In "Dancing in the Dark: The "Waltz in Wonder" of Quantum Metaphysics," Dr. Ronald Keast examines the exciting and spooky scientific theories about the fundamental nature of reality and truth that have been proposed by the revolutionary science of quantum mechanics. These quantum theories, which are at the leading edge of contemporary science, propose that at the most elementary, sub-atomic level-that which underlies and is the foundation of our world, our universe, all that is-reality is radically uncertain. The certainties of science, which, for all practical purposes, replaced those of religion over two hundred years ago in the West, have been undermined and shown to be, at best, inadequate, at worst, erroneous-as have those of common sense.

This has profound metaphysical, philosophical, even theological, not to say scientific, implications. It means that we do not, and probably cannot, know what reality and truth are, that we are all dancing in the dark; dancing with faith of one kind or another.

Written for a general audience, "Dancing in the Dark" introduces some of these theories, connects them to their metaphysical and philosophical roots in the West, and to their mystical roots in the East, and emphasizes the value of learning about them-the value and the joy of uncertainty.

This book is a sequel to Lectures on Selected Topics in Mathematical Physics: Introduction to Lie Theory with Applications. This volume is devoted mostly to Lie groups. Lie algebras and generating functions, both for standard special functions and for solution of certain types of physical problems. It is an informal treatment of these topics intended for physics graduate students or others with a physics background wanting a brief and informal introduction to the subjects addressed in a style and vocabulary not completely unfamiliar.

The dynamics of quantum systems exposed to ultrafast (at the femtosecond time-scale) and strong laser radiation has a highly non-linear character, leading to a number of new phenomena, outside the reach of traditional spectroscopy. The current laser technology makes feasible the probing and control of quantum-scale systems with fields that are as strong as the interatomic Coulombic interactions and time resolution that is equal to (or less than) typical atomic evolution times. It is indispensable that any theoretical description of the induced physical processes should rely on the accurate calculation of the atomic structure and a realistic model of the laser radiation as pulsed fields. This book aims to provide an elementary introduction of theoretical and computational methods and by no means is anywhere near to complete. The selection of the topics as well as the particular viewpoint is best suited for early-stage students and researchers; the included material belongs in the mainstream of theoretical approaches albeit using simpler language without sacrificing mathematical accuracy. Therefore, subjects such as the Hilbert vector-state, density-matrix operators, amplitude equations, Liouville equation, coherent laser radiation, free-electron laser, Dyson-chronological operator, subspace projection, perturbation theory, stochastic density-matrix equations, time-dependent SchrAdinger equation, partial-wave analysis, spherical-harmonics expansions, basis and grid wavefunction expansions, ionization, electron kinetic-energy and angular distributions are presented within the context of laser-atom quantum dynamics.

B Factories are particle colliders at which specific subatomic particles - B mesons - are produced abundantly. The purpose is to study the properties of their decays in great detail in order to shed light on a mystery of eminently larger scale: why do we live in a universe composed of anti-matter? This book introduces readers to the physics laws of the CP asymmetry, touching on experimental requirements needed to perform such measurements at the subatomic level, and illustrating the main findings of the contemporary B Factories.

While there are many good books in particle physics, very seldom if ever a non-specialist comprehensive description of Quantum Field Theory has appeared. The intention of this short book is to offer a guided tour of that innermost topic of Theoretical Physics, in plain words and avoiding the mathematical apparatus, but still describing its various facets up to the research frontier, with the aim to give a glimpse of what the human mind has been capable of imagining for dealing with the behavior of Nature at the most fundamental level.

With the fast pace of developments in quantum technologies, it is more than ever necessary to make the new generation of students in science and engineering familiar with the key ideas behind such disruptive systems. This book intends to fill such a gap between experts and non-experts in the field by providing the reader with the basic tools needed to understand the latest developments in quantum communications and its future directions. This is not only to expand the audience knowledge but also to attract new talents to this flourishing field. To that end, the book as a whole does not delve into much detail and most often suffices to provide some insight into the problem in hand. The primary users of the book will then be students in science and engineering in their final year of undergraduate studies or early years of their post-graduate programmes.

Quantum Mechanics of Non-Hamiltonian and Dissipative Systems is self-contained and can be used by students without a previous course in modern mathematics and physics. The book describes the modern structure of the theory, and covers the fundamental results of last 15 years. The book has been recommended by Russian Ministry of Education as the textbook for graduate students and has been used for graduate student lectures from 1998 to 2006.
Requires no preliminary knowledge of graduate and advanced mathematics
Discusses the fundamental results of last 15 years in this theory
Suitable for courses for undergraduate students as well as graduate students and specialists in physics mathematics and other sciences

Quantum mechanics - central not only to physics, but also to chemistry, materials science, and other fields - is notoriously abstract and difficult. Essential Quantum Mechanics is a uniquely concise and explanatory book that fills the gap between introductory and advanced courses, between popularizations and technical treatises. By focusing on the fundamental structure, concepts, and methods of quantum mechanics, this introductory yet sophisticated work emphasizes both physical and mathematical understanding. A modern perspective is adopted throughout - the goal, in part, being to gain entry into the world of 'real' quantum mechanics, as used by practicing scientists. With over 60 original problems, Essential Quantum Mechanics is suitable as either a text or a reference. It will be invaluable to physics students as well as chemists, electrical engineers, philosophers, and others whose work is impacted by quantum mechanics, or who simply wish to better understand this fascinating subject.

This PhD thesis is dedicated to a subfield of elementary particle physics called "Flavour Physics". The Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM) has been confirmed by thousands of experimental measurements with a high precision. But the SM leaves important questions open, like what is the nature of dark matter or what is the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. By comparing high precision Standard Model calculations with extremely precise measurements, one can find the first glimpses of the physics beyond the SM - currently we see the first hints of a potential breakdown of the SM in flavour observables. This can then be compared with purely theoretical considerations about new physics models, known as model building. Both precision calculations and model building are extremely specialised fields and this outstanding thesis contributes significantly to both topics within the field of Flavour Physics and sheds new light on the observed anomalies.

The first of its kind to explore the Nobel Prize experience

"Dad, some guy is calling from Sweden." It was 2:30am on October 13th, 1998, the youngest son in the Laughlin house had answered the phone. His dad had just become a recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics.

Frantic and funny events of the next two months are chronicled as the Laughlin's academic household morphs into a madcap staging area for the family and thirty guests who will be in attendance during Nobel week. From tickets to Stockholm to clothing measurements, Nobel lecture preparations, attach assistance and a quick trip to the White House for a formal reception with President and Mrs. Clinton, readers will laugh out loud while gasping in awe.

The glorious Nobel ceremony and elaborate banquet is held each winter with a viewing audience of tens of millions. An intimate dinner with King Gustaf in his royal palace follows the Nobel evening in which Anita Laughlin finds herself the King's dinner partner for what becomes an evening of hilarious surprises, and yes, reindeer.

This book is laced with cartoons drawn by Bob Laughlin that evoke collective feelings of surprise and bewilderment as he and his wife ascend the steep learning curve of Swedish protocol together.

Combinatorial Kalman filters are a standard tool today for pattern recognition and charged particle reconstruction in high energy physics. In this thesis the implementation of the track finding software for the Belle II experiment and first studies on early Belle II data are presented. The track finding algorithm exploits novel concepts such as multivariate track quality estimates to form charged trajectory hypotheses combining information from the Belle II central drift chamber with the inner vertex sub-detectors. The eventual track candidates show an improvement in resolution on the parameters describing their spatial and momentum properties by up to a factor of seven over the former legacy implementation. The second part of the thesis documents a novel way to determine the collision event null time T0 and the implementation of optimisation steps in the online reconstruction code, which proved crucial in overcoming the high level trigger limitations.

Modern physics has forever changed the way we view and understand physical reality. With a wide spectrum of theories, from general relativity to quantum mechanics, our conceptions of the very big and the very small are no longer intuitively obvious. Many philosophers, even scientists have expressed the opinion that the counterintuitive conclusions posited in modern physics are best understood using spiritual terminology. In the 11 lectures in this volume, Harav Ginsburgh, one of our generation's foremost scholars, innovators, and teachers of Kabbalah, reveals how modern physics reflects foundational concepts in the Torah's inner dimension. A wide range of topics from relativity (special and general), quantum mechanics, and string theory are addressed. Elegantly and gracefully, Harav Ginsburgh's exposition of the topics switches back and forth between the scientific and Torah perspectives. With his deep insight, Harav Ginsburgh gives even well-known physical concepts a refreshing and new treatment. Apart from carefully drawing parallels and correspondences between the Torah's inner dimension and modern physics, in these lectures, Harav Ginsburgh proposes new directions for scientific research into important areas such as a unified field theory, CPT symmetry, the relationship between acceleration and gravitation, and the possibility of uncovering additional dimensions in physical reality, demonstrating how the Torah's depth can be used to fertilize science and further our understanding of nature.
Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh is one of our generation s foremost expositors of Kabbalah and Chassidut and is the author of over 100 books in Hebrew, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. The interface between Torah and science is one of the areas in which he is known for his breakthrough work, forging a path in revolutionizing the way we think about the relationship between Judaism and modern science. He is also the founder and dean of the Ba al Shem Tov School of Jewish Psychology, and his unique approach to mathematics in Torah is now the basis of a new math curriculum for Jewish schools.

In 1941, E.C.G. Stueckelberg wrote a paper, based on ideas of V. Fock, that established the foundations of a theory that could covariantly describe the classical and quantum relativistic mechanics of a single particle. Horwitz and Piron extended the applicability of this theory in 1973 (to be called the SHP theory) to the many-body problem. It is the purpose of this book to explain this development and provide examples of its applications. We first review the basic ideas of the SHP theory, both classical and quantum, and develop the appropriate form of electromagnetism on this dynamics. After studying the two body problem classically and quantum mechanically, we formulate the N-body problem. We then develop the general quantum scattering theory for the N-body problem and prove a quantum mechanical relativistically covariant form of the Gell-Mann-Low theorem. The quantum theory of relativistic spin is then developed, including spin-statistics, providing the necessary apparatus for Clebsch-Gordan additivity, and we then discuss the phenomenon of entanglement at unequal times. In the second part, we develop relativistic statistical mechanics, including a mechanism for stability of the off-shell mass, and a high temperature phase transition to the mass shell. Finally, some applications are given, such as the explanation of the Lindneret alexperiment, the proposed experiment of Palacios et al which should demonstrate relativistic entanglement (at unequal times), the space-time lattice, low energy nuclear reactions and applications to black hole physics.

A deeper understanding of neutrinos, with the goal to reveal their nature and exact role within particle physics, is at the frontier of current research. This book reviews the field in a concise fashion and highlights the most pressing issues and areas of strongest topical interest. It provides a clear, self-contained, and logical treatment of the fundamental physics aspects, appropriate for graduate students. Starting with the relevant basics of the SM, neutrinos are introduced, and the quantum mechanical effect of oscillations is explained in detail. A strong focus is then set on the phenomenon of lepton number violation, especially in 0nbb decay, as the crucial probe to understand the nature of neutrinos. The role of neutrinos in astrophysics, expected to be of increasing importance for future research, is then described. Finally, models to explain the neutrino properties are outlined. The central theme of the book is the nature of neutrino masses and the above topics will revolve around this issue.

Despite the success of general relativity in explaining classical gravitational phenomena, several problems at the interface between gravitation and high energy physics still remain open. The purpose of this thesis is to explore quantum gravity and its phenomenological consequences for dark matter, gravitational waves and inflation. A new formalism to classify gravitational theories based on their degrees of freedom is introduced and, in light of this classification, it is argued that dark matter is no different from modified gravity. Gravitational waves are shown to be damped due to quantum degrees of freedom. The consequences for gravitational wave events are also discussed. The non-minimal coupling of the Higgs boson to gravity is studied in connection with Starobinsky inflation and its implications for the vacuum instability problem is analyzed.

Classical Mechanics teaches readers how to solve physics problems; in other words, how to put math and physics together to obtain a numerical or algebraic result and then interpret these results physically. These skills are important and will be needed in more advanced science and engineering courses. However, more important than developing problem-solving skills and physical-interpretation skills, the main purpose of this multi-volume series is to survey the basic concepts of classical mechanics and to provide the reader with a solid understanding of the foundational content knowledge of classical mechanics. Classical Mechanics: Conservation laws and rotational motion covers the conservation of energy and the conservation of momentum, which are crucial concepts in any physics course. It also introduces the concepts of center-of-mass and rotational motion.