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You can still access the UC Berkeley Library’s services and resources during the closure. Here’s how.
Hellenistic astronomy : the science in its contexts by Alan C. Bowen, Francesca Rochberg"In Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in Its Contexts, new essays by renowned scholars address questions about what the ancient science of the heavens was in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean worlds, and the numerous contexts in which it was pursued. Together, these essays will enable readers not only to understand the technical accomplishments of this ancient science but also to appreciate their historical significance by locating the questions, challenges, and issues inspiring them in their political, medical, philosophical, literary, and religious contexts."
Stumbling Blocks Against Unification: on Some Persistent Misconceptions in Physics by Matej PavsicThe history is full of misconceptions that opposed the progress of physics. The book starts with reviewing some historical cases, such as the arguments against the Earth rotation, or the famous problem of 3/4 in the theory of electromagnetic mass of electron. After having pointed out that misconceptions have been common in the history of physics, it is argued that they must be present today as well. In fact, it is now commonly being realized that in the last forty years there has been no significant progress in the fundamental theoretical physics. A reason certainly lies in certain stumbling blocks on our way towards the unification of interaction and of gravity with quantum mechanics. The author discusses what he perceives as some persisting misconceptions that have not yet been recognized as such by physics community in general.
Quantum Mechanics in Potential Representation and Applications by Arvydas Juozapas Janavicius; Donatas JurgaitisThis book is written with a focus on new mathematical methods and physical modeling that lay the groundwork for an interpretation to various experimental results and phenomena in nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, and particle physics. Summarized in three parts, the main topics of the book are as follows.The first part importantly addresses scattering theory and nuclear reactions, with the usage of new potential representation method. This perturbation method offers the wave function as a product of the free particle solution and a function which depends on the interaction potential, allowing handy analytical expressions and integral equations for finding scattering matrices. It is highly applicable to the study of scattering and absorption of neutrons in atomic reactors, as well as the interactions between protons and nuclei by scattering processes in, for example, cyclotrons. The second part of the book concerns the perturbation method by variation of free constants and the semi-relativistic shell model of heavy nuclei in order to understand their stability. The last part is then furnished with the semi-relativistic model of mesons and relates to the binding energies of quarks in charm and bottom mesons.This book would be a valuable resource for students and researchers on new mathematical methods in the theoretical unravelling of experiments concerning nuclei and mesons, nuclear reactors, radioactive isotopes, particle accelerators, new materials in electronics and healthcare products, as well as other practical applications of nuclear physics and quantum mechanics.
Adiabatic Thermodynamics of Fluids: from Hydrodynamics to General Relativity by Christian FronsdalThis book exists because there is (or was) no satisfactory theory of the dynamical metric interacting with extended distributions of matter. It will be shown that any theory of interacting fields that includes the Einsteinian metric must be based on an action principle.This allows us, for the first time, to use 'energy' as a precise concept in vortex dynamics. Sample applications include rotating planets, Couette flow, tresses in fluids (inside the meniscus, negative pressures), immiscible fluids, amongst others.Unlike the traditional approach to thermodynamics, this book begins with a brief exposition of hydrodynamics. At this stage, the development is limited to potential flows, because, until recently, that is all that could be done, but also for didactic reasons. However, the reader will find that the situation has changed radically with the discovery of the Conservative Hydrodynamics.At the core of thermodynamics is the Gibbsean minimum energy principle. In this book, it is generalized to include the hydrodynamical degrees of freedom; that is, localized as a field theory of density, pressure, temperature and entropy. The theory is referred to as local, as opposed to traditional, global thermodynamics where the main foundation is the variational principle of Gibbs, with a modification recommended by Prigogine.
History of Particle Theory by Paul H. Frampton; Jihn E. Kim"History of Particle Theory fills an important gap existing in the literature by discussing the impressive progress in understanding the elementary particles out of which all everyday objects are made. Most of this progress has happened in the last seventy years after the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) was perfected as an extremely accurate description of electromagnetic interactions. This astonishing sequence of discoveries was made hand in hand between theory and experiment. This book concentrates only on theory where giant steps were made by a series of exceptionally creative physicists, and this is portrayed as an essential part of the broader spectrum of human knowledge and culture, which is constantly being similarly extended by the creative individuals such as the two mentioned in the subtitle, Between Darwin and Shakespeare, who both significantly changed Western Civilization by ideas in Biology and in English Literature respectively. In the last forty years, the standard model has been confirmed again and again as the correct description of elementary particles up to energies of a thousand times the proton mass. In the discussion of particle theory and theoretical physics in general, the book starts from well over two thousand years ago, going back to the ancient Greeks such as Democritus and Archimedes, until the 17th century, when the extraordinary intellect of Newton changed everything by demonstrating that not only objects in the laboratory but also heavenly bodies are governed by mathematical equations. There followed what can be called Darwinian evolution in theoretical physics, survival of the fittest theories, by loose analogy with the origin of biological species. The present standard model of particle theory surely cannot be the final word because it contains far too many free parameters. The book contains a penultimate chapter discussing a number of such open problems which exist in particle theory. There is then a closing chapter, not related to the rest of the book, providing a series of quotations written in the 16th and 17th centuries by Shakespeare and here applied to particle theory. The inclusion of this is based on our premise that particle theory is just one out of several opportunities for exceptional human creativity"--
ISBN: 9789811224652
Publication Date: 2020-11-01
Exploding Stars and Invisible Planets by Fred WatsonWhat happens to space and matter near a black hole? Where did the moon come from? How do we know what stars are made of? Are we alone in the universe? In Exploding Stars and Invisible Planets, Fred Watson, an award-winning astronomer, presents the most up-to-date knowledge on hot topics in astronomy and space science, providing a fascinating and entertaining account of the latest research. Watson explains how to find invisible planets around other stars, why dark matter matters, and the future of citizen space travel, all while recounting the seismic shifts in understanding that have taken place during his illustrious career. The book features illuminating discussions of microbes in space; the dividing line between day and night; exploding stars and light echoes; fast radio bursts and signals from space; meteors, meteorites, and space dust; what happened to the Martian ocean; the seas and lakes of Titan; and the birth of the universe.
Henri Poincaré: Electrons to Special Relativity by Bruce D. PoppProduced by an award-winning translator of Henri Poincaré, this book contains translations of several seminal articles by Poincaré and discusses the experimental and theoretical investigations of electrons that form their context. In the 1950s, a dispute ignited about the origin of the theory of special relativity and thrust considerable notoriety on a paper written by Henri Poincaré in 1905. Accordingly, Part I presents the relevant translations of Poincaré's work showing that radiation carries momentum and the covariance of the equations of electrodynamics, the continuity equation for charge, and the spacetime interval. Part II then discusses investigations by Thomson, Becquerel, and Kaufmann of electrons in diverse contexts; contributions of Abraham, Lorentz and Poincaré to a theory of electrons that includes Lorentz transformations and explains the dependence of mass on velocity; and finally, Poincaré's exploration of the relativity principle, electron stability, and gravitation while rejecting absolute motion (ether) and an electromagnetic origin of mass. Part III contains the 1904 article by H. A. Lorentz presenting his transformations. This book will be a fascinating read to graduate-level students, physicists, and science historians who are interested in the development of electrodynamics and the classical, relativistic theory of electrons at the beginning of the 20th century.
Foundations of Quantum Field Theory by Klaus D. Rothe"Based on a two-semester course held at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, this book provides an adequate resource for the lecturer and the student. The contents are primarily aimed at graduate students who wish to learn about the fundamental concepts behind constructing a Relativistic Quantum Theory of particles and fields. So it provides a comprehensive foundation for the extension to Quantum Chromodynamics and Weak Interactions, that are not included in this book"--
Controlling Collective Electronic States in Cuprates and Nickelates by Martin BluschkeIn this thesis chemical and epitaxial degrees of freedom are used to manipulate charge and spin ordering phenomena in two families of transition metal oxides, while taking advantage of state-of-the-art resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) methods to characterize their microscopic origin in a comprehensive manner. First, the relationship of charge density wave order to both magnetism and the "pseudogap" phenomenon is systematically examined as a function of charge-carrier doping and isovalent chemical substitution in single crystals of a copper oxide high-temperature superconductor. Then, in copper oxide thin films, an unusual three-dimensionally long-range-ordered charge density wave state is discovered, which persists to much higher temperatures than charge-ordered states in other high-temperature superconductors. By combining crystallographic and spectroscopic measurements, the origin of this phenomenon is traced to the epitaxial relationship with the underlying substrate. This discovery opens new perspectives for the investigation of charge order and its influence on the electronic properties of the cuprates. In a separate set of RXS experiments on superlattices with alternating nickel and dysprosium oxides, several temperature- and magnetic-field-induced magnetic phase transitions are discovered. These observations are explained in a model based on transfer of magnetic order and magneto-crystalline anisotropy between the Ni and Dy subsystems, thus establishing a novel model system for the interplay between transition-metal and rare-earth magnetism.
Brownian Motion and Molecular Reality by George E. Smith; Raghav SethBetween 1905 and 1913, French physicist Jean Perrin's experiments on Brownian motion ostensibly put a definitive end to the long debate regarding the real existence of molecules, proving the atomic theory of matter. While Perrin's results had a significant impact at the time, later examination of his experiments questioned whether he really gained experimental access to the molecular realm. The experiments were successful in determining the mean kinetic energy of the granules of Brownian motion; however, the values for molecular magnitudes Perrin inferred from them simply presupposed that the granule mean kinetic energy was the same as the mean molecular kinetic energy in the fluid in which the granules move. This stipulation became increasingly questionable in the years between 1908 and 1913, as significantly lower values for these magnitudes were obtained from other experimental results like alpha-particle emissions, ionization, and Planck's blackbody radiation equation. In this case study in the history and philosophy of science, George E. Smith and Raghav Seth here argue that despite doubts, Perrin's measurements were nevertheless exemplars of theory-mediated measurement-the practice of obtaining values for an inaccessible quantity by inferring them from an accessible proxy via theoretical relationships between them. They argue that it was actually Perrin more than any of his contemporaries who championed this approach during the years in question. The practice of theory-mediated measurement in physics had a long history before 1900, but the concerted efforts of Perrin, Rutherford, Millikan, Planck, and their colleagues led to the central role this form of evidence has had in microphysical research ever since. Seth and Smith's study thus replaces an untenable legend with an account that is not only tenable, but more instructive about what the evidence did and did not show.
Fundamentals of Magnonics by Sergio M. RezendeFundamentals of Magnonics is a textbook for beginning graduate students in the areas of magnetism and spintronics. The level of presentation assumes only basic knowledge of the origin of magnetism and electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics. The book utilizes elementary mathematical derivations, aimed mainly at explaining the physical concepts involved in the phenomena studied and enabling a deeper understanding of the experiments presented. Key topics include the basic phenomena of ferromagnetic resonance in bulk materials and thin films, semi-classical theory of spin waves, quantum theory of spin waves and magnons, magnons in antiferromagnets, parametric excitation of magnons, nonlinear and chaotic phenomena, Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons, and magnon spintronics. Featuring end-of-chapter problem sets accompanied by extensive contemporary and historical references, this book provides the essential tools for any graduate or advanced undergraduate-level course of studies on the emerging field of magnonics.
Hellenistic astronomy : the science in its contexts by "In Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in Its Contexts, new essays by renowned scholars address questions about what the ancient science of the heavens was in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean worlds, and the numerous contexts in which it was pursued. Together, these essays will enable readers not only to understand the technical accomplishments of this ancient science but also to appreciate their historical significance by locating the questions, challenges, and issues inspiring them in their political, medical, philosophical, literary, and religious contexts."
Stumbling Blocks Against Unification: on Some Persistent Misconceptions in Physics by The history is full of misconceptions that opposed the progress of physics. The book starts with reviewing some historical cases, such as the arguments against the Earth rotation, or the famous problem of 3/4 in the theory of electromagnetic mass of electron. After having pointed out that misconceptions have been common in the history of physics, it is argued that they must be present today as well. In fact, it is now commonly being realized that in the last forty years there has been no significant progress in the fundamental theoretical physics. A reason certainly lies in certain stumbling blocks on our way towards the unification of interaction and of gravity with quantum mechanics. The author discusses what he perceives as some persisting misconceptions that have not yet been recognized as such by physics community in general.
Quantum Mechanics in Potential Representation and Applications by This book is written with a focus on new mathematical methods and physical modeling that lay the groundwork for an interpretation to various experimental results and phenomena in nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, and particle physics. Summarized in three parts, the main topics of the book are as follows.The first part importantly addresses scattering theory and nuclear reactions, with the usage of new potential representation method. This perturbation method offers the wave function as a product of the free particle solution and a function which depends on the interaction potential, allowing handy analytical expressions and integral equations for finding scattering matrices. It is highly applicable to the study of scattering and absorption of neutrons in atomic reactors, as well as the interactions between protons and nuclei by scattering processes in, for example, cyclotrons. The second part of the book concerns the perturbation method by variation of free constants and the semi-relativistic shell model of heavy nuclei in order to understand their stability. The last part is then furnished with the semi-relativistic model of mesons and relates to the binding energies of quarks in charm and bottom mesons.This book would be a valuable resource for students and researchers on new mathematical methods in the theoretical unravelling of experiments concerning nuclei and mesons, nuclear reactors, radioactive isotopes, particle accelerators, new materials in electronics and healthcare products, as well as other practical applications of nuclear physics and quantum mechanics.
Adiabatic Thermodynamics of Fluids: from Hydrodynamics to General Relativity by This book exists because there is (or was) no satisfactory theory of the dynamical metric interacting with extended distributions of matter. It will be shown that any theory of interacting fields that includes the Einsteinian metric must be based on an action principle.This allows us, for the first time, to use 'energy' as a precise concept in vortex dynamics. Sample applications include rotating planets, Couette flow, tresses in fluids (inside the meniscus, negative pressures), immiscible fluids, amongst others.Unlike the traditional approach to thermodynamics, this book begins with a brief exposition of hydrodynamics. At this stage, the development is limited to potential flows, because, until recently, that is all that could be done, but also for didactic reasons. However, the reader will find that the situation has changed radically with the discovery of the Conservative Hydrodynamics.At the core of thermodynamics is the Gibbsean minimum energy principle. In this book, it is generalized to include the hydrodynamical degrees of freedom; that is, localized as a field theory of density, pressure, temperature and entropy. The theory is referred to as local, as opposed to traditional, global thermodynamics where the main foundation is the variational principle of Gibbs, with a modification recommended by Prigogine.
History of Particle Theory by "History of Particle Theory fills an important gap existing in the literature by discussing the impressive progress in understanding the elementary particles out of which all everyday objects are made. Most of this progress has happened in the last seventy years after the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) was perfected as an extremely accurate description of electromagnetic interactions. This astonishing sequence of discoveries was made hand in hand between theory and experiment. This book concentrates only on theory where giant steps were made by a series of exceptionally creative physicists, and this is portrayed as an essential part of the broader spectrum of human knowledge and culture, which is constantly being similarly extended by the creative individuals such as the two mentioned in the subtitle, Between Darwin and Shakespeare, who both significantly changed Western Civilization by ideas in Biology and in English Literature respectively. In the last forty years, the standard model has been confirmed again and again as the correct description of elementary particles up to energies of a thousand times the proton mass. In the discussion of particle theory and theoretical physics in general, the book starts from well over two thousand years ago, going back to the ancient Greeks such as Democritus and Archimedes, until the 17th century, when the extraordinary intellect of Newton changed everything by demonstrating that not only objects in the laboratory but also heavenly bodies are governed by mathematical equations. There followed what can be called Darwinian evolution in theoretical physics, survival of the fittest theories, by loose analogy with the origin of biological species. The present standard model of particle theory surely cannot be the final word because it contains far too many free parameters. The book contains a penultimate chapter discussing a number of such open problems which exist in particle theory. There is then a closing chapter, not related to the rest of the book, providing a series of quotations written in the 16th and 17th centuries by Shakespeare and here applied to particle theory. The inclusion of this is based on our premise that particle theory is just one out of several opportunities for exceptional human creativity"--
Exploding Stars and Invisible Planets by What happens to space and matter near a black hole? Where did the moon come from? How do we know what stars are made of? Are we alone in the universe? In Exploding Stars and Invisible Planets, Fred Watson, an award-winning astronomer, presents the most up-to-date knowledge on hot topics in astronomy and space science, providing a fascinating and entertaining account of the latest research. Watson explains how to find invisible planets around other stars, why dark matter matters, and the future of citizen space travel, all while recounting the seismic shifts in understanding that have taken place during his illustrious career. The book features illuminating discussions of microbes in space; the dividing line between day and night; exploding stars and light echoes; fast radio bursts and signals from space; meteors, meteorites, and space dust; what happened to the Martian ocean; the seas and lakes of Titan; and the birth of the universe.
Henri Poincaré: Electrons to Special Relativity by Produced by an award-winning translator of Henri Poincaré, this book contains translations of several seminal articles by Poincaré and discusses the experimental and theoretical investigations of electrons that form their context. In the 1950s, a dispute ignited about the origin of the theory of special relativity and thrust considerable notoriety on a paper written by Henri Poincaré in 1905. Accordingly, Part I presents the relevant translations of Poincaré's work showing that radiation carries momentum and the covariance of the equations of electrodynamics, the continuity equation for charge, and the spacetime interval. Part II then discusses investigations by Thomson, Becquerel, and Kaufmann of electrons in diverse contexts; contributions of Abraham, Lorentz and Poincaré to a theory of electrons that includes Lorentz transformations and explains the dependence of mass on velocity; and finally, Poincaré's exploration of the relativity principle, electron stability, and gravitation while rejecting absolute motion (ether) and an electromagnetic origin of mass. Part III contains the 1904 article by H. A. Lorentz presenting his transformations. This book will be a fascinating read to graduate-level students, physicists, and science historians who are interested in the development of electrodynamics and the classical, relativistic theory of electrons at the beginning of the 20th century.
Foundations of Quantum Field Theory by "Based on a two-semester course held at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, this book provides an adequate resource for the lecturer and the student. The contents are primarily aimed at graduate students who wish to learn about the fundamental concepts behind constructing a Relativistic Quantum Theory of particles and fields. So it provides a comprehensive foundation for the extension to Quantum Chromodynamics and Weak Interactions, that are not included in this book"--
Controlling Collective Electronic States in Cuprates and Nickelates by In this thesis chemical and epitaxial degrees of freedom are used to manipulate charge and spin ordering phenomena in two families of transition metal oxides, while taking advantage of state-of-the-art resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) methods to characterize their microscopic origin in a comprehensive manner. First, the relationship of charge density wave order to both magnetism and the "pseudogap" phenomenon is systematically examined as a function of charge-carrier doping and isovalent chemical substitution in single crystals of a copper oxide high-temperature superconductor. Then, in copper oxide thin films, an unusual three-dimensionally long-range-ordered charge density wave state is discovered, which persists to much higher temperatures than charge-ordered states in other high-temperature superconductors. By combining crystallographic and spectroscopic measurements, the origin of this phenomenon is traced to the epitaxial relationship with the underlying substrate. This discovery opens new perspectives for the investigation of charge order and its influence on the electronic properties of the cuprates. In a separate set of RXS experiments on superlattices with alternating nickel and dysprosium oxides, several temperature- and magnetic-field-induced magnetic phase transitions are discovered. These observations are explained in a model based on transfer of magnetic order and magneto-crystalline anisotropy between the Ni and Dy subsystems, thus establishing a novel model system for the interplay between transition-metal and rare-earth magnetism.
Brownian Motion and Molecular Reality by Between 1905 and 1913, French physicist Jean Perrin's experiments on Brownian motion ostensibly put a definitive end to the long debate regarding the real existence of molecules, proving the atomic theory of matter. While Perrin's results had a significant impact at the time, later examination of his experiments questioned whether he really gained experimental access to the molecular realm. The experiments were successful in determining the mean kinetic energy of the granules of Brownian motion; however, the values for molecular magnitudes Perrin inferred from them simply presupposed that the granule mean kinetic energy was the same as the mean molecular kinetic energy in the fluid in which the granules move. This stipulation became increasingly questionable in the years between 1908 and 1913, as significantly lower values for these magnitudes were obtained from other experimental results like alpha-particle emissions, ionization, and Planck's blackbody radiation equation. In this case study in the history and philosophy of science, George E. Smith and Raghav Seth here argue that despite doubts, Perrin's measurements were nevertheless exemplars of theory-mediated measurement-the practice of obtaining values for an inaccessible quantity by inferring them from an accessible proxy via theoretical relationships between them. They argue that it was actually Perrin more than any of his contemporaries who championed this approach during the years in question. The practice of theory-mediated measurement in physics had a long history before 1900, but the concerted efforts of Perrin, Rutherford, Millikan, Planck, and their colleagues led to the central role this form of evidence has had in microphysical research ever since. Seth and Smith's study thus replaces an untenable legend with an account that is not only tenable, but more instructive about what the evidence did and did not show.
Fundamentals of Magnonics by Fundamentals of Magnonics is a textbook for beginning graduate students in the areas of magnetism and spintronics. The level of presentation assumes only basic knowledge of the origin of magnetism and electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics. The book utilizes elementary mathematical derivations, aimed mainly at explaining the physical concepts involved in the phenomena studied and enabling a deeper understanding of the experiments presented. Key topics include the basic phenomena of ferromagnetic resonance in bulk materials and thin films, semi-classical theory of spin waves, quantum theory of spin waves and magnons, magnons in antiferromagnets, parametric excitation of magnons, nonlinear and chaotic phenomena, Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons, and magnon spintronics. Featuring end-of-chapter problem sets accompanied by extensive contemporary and historical references, this book provides the essential tools for any graduate or advanced undergraduate-level course of studies on the emerging field of magnonics.
