The plain-English guide to understanding quantum physics

The plain-English guide to understanding quantum physics

Experimental physicist at CERN and acclaimed science presenter Harry Cliff offers an eye-opening account of the inexplicable phenomena that science has only recently glimpsed, and that could transform our understanding of the fundamental nature of reality.

Quantum mechanics, formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1925, belongs among the greatest achievements of physics. "Fundamental Physics: Heisenberg and Beyond" combines personal tributes to Werner Heisenberg with assessments of his impact on current and future developments in physics. The first part presents two essays commemorating Werner Heisenberg's 100th birthday, and these are complemented by a short and nicely illustrated biographical note in the appendix. In the second part, incisive articles by ten world-leading scientists explain important developments in fundamental physics to a broader community of interested scientists.

In addition to traditional topics, this book includes: selective measurements, Wigner's Theorem of symmetry transformations, generators of quantum transformations, supersymmetry, details on the spectra of Hamiltonians and stability of quantum systems, Bose-Fermi oscillators, coherent states, hyperfine structure of the H-atom for any angular momentum, the non-relativistic Lamb shift, anomalous magnetic moment of the electron, Ramsey oscillatory fields methods, measurement, interference and the role of the environment, the AB effect, geometric phases, including non-adiabatic and non-cyclic, Schrödinger's cat and quantum decoherence, quantum teleportation and cryptography, quantum dynamics of the Stern-Gerlach effect, Green functions, path integrals, including constrained dynamics, quantum dynamical principle and variations, systematics of multi-electron atoms, stability of matter, collapse of "bosonic matter" and the role of spin, intricacies of scattering, quantum description of relativistic particles for any spin and mass, spinors, helicity, the Spin and Statistics Theorem. It also contains numerous problems some of which are challenging enough for research.

A theoretical physicist takes readers on an awe-inspiring journey—found in "no other book" (Science)—to discover how the universe generates everything from nothing at all: "If you want to know what's really going on in the realms of relativity and particle physics, read this book" (Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe).

“A rich and rewarding history of one of the most astounding ideas in physics and astronomy” (Marcia Bartusiak) – that the universe we know isn’t the only one

Nowadays it is becoming clearer and clearer that, in the description of natural phenomena, the triadic scheme - microseopie, mesoscopic, macroscopic - is only a rough approximation and that there are many levels of description, probably an infinite hierarchy, in which the specific properties of a given level express some kind of cumulative or collective behaviour of properties or sys­ tems corresponding to the lower levels. One of the most interesting challenges for contemporary natural sciences is the comprehension of the connections among these different levels of description of reality and the deduction of the laws of higher levels in this hierarchy from basic laws corresponding to lower levels. Since these cumulative or collective phenomena are, typically, nonlin­ ear effects, the transition from this general program to concrete scientific achievements requires the developement of techniques which allow physical information to be extracted from nonlinear quantum systems. Explicitly in­ tegrable examples of such systems are rare, and the most interesting physical phenomena are not captured by them. Even in the case of linear systems the fact that an explicit solution is formally available is often useless, since it is impossible to interpret interesting physical phenomena from it.

Here, best-selling author Diarmuid O'Murchu presents a vision of the intersection of quantum physics and spirituality. It is now revised to reflect the most recent advances in physics. From black holes to holograms, from relativity theory to the discovery of quarks, this book is an original and rich exposition of quantum theory and the way it unravels profound theological questions.

These are the proceedings of the Conference on Coding Theory, Cryptography, and Number Theory held at the U. S. Naval Academy during October 25-26, 1998. This book concerns elementary and advanced aspects of coding theory and cryptography. The coding theory contributions deal mostly with algebraic coding theory. Some of these papers are expository, whereas others are the result of original research. The emphasis is on geometric Goppa codes (Shokrollahi, Shokranian-Joyner), but there is also a paper on codes arising from combinatorial constructions (Michael). There are both, historical and mathematical papers on cryptography. Several of the contributions on cryptography describe the work done by the British and their allies during World War II to crack the German and Japanese ciphers (Hamer, Hilton, Tutte, Weierud, Urling). Some mathematical aspects of the Enigma rotor machine (Sherman) and more recent research on quantum cryptography (Lomonoco) are described. There are two papers concerned with the RSA cryptosystem and related number-theoretic issues (Wardlaw, Cosgrave).

This authoritative biography addresses the life and work of the quantum physicist David Bohm. Although quantum physics is considered the soundest physical theory, its strange and paradoxical features have challenged - and continue to challenge - even the brightest thinkers. David Bohm dedicated his entire life to enhancing our understanding of quantum mysteries, in particular quantum nonlocality. His work took place at the height of the cultural/political upheaval in the 1950's, which led him to become the most notable American scientist to seek exile in the last century. The story of his life is as fascinating as his ideas on the quantum world are appealing.