Knowledge in a Nutshell: Quantum Physics PDF Download

Author: Sten Odenwald
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1839404027
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Quantum theory is at the heart of modern physics, but how does it actually work? NASA scientist and communicator Sten Odenwald demystifies the subject and makes this crucial topic accessible to everyone. Featuring topics such as Schrodinger's cat, the wave-particle duality and the newly emerging theories of quantum gravity, as well as the personalities behind the science, such as Max Planck, Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Richard Feynman and many more, Knowledge in a Nutshell: Quantum Physics provides an essential introduction to cutting edge science. Presented in an easy-to-understand format, with diagrams, illustrations and simple summary sections at the end of each chapter, this new addition to the 'Knowledge in a Nutshell' series brings clarity to some of the great mysteries of physics. ABOUT THE SERIES: The 'Knowledge in a Nutshell' series by Arcturus Publishing provides engaging introductions to many fields of knowledge, including philosophy, psychology and physics, and the ways in which human kind has sought to make sense of our world.

Author: Anthony Zee
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400835321
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 605

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Book Description
A fully updated edition of the classic text by acclaimed physicist A. Zee Since it was first published, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell has quickly established itself as the most accessible and comprehensive introduction to this profound and deeply fascinating area of theoretical physics. Now in this fully revised and expanded edition, A. Zee covers the latest advances while providing a solid conceptual foundation for students to build on, making this the most up-to-date and modern textbook on quantum field theory available. This expanded edition features several additional chapters, as well as an entirely new section describing recent developments in quantum field theory such as gravitational waves, the helicity spinor formalism, on-shell gluon scattering, recursion relations for amplitudes with complex momenta, and the hidden connection between Yang-Mills theory and Einstein gravity. Zee also provides added exercises, explanations, and examples, as well as detailed appendices, solutions to selected exercises, and suggestions for further reading. The most accessible and comprehensive introductory textbook available Features a fully revised, updated, and expanded text Covers the latest exciting advances in the field Includes new exercises Offers a one-of-a-kind resource for students and researchers Leading universities that have adopted this book include: Arizona State University Boston University Brandeis University Brown University California Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon College of William & Mary Cornell Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Northwestern University Ohio State University Princeton University Purdue University - Main Campus Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rutgers University - New Brunswick Stanford University University of California - Berkeley University of Central Florida University of Chicago University of Michigan University of Montreal University of Notre Dame Vanderbilt University Virginia Tech University

Author: Gerald D. Mahan
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400833388
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Covering the fundamentals as well as many special topics of current interest, this is the most concise, up-to-date, and accessible graduate-level textbook on quantum mechanics available. Written by Gerald Mahan, a distinguished research physicist and author of an acclaimed textbook on many-particle physics, Quantum Mechanics in a Nutshell is the distillation of many years' teaching experience. Emphasizing the use of quantum mechanics to describe actual quantum systems such as atoms and solids, and rich with interesting applications, the book proceeds from solving for the properties of a single particle in potential; to solving for two particles (the helium atom); to addressing many-particle systems. Applications include electron gas, magnetism, and Bose-Einstein Condensation; examples are carefully chosen and worked; and each chapter has numerous homework problems, many of them original. Quantum Mechanics in a Nutshell expertly addresses traditional and modern topics, including perturbation theory, WKBJ, variational methods, angular momentum, the Dirac equation, many-particle wave functions, Casimir Force, and Bell's Theorem. And it treats many topics--such as the interactions between photons and electrons, scattering theory, and density functional theory--in exceptional depth. A valuable addition to the teaching literature, Quantum Mechanics in a Nutshell is ideally suited for a two-semester course. The most concise, up-to-date, and accessible graduate textbook on the subject Contains the ideal amount of material for a two-semester course Focuses on the description of actual quantum systems, including a range of applications Covers traditional topics, as well as those at the frontiers of research Treats in unprecedented detail topics such as photon-electron interaction, scattering theory, and density functional theory Includes numerous homework problems at the end of each chapter

Author: Philip Ball
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022655838X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” Since Niels Bohr said this many years ago, quantum mechanics has only been getting more shocking. We now realize that it’s not really telling us that “weird” things happen out of sight, on the tiniest level, in the atomic world: rather, everything is quantum. But if quantum mechanics is correct, what seems obvious and right in our everyday world is built on foundations that don’t seem obvious or right at all—or even possible. An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape, Beyond Weird is a book about what quantum physics really means—and what it doesn’t. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience. Over the past decade it has become clear that quantum physics is less a theory about particles and waves, uncertainty and fuzziness, than a theory about information and knowledge—about what can be known, and how we can know it. Discoveries and experiments over the past few decades have called into question the meanings and limits of space and time, cause and effect, and, ultimately, of knowledge itself. The quantum world Ball shows us isn’t a different world. It is our world, and if anything deserves to be called “weird,” it’s us.

Author: Sheddad Kaid-Salah Ferrón
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781787080102
Category : Quantum theory
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
Everything around us - trees, buildings, food, light, water, air and even ourselves - is composed of minute particles, smaller than a nanometre (a billionth of a metre). Quantum physics is the science of these particles and without it none of our electronic devices, from smartphones to computers and microwave ovens, would exist. But quantum physics also pushes us to the very boundaries of what we know about science, reality and the structure of the universe. The world of quantum physics is an amazing place, where quantum particles can do weird and wonderful things, acting totally unlike the objects we experience in day-to-day life. How can atoms exist in two places at once? And just how can a cat be dead and alive at the same time? Find out more with this entertaining illustrated guide to the fascinating, mysterious world of quantum physics.

Author: Bernard d'. Espagnat
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780521329408
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book investigates the nature of reality from the viewpoint of a physicist. Contemporary physics, especially quantum theory, has raised profound questions about the relationship between the methods of science and the reality these methods seek to investigate. These questions, and how we should answer them, are the subject of this book. Part I examines the practices of contemporary physicists and addresses the criticisms that philosophers of science have made of these practices. The doctrine of physical realism, adopted by most physicists and many philosophers of science, is subjected to detailed investigation in Part II. When tested against recent discoveries and developments in physics, it is shown to be in considerable difficulty. Part III explores the consequences of this for our understanding of what science can seek to know of reality, and concludes by outlining the position contemporary physics indicates we should take on the nature of reality generally considered.

Author: Niels Bohr
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1787208931
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This collection of articles, which were first published in 1958 and written on various occasions between 1932 and 1957, forms a sequel to Danish physician Niels Bohr’s earlier essays in Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (1934). “The theme of the papers is the epistemological lesson which the modern development of atomic physics has given us and its relevance for analysis and synthesis in many fields of human knowledge. “The articles in the previous edition were written at a time when the establishment of the mathematical methods of quantum mechanics had created a firm foundation for the consistent treatment of atomic phenomena, and the conditions for an unambiguous account of experience within this framework were characterized by the notion of complementarity. In the papers collected here, this approach is further developed in logical formulation and given broader application.”

Author: Arthur March
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 048644578X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
A complete explanation of quantum mechanics, from its early non-relativistic formulation to the complex field theories used so extensively in modern theoretical research, this volume assumes no specialized knowledge of the subject. It stresses relativistic quantum mechanics, since this subject plays such an important role in research, explaining the principles clearly and imparting an accurate understanding of abstract concepts. This text deals with quantum mechanics from its earliest developments, covering both the quantum mechanics of wave fields and the older quantum theory of particles. The final chapter culminates with the author's presentation of his revolutionary theory of fundamental length--a concept designed to meet many of quantum theory's longstanding basic difficulties.

Author: Stephen W. Hawking
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780552213516
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Stephen Hawking s A Brief History of Time was a publishing phenomenon. Translated into thirty languages, it has sold over nine million copies worldwide. It continues to captivate and inspire new readers every year. When it was first published in 1988 the ideas discussed in it were at the cutting edge of what was then known about the universe. In the intervening years there have been extraordinary advances in our understanding of the space and time. The technology for observing the micro- and macro-cosmic world has developed in leaps and bounds. During the same period cosmology and the theoretical sciences have entered a new golden age. Professor Stephen Hawking has been at the heart of this new scientific renaissance. Now, in The Universe in a Nutshell, Stephen Hawking brings us fully up-to-date with the advances in scientific thinking. We are now nearer than we have ever been to a full understanding of the universe. In a fascinating and accessible discussion that ranges from quantum mechanics, to time travel, black holes to uncertainty theory, to the search for science s Holy Grail the unified field theory (or in layman s terms the theory of absolutely everything ) Professor Hawking once more takes us to the cutting edge of modern thinking. Beautifully illustrated throughout, with original artwork commissioned for this project, The Universe in a Nutshell is guaranteed to be the biggest science book of 2001.

Author: Edward Shuryak
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691175608
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
The ideal textbook for a one-semester introductory course for graduate students or advanced undergraduates This book provides an essential introduction to the physics of quantum many-body systems, which are at the heart of atomic and nuclear physics, condensed matter, and particle physics. Unlike other textbooks on the subject, it covers topics across a broad range of physical fields—phenomena as well as theoretical tools—and does so in a simple and accessible way. Edward Shuryak begins with Feynman diagrams of the quantum and statistical mechanics of a particle; in these applications, the diagrams are easy to calculate and there are no divergencies. He discusses the renormalization group and illustrates its uses, and covers systems such as weakly and strongly coupled Bose and Fermi gases, electron gas, nuclear matter, and quark-gluon plasmas. Phenomena include Bose condensation and superfluidity. Shuryak also looks at Cooper pairing and superconductivity for electrons in metals, liquid 3He, nuclear matter, and quark-gluon plasma. A recurring topic throughout is topological matter, ranging from ensembles of quantized vortices in superfluids and superconductors to ensembles of colored (QCD) monopoles and instantons in the QCD vacuum. Proven in the classroom, Quantum Many-Body Physics in a Nutshell is the ideal textbook for a one-semester introductory course for graduate students or advanced undergraduates. Teaches students how quantum many-body systems work across many fields of physics Uses path integrals from the very beginning Features the easiest introduction to Feynman diagrams available Draws on the most recent findings, including trapped Fermi and Bose atomic gases Guides students from traditional systems, such as electron gas and nuclear matter, to more advanced ones, such as quark-gluon plasma and the QCD vacuum