This book is a broad-based text intended to help the growing student body interested in constructing and applying methods of effective field theory to solve problems in their research. It begins with a review of using symmetries to identify the relevant degrees of freedom in a problem, and then presents a variety of methods that can be used to construct various effective theories. A detailed discussion of canonical applications of effective field theory techniques with increasing complexity is given, including Fermi's weak interaction, heavy-quark effective theory, and soft-collinear effective theory. Applications of these techniques to study physics beyond the standard model, dark matter, and quantum and classical gravity are explored. Although most examples come from questions in high-energy physics, many of the methods can also be applied in condensed-matter settings. Appendices include various factoids from group theory and other topics that are used throughout the text, in an attempt to make the book self-contained.

Based on lectures held at the 8th edition of the series of summer schools in Villa de Leyva since 1999, this book presents an introduction to topics of current interest at the interface of geometry, algebra, analysis, topology and theoretical physics. It is aimed at graduate students and researchers in physics or mathematics, and offers an introduction to the topics discussed in the two weeks of the summer school: operator algebras, conformal field theory, black holes, relativistic fluids, Lie groupoids and Lie algebroids, renormalization methods, spectral geometry and index theory for pseudo-differential operators.

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

Gets right to the point with step-by-step guidance on solving physics problems. Covers all topics in standard general physics courses in the same sequence. Keeps learning about physics fun and engaging through the story of dinosaurs being tested on their knowledge for a final challenge (deflecting an asteroid headed to Earth!). Enables the reader to quickly flip through and locate steps needed for a particular problem. Includes tons of easy to follow diagrams and worked solutions.

Quantum states of atoms and molecules The translational symmetry and quantum states in periodic and amorphous solids Band structure and tuning Classical and quantum statistics with applications to ideal gases (photons, phonons and electrons, molecules) Quantum states in type-I and type-II superconductors (elementary theory included) Magnetic materials, materials with GMR and CMR Shape memory effects in alloys and materials 2D materials (graphene and graphene analogus) NLO and photovoltaic materials Hydrogen storage material for mitigating the looming energy crisis Quantum states in low and high band gap semiconductors Semimetals Designer materials, etc.

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

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

This book focuses on the gradual formation of the concept of 'light quanta' or 'photons', as they have usually been called in English since 1926. The great number of synonyms that have been used by physicists to denote this concept indicates that there are many different mental models of what 'light quanta' are: simply finite, 'quantized packages of energy' or 'bullets of light'? 'Atoms of light' or 'molecules of light'? 'Light corpuscles' or 'quantized waves'? Singularities of the field or spatially extended structures able to interfere? 'Photons' in G.N. Lewis's sense, or as defined by QED, i.e. virtual exchange particles transmitting the electromagnetic force? The term 'light quantum' made its first appearance in Albert Einstein's 1905 paper on a "heuristic point of view" to cope with the photoelectric effect and other forms of interaction of light and matter, but the mental model associated with it has a rich history both before and after 1905. Some of its semantic layers go as far back as Newton and Kepler, some are only fully expressed several decades later, while others initially increased in importance then diminished and finally vanished. In conjunction with these various terms, several mental models of light quanta were developed-six of them are explored more closely in this book. It discusses two historiographic approaches to the problem of concept formation: (a) the author's own model of conceptual development as a series of semantic accretions and (b) Mark Turner's model of 'conceptual blending'. Both of these models are shown to be useful and should be explored further. This is the first historiographically sophisticated history of the fully fledged concept and all of its twelve semantic layers. It systematically combines the history of science with the history of terms and a philosophically inspired history of ideas in conjunction with insights from cognitive science.

This book covers the entire span of quantum mechanics whose developments have taken place during the early part of the twentieth century up till the present day. We start with the Rutherford-Bohr model of the atom followed by Schrodinger's wave mechanics with its application to the solution of calculating the energy spectrum of a particle in a box, the harmonic oscillator and finally the hydrogen atom. Heisenberg's matrix mechanics and its duality with Schrodinger's wave mechanics, quantum mechanics in the interaction picture. Dirac's relativistic theory of the electron exhibiting the spin of the electron as a relativistic effect when it interacts with an external electromagnetic field. Feynman's path integral approach to non-relativistic quantum mechanics with is a marvellous intuitive interpretation as a sum over paths and how classical mechanics is obtained from its limit as Planck' constant tends to zero, methods for computing the spectra of the Dirac Hamiltonian in a radial potential, quantum field theory as developed by Feynman, Schwinger, Tomonaga and Dyson for describing the interaction between electrons, positrons, and photons via propagators using both the operator theoretic expansions and Feynman's path integral. We also introduce time independent and time dependent perturbation theory in quantum mechanics with applications to quantum gate design for quantum computers forming a major part of the research conducted by the author's research group, Quantum noise introduced into the Schrodinger and Dirac's equation based on the Hudson-Parthasarathy quantum stochastic calculus in Boson Fock space, scattering theory and wave operators with applications to quantum gate design, some aspects of second quantization like the interpretation of Boson Fock space in terms of harmonic oscillator algebras and the BCS theory of superconductivity, Wigner-Mackey-Frobenius theory of induced representations of a group with applications to Wigner's theory of particle classification, Dirac's equation in a gravitational field and Yang-Mills non-Abelian gauge theories with application to the construction of unified quantum field theories and finally, the more recent theory of super-symmetry which is a Boson-Fermion unification theory. We have discussed the statistics of Boson's, Fermions and Maxwell-Boltzmann based on entropy maximization. The book is written in problem-solution format and it would be of use to physicists and engineers interested respectively in developing unified field theories and in the design of quantum gates. Note: T&F does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

'The authors should be recognised for their efforts to present a mathematically rigorous introduction to Quantum Mechanics (QM) in a form that has broad appeal; there are not many introductory QM texts that would cover, for example, decoherence. I think many educators would appreciate this book, especially those interested in courses that combine science and philosophy.'Contemporary PhysicsApart from providing a lucid introduction to the mathematical formalism and conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics, we explain why the laws of physics have the form that they do. In addition, we present a new and unique look at the quantum world, steering clear of two common errors: the error of the -ontologists, who reify a calculational tool; and the error of the anti-realists, for whom physical theories are simply devices for expressing regularities among observations.The new edition of this acclaimed text adds around 200 pages on a variety of topics, such as how the founders sought to make sense of quantum mechanics, Kant's theory of science, QBism, Everettian quantum mechanics, de Broglie-Bohm theory, environmental decoherence, contextuality, nonlocality, and the paradox of subjectivity - the curious fact that the world seems to exist twice, once for us, in our minds, and once by itself, independently of us.

Our understanding of the physical world was revolutionized in the twentieth century - the era of "modern physics". Two books by the second author entitled Introduction to Modern Physics: Theoretical Foundations and Advanced Modern Physics: Theoretical Foundations, aimed at the very best students, present the foundations and frontiers of today's physics. Many problems are included in these texts. A previous book by the current authors provides solutions to the over 175 problems in the first volume.A third volume Topics in Modern Physics: Theoretical Foundations has recently appeared, which covers several subjects omitted in the essentially linear progression in the previous two. This book has three parts: part 1 is on quantum mechanics, part 2 is on applications of quantum mechanics, and part 3 covers some selected topics in relativistic quantum field theory. Parts 1 and 2 follow naturally from the initial volume. The present book provides solutions to the over 135 problems in this third volume.The three volumes in this series, together with the solutions manuals, provide a clear, logical, self-contained, and comprehensive base from which students can learn modern physics. When finished, readers should have an elementary working knowledge in the principal areas of theoretical physics of the twentieth century.

There is no sharp dividing line between the foundations of physics and philosophy of physics. This is especially true for quantum mechanics. The debate on the interpretation of quantum mechanics has raged in both the scientific and philosophical communities since the 1920s and continues to this day. (We shall understand the unqualified term 'quantum mechanics' to mean the mathematical formalism, i. e. laws and rules by which empirical predictions and theoretical advances are made. ) There is a popular rendering of quantum mechanics which has been publicly endorsed by some well known physicists which says that quantum mechanics is not only 1 more weird than we imagine but is weirder than we can imagine. Although it is readily granted that quantum mechanics has produced some strange and counter-intuitive results, the case will be presented in this book that quantum mechanics is not as weird as we might have been led to believe! The prevailing theory of quantum mechanics is called Orthodox Quantum Theory (also known as the Copenhagen Interpretation). Orthodox Quantum Theory endows a special status on measurement processes by requiring an intervention of an observer or an observer's proxy (e. g. a measuring apparatus). The placement of the observer (or proxy) is somewhat arbitrary which introduces a degree of subjectivity. Orthodox Quantum Theory only predicts probabilities for measured values of physical quantities. It is essentially an instrumental theory, i. e.

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

Quantum physics has been highly successful for more than 90 years. Nevertheless, a rigorous construction of interacting quantum field theory is still missing. Moreover, it is still unclear how to combine quantum physics and general relativity in a unified physical theory. Attacking these challenging problems of contemporary physics requires highly advanced mathematical methods as well as radically new physical concepts. This book presents different physical ideas and mathematical approaches in this direction. It contains a carefully selected cross-section of lectures which took place in autumn 2014 at the sixth conference ``Quantum Mathematical Physics - A Bridge between Mathematics and Physics'' in Regensburg, Germany. In the tradition of the other proceedings covering this series of conferences, a special feature of this book is the exposition of a wide variety of approaches, with the intention to facilitate a comparison. The book is mainly addressed to mathematicians and physicists who are interested in fundamental questions of mathematical physics. It allows the reader to obtain a broad and up-to-date overview of a fascinating active research area.

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

This book presents a brief introduction to the quantum field theory of the Standard Model for quarks and leptons. With minimal use of mathematics, it covers the basics of quantum field theory, local gauge field theory, spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism, the Higgs mechanism and quantum chromodynamics.From the time when the first edition was published until today, the field of particle physics has seen some major break-through with the possible discovery of Higgs particle, also known as the Higgs boson. In the second edition, the famous Higgs mechanism is included to explain the symmetry breaking in the Standard Model and the origin of mass, and all of this is explained in high-school level algebra.Aimed at both scientists and non-specialists, it requires only some rudimentary knowledge of the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulation of Newtonian mechanics as well as a basic understanding of the special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics to enjoy this book.

This book of essays in four parts, was written over a decade and full of surprises for the breadth and variety of its subject matter. The first part is about the foundations of the quantum theory which reflects the author's many conversations with the late John Bell who persuaded him that there is still no satisfactory interpretation of the theory. The second part deals with nuclear weapons. One of the essays concerns the creation of the modern gas centrifuge which was done by German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. The proliferation of these centrifuges was one of the issues in the spread of nuclear weapons. The third section deals with financial engineering with a profile of Louis Bachelier, the French mathematician who created it at the beginning of the 20th century. The final section deals with the Higgs boson and how it is used for generating mass. It includes a detailed article of how this mechanism works.

We extend to gravitation our previous study of a quantum wave for all particles and antiparticles of each generation (electron + neutrino + u and d quarks for instance). This wave equation is form invariant under Cl3*, then relativistic invariant. It is gauge invariant under the gauge group of the standard model, with a mass term: this was impossible before, and the consequence was an impossibility to link gauge interactions and gravitation.

This introduction to quantum mechanics is intended for undergraduate students of physics, chemistry, and engineering with some previous exposure to quantum ideas. Following in Heisenberg's and Dirac's footsteps, this book is centered on the concept of the quantum state as an embodiment of all experimentally available information about a system, and its representation as a vector in an abstract Hilbert space. This conceptual framework and formalism are introduced immediately, and developed throughout the first four chapters, while the standard Schroedinger equation does not appear until Chapter 5. The book grew out of lecture notes developed by the author over fifteen years of teaching at the undergraduate level. In response to numerous requests by students, material is presented with an unprecedented level of detail in both derivation of technical results and discussion of their physical significance. The book is written for students to enjoy reading it, rather than to use only as a source of formulas and examples. The colloquial and personal writing style makes it easier for readers to connect with the material. Additionally, readers will find short, relatable snippets about the "founding fathers" of quantum theory, their difficult historical circumstances, personal failings and triumphs, and often tragic fate. This textbook, complete with extensive original end-of-chapter exercises, is recommended for use in one- or two-semester courses for upper level undergraduate and beginning graduate students in physics, chemistry, or engineering.

How to see physics in its full picture? This book offers a new approach: start from math, in its simple and elegant tools: discrete math, geometry, and algebra, avoiding heavy analysis that might obscure the true picture. This will get you ready to master a few fundamental topics in physics: from Newtonian mechanics, through relativity, towards quantum mechanics.Thanks to simple math, both classical and modern physics follow and make a complete vivid picture of physics. This is an original and unified point of view to highlighting physics from a fresh pedagogical angle.Each chapter ends with a lot of relevant exercises. The exercises are an integral part of the chapter: they teach new material and are followed by complete solutions. This is a new pedagogical style: the reader takes an active part in discovering the new material, step by step, exercise by exercise.The book could be used as a textbook in undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Newtonian mechanics and special relativity, Introduction to Hamiltonian mechanics and stability, Introduction to quantum physics and chemistry, and Introduction to Lie algebras with applications in physics.