First Snow White encounters one of the Little People, then one of the Even Smaller People, and finally one of the Truly Infinitesimal People. And no matter how diligently she searches, the only dwarves she can find are collapsed stars! Clearly, she's not at home in her well-known Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but instead in a strange new landscape that features quantum behavior, the wavelike properties of particles, and the Uncertainty Principle. She (and we) must have entered, in short, one of the worlds created by Robert Gilmore, physicist and fabulist.

Get ready to take another fantastic journey with physicist and author Robert Gilmore, this time with Dorothy, following the yellow building block road through the land of the Wizard of Quarks. Using characters and situations based on the universally known story, The Wizard of Oz, we learn along the way about the fascinating world of particle physics. Classes of particles, from quarks to leptons are shown in atomic garden, where atoms and molecules are produced; see how Dorothy, The Tin Geek, and the Cowardly Lion experience the bizarre world of subatomic particles. Thousands of readers who were delighted by the adventures and science content of Alice in Quantumland are in for another treat, with the prose and illustrations of Robert Gilmore.

You've heard about Alice's adventures through the looking glass. Well, Alice is about to embark on another amazing journey. She's going to shrink again - to the size of a nuclear particle - but she's not going down the rabbit hole. She's headed for Quantumland. And what is Quantumland? Think of it as an intellectual amusement park smaller than an atom, where every ride, game, and attraction demonstrates a different aspect of quantum mechanics - the often baffling, always intriguing theoretical framework that seems to provide the most accurate explanations of the way things are in the physical world. In this masterful blend of fantasy and science, Robert Gilmore uses the allegory of Alice's travels to make the uncertainty principle, Pauli's principle, high-energy particle physics, and other crucial parts of quantum theory accessible and exciting.

When the destination sign on Scrooges train reads "HEAT DEATH" instead of "HEATHROW," when his dead partner Marleys face appears as a talking head in a department store TV, and when the street lights outside his flat begin acting strangely, it is a sign of a bad night to come. Like his famous ancestor, the modern Scrooge is about to be visited by ghosts. But its not his hard heart that needs opening; its his closed mind. Physicist Robert Gilmore, author of the popular Alice in Quantumland, presents here a delightful takeoff, where the three visitations represent Science Past, Present and Future. For everyone who wants a playful, painless yet surprisingly sophisticated introduction to the ideas of modern physics, this is a brilliant tour de force and a charming read.

Thousands of readers who were delighted by the adventures and science content of Alice in Quantumland are in for another treat. This time physicist Robert Gilmore takes us on a journey with Dorothy, following the yellow building block road through the land of the Wizard of Quarks. Using characters and situations based on the Wizard of Oz story, we learn along the way about the fascinating world of particle physics. Classes of particles, from quarks to leptons are shown in an atomic garden, where atoms and molecules are produced. See how Dorothy, The Tin Geek, and the Cowardly Lion experience the bizarre world of subatomic particles.

Describing many of the most important aspects of Lie group theory, this book presents the subject in a 'hands on' way. Rather than concentrating on theorems and proofs, the book shows the applications of the material to physical sciences and applied mathematics. Many examples of Lie groups and Lie algebras are given throughout the text. The relation between Lie group theory and algorithms for solving ordinary differential equations is presented and shown to be analogous to the relation between Galois groups and algorithms for solving polynomial equations. Other chapters are devoted to differential geometry, relativity, electrodynamics, and the hydrogen atom. Problems are given at the end of each chapter so readers can monitor their understanding of the materials. This is a fascinating introduction to Lie groups for graduate and undergraduate students in physics, mathematics and electrical engineering, as well as researchers in these fields.

Alice sitzt gelangweilt vor dem Fernseher; da fallt ihr Blick auf "Alice im Wunderland," das sie kurzlich gelesen hat. Sie sehnt sich danach, vergleichbare Abenteuer zu erleben, sturzt und fallt in Ohnmacht. In ihrem Traum fallt sie durch den Bildschirm hindurch, wo sie - verkleinert - auf die Elektronen trifft, die als Strahl den Bildschirm zum Leuchten bringen. Das ist erst der Anfang der Geschichte, in der Alice nach und nach die Besonderheiten der Quantenwelt kennenlernt. Sie begegnet Menschen wie Niels Bohr, die sie unter ihre Fittiche nehmen, und steht mit Elektronen und Quarks auf du und du. In dieser neuen Form der Geschichte von Alice beschreibt Robert Gilmore - selbst angesehener Physiker - kenntnisreich und amusant, welche Besonderheiten uns die Welt der Elektronen und Quarks bietet. Schliesslich wird Alice (und damit den Lesern) klargemacht, dass nach 70 Jahren der Forschung auf diesem Gebiet ungeloste Fragen an die Grundlagen der Quantentheorie ubriggeblieben sind, die vielleicht nie gelost werden konnen.
Rezension erschienen in: junge wissenschaft
Ausgabe / Band 12Jg., Heft 45, S. 60f Feb. 97
(...) ist es dem Autor in hervorragender Weise gelungen, eine didaktisch ausserst wertvolle Darstellung der Quantenmechanik zu prasentieren(...)
(...)erreicht damit einen wesentlich grosserenLeserkreis(...)
(...)sehr abgerundetes Bild der Quantenphysik(...)
(...)in sehr geschickter Weise(...)
(...)in sehr pragnanter Form, jedoch in fachlicher Hinsicht vollig korrekt(...)
(...)Als besonders gelungen darf man die Ubersetzung aus dem englischen Original bezeichnen(...)
(...)Sehr lobenswert erwahnt werden muss wohl auch die vom deutschen Ubersetzer vorgenommene Aktualisierung beim inzwischen gelungenen Nachweis des top-Quark am Fermilab(...)
(...)Der rezensent ist davon uberzeugt, dass auch der versierte Physiker dieses Buch mit grossem Genuss lesen muss(...)"