that is eligible for supersymmetry, but also have a supersymmetric action. An approach is proposed in which the basic `building blocks' of potentially supersymmetric theories and the demands for their action to be supersymmetric are identified. It is then described how a novel kind of soft supersymmetry breaking Lagrangian arises naturally from the spectral action. Finally, the above formalism is applied to explore the existence of a noncommutative version of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model.This book is intended for mathematical/theoretical physicists with an interest in the applications of noncommutative geometry to supersymmetric field theories.

The dynamics of nuclear structures described in this book furnish the basis for a comprehensive understanding of how the higher-order organization and function of the nucleus is established and how it correlates with the expression of a variety of vital activities such as cell proliferation and differentiation. The resulting volume creates an invaluable source of reference for researchers in the field.

I have been teaching courses on experimental techniques in nuclear and particle physics to master students in physics and in engineering for many years. This book grew out of the lecture notes I made for these students. The physics and engineering students have rather different expectations of what such a course should be like. I hope that I have nevertheless managed to write a book that can satisfy the needs of these different target audiences. The lectures themselves, of course, need to be adapted to the needs of each group of students. An engineering student will not qu- tion a statement like "the velocity of the electrons in atoms is ?1% of the velocity of light", a physics student will. Regarding units, I have written factors h and c explicitly in all equations throughout the book. For physics students it would be preferable to use the convention that is common in physics and omit these constants in the equations, but that would probably be confusing for the engineering students. Physics students tend to be more interested in theoretical physics courses. However, physics is an experimental science and physics students should und- stand how experiments work, and be able to make experiments work.This is an open access book.

Studying the interactions between heavy hydrogen isotopes and hydride forming metals or intermetallic compounds (IMC) is of importance for both fundamental and applied sciences. These systems offer, for example, the possibility of technical hydrogen isotope separation due to their considerable isotope effects. In addition, quite a lot of problems of hydrogen recovery, hydrogen purification, and tritium storage can be solved. This review deals with theoretical aspects of the interaction of heavy hydrogen isotopes with metals and IMC, and contains detailed information on phase and isotopic equilibrium and of the kinetics of isotope exchange in systems with hydride phases. Numerical data and results from theoretical and experimental studies are presented as well.

This book primarily focuses on the fundamentals of and new developments in electrochemiluminescence (ECL), presenting high-quality content and explicitly aiming to summarize and disseminate the current state-of-the-art. The topics covered include the fundamental theory, mechanism, types of reactions involved, and the instrumental techniques. The book also examines the applications of ECL in many of the emerging fields of science, such as bioanalytical, analytical, clinical, pharmaceutical, forensic, military, microchip, TAS, and LED. It will be invaluable to bioanalysts, drug analysts, pharmaceutical researchers and other professionals worldwide, as well as to other interested readers.

"A Structural and Vibrational Study of the Chromyl Chlorosulfate, Fluorosulfate and Nitrate Compounds" presents important studies related to the structural and vibrational properties on the chromyl compounds based on Ab-initio calculations. The synthesis and the study of such properties are of chemical importance because the stereo-chemistries and reactivities of these compounds are strongly dependent on the coordination modes that adopt the different ligands linked to the chromyl group.
In this book, the geometries of all stable structures in gas phase for chromyl chlorosulfate, fluorosulfate, and nitrate are optimized by using Density functional Theory (DFT). Then, the complete assignments of all observed bands in the infrared and Raman spectra are performed combining DFT calculations with Pulays Scaled Quantum Mechanics Force Field (SQMFF) methodology and taking into account the type of coordination adopted by the chlorosulfate, fluorosulfate and nitrate ligands as monodentate and bidentate. Moreover, the force constants for each compound at the same levels of theory are calculated. As a result, the bond orders calculated and the topological properties of electronic charge density reveal the characteristics and nature of the different bonds in each structure."

This volume considers experimental and theoretical dielectric studies of the structure and dynamics of complex systems. Complex systems constitute an almost universal class of materials including associated liquids, polymers, biomolecules, colloids, porous materials, doped ferroelectric crystals, nanomaterials, etc. These systems are characterized by a new "mesoscopic" length scale, intermediate between molecular and macroscopic. The mesoscopic structures of complex systems typically arise from fluctuations or competing interactions and exhibit a rich variety of static and dynamic behaviour. This growing field is interdisciplinary; it complements solid state and statistical physics, and overlaps considerably with chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, and biology. A common theme in complex systems is that while such materials are disordered on the molecular scale and homogeneous on the macroscopic scale, they usually possess a certain degree of order on an intermediate, or mesoscopic, scale due to the delicate balance of interaction and thermal effects. In the present Volume it is shown how the dielectric spectroscopy studies of complex systems can be applied to determine both their structures and dynamics.

Molecular properties and reactions are controlled by electrons in the molecules. Electrons had been thought to be particles. Quantum mechanics showed that el- trons have properties not only as particles but also as waves. A chemical theory is required to think about the wave properties of electrons in molecules. These prop- ties are well represented by orbitals, which contain the amplitude and phase ch- acteristics of waves. This volume is a result of our attempt to establish a theory of chemistry in terms of orbitals - A Chemical Orbital Theory. The amplitude of orbitals represents a spatial extension of orbitals. An orbital strongly interacts with others at the position and in the direction of great extension. Orbital amplitude controls the reactivities and selectivities of chemical reactions. In the first paper on frontier orbital theory by Fukui the amplitude appeared in the form of its square, i.e., the density of frontier electrons in 1952 (Scheme 1). Orbital mixing rules were developed by Libit and Hoffmann and by Inagaki and Fukui in 1974 and Hirano and Imamura in 1975 to predict magnitudes of orbital amplitudes (Scheme 2) for understanding and designing stereoselective reactions.

The last twenty years have witnessed an enormous development of nuclear physics. A large number of data have accumulated and many experimental facts are known. As the experimental techniques have achieved greater and greater perfection, the theoretical analysis and interpretation of these data have become correspondingly more accurate and detailed. The development of nuclear physics has depended on the development of physics as a whole. While there were interesting speculations about nuclear constitution as early as 1922, it was impossible to make any quantitative theory of even the simplest nucleus until the discovery of quantum mechanics on the one hand, and the development of experimental methods sufficiently sensitive to detect the presence of a neutral particle (the neutron) on the other hand. The further development of our understanding of the nucleus has depended, and still depends, on the development of ever more powerful experimental techniques for measuring nuclear properties and more powerful theoretical techniques for correlating these properties. Practically every "simple," "reasonable," and "plausible" assumption made in theoretical nuclear physics has turned out to be in need of refinement; and the numerous attempts to derive nuclear forces and the properties of nuclei from a more" fundamental" approach than the analysis of the data have proved unsuccessful so far. Nuclear physics is by no means a finished edifice.

Winner of the prestigious 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books
"A modern voyage of discovery." --Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate, author of "The Lightness of Being "
The Higgs boson is one of our era's most fascinating scientific frontiers and the key to understanding why mass exists. The most recent book on the subject, "The God Particle," was a bestseller. Now, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll documents the doorway that is opening--after billions of dollars and the efforts of thousands of researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland--into the mind-boggling world of dark matter. "The Particle at the End of the Universe" has it all: money and politics, jealousy and self-sacrifice, history and cutting-edge physics--all grippingly told by a rising star of science writing.

This fresh and original text on quantum mechanics focuses on: the development of numerical methods for obtaining specific results; the presentation of group theory and the systematic use of operators; the introduction of the functional integral and its applications in approximation; the discussion of distant correlations and experimental measurements. Numerous exercises with hints and solutions, examples and applications, and a guide to key references help the student to work with the text.

It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponise the atom, the United States marshalled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs. In the desert of eastern Washington State, far from prying eyes, scientists Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi and thousands of others-the physicists, engineers, labourers and support staff at the facility-manufactured plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, and for the bombs in the current American nuclear arsenal, enabling the construction of weapons with the potential to end human civilisation. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and storytelling, Steve Olson asks why Hanford has been largely overlooked in histories of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Olson, who grew up just twenty miles from Hanford's B Reactor, recounts how a small Washington town played host to some of the most influential scientists and engineers in American history as they sought to create the substance at the core of the most destructive weapons ever created. The Apocalypse Factory offers a new generation this dramatic story of human achievement and ultimately, of lethal hubris.

Nuclear Physics: Principles and Applications is an introduction to the basic theory and applications of modern nuclear physics. Aimed at students taking a first course in nuclear physics, the text is divided into two broad sections. The first part provides a general introduction to nuclear physics, whilst the latter half focuses on some of the most important and current applications, including nuclear medicine, instrumentation and energy from fission and fusion. Written from an experimental point of view, this text offers the reader many practical examples and problems to help encourage understanding. Although, complex material treatments are avoided, derivations of formulae are given as necessary, but with a minimum mathematical complexity.
Carefully written and structured, this book will appeal to science and engineering students who reequire an understanding of the fundamental principles of nuclear physics and its applications.

Nuclear Physics: Principles and Applications

• is a modern approach to nuclear physics, covering the basic theory and emphasising many of the varied and important applications.
• Has been carefully written and structured, to allow flexibility in use to match a variety of course needs and requirements.
• Includes a variety of examples and problems in each chapter, with hints to solving these included in the appendix.
• Avoids complex and extensive mathematical treatments.

Metallic (magnetic and non-magnetic) nanocrystalline materials have been known for over ten years but only recent developments in the research into those complex alloys and their metastable amorphous precursors have created a need to summarize the most important accomplishments in the field. This book is a collection of articles on various aspects of metallic nanocrystalline materials, and an attempt to address this above need. The main focus of the papers is put on the new issues that emerge in the studies of nanocrystalline materials, and, in particular, on (i) new compositions of the alloys, (ii) properties of conventional nanocrystalline materials, (iii) modeling and simulations, (iv) preparation methods, (v) experimental techniques of measurements, and (vi) different modern applications. Interesting phenomena of the physics of nanocrystalline materials are a consequence of the effects induced by the nanocrystalline structure. They include interface physics, the influence of the grain boundaries, the averaging of magnetic anisotropy by exchange interactions, the decrease in exchange length, and the existence of a minimum two-phase structure at the atomic scale. Attention is also paid to the special character of the local atomic ordering and to the corresponding interatomic bonding as well as to anomalies and particularities of electron density distributions, and to the formation of metastable, nanocrystalline (or quasi-crystalline) phases built from exceptionally small grains with special properties. Another important focus of attention are new classes of materials which are not based on new compositions, but rather on the original and special crystalline structure in the nanoscale.

The development of nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project is one of the most significant scientific events of the twentieth century. This revised and updated 4th edition explores the challenges that faced the scientists and engineers of the Manhattan Project. It gives a clear introduction to fission weapons at the level of an upper-year undergraduate physics student by examining the details of nuclear reactions, their energy release, analytic and numerical models of the fission process, how critical masses can be estimated, how fissile materials are produced, and what factors complicate bomb design. An extensive list of references and a number of exercises for self-study are included. Revisions to this fourth edition include many upgrades and new sections. Improvements are made to, among other things, the analysis of the physics of the fission barrier, the time-dependent simulation of the explosion of a nuclear weapon, and the discussion of tamped bomb cores. New sections cover, for example, composite bomb cores, approximate methods for various of the calculations presented, and the physics of the polonium-beryllium "neutron initiators" used to trigger the bombs. The author delivers in this book an unparalleled, clear and comprehensive treatment of the physics behind the Manhattan project.

The volume Radiological Protection is not only a compilation of numerical data and functional relationships for practical purposes. Rather a comprehensive accompanying text is intended to impart to the scientific or professional user of Radiological Protection both data, the concepts and scientific bases of the discipline devoted to prevention of health risks to man from exposure to ionizing radiations and radionuclides. It contains contributions of experts internationally qualified in scientific disciplines or subjects such as radiation physics, biology and medicine, external and internal dosimetry of ionizing radiation and radionuclides, decontamination and decorporation of radionuclides, physical and biological measuring techniques, assessment of radiation shielding (restricted to an extent being necessary for completion of tasks of practical radiological protection, specifically in the field of lower energies). The CD-ROM delivered with the hardcopy of the volume contains the full text of the volume and in addition information and data, which would be beyond the scope of the printed version, within the interactive programme SISy (for MS-Windows only). These refer e.g. to decay data of radionuclides or normalized excretion functions for monitoring workers by quantitative assessment of intakes of radionuclides and calculation of resulting doses.

Nuclear physics began long before the identification of fundamental particles, with J. J. Thomson's discovery of the electron at the end of the 19th century, which implied the existence of a positive charge in the atom to make it neutral. In this Very Short Introduction Frank Close gives an account of how this area of physics has progressed, including the recognition of how heavy nuclei are built up in the cores of stars and in supernovae, the identification of quarks and gluons, and the development of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Exploring key concepts such as the stability of different configurations of protons and neutrons in nuclei, Frank Close shows how nuclear physics brings the physics of the stars to Earth and provides us with important applications, particularly in medicine. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The purpose of this book is to illustrate the fundamental concepts of complexity and complex behavior and the best methods to characterize this behavior by means of their applications to some current research topics from within the fields of fusion, earth and solar plasmas. In this sense, it is a departure from the many books already available that discuss general features of complexity. The book is divided in two parts. In the first part the most important properties and features of complex systems are introduced, discussed and illustrated. The second part discusses several instances of possible complex phenomena in magnetized plasmas and some of the analysis tools that were introduced in the first part are used to characterize the dynamics in these systems. A list of problems is proposed at the end of each chapter. This book is intended for graduate and post-graduate students with a solid college background in mathematics and classical physics, who intend to work in the field of plasma physics and, in particular, plasma turbulence. It will also be of interest to senior scientists who have so far approached these systems and problems from a different perspective and want a new fresh angle.