Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics merges two long-running serials, Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics and Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy. The series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science, digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.

Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics merges two long-running serials-Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics and Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy. The series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.

* Assumes no prior knowledge
* Adopts a modelling approach
* Numerous tutorial problems, worked examples and exercises included
* Elementary topics augmented by planetary motion and rotating frames
This text provides an invaluable introduction to mechanicsm confining attention to the motion of a particle. It begins with a full discussion of the foundations of the subject within the context of mathematical modelling before covering more advanced topics including the theory of planetary orbits and the use of rotating frames of reference. Truly introductory, the style adoped is perfect for those unfamiliar with the subject and, as emphasis is placed on understanding, readers who have already studied maechanics will also find a new insight into a fundamental topic.

Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions and New Energy is a summary of selected experimental and theoretical research performed over the last 19 years that gives profound and unambiguous evidence for low energy nuclear reaction (LENR), historically known as cold fusion.
In 1989, the subject was announced with great fanfare, to the chagrin of many people in the science community. However, the significant claim of its discoverers, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, excess heat without harmful neutron emissions or strong gamma radiation, involving electrochemical cells using heavy water and palladium, has held strong.
In recent years, LENR, within the field of condensed matter nuclear science, has begun to attract widespread attention and is regarded as a potential alternative and renewable energy source to confront climate change and energy scarcity. The aim of the research is to collect experimental findings for LENR in order to present reasonable explanations and a conclusive theoretical and practical working model.
The goal of the field is directed toward the fabrication of LENR devices with unique commercial potential demonstrating an alternative energy source that does not produce greenhouse gases, long-lived radiation or strong prompt radiation. The idea of LENR has led to endless discussions about the kinetic impossibility of intense nuclear reactions with high coulomb barrier potential. However, recent theoretical work may soon shed light on this mystery.
Understanding this process is one of the most challenging and perhaps important issues in the scientific world. This book includes previously unpublished studies, new and controversial theories to approach LENR with access to new sources and experimental results. The book offers insight into this controversial subject and will help readers re-evaluate their perspective on LENR as a possible alternative energy source.

Science is at a cross-roads. For several decades, the Standard Model of particle physics has managed to fit vast amounts of particle scattering data remarkably well, but many questions remain. During those decades, some sophisticated theoretical hypotheses such as string theory, quantum gravity, and quantum cosmology have been proposed and studied intensively, in an effort to break the log-jam of the Standard Model. None of those hypotheses have succeeded to date. Of greater concern is the increasing tendency by some practitioners in those fields to downplay the empirical principles of science.In response, this book is a restatement of those principles, covering numerous aspects of observation. A particular focus is on contextuality versus realism, the two fundamentally contrasting ideologies that underpin modern physics.

Muography is a term recently introduced to embrace different techniques that profit from the penetration capability of the muon component of cosmic rays to investigate the interior of large and otherwise inaccessible structures. Primary cosmic rays — high energy particles originating outside the solar system — interact with the Earth atmosphere and generate muons, particles with the same electric charge as the electron, while their mass is 200 times heavier. At the Earth's surface, cosmic muons represent the most abundant component of cosmic rays, and favourably, they can feature energies sufficiently high to penetrate even thick and dense materials, giving the opportunity of unveiling the internal structure of large volumes.Muography was made possible by the development of detectors in the field of particle physics, allowing the exploitation of this natural source for imaging in a vast variety of fields, characterizing this technique as truly interdisciplinary, and leading to significant advances in several disciplines. This book tries to cover all aspects of this methodology, with the different chapters pointing to the general physics principles, to the technological and image reconstruction challenges and to the principal applications in several fields, such as archaeology and geology but also civil and industrial applications.The volume contributors had omitted unnecessary technical details, while focusing on the main features and methodologies. Hence, the book not only targets scientists working in the field but also non-specialists, who might enjoy the reading as a tutorial.

This book is written for students who ever wondered about the mysterious and fascinating world of particle accelerators. What exciting physics and technologies lie within? What clever and ingenious ideas were applied in their seven decades of evolution? What promises still lay ahead in the future?Accelerators have been driving research and industrial advances for decades. This textbook illustrates the physical principles behind these incredible machines, often with intuitive pictures and simple mathematical models. Pure formalisms are avoided as much as possible. It is hoped that the readers would enjoy the fascinating physics behind these state-of-the-art devices.The style is informal and aimed for a graduate level without prerequisite of prior knowledge in accelerators. To serve as a textbook, references are listed only on the more established original literature and review articles instead of the constantly changing research frontiers.

Some twenty years ago the author published a book entitled The Physics of Particle Detectors. Much has evolved since that time, not in the basic physics, but in the complexity, number and versatility of the detectors commonly used in experiments, beam-lines and accelerators. Those changes have been heavily influenced by the concurrent dramatic changes in the microelectronics industry. In parallel, the use of computer-aided teaching has also greatly improved. The present volume explores the physics needed to understand the full suite of front-end devices in use today. In particular the physics explanation is made concurrently with the specific device being discussed, thus making the coupling more immediate. That study is made more interactive by using newer educational tools now available such as dynamic Matlab Apps.

A P Balachandran has a long and impressive record of research in particle physics and quantum field theory, bringing concepts of geometry, topology and operator algebras to the analysis of physical problems, particularly in particle physics and condensed matter physics. He has also had an influential role within the physics community, not only in terms of a large number of students, research associates and collaborators, but also serving on the editorial boards of important publications, including the International Journal of Modern Physics A.This book consists of articles by students and associates of Balachandran. Most of the articles are scientific in nature, with topics ranging from noncommutative geometry, particle physics phenomenology, to condensed matter physics. Various chapters focus on new perspectives and directions resulting from Balachandran's contributions to physics, as well as some reminiscences of collaborating and working with Balachandran.

This book provides a brief exposition of the principles of beam physics and particle accelerators with an emphasis on numerical examples employing readily available computer tools. However, it avoids detailed derivations, instead inviting the reader to use general high-end languages such as Mathcad and Matlab, as well as specialized particle accelerator codes (e.g. MAD, WinAgile, Elegant, and others) to explore the principles presented. This approach allows readers to readily identify relevant design parameters and their scaling. In addition, the computer input files can serve as templates that can be easily adapted to other related situations. The examples and computer exercises comprise basic lenses and deflectors, fringe fields, lattice and beam functions, synchrotron radiation, beam envelope matching, betatron resonances, and transverse and longitudinal emittance and space charge. The last chapter presents examples of two major types of particle accelerators: radio frequency linear accelerators (RF linacs) and storage rings. Lastly, the appendix gives readers a brief description of the computer tools employed and concise instructions for their installation and use in the most popular computer platforms (Windows, Macintosh and Ubuntu Linux). Hyperlinks to websites containing all relevant files are also included. An essential component of the book is its website (actually part of the author's website at the University of Maryland), which contains the files that reproduce results given in the text as well as additional material such as technical notes and movies.

This book provides a concise introduction to both the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity. The format is chosen to provide the basis for a single semester course which can take the students all the way from the foundations of special relativity to the core results of general relativity: the Einstein equation and the equations of motion for particles and light in curved spacetime. To facilitate access to the topics of special and general relativity for science and engineering students without prior training in relativity or geometry, the relevant geometric notions are also introduced and developed from the ground up. Students in physics, mathematics or engineering with an interest to learn Einstein's theories of relativity should be able to use this book already in the second semester of their third year. The book could also be used as the basis of a graduate level introduction to relativity for students who did not learn relativity as part of their undergraduate training.

Skyrmions - A Theory of Nuclei surveys 60 years of research into the brilliant and imaginative idea of Tony Skyrme that atomic nuclei can be modelled as Skyrmions, topologically stable states in an effective quantum field theory of pions. Skyrme theory emerges as a low-energy approximation to the more fundamental theory of quarks and gluons - quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Skyrmions give spatial structure to the protons and neutrons inside nuclei, and capture the interactions of these basic particles, allowing them to partially merge. Skyrme theory also gives a topological explanation for the conservation of baryon number, a fundamental principle of physics.The book summarises the particle and field theory background, then presents Skyrme field theory together with the mathematics needed to understand it. Many beautiful and surprisingly symmetric Skyrmions are described and illustrated in colour. Quantized Skyrmion motion models the momentum, energy and spin of nuclei, and also their isospin, the quantum number distinguishing protons and neutrons. Skyrmion vibrations also need to be quantized, and the book reviews how the complicated energy spectra of several nuclei, including Carbon-12 and Oxygen-16, are accurately modelled by rotational/vibrational states of Skyrmions. A later chapter explores variants of Skyrme theory, incorporating mesons heavier than pions, and extending the basic theory to include particles like kaons that contain strange quarks. The final chapter introduces the Sakai-Sugimoto model, which relates Skyrmions to gauge theory instantons in a higher-dimensional framework inspired by string theory.

The growing number of scientific and technological applications of plasma physics in the field of Aerospace Engineering requires that graduate students and professionals understand their principles. This introductory book is the expanded version of class notes of lectures I taught for several years to students of Aerospace Engineering and Physics. It is intended as a reading guide, addressed to students and non-specialists to tackle later with more advanced texts. To make the subject more accessible the book does not follow the usual organization of standard textbooks in this field and is divided in two parts. The first introduces the basic kinetic theory (molecular collisions, mean free path, etc.) of neutral gases in equilibrium in connection to the undergraduate physics courses. The basic properties of ionized gases and plasmas (Debye length, plasma frequencies, etc.) are addressed in relation to their equilibrium states and the collisional processes at the microscopic level. The physical description of short and long-range (Coulomb) collisions and the more relevant collisions (elementary processes) between electrons' ions and neutral atoms or molecules are discussed. The second part introduces the physical description of plasmas as a statistical system of interacting particles introducing advanced concepts of kinetic theory, (non-equilibrium distribution functions, Boltzmann collision operator, etc). The fluid transport equations for plasmas of electron ions and neutral atoms and the hydrodynamic models of interest in space science and plasma technology are derived. The plasma production in the laboratory in the context of the physics of electric breakdown is also discussed. Finally, among the myriad of aerospace applications of plasma physics, the low pressure microwave electron multipactor breakdown and plasma thrusters for space propulsion are presented in two separate chapters.

Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics merges two long-running serials-Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics and Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy. The series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.

Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics merges two long-running serials-Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics and Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy. The series features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science and digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and the computing methods used in all these domains.

The first version of quantum theory, developed in the mid 1920's, is what is called nonrelativistic quantum theory; it is based on a form of relativity which, in a previous volume, was called Newton relativity. But quickly after this first development, it was realized that, in order to account for high energy phenomena such as particle creation, it was necessary to develop a quantum theory based on Einstein relativity. This in turn led to the development of relativistic quantum field theory, which is an intrinsically many-body theory. But this is not the only possibility for a relativistic quantum theory. In this book we take the point of view of a particle theory, based on the irreducible representations of the Poincare group, the group that expresses the symmetry of Einstein relativity. There are several ways of formulating such a theory; we develop what is called relativistic point form quantum mechanics, which, unlike quantum field theory, deals with a fixed number of particles in a relativistically invariant way. A central issue in any relativistic quantum theory is how to introduce interactions without spoiling relativistic invariance. We show that interactions can be incorporated in a mass operator, in such a way that relativistic invariance is maintained. Surprisingly for a relativistic theory, such a construction allows for instantaneous interactions; in addition, dynamical particle exchange and particle production can be included in a multichannel formulation of the mass operator. For systems of more than two particles, however, straightforward application of such a construction leads to the undesirable property that clusters of widely separated particles continue to interact with one another, even if the interactions between the individual particles are of short range. A significant part of this volume deals with the solution of this problem. Since relativistic quantum mechanics is not as well-known as relativistic quantum field theory, a chapter is devoted to applications of point form quantum mechanics to nuclear physics; in particular we show how constituent quark models can be used to derive electromagnetic and other properties of hadrons.

This hands-on textbook introduces physics and nuclear engineering students to the experimental and theoretical aspects of fission physics for research and applications through worked examples and problem sets. The study of nuclear fission is currently undergoing a renaissance. Recent advances in the field create the opportunity to develop more reliable models of fission predictability and to supply measurements and data to critical applications including nuclear energy, national security and counter-proliferation, and medical isotope production. An Introduction to Nuclear Fission provides foundational knowledge for the next generation of researchers to contribute to nuclear fission physics.

Our understanding of subatomic particles developed over many years, although a clear picture of the different particles, their interactions and their inter-relationships only emerged in the latter part of the twentieth century. The first ""subatomic particles"" to be investigated were those which exhibit readily observable macroscopic behavior, specifically these are the photon, which we observe as light and the electron, which is manifested as electricity. The true nature of these particles, however, only became clear within the last century or so. The development of the Standard Model provided clarification of the way in which various particles, specifically the hadrons, relate to one another and the way in which their properties are determined by their structure. The final piece, perhaps, of the final model, that is the means by which some particles acquire mass, has just recently been clarified with the observation of the Higgs boson. Since the 1970s it has been known that the measured solar neutrino flux was inconsistent with the flux predicted by solar models. The existence of neutrinos with mass would allow for neutrino flavor oscillations and would provide an explanation for this discrepancy. Only in the past few years, has there been clear experimental evidence that neutrinos have mass. The description of particle structure on the basis of the Standard Model, along with recent discoveries concerning neutrino properties, provides us with a comprehensive picture of the properties of subatomic particles. Part I of the present book provides an overview of the Standard Model of particle physics including an overview of the discovery and properties of the Higgs boson. Part II of the book summarizes the important investigations into the physics of neutrinos and provides an overview of the interpretation of these studies.

This manual provides solutions to the problems given in the second edition of the textbook entitled An Introduction to the Physics of Particle Accelerators. Simple-to-solve problems play a useful role as a first check of the student's level of knowledge whereas difficult problems will test the student's capacity of finding the bearing of the problems in an interdisciplinary environment. The solutions to several problems will require strong engagement of the student, not only in accelerator physics but also in more general physical subjects, such as the profound approach to classical mechanics (discussed in Chapter 3) and the subtleties of spin dynamics (Chapter 13).

This textbook is a unique and ambitious primer of nuclear physics, which introduces recent theoretical and experimental progresses starting from basics in fundamental quantum mechanics. The highlight is to offer an overview of nuclear structure phenomena relevant to recent key findings such as unstable halo nuclei, superheavy elements, neutron stars, nucleosynthesis, the standard model, lattice quantum chromodynamics (LQCD), and chiral effective theory. An additional attraction is that general properties of nuclei are comprehensively explained from both the theoretical and experimental viewpoints. The book begins with the conceptual and mathematical basics of quantum mechanics, and goes into the main point of nuclear physics - nuclear structure, radioactive ion beam physics, and nuclear reactions. The last chapters devote interdisciplinary topics in association with astrophysics and particle physics. A number of illustrations and exercises with complete solutions are given. Each chapter is comprehensively written starting from fundamentals to gradually reach modern aspects of nuclear physics with the objective to provide an effective description of the cutting edge in the field.

This book introduces the physics and chemistry of plastic scintillators (fluorescent polymers) that are able to emit light when exposed to ionizing radiation, discussing their chemical modification in the early 1950s and 1960s, as well as the renewed upsurge in interest in the 21st century. The book presents contributions from various researchers on broad aspects of plastic scintillators, from physics, chemistry, materials science and applications, covering topics such as the chemical nature of the polymer and/or the fluorophores, modification of the photophysical properties (decay time, emission wavelength) and loading of additives to make the material more sensitive to, e.g., fast neutrons, thermal neutrons or gamma rays. It also describes the benefits of recent technological advances for plastic scintillators, such as nanomaterials and quantum dots, which allow features that were previously not achievable with regular organic molecules or organometallics.

In this thesis, the first measurement of the running of the top quark mass is presented. This is a fundamental quantum effect that had never been studied before. Any deviation from the expected behaviour can be interpreted as a hint of the presence of physics beyond the Standard Model. All relevant aspects of the analysis are extensively described and documented. This thesis also describes a simultaneous measurement of the inclusive top quark-antiquark production cross section and the top quark mass in the simulation. The measured cross section is also used to precisely determine the values of the top quark mass and the strong coupling constant by comparing to state-of-the-art theoretical predictions. All the theoretical and experimental aspects relevant to the results presented in this thesis are discussed in the initial chapters in a concise but complete way, which makes the material accessible to a wider audience.

Some twenty years ago the author published a book entitled The Physics of Particle Detectors. Much has evolved since that time, not in the basic physics, but in the complexity, number and versatility of the detectors commonly used in experiments, beam-lines and accelerators. Those changes have been heavily influenced by the concurrent dramatic changes in the microelectronics industry. In parallel, the use of computer-aided teaching has also greatly improved. The present volume explores the physics needed to understand the full suite of front-end devices in use today. In particular the physics explanation is made concurrently with the specific device being discussed, thus making the coupling more immediate. That study is made more interactive by using newer educational tools now available such as dynamic Matlab Apps.