Bücher der Reihe Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics

The formal concepts of quantum physics are illustrated by examples from the forefront of modern quantum research, such as quantum communication, teleportation and nonlocality. The author adopts a Socratic pedagogy: The student is guided to develop the machinery of quantum physics independently by solving sets of carefully chosen problems.

This book equips the reader with a coherent understanding of the structure of the Sun and its evolution and provides all the knowledge required to construct a simplified model of the Sun. The early chapters cover key aspects of basic physics and describe the Sun's size, mass, luminosity, and temperature.

This undergraduate textbook provides a simple, concise introduction to tensor algebra and analysis, as well as special and general relativity. With a plethora of examples, explanations, and exercises, it forms a well-rounded didactic text that will be useful for any related course.The book is divided into three main parts, all based on lecture notes that have been refined for classroom teaching over the past two decades. Part I provides students with a comprehensive overview of tensors. Part II links the very introductory first part and the relatively advanced third part, demonstrating the important intermediate-level applications of tensor analysis. Part III contains an extended discussion of general relativity, and includes material useful for students interested primarily in quantum field theory and quantum gravity.Tailored to the undergraduate, this textbook offers explanations of technical material not easily found or detailed elsewhere, including an understandable description of Riemann normal coordinates and conformal transformations. Future theoretical and experimental physicists, as well as mathematicians, will thus find it a wonderful first read on the subject.

This undergraduate textbook discusses the nature of the microscopic universe from a modern perspective, based on Einstein's notions of relativity and Noether's proof of the emergence of conservation laws from symmetries of the equations of motion.

Starting from the thermodynamics of the Sun-Earthsystem and biosphere, this book steps, via such subjects as the greenhouse effect and energetics of metabolism, into to the microscopic world (physics of bacteria and unicellular life, cells and tissues, biomolecules); and again to zoology and planetary ecology in a journey guided by Physics.

This book guides undergraduate students in the use of Maxima-a computer algebra system-in solving problems in classical mechanics. When it comes to problems that are too difficult to solve by hand, computer algebra systems that can perform symbolic mathematical manipulations are a valuable tool.

This book covers thebasic theory of electrical circuits, describes analog and digitalinstrumentation, and applies modern methods to evaluate uncertainties in electricalmeasurements. special circuitsincluding resonant circuits, frequency filters and impedance matchingnetworks;

In this book, a physicist and expert on the history of the Manhattan Project clearly explains the underlying science behind the development of the atomic bomb, including how atomic bombs work, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions, and the legacy of the Project.

The book concentrates on the knowledge needed to understand how small(ish) optical telescopes function, their main designs and how to set them up, plus introducing the reader to the many ways in which objects in the sky change their positions and how they may be observed.

This volume is an exercises and solutions manual that complements the book "Particles and Fundamental Interactions" by Sylvie Braibant, Giorgio Giacomelli, and Maurizio Spurio.

This book presents the science of tensors in a didactic way. symmetric traceless tensors, isotropic tensors, multipole potential tensors, spin tensors, integration and spin-trace formulas, coupling of irreducible tensors, rotation of tensors.

Leading readers to a clear understanding of modern elementary particle physics and cosmology, this text does so without recourse to advanced mathematics and in addition examines questions that surround controversial contemporary subjects such as string theory.

Requiring only basic knowledge of high school mathematics and physics, this volume offers a concise introduction to the general theory of relativity. The text presents the fundamentals of special relativity, Minkowski space-time, non-Euclidean geometry, Newtonian gravity, and more.

Principles of Musical Acoustics focuses on the basic principles in the science and technology of music. Musical examples and specific musical instruments demonstrate the principles. These topics constitute the basic physical properties of sound, one of two pillars supporting the science of musical acoustics.

This engaging text offers an accessible and clear treatment of the fundamentals of electromagnetics and optics, a core part of the standard undergraduate physics curriculum.

Furthermore, it presents Galilean transformation and the principle of relativity, inadequacy of Galilean relativity and emergence of the spatial theory of relativity with an emphasis on physical understanding, as well as the debate over relative motion versus absolute motion and Mach's principle followed by the principle of equivalence.

This book presents a comprehensive course of quantum mechanics for undergraduate and graduate students.

This textbook presents an introduction to the use of probability in physics, treating introductory ideas of both statistical physics and of statistical inference, as well the importance of probability in information theory, quantum mechanics, and stochastic processes, in a unified manner.

This book provides a chronological introduction to the electromagnetic theory of light, using selected extracts from classic texts such as Gilbert's De Magnete, Franklin's Experiments and Observations on Electricity, and Huygens' Treatise on Light.

This is a textbook that derives the fundamental theories of physics from symmetry. It starts by introducing, in a completely self-contained way, all mathematical tools needed to use symmetry ideas in physics.

This book offers a detailed and stimulating account of the Lagrangian, or variational, approach to general relativity and beyond. After an introduction to field theories and the variational approach, individual sections focus on the variational approach in relation to special relativity, general relativity, and alternative theories of gravity.

While "Why are we here?" lies beyond the realm of physics, a closely related question is within our reach: "How did we get here?" The goal of Chapters 12-20 is to understand the physics behind the remarkable story of how the Universe, Earth and life were formed.

Overview.- Review of Concepts and Some Extensions Thereof.- Introduction to Multidimensional Calculus.- Field Equations of General Relativity.- Classical Tests of General Relativity.- Black Holes.- Basics of Modern Cosmology: Overview.- Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Cosmology.- Thermodynamics of the Universe.- Accelerated Expansion of the Universe.- Inflation.- Appendices A-F.- Index.

This textbook is an introduction to the Brownian motion of colloids and nano-particles, and the diffusion of molecules. One very appealing aspect of Brownian motion, as this book illustrates, is that the subject connects a broad variety of topics, including thermal physics, hydrodynamics, reaction kinetics, fluctuation phenomena, statistical thermodynamics, osmosis and colloid science. The book is based on a set of lecture notes that the authors used for an undergraduate course at the University of Utrecht, Netherland. It aims to provide more than a simplified qualitative description of the subject, without getting bogged down in difficult mathematics.Each chapter contains exercises, ranging from straightforward ones to more involved problems, addressing instances from (thermal motion in) chemistry, physics and life sciences. Exercises also deal with derivations or calculations that are skipped in the main text.The book offers a treatment of Brownian motion on a level appropriate for bachelor/undergraduate students of physics, chemistry, soft matter and the life sciences. PhD students attending courses and doing research in colloid science or soft matter will also benefit from this book.

This book, the second in a two-volume set, provides an introduction to the basics of (mainly) non-relativistic quantum mechanics. While the first volume addresses the basic principles, this second volume discusses applications and extensions to more complex problems. In addition to topics dealt with in traditional quantum mechanics texts, such as symmetries or many-body problems, it also treats issues of current interest such as entanglement, Bell¿s inequality, decoherence and various aspects of quantum information in detail. Furthermore, questions concerning the basis of quantum mechanics and epistemological issues which are relevant e.g. to the realism debate are discussed explicitly. A chapter on the interpretations of quantum mechanics rounds out the book. Readers are introduced to the requisite mathematical tools step by step. In the appendix, the most relevant mathematics is compiled in compact form, and more advanced topics such as the Lenz vector, Hardy¿s experiment and Shor¿s algorithm are treated in more detail. As an essential aid to learning and teaching, 130 exercises are included, most of them with solutions.This revised second edition is expanded by an introduction into some ideas and problems of relativistic quantum mechanics. In this second volume, an overview of quantum field theory is given and basic conceptions of quantum electrodynamics are treated in some detail. Originally written as a course for students of science education, the book addresses all those science students and others who are looking for a reasonably simple, fresh and modern introduction to the field.

This book, the first in a two-volume set, provides an introduction to the fundamentals of (mainly) non-relativistic quantum mechanics. This first volume chiefly focuses on the essential principles, while applications and extensions of the formalism can be found in volume 2. Including but also moving beyond material that is covered in traditional textbooks on quantum mechanics, the book discusses in detail current issues such as interaction-free quantum measurements or neutrino oscillations, as well as fundamental problems and epistemological questions, such as the measurement problem. A chapter on the postulates of quantum mechanics rounds off this first volume.In order to quickly and clearly present the main principles of quantum mechanics and its mathematical formulation, there is a systematic transition between wave mechanics and algebraic representation in the first few chapters, in which the required mathematical tools are introduced step by step. Moreover, the appendix concisely reviews the most important mathematical tools, allowing readers to largely dispense with supplementary literature. The appendix also explores advanced topics, such as the Quantum-Zeno effect and time-delay experiments. Over 250 exercises, most of them with solutions, help to deepen the reader¿s understanding of the topics discussed.This revised second edition is expanded by an introduction to some ideas and problems of relativistic quantum mechanics. In this first volume, the Klein-Gordon and the Dirac equations are treated. Fundamentals of other areas are compiled in compact form, i.e., outlines of special relativity, classical field theory and electrodynamics. The book is chiefly intended for student science teachers and all students of physics, majors and minors alike, who are looking for a reasonably easy and modern introduction to quantum mechanics.