Cosmic enigmas

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Edgard Elbaz

This textbook represents a new approach in the teaching of quantum physics. The first seven chapters present nonrelativistic quantum mechanics and its interpretation as well as perturbations and scattering theory. They include Dirac's and Feynman's formalisms. The chapter on symmetry treats gauge transformations, too. The quantum theory of angular momentum includes the isospin of leptons and quarks. It uses as a new tool the graphical spin algebra. The second part of the book is devoted to quantum fields: Boson fields including Higgs fields, Dirac's theory of Fermion fields, quantum electrodynamic and quantum chromodynamics. A brief review is appended to raise the students' interests in quantum cosmology. The readers will also find many detailed worked examples and many problems to test their own understanding.

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Dany Page, Jorge G. Hirsch (eds

The enormous advances in observational techniques over the last two decades has produced a wealth of data and unexpected discoveries which have helped to reshape astrophysics as a field with well-formulated theories and sophisticated numerical calculations. In nuclear particle physics, plasma physics, as well as in general relativity, the Universe has become a laboratory for cutting-edge research. The courses collected in the book are intended to provide students with this insight, giving a general background on each topic such as cosmic rays, nuclear and neutrino astrophysics, solar physics and strong fields, as well as a presentation of the current research and open problems. The book is aimed at graduate students in physics and astrophysics, as well as researchers, bridging a gap between the specialized reviews and the comprehensive books.

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B. J. Bok ... [et al

A course of lectures contributed in the 16th International Science School for High School Students, sponsored by the Science Foundation for Physics within the University of Sydney, at the University of Sydney, August 27 - September 7, 1973. Contributors of lectures B. J. Bok R. D. Brown R. Hanbury Brown F. D. Drake P. Goldreich C. E. Sagan J. P. Wild

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Maurizio Gasperini

<p>This reference textbook is an up-to-date and self-contained introduction to the theory of gravitational interactions. The first part of the book follows the traditional presentation of general relativity as a geometric theory of the macroscopic gravitational field. A second, advanced part then discusses the deep analogies (and differences) between a geometric theory of gravity and the gauge theories of the other fundamental interactions. This fills a gap which is present in the context of the traditional approach to general relativity, and which usually makes students puzzled about the role of gravity. The necessary notions of differential geometry are reduced to the minimum, leaving more room for those aspects of gravitational physics of current phenomenological and theoretical interest, such as the properties of gravitational waves, the gravitational interactions of spinors, and the supersymmetric and higher-dimensional generalization of the Einstein equations. Theory of Gravitational Interactions will be of particular value to undergraduate students pursuing a theoretical or astroparticle curriculum. It can also be used by those teaching related subjects, by PhD students and young researchers working in different scientific sectors but wishing to enlarge their spectrum of interests, and, in general, by all scholars interested in the modern aspects and problems of gravitational interaction.</p>