It takes the reader on a voyage of discovery through many areas of contemporary physics, from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum optics to liquid crystals and fractals, all necessary for illuminating the problem of life. In the process, the reader is treated to a rare and exquisite view of the organism, gaining novel insights, not only into the physics but also into "the poetry and meaning of being alive". This book is intended for all who love the subject.

    John Archibald Wheeler's fascinating life brings us face to face with the central characters and discoveries of modern physics. He was the first American to learn of the discovery of nuclear fission, later coined the term "black hole," led a renaissance in gravitation physics, and helped to build Princeton University into a mecca for physicists.From nuclear physics, to quantum theory, to relativity and gravitation, Wheeler's work has set the trajectory of research for half a century. His career has brought him into contact with the most brilliant minds of his field; Fermi, Bethe, Rabi, Teller, Oppenheimer, and Wigner are among those he called colleagues and friends. In this rich autobiography, Wheeler reveals in fascinating detail the excitement of each discovery, the character of each colleague, and the underlying passion for knowledge that drives him still.

    As well as lucid descriptions of all the topics and many worked examples, it contains over 800 exercises. New stand-alone chapters give a systematic account of the 'special functions' of physical science, cover an extended range of practical applications of complex variables, and give an introduction to quantum operators. Further tabulations, of relevance in statistics and numerical integration, have been added. In this edition, half of the exercises are provided with hints and answers and, in a separate manual available to both students and their teachers, complete worked solutions. The remaining exercises have no hints, answers or worked solutions and can be used for unaided homework; full solutions are available to instructors on a password-protected web site, www.cambridge.org/9780521679718.

    In those twelve months, Einstein shattered many cherished scientific beliefs with five extraordinary papers that would establish him as the world's leading physicist. This book brings those papers together in an accessible format. The best-known papers are the two that founded special relativity: On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies and Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content? In the former, Einstein showed that absolute time had to be replaced by a new absolute: the speed of light. In the second, he asserted the equivalence of mass and energy, which would lead to the famous formula E = mc2.The book also includes On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light, in which Einstein challenged the wave theory of light, suggesting that light could also be regarded as a collection of particles. This helped to open the door to a whole new world--that of quantum physics. For ideas in this paper, he won the Nobel Prize in 1921.The fourth paper also led to a Nobel Prize, although for another scientist, Jean Perrin. On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat concerns the Brownian motion of such particles. With profound insight, Einstein blended ideas from kinetic theory and classical hydrodynamics to derive an equation for the mean free path of such particles as a function of the time, which Perrin confirmed experimentally. The fifth paper, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions, was Einstein's doctoral dissertation, and remains among his most cited articles. It shows how to calculate Avogadro's number and the size of molecules.These papers, presented in a modern English translation, are essential reading for any physicist, mathematician, or astrophysicist. Far more than just a collection of scientific articles, this book presents work that is among the high points of human achievement and marks a watershed in the history of science. Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the miraculous year, this new paperback edition includes an introduction by John Stachel, which focuses on the personal aspects of Einstein's youth that facilitated and led up to the miraculous year.

    The presentation seeks to strike a balance between formalism and application, between abstract and concrete. The interconnections among the various topics are clarified both by the use of vector spaces as a central unifying theme, recurring throughout the book, and by putting ideas into their historical context. Enough of the essential formalism is included to make the presentation self-contained.

     Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons challenges this notion, using richly detailed experimental and theoretical findings from cellular biophysics to explain the repertoire of computational functions available to single neurons. The author shows how individual nerve cells can multiply, integrate, or delay synaptic inputs and how information can be encoded in the voltage across the membrane, in the intracellular calcium concentration, or in the timing of individual spikes.Key topics covered include the linear cable equation; cable theory as applied to passive dendritic trees and dendritic spines; chemical and electrical synapses and how to treat them from a computational point of view; nonlinear interactions of synaptic input in passive and active dendritic trees; the Hodgkin-Huxley model of action potential generation and propagation; phase space analysis; linking stochastic ionic channels to membrane-dependent currents; calcium and potassium currents and their role in information processing; the role of diffusion, buffering and binding of calcium, and other messenger systems in information processing and storage; short- and long-term models of synaptic plasticity; simplified models of single cells; stochastic aspects of neuronal firing; the nature of the neuronal code; and unconventional models of sub-cellular computation.Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons serves as an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in cellular biophysics, computational neuroscience, and neural networks, and will appeal to students and professionals in neuroscience, electrical and computer engineering, and physics.

    It has been updated to account for the successes of the theory of strong interactions, and the observations on matter-antimatter asymmetry. It has become clear that neutrinos are not mass-less, and this book gives a coherent presentation of the phenomena and the theory that describes them. It includes an account of progress in the theory of strong interactions and of advances in neutrino physics. The book clearly develops the theoretical concepts from the electromagnetic and weak interactions of leptons and quarks to the strong interactions of quarks. Each chapter ends with problems, and hints to selected problems are provided at the end of the book. The mathematical treatments are suitable for graduates in physics, and more sophisticated mathematical ideas are developed in the text and appendices.

    The book supersedes the classic text Galactic Astronomy that James Binney wrote with Dimitri Mihalas, and complements Galactic Dynamics by Binney and Scott Tremaine. It will be invaluable to researchers and is accessible to any student who has a background in undergraduate physics.The book draws on observations both of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and of external galaxies. The two sources are complementary, since the former tends to be highly detailed but difficult to interpret, while the latter is typically poorer in quality but conceptually simpler to understand. Binney and Merrifield introduce all astronomical concepts necessary to understand the properties of galaxies, including coordinate systems, magnitudes and colors, the phenomenology of stars, the theory of stellar and chemical evolution, and the measurement of astronomical distances. The book's core covers the phenomenology of external galaxies, star clusters in the Milky Way, the interstellar media of external galaxies, gas in the Milky Way, the structure and kinematics of the stellar components of the Milky Way, and the kinematics of external galaxies.Throughout, the book emphasizes the observational basis for current understanding of galactic astronomy, with references to the original literature. Offering both new information and a comprehensive view of its subject, it will be an indispensable source for professionals, as well as for graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

    Twentieth-century developments such as quantum mechanics are introduced early so that students can see how they fit into the overall picture.

    This new book by Inan/Inan will give practicing engineers an up-to-date look at electromagnetics.

    Blending tradition with innovation, this lively and engaging text presents the basic theories underlying spectroscopy while incorporating modern viewpoints of practical utility in spectroscopy research. Written in a clear, jargon-free style that encourages independent thinking and active participation, it covers the quantum mechanical theoretical basis of spectroscopy, modern innovations in spectroscopy (such as time-dependent theory) and practical applications of spectroscopy research, including the influence of condensed phases.*Balances a rigorous theoretical background with practical tools for the interpretation of spectra.*Offers a unique treatment of condensed phases by presenting the fundamental theory of spectral transitions of isolated molecules, and then describing the effects of the condensed phases.*Studies the alternative time-dependent theoretical approaches to interpreting frequency domain spectra, which allow students to focus on the dynamic response of the system.*Considers bulk electric and magnetic properties, emphasizing the phy

    Feynman made profoundly important and prescient contributions to the physics of computing, notably with his seminal articles “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” and “Simulating Physics with Computers.” These two provocative papers (both reprinted in this volume) anticipated, decades before their time, several breakthroughs that have since become fields of science in their own right, such as nanotechnology and the newest, perhaps most exciting area of physics and computer science, quantum computing.The contributors to this book are all distinguished physicists and computer scientists, and many of them were guest lecturers in Feynman’s famous CalTech course on the limits of computers. they include Charles Bennett on Quantum Information Theory, Geoffrey Fox on Internetics, Norman Margolus on Crystalline Computation, and Tommaso Toffoli on the Fungibility of Computation.Both a tribute to Feynman and a new exploration of the limits of computers by some of today’s most influential scientists, Feynman and Computation continues the pioneering work started by Feynman and published by him in his own Lectures on Computation. This new computation volume consists of both original chapters and reprints of classic papers by leaders in the field. Feynman and Computation will generate great interest from the scientific community and provide essential background for further work in this field.

    With this edition, the book makes a dramatic re-emergence, adding innovative pedagogy that eases the learning process without compromising the integrity of Tipler’s presentation of the science. For instructor and student convenience, the Fourth Edition of Physics for Scientists and Engineers.  Vol. 1: Mechanics, Oscillations and Waves, Thermodynamics, 768 pages, 1-57259-491-8

    This second book in a two volume work introduces integral and differential calculus, waves, matrices, and eigenvectors. All mathematics needed for an introductory course in the physical sciences is included. The emphasis is on learning through understanding real examples, showing mathematics as a tool for understanding physical systems and their behavior, so that the student feels at home with real mathematical problems. Dr. Lyons brings a wealth of teaching experience to this refreshing textbook on the fundamentals of mathematics for physics and engineering.

    In this book, two of the field's leading experts present an authoritative, up-to-date guide to the theory and current practice of superconductivity.KEY TOPICS: The book begins by introducing normal metal behavior at low temperatures, and the phase transition to superconductivity. It presents the classic Meissner experiment, and reviews several key theories essential to practical analysis. In each case, the book helps readers develop an intuitive understanding, while minimizing the quantum mechanics and thermodynamics required. Coverage includes an up-to-date analysis of microwave and millimeter-wave applications; a richly-developed treatment of Josephson junctions and devices; advanced high-temperature oxide superconductor applications; Ginzburg-Landau equations; Type II superconductivity theories and technologies; and more. MARKET: All electrical engineering and applied physics professionals working in R&D in industrial, university or government settings; as well as advanced students of applied superconductivity.

    As an irresistible flow into which all events are embedded, time cannot be slowed or accelerated, nor can it be undone or turned back. In The River of Time, Igor Novikov describes how the thinkers throughout history have defined time and how these discoveries demonstrate that humans may influence time's flow. He describes how time flows in specific regions of the Universe, how it stops in black holes and splashes over the brim in white holes, and how time may convert into space and vice versa. Exploring time's genesis at the Big Bang, Novikov details how recent discoveries indicate that time machine travel might be possible. Igor Novikov is the Director of the Theoretical Astrophysics Center and Professor of the Astronomical Observatory of Copenhagen University. He began his scientific career at the Moscow State University and has since been affiliated with the Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow, the Space Research Institute, Moscow, and Copenhagen University. He has published more than 250 scientific papers and 150 articles and is the co-author of Edwin Hubble: Discoverer of the Big Bang (Cambridge, 1993) and Black Holes and the Universe (Cambridge, 1993). Previous paperback edition (1998) 0-521-46737-3

    His elusive and often misquoted discourse has resulted, over the years, in slurs against his name and reputation as a scientist. Let him speak then, so that he can bring to everyone's attention his message of reason, of intellectual honesty, and of free thinking. A message that, more than ever, is of great relevance in the rampant irrationality of the new millennium.The exposition begins with a blunt 'self-portrait'. A 'forgery' of course, based mainly on extracts from Galileo's writings and private letters; something he would never have dared, nor been allowed, to write for the public. The selection of writings offered includes many of the subjects that were closest to Galileo's heart and mind with lively commentary from both the literary, scientific, and historical viewpoints. For those who want to know the mathematics behind Galileo's theories, each chapter closes with a separate self contained summary.Thus Spoke Galileo will allow the reader to appreciate the work and the writing-style of a great scientist and author who had a tremendous influence on the modern world.

    How subjective duration varies, depending on the way we embed current content into contexts, is explained.The complexity of our temporal perspective depends on the number of nestings performed, i.e. on the number of contexts taken into account. This temporal contextualization is described against the background of the notion of fractal time. Our temporal interface, the Now, is portrayed as a fractal structure which arises from the distribution of content and contexts in two dimensions: the length and the depth of time. The leitmotif of the book is the notion of simultaneity, which determines the temporal structure of our interfaces. Recent research results are described which present and discuss a number of distorted temporal perspectives. It is suggested that dynamical diseases arise from unsuccessful nesting attempts, i.e. from failed contextualization. Successful nesting, by contrast, manifests itself in a “win-win handshake” between the observer-participant and his chosen context. The answer as to why a watched kettle never boils has repercussions in many a discipline. It would be of immense interest to anyone who works in the fields of cognitive and complexity sciences, psychology and the neurosciences, social medicine, philosophy and the arts.

    In addition, there are over 140 examples and 350 homework problems.

    The text covers the basics while also providing optional, marked, self-contained sections and exercises, both at the same level as the main text and at a more advanced level. Explanations on the basic terms are offered, centering on the main ideas, and special progress and applications sections discuss advances, lingering mysteries and important applications related to chapter material. A range of problems, from easy to advanced, help students test their understanding, and boxed essays explain points of particular interest or address more complex ideas touched on in the main text.

    This manual includes hundreds of extra problems and solutions of varying degrees of difficulty for student review. The solutions are completely worked out to facilitate self-study. KC Smith has devised ever more challenging, inventive problems that focus on the design and problem-solving skills students need.

    Although comprehensive in its coverage, this textbook focuses on calculating molecular structures and (relative) energies and less on molecular properties or dynamical aspects. No prior knowledge of concepts specific to computational chemistry are assumed, but the reader will need some understanding of introductory quantum mechanics, linear algebra, and vector, differential and integral calculus.

    This introduction for engineers examines not only the physical properties of materials, but also their history, uses, development, and some of the implications of resource depletion and materials substitutions.

    However, there is a strong demand today for scientists and engineers with skills in magnetism because of the growing number of technological applications utilizing this phenomenon. This textbook responds to the need for a comprehensive introduction of the basic concepts of the science.Introduction to Magnetism and Magnetic Materials has been thoroughly revised since the first edition to include recent developments in the field. The early chapters comprise a discussion of the fundamentals of magnetism. These chapters include more than 60 sample problems with complete solutions to reinforce learning. The later chapters review the most significant recent developments in four important areas of magnetism: hard and soft magnetic materials, magnetic recording, and magnetic evaluation of materials. These later chapters also provide a survey of the most important areas of magnetic materials for practical applications. Extensive references to the principal publications in magnetism are listed at the end of each chapter, which offer the reader rapid access to more specialized literature.Students in various scientific areas will benefit from this book, including those in physics, materials science, metallurgy, and electrical engineering.

    He shows students how 20th-century physics illuminates the classical topics of each chapter, adding excitement to the subject matter. Approximately 1,300 illustrations make it possible for students to visualize a diversity of physical phenomena. Many of these are multi-frame, sequential drawings allowing students to comprehend the temporal unfolding of complex events. A selection of sketch art teaches students how to create problem-solving diagrams.

    Mathematics is the basis of all science and engineering degrees, and a source of difficulty for some students. Jenny Olive helps resolve this problem by presenting the core mathematics needed by students starting science or engineering courses in user-friendly comprehensible terms. First Edition Hb (1998): 0-521-57306-8 First Edition Pb (1998): 0-521-57586-9

    It gives an overview of current work on the interaction between geometry and physics, from which many important developments in research have emerged. This volume collects together the contributions of many important researchers, including Sir Roger himself, and gives an overview of the many applications of geometrical ideas and techniques across mathematics and the physical sciences. From the area of pure mathematics papers are included on the topics of classical differential geometry and non-commutative geometry, knot invariants, and the applications of gauge theory. Contributions from applied mathematics cover the topics of integrable systems and general relativity. Current research in experimental and theoretical physics inspired chapters on string theory, quantum gravity, the foundations of quantum mechanics, quasi-crystals and astrophysics. The collection also includes articles on quantum computation, quantum cryptography and the possible role of micro-tubules in a theory of consciousness.

    The proof that black holes do exist, and an analysis of their properties, would have a significance going far beyond astrophysics. Indeed, what is involved is not just the discovery of yet another even if extremely remarkable, astro- physical object, but a test of the correctness of our understanding of the properties of space and time in extremely strong gravitational fields. Theoretical research into the properties of black holes, and into the possible corol- laries of the hypothesis that they exist, has been carried out with special vigor since the beginning of the 1970's. In addition to those specific features of black holes that are important for the interpretation of their possible astrophysical manifestations, the theory has revealed a number of unexpected characteristics of physical interactions involving black holes. By the middle of the 1980's a fairly detailed understanding had been achieved of the properties of the black holes, their possible astrophysical manifestations, and the specifics of the various physical processes involved. Even though a completely reliable detection of a black hole had not yet been made at that time, several objects among those scrutinized by astrophysicists were considered as strong candidates to be confirmed as being black holes.

    For historical reasons, the word 'fractional' is used instead of the word 'arbitrary'.This book is written for readers who are new to the fields of fractional derivatives and fractional-order mathematical models, and feel that they need them for developing more adequate mathematical models.In this book, not only applied scientists, but also pure mathematicians will find fresh motivation for developing new methods and approaches in their fields of research.A reader will find in this book everything necessary for the initial study and immediate application of fractional derivatives fractional differential equations, including several necessary special functions, basic theory of fractional differentiation, uniqueness and existence theorems, analytical numerical methods of solution of fractional differential equations, and many inspiring examples of applications.

    It explores the limits of what can be achieved with purely classical notions, and shows how these classical notions have a deep and important connection with the second quantized field theory, which follows on from the Schwinger Action Principle. Its pragmatic view of field theory focuses on issues which are usually omitted from quantum field theory texts and catalogs results which are often hard to find in the literature.

    The approach taken is to learn through understanding real examples, showing mathematics as a tool for understanding physical systems and their behaviour. The aim is to make the student feel at home with real problems by creating a toolkit through a wide range of examples. The traditional approach of teaching theory for its own sake is not used in this course. Dr Lyons brings a wealth of teaching experience to this refreshing textbook on the fundamentals of mathematics for physics and engineering.

    However, in transforming my lecture l notes into this book, I found a personal benefit: the organization of what I understand in a (hopefully simple) logical sequence. Very little in this text is my original contribution. Most of the knowledge was collected from the research literature. Some was acquired by conversations with colleagues; a kind of physics oral tradition passed between disciples of a similar faith. For many years, diagramatic perturbation theory has been the major theoretical tool for treating interactions in metals, semiconductors, itiner- ant magnets, and superconductors. It is in essence a weak coupling expan- sion about free quasiparticles. Many experimental discoveries during the last decade, including heavy fermions, fractional quantum Hall effect, high- temperature superconductivity, and quantum spin chains, are not readily accessible from the weak coupling point of view. Therefore, recent years have seen vigorous development of alternative, nonperturbative tools for handling strong electron-electron interactions. I concentrate on two basic paradigms of strongly interacting (or con- strained) quantum systems: the Hubbard model and the Heisenberg model. These models are vehicles for fundamental concepts, such as effective Ha- miltonians, variational ground states, spontaneous symmetry breaking, and quantum disorder. In addition, they are used as test grounds for various nonperturbative approximation schemes that have found applications in diverse areas of theoretical physics.

    The terms mechanics and mechanical world view were being used as general descriptions of nineteenth-century physicists' assumptions and interpretations of nature. However, there were no studies of the particulars of these assumptions or the range and content of these interpretations. Rene Dugas' work on classical mechanics focused on France. The search for the particulars of these forms of "mechanics" led me to explore precisely what mechanics meant to physicists of a century and more ago. However, none of Lagrange's, Hamilton's, or Jacobi's "mechanics," while ele- gant, fits easily within the history of physics. Lagrange reduced mechanics to an exercise in analysis; Hamilton and Jacobi used mechanics to explore solutions to partial differential equations. They were mathematicians doing mathematics. As I went deeper into the matter it became obvious that, in the nineteenth century, there were two kinds of mechanics, each containing a variety of forms, one physical, the other mathematical. There were a group of men using mechanics to understand nature and another group using the equations of mechanics to explore the calcu- lus. However, when tracing these two traditions back into the eighteenth century, physics disappeared altogether.

    For this new, fully revised edition, the author has enhanced the book's usefulness and widened its appeal by adding a chapter on the Cartan-Dynkin treatment of Lie algebras. This treatment, a generalization of the method of raising and lowering operators used for the rotation group, leads to a systematic classification of Lie algebras and enables one to enumerate and construct their irreducible representations. Taking an approach that allows physics students to recognize the power and elegance of the abstract, axiomatic method, the book focuses on chapters that develop the formalism, followed by chapters that deal with the physical applications. It also illustrates formal mathematical definitions and proofs with numerous concrete examples.