In high-energy physics laboratories, experiments use heavy-ion collisions to investigate the properties of matter at extremely high temperature and density, and to study the quark–gluon plasma. This monograph explains the ideas involved in the theoretical analysis of the data produced in such experiments. It comprises three parts, the first two of which are independent but lay the ground for the topics addressed later.
The book starts with an overview of the (vacuum) theory of hadronic interactions at low energy: vacuum propagators for fields of different spins are introduced and then the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking leading to Goldstone bosons and chiral perturbation theory are discussed.
The second part covers equilibrium thermal field theory, which is formulated in the real time method. Finally, in the third part, the methods previously developed are applied to the study of different thermal one- and two-point functions in the hadronic phase, using chiral perturbation theory.
The book includes chosen exercises proposed at the end of each chapter and fully worked out. These are used to provide important side results or to develop calculations, without breaking the flow of the main text. Similarly, some of the results mentioned in the text are derived in a few appendices. It is a useful reference for graduate students interested in relativistic thermal field theory.
A century after its formulation by Einstein, the theory of general relativity is at the core of our interpretation of various astrophysical and cosmological observations – from neutron stars and black-hole formation to the accelerated expansion of the universe. This new advanced textbook on relativity aims to present all the different aspects of this brilliant theory and its applications. It brings together, in a coherent way, classical Newtonian physics, special relativity and general relativity, emphasising common underlying principles.
The book is structured in three parts around these topics. First, the authors provide a modern view of Newtonian theory, focusing on the aspects needed for understanding quantum and relativistic contemporary physics. This is followed by a discussion of special relativity, presenting relativistic dynamics in inertial and accelerated frames, and an overview of Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism.
In the third part the authors delve into general relativity, developing the geometrical framework in which Einstein’s equations are formulated, and present many relevant applications, such as black holes, gravitational radiation and cosmology.
This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, as well as researchers wishing to acquire a deeper understanding of relativity. But it could also appeal to the curious reader with a scientific background who is interested in discovering the profound implications of relativity and its applications.
Scientific essays well suited to the interested layperson are notoriously difficult to write. It is then not surprising that various popular books, articles and internet sites recycle similar analogies – or even entire discussions – to explain scientific concepts with the same standardised, though very polished, language. CERN theorist Alvaro De Rújula recently challenged this unfortunate and relatively recent trend by proposing a truly original and unconventional essay for agile minds. There are no doubts that this book will be appreciated not only by the public but also by undergraduate students, teachers and active scientists.
Enjoy our Universe consists of 37 short chapters accounting for the serendipitous evolution of basic science in the last 150 years, roughly starting with the Faraday–Maxwell unification and concluding with the discovery of the Higgs boson and of gravitational waves. While going through the “fun” of our universe, the author describes the conceptual and empirical triumphs of classical and quantum field theories without indulging in excessive historic or technical details. Those who had the chance to attend lectures or talks given by De Rujula will recognise the “parentheses” (i.e. swift digressions) that he literally opens and closes in his presentations with gigantic brackets on the slides. A rather original glossary is included at the end of the text for the benefit of general readers.
This book is also a collection of opinions, reminiscences and healthy provocations of an active scientist whose contributions undeniably shaped the current paradigm of fundamental interactions. This is a bonus for practitioners of the field (and for curious colleagues), who will often find the essence of long-standing diatribes hidden in a collection of apparently innocent jokes or in the caption of a figure. As the author tries to argue in his introduction, science should always be discussed with that joyful and playful attitude we normally use when talking about sport and other interesting matters not immediately linked to the urgencies of daily life.
One of the most interesting subliminal suggestions of this book is that physics is not a closed logical system. Basic science in general (and physics in particular) can only prosper if the confusion of ideas is tolerated and encouraged, at least within certain reasonable limits.
The text is illustrated with drawings by the author himself and this aspect, among others, brings to mind an imaginative popular essay by George Gamow (Gravity 1962), where the author drew his own illustrations (unfortunately not in colour) with a talent comparable to De Rújula’s. The inspiration in this book is also a reminder of the autobiographical essay of Victor Weisskopf written almost 30 years ago, entitled The Joy of Insight, which echoes the enjoyment of the universe and suggests that the true motivation for basic science is the fun of curiosity: all the rest is irrelevant. So, please, enjoy our universe since you have no other choice!
Enrico Fermi can be considered as one of the greatest physicists of all time due to his genius creativity in both theoretical and experimental physics. This book describes his prodigious story, as a man and a scientist.
Born in Rome in 1901, Fermi spent the first part of his life in Italy, where he made his brilliant debut in theoretical physics in 1926 by applying statistical mechanics to atomic physics in a quantum framework, thus sealing the birth of what is now known as Fermi–Dirac statistics. In 1933 he postulated the original theory of weak interactions to explain the mysterious results on nuclear ß decays. Having soon become a theoretical “superstar”, he then switched to experimental nuclear physics, leading a celebrated team of young physicists at the University of Rome, known as the “boys”. Among them were Edoardo Amaldi, Ettore Majorana, Bruno Pontecorvo, Franco Rasetti and Emilio Segrè. They nicknamed him “the Pope” since he knew and understood everything and was considered to be simply infallible. His discoveries on neutron-induced radioactivity and on the neutron slowing-down effect earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938.
Those were, however, difficult years for Fermi because of Italy’s inconsistent research strategy and harsh political situation of fascism and antisemitism. Fermi left with his family to go to the US in December 1938, using the Nobel ceremony as a chance to travel abroad. Initially at Columbia University, Fermi then moved to the “Met Lab” of the University of Chicago, which was the seed of the Manhattan Project. There, he created the first self-sustained nuclear reactor in December 1942. The breakthrough ushered in the nuclear age, leaving a lasting impact on physics, engineering, medicine and energy – not to mention the development of nuclear weapons. In 1944 Fermi moved to the Manhattan Project’s secret laboratory in Los Alamos. Within this project, he collaborated with some of the world’s top scientists, including Hans Bethe, Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, John von Neumann, Isidor Rabi, Leo Szilard and Edward Teller. These were terrible times of war.
When the Second World War concluded, Fermi resumed his research activities with energy and enthusiasm. On the experimental front he focused on nuclear physics, particle accelerators and technology, and early computers. On the theoretical front he concentrated on the origin of extreme high-energy cosmic rays. He also campaigned on the peaceful use of nuclear physics. As in Rome, in Chicago he was also the master of a wonderful school of pupils, among whom were several Nobel laureates. Fermi sadly died prematurely in 1954.
This book is about the epic life of Fermi, mostly known to the general public for the first ever nuclear reactor and the Manhattan Project, but to scientists for his theoretical and experimental discoveries – all diverse and crucial in modern physics – which always resulted in major advances. He remains less known as a personality or a public figure, and his scientific legacy is somehow underestimated. The merit of this book is therefore to bring Fermi’s genius within everyone’s reach.
Many renowned texts have been dedicated to Fermi until now, offering various perspectives on his life and his work. First of all on the personal life of Fermi, there is Atoms in the Family (1954) by his widow, Laura. Exhaustive information about Fermi’s outstanding works in physics can be found in the volume Enrico Fermi, Physicist (1970) by his friend and colleague Emilio Segrè, Nobel laureate and Gino Segrè’s uncle, and in Enrico Fermi: Collected Papers, two volumes published in the 1960s by the University of Chicago. Also worth mentioning are: Fermi Remembered (2004), edited by Nobel laureate James W Cronin; Enrico Fermi: His Work and Legacy (2001, then 2004), edited by C Bernardini and L Bonolis, and The Lost Notebook of Enrico Fermi by F Guerra and N Robotti (2015, then 2017), both published by the Italian Physical Society–Springer. Finally, published almost at the same time as Segrè and Hoerlin’s book, is another biography of Fermi: The Last Man Who Knew Everything by D N Schwartz, the son of Nobel laureate Melvin Schwartz. In their “four-handed” book, Segrè and Hoerlin have highlighted with expertise the scientific biography of Fermi and his extraordinary achievements, and described with emotion the human, social and political aspects of his life.
Readers familiar with Fermi’s story will enjoy this book, which is as scientifically sound as a textbook but at the same time bears the gripping character of a novel.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of high-energy-density physics (HEDP), which concerns the dynamics of matter at extreme temperatures and densities. Such matter is present in stars, active galaxies and planetary interiors, while on Earth it is not found in normal conditions, but only in the explosion of nuclear weapons and in laboratories using high-powered lasers or pulsed-power machines.
After introducing, in the first three chapters, many fundamental physics concepts necessary to the understanding of the rest of the book, the author delves into the subject, covering many key aspects: gas dynamics, ionisation, the equation-of-state description, hydrodynamics, thermal energy transport, radiative transfer and electromagnetic wave–material interactions.
The author is an expert in radiation-hydrodynamics simulations and is known for developing the HYADES code, which is largely used among the HEDP community. This book can be a resource for research scientists and graduate students in physics and astrophysics.
Quantised Detector Networks (QDN) theory was invented to reduce the level of metaphysics in the application of quantum mechanics (QM), moving the focus from the system under observation to the observer and the measurement apparatuses. This approach is based on the consideration that “labstates”, i.e. the states of the system we use for observing, are the only things we can actually deal with, while we have no means to prove that the objects under study “exist” independently of observers or observations.
In this view, QM is not a theory describing objects per se, but a theory of entitlement, which means that it provides physicists with a set of rules defining what an observer is entitled to say in any particular context.
The book is organized in four parts: Basics, Applications, Prospects, and Appendices. The author provides, first of all, the formalism of QDN and then applies it to a number of experiments that show how it differs from standard quantum formalism. In the third part, the prospects for future applications of QDN are discussed, as well as the possibility of constructing a generalised theory of observation. Finally, the appendices collect collateral material referred to at various places in the book.
The aim of the author is to push the readers to look in a different way at the world they live in, to show them the cognitive traps caused by realism – i.e. the assumption that what we observe has an existence independent of our observation – and alerting them that various speculative concepts and theories discussed by some scientists do not actually have empirical basis. In other words, they cannot be experimentally tested.
Enrico Fermi formulated his eponymous paradox during a casual lunchtime chat with colleagues in Los Alamos: the great physicist argued that, probabilistically, intelligent extraterrestrial lifeforms had time to develop countless times in the Milky Way, and even to travel across our galaxy multiple times; but if so, where are they?
The author of this book, Milan Cirkovic, claims that, with the wealth of scientific knowledge accumulated in the many decades since then, the paradox is now even more severe. Space travel is not speculative anymore, and we know that planetary systems are common – including Earth-like planets – suggesting that life on our planet started very early and that our solar system is a relative late-comer on the cosmic scene; hence, we should expect many civilisations to have evolved way beyond our current stage. Given the huge numbers involved, Cirkovic remarks, the paradox would not even be completely solved by the discovery of another civilisation: we would still have to figure out where all others are!
The Great Silence aims at an exhaustive review of the solutions proposed to this paradox in the literature (where “literature” is to be understood in the broadest sense, ranging from scholarly astrobiology papers to popular-science essays to science-fiction novels), following a rigorous taxonomic approach. Cirkovic’s taxonomy is built from the analysis of which philosophical assumptions create the paradox in the first place. Relaxing the assumptions of realism, Copernicanism, and gradualism leads, respectively, to the families of solutions that Cirkovic labels “solipsist”, “rare Earth”, and “neocatastrophic”. His fourth and most heterogeneous category of solutions, labelled “logistic”, arises from considering possible universal limitations of physical, economic or metabolic nature.
The book starts by setting a rigorous foundation for discussion, summarising the scientific knowledge and dissecting the philosophical assumptions. Cirkovic does not seem interested in captivating the reader from the start: the preface and the first three chapters are definitely scholarly in their intentions, and assume that the reader already knows a great deal about Fermi’s paradox. As a particularly egregious example, Kardashev’s speculative classification of civilisations, based on the scale of their energy consumption, plays a very important role in this book; one would have therefore expected a discussion about that, somewhere at the beginning. Instead, the interested reader has to resort to a footnote for a succinct definition of the three types of civilisation (Type I: exploiting planetary resources; Type II: using stellar system resources; Type III: using galactic resources).
However, after these introductory chapters, Cirkovic’s writing becomes very pleasant and engaging, and his reasoning unfolds clearly. Chapters four to seven are the core of the book, each of them devoted to the solutions allowed by negating one assumption. Every chapter starts with an analogy with a masterpiece in cinema or literature, followed by a rigorous philosophical definition. Then, the consequent solutions to Fermi’s paradox are reviewed and, finally, a résumé of take-home messages is provided.
This parade of solutions gives a strange feeling: each of them sounds either crazy, or incredibly unlikely, or insufficient to solve the paradox (at least in isolation). Still, once we accept Cirkovic’s premise that Fermi’s paradox means that some deeply rooted assumption cannot be valid, we are compelled to take seriously some outlandish hypothesis. The reader is invited to ponder, for example, how the solution to the paradox might depend on the politics of the Milky Way in the last few billion years: extraterrestrial civilisations may have all converged to a Paranoid Style in Galactic Politics, or we might unknowingly be under the jurisdiction of an Introvert Big Brother (Cirkovic has a talent for catchy titles). Some Great Old Ones might be temporarily asleep, or we (and any conceivable biological intelligence) might be limited in our evolution by some Galactic Stomach-Ache. A large class of very gloomy hypotheses assumes that all our predecessors were wiped out before reaching very high Kardashev’s scores, and Cirkovic seems particularly fond of the idea of swarms of Deadly Probes that may still be roaming around, ready to point at us as soon as they notice our loudness. Unless we reach the aforementioned state of galactic paranoia, which makes for a very nice synergy between two distinct solutions of the paradox.
The author not only classifies the proposed solutions, but also rates them by how fully they would solve this paradox. The concluding chapter elaborates on several philosophical challenges posed by Fermi’s paradox, in particular to Copernicanism, and on the link between it and the future of humanity.
Cirkovic is a vocal (and almost aggressive) critic of most of the SETI-related literature, claiming that it relies on excessive assumptions which strongly limits SETI searches. In his words, the failure of SETI so far has mostly occurred on philosophical and methodological levels. He quotes Kardashev in saying that extraterrestrial civilisations have not been found because they have not really been searched for. Hence Cirkovic’s insistence on a generalisation of targets and search methods.
An underlying theme in this book is the relevance of philosophy for the advancement of science, in particular when a science is in its infancy, as he argues to be the case for astrobiology. Cirkovic draws an analogy with early 20th century cosmology, including a similitude between Fermi’s and Olmert’s paradoxes (the latter being: how can the night sky be dark, if we are reachable by the light of an infinite number of stars in an infinitely old universe?).
I warmly recommend The Great Silence to any curious reader, in spite of its apparent disinterest for a broad readership. In it, Cirkovic makes a convincing case that Fermi’s paradox is a fabulously complex and rich intellectual problem.
In this book, Timothy Jorgensen, a professor of radiation medicine at Georgetown University in the US, recounts the story of the discovery of radioactivity and how mankind has been transformed by it, with the aim of sweeping away some of the mystery and misunderstanding that surrounds radiation.
The book is structured in three parts. The first is devoted to the discovery of ionising radiation in the late 19th century and its rapid application, notably in the field of medical imaging. The author establishes a vivid parallel with the discovery and exploitation of radio waves, a non-ionising counterpart of higher energy X rays. A dynamic narrative, peppered with personal anecdotes by key actors, succeeds in transmitting the decisive scientific and societal impact of radiation and related discoveries. The interleaving of the history of the discovery with aspects of the lives of inspirational figures such as Ernest Rutherford and Enrico Fermi is certainly very relevant, attractive and illustrative.
In the second part, the author focuses on the impact of ionising radiation on human health, mostly through occupational exposure in different working sectors. A strong focus is on the case of the “radium girls” – female factory workers who were poisoned by radiation from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. This section also depicts the progress in radiation-protection techniques and the challenges related to quantifying the effects of radiation and establishing limits for the exposure to it. The text succeeds in outlining the difficulties of linking physical quantities of radiation with its impact on human health.
The risk assessment related to radiation exposure and its impact on human health is further covered in the third part of the book. Here, Jorgensen aims to provide quantitative tools for the public to be able to evaluate the benefits and risks associated with radiation exposure. Despite his effort to offer a combination of complementary statistical approaches, readers are left with an impression that many aspects of the impact of radiation on human health are not fully understood. On the contrary, the large number of radiation-exposure cases in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings, after which it was possible to correlate the absorbed dose with the location of the various victims at the time of the explosion, provides a scientifically valuable sample to study both deterministic and stochastic effects of radiation on human health.
In part three, the book also digresses at length about the role of nuclear weapons in the US defence and geopolitical strategy. This topic seems somewhat misplaced with respect to the more technical and scientific content of the rest of the text. Moreover, it is highly US-centric, often neglecting the analogous role of such weapons in other countries.
It is noteworthy that the book does not cover radiation in space and its crucial impact on human spaceflight. Likewise, the discovery of cosmic radiation through Hess’ balloon experiment in 1911–1912, while constituting an essential finding in addition to the already discovered radioactivity from elements on the Earth’s surface, is completely overlooked.
Despite the lack of space-radiation coverage and the somewhat uncorrelated US defence considerations, this book is definitely a very good read that will satisfy the reader’s curiosity and interest with respect to radiation and its impact on humans. In addition, it provides insight into the more general progress of physics, especially in the first half of the 19th century, in a highly dynamic and entertaining manner.
This book aims to provide an overview of both present and emerging nanoelectronics devices, focusing on their numerous applications such as memories, logic circuits, power devices and sensors. It is one unit (in two volumes) of a complete series of books that are dedicated to nanoscience and nanotechnology, and their penetration in many different fields, ranging from human health, agriculture and food science, to energy production, environmental protection and metrology.
After an introduction about the semiconductor industry and its development, different kinds of devices are discussed. Specific chapters are also dedicated to new materials, device-characterisation techniques, smart manufacturing and advanced circuit design. Then, the many applications are covered, which also shows the emerging trends and economic factors influencing the progress of the nanoelectronics industry.
Since nanoelectronics is nowadays fundamental for any science and technology that requires communication and information processing, this book can be of interest to electronic engineers and applied physicists working with sensors and data-processing systems.
“This book is about telling the story of quantum theory entirely in terms of pictures,” declare the authors of this unusual book, in which quantum processes are explained using diagrams and an innovative method for presenting complex theories is set up. The book employs a unique formalism developed by the authors, which allows a more intuitive understanding of quantum features and eliminates complex calculations. As a result, knowledge of advanced mathematics is not required.
The entirely diagrammatic presentation of quantum theory proposed in this (bulky) volume is the result of 10 years of work and research carried out by the authors and their collaborators, uniting classical techniques in linear algebra and Hilbert spaces with cutting-edge developments in quantum computation and foundational QM.
An informal and entertaining style is adopted, which makes this book easily approachable by students at their first encounter with quantum theory. That said, it will probably appeal more to PhD students and researchers who are already familiar with the subject and are interested in looking at a different treatment of this matter. The text is also accompanied by a rich set of exercises.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
