ABC of Physics: A Very Brief Guide
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.; World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Singapore
Format: ebook
Number of pages: 169
ISBN-13: 9789814397278
Description: xxii, 146 p. ; 19 cm
Table of contents: title: Contents; title: Preface v; title: 0.1 For whom this book is written∗ . . . . . . v; title: 0.2 On the contents of some of the chapters . vii; title: 0.3 Two beacons∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix; title: 0.4 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi; title: 1. The Fundamentals 1; title: 1.1 On intuition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1; title: 1.2 Space and time∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2; title: 1.3 Matter and substance∗ . . . . . . . . . . . 2; title: 1.4 Motion∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3; title: 2. Units∗ 4; title: 2.1 Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4; title: 2.2 Circle and angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4; title: 2.3 Units of time and length . . . . . . . . . . 4; title: 3. A Minimum of Mathematics 6; title: 3.1 Four operations of school mathematics; title: and the imaginary unit∗ . . . . . . . . . . 6; title: xiii; title: xiv ABC of Physics: A very brief guide; title: 3.2 Powers of ten∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7; title: 3.3 Prefixes of the powers of ten . . . . . . . . 7; title: 3.4 Differentiation and integration . . . . . . 7; title: 3.5 Matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8; title: 4. Translational Motion∗ 9; title: 4.1 Free particle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9; title: 4.2 Maximum velocity c . . . . . . . . . . . . 9; title: 4.3 Energy and momentum of a particle . . . 10; title: 4.4 Kinetic and potential energy in; title: Newtonian mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . 10; title: 4.5 Momentum in Newtonian mechanics . . . 11; title: 4.6 Space and time in relativistic mechanics . 13; title: 4.7 Energy and momentum in relativistic; title: mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14; title: 4.8 Particle’s mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15; title: 4.9 Rest energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16; title: 4.10 Massless photon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16; title: 4.11 Masses of electron and proton . . . . . . . 16; title: 5. Rotation and Quantization 17; title: 5.1 The spin and orbital rotation∗ . . . . . . 17; title: 5.2 About vectors and tensors . . . . . . . . . 18; title: 5.3 The orbital angular momentum in theory; title: of relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18; title: 5.4 Identity of particles∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 19; title: 5.5 Quantization of S and L∗ . . . . . . . . . 19; title: 5.6 More about spin∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20; title: Contents xv; title: 5.7 Fermions and bosons∗ . . . . . . . . . . . 20; title: 5.8 Elementary quantum state∗ . . . . . . . . 21; title: 5.9 Bound states∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21; title: 6. Particles as Corpuscles and Waves 22; title: 6.1 Wave vector∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22; title: 6.2 The wave function∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23; title: 6.3 Probability amplitude∗ . . . . . . . . . . . 23; title: 6.4 The role of chance in the decay∗ . . . . . 24; title: 6.5 The role of chance in the two-slit; title: experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25; title: 6.6 Uncertainty relations∗ . . . . . . . . . . . 25; title: 6.7 “Correct” and “incorrect” questions∗ . . . 26; title: 6.8 Schr¨odinger equation . . . . . . . . . . . . 26; title: 6.9 The Klein–Fock–Gordon equation . . . . . 27; title: 6.10 Dirac equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28; title: 6.11 Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29; title: 7. More About Units∗ 30; title: 7.1 Units: experiment and theory . . . . . . . 30; title: 7.2 About SI system of units . . . . . . . . . 30; title: 7.3 Electron-volt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31; title: 7.4 Units in which c, ~ = 1 . . . . . . . . . . . 31; title: 7.5 On choosing the system of units . . . . . 31; title: 8. The Hydrogen Atom∗ 33; title: 8.1 On potential energy . . . . . . . . . . . . 33; title: 8.2 Electron–proton interaction . . . . . . . . 34; title: 8.3 Principal quantum number . . . . . . . . 34; title: xvi ABC of Physics: A very brief guide; title: 8.4 Mass of quantum state . . . . . . . . . . . 35; title: 8.5 Orbital quantum number . . . . . . . . . 35; title: 8.6 The projections of L and S . . . . . . . . 36; title: 8.7 The emission and absorption of light . . . 36; title: 9. Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 37; title: 9.1 From protons to nucleons∗ . . . . . . . . . 37; title: 9.2 Pauli exclusion principle. Fermions and; title: bosons∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38; title: 9.3 Horizontal periods of the periodic table of; title: elements∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38; title: 9.4 First period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39; title: 9.5 The second and third periods . . . . . . . 40; title: 9.6 The fourth and fifth periods . . . . . . . . 40; title: 9.7 The sixth and seventh periods . . . . . . . 40; title: 9.8 8 groups and 18 vertical columns of the; title: table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41; title: 10. Substance 43; title: 10.1 Molecules∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43; title: 10.2 Gases∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43; title: 10.3 Loschmidt number∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 44; title: 10.4 Temperature∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44; title: 10.5 More on universal constants . . . . . . . . 44; title: 10.6 Condensed matter∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45; title: 10.7 Crystallization∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46; title: 10.8 Phase transitions∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46; title: 10.9 Superfluidity and superconductivity . . . 47; title: Contents xvii; title: 10.10 Quasiparticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47; title: 11. Quantum Electrodynamics — QED 49; title: 11.1 QED from Dirac to Feynman∗ . . . . . . 49; title: 11.2 Lamb shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49; title: 11.3 Positron and other antiparticles∗ . . . . . 50; title: 11.4 Feynman diagrams∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 50; title: 11.5 Backward in time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52; title: 11.6 Antiparticles∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53; title: 11.7 Positronium∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54; title: 11.8 Normal magnetic moment of the electron 55; title: 11.9 Anomalous magnetic moment of the; title: electron: g-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55; title: 11.10 Running coupling constant . . . . . . . . 56; title: 11.11 Renormalizability of QED . . . . . . . . . 57; title: 12. Transition to Classical Theory 58; title: 12.1 Particles or fields?∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58; title: 12.2 Quasiclassical behavior and the classical; title: limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59; title: 12.3 The field strength and induction . . . . . 59; title: 12.4 Electric permittivity and magnetic; title: permeability of vacuum∗ . . . . . . . . . . 60; title: 13. Gravitation 62; title: 13.1 Top and bottom∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62; title: 13.2 The Earth∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62; title: 13.3 The inner structure of the Earth . . . . . 63; title: 13.4 Temperature of the Earth . . . . . . . . . 63; title: xviii ABC of Physics: A very brief guide; title: 13.5 Tilt of Earth’s axis∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 64; title: 13.6 Newton’s Law∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64; title: 13.7 Solar system∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64; title: 13.8 The Sun∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65; title: 13.9 Stars in our Galaxy∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 66; title: 13.10 Parsec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66; title: 13.11 Supernovae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67; title: 14. Other Galaxies 69; title: 14.1 From our Galaxy to other galaxies∗ . . . . 69; title: 14.2 Recession of galaxies∗ . . . . . . . . . . . 69; title: 14.3 Kinematic shift∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70; title: 14.4 Gravitational shift∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70; title: 14.5 Quasars and gamma-ray bursts . . . . . . 71; title: 15. Big Bang 72; title: 15.1 The expanding Universe∗ . . . . . . . . . 72; title: 15.2 The cooling down Universe∗ . . . . . . . . 72; title: 15.3 The cosmic microwave radiation; title: (CMB)∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73; title: 15.4 Dark matter∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73; title: 15.5 Dark energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74; title: 16. Quantum Gravidynamics — QGD 75; title: 16.1 GRT: three canonical effects∗ . . . . . . . 75; title: 16.2 Graviton and QGD∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 76; title: 16.3 Nonrenormalizability of QGD . . . . . . . 77; title: 16.4 Gravitational radius and black holes . . . 78; title: 16.5 The principle of equivalence? . . . . . . . 78; title: Contents xix; title: 16.6 Planck scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79; title: 17. Intranuclear Forces 81; title: 17.1 Alpha, beta and gamma rays∗ . . . . . . . 81; title: 17.2 Strong interaction∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81; title: 17.3 Isotopic spin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82; title: 17.4 Weak interaction∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82; title: 17.5 Neutrino and four-fermion interaction∗ . . 82; title: 17.6 Nuclear fission∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83; title: 17.7 Nuclear fusion∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83; title: 17.8 From nuclei to particles∗ . . . . . . . . . . 84; title: 18. Particles in Cosmic Rays 85; title: 18.1 Positron∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85; title: 18.2 Muon∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85; title: 18.3 Three pions∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86; title: 18.4 Strange particles∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87; title: 18.5 Strangeness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87; title: 19. Particles in Accelerators 88; title: 19.1 Baryon resonances and antinucleons∗ . . . 88; title: 19.2 Sakata model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88; title: 19.3 Three sakatons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89; title: 19.4 Octet and singlet of pseudoscalar mesons 90; title: 19.5 Nine vector mesons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90; title: 19.6 Octet of baryons∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90; title: 19.7 Decuplet of baryons . . . . . . . . . . . . 91; title: 19.8 Conference at CERN 1962 . . . . . . . . . 91; title: 19.9 Three quarks∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91; title: xx ABC of Physics: A very brief guide; title: 20. Three Discrete Symmetries 92; title: 20.1 C, P, T operations∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92; title: 20.2 Nonconservation of mirror symmetry P∗ . 93; title: 20.3 Nonconservation of charge symmetry C∗ . 94; title: 20.4 The hypothesis of conservation of CP; title: symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94; title: 20.5 Conserved vector current . . . . . . . . . 94; title: 20.6 V-A current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94; title: 20.7 Helicity and chirality∗ . . . . . . . . . . . 95; title: 20.8 Nonconservation of the CP∗ . . . . . . . . 96; title: 20.9 Mirror particles as the first version of dark; title: matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96; title: 21. Half a Century Later∗ 98; title: 21.1 Six quarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98; title: 21.2 Six leptons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98; title: 21.3 Three generations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99; title: 21.4 Electroweak bosons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99; title: 21.5 Gluons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100; title: 21.6 All fundamental bosons . . . . . . . . . . 100; title: 22. On Quantum Chromodynamics 101; title: 22.1 Color and SU(3) symmetry∗ . . . . . . . . 101; title: 22.2 Color quarks∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101; title: 22.3 Colored gluons∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102; title: 22.4 Confinement∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102; title: 22.5 Masses of nucleons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103; title: 22.6 Chiral limit∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103; title: Contents xxi; title: 22.7 Pion masses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104; title: 22.8 Masses of other quarks . . . . . . . . . . . 104; title: 22.9 QCD today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104; title: 23. On the Electroweak Theory 105; title: 23.1 Intermediate bosons∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 105; title: 23.2 Toy model SU(2) × U(1) . . . . . . . . . . 105; title: 23.3 Photon and Z boson in the model; title: SU(2) × U(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106; title: 23.4 The first step towards a realistic model . . 107; title: 23.5 The second and final step . . . . . . . . . 108; title: 23.6 Doublet of scalar fields . . . . . . . . . . . 109; title: 23.7 Spontaneous breaking of SU(2) × U(1); title: symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109; title: 23.8 Condensate and the masses of; title: fundamental particles . . . . . . . . . . . 110; title: 23.9 The search for higgs∗ . . . . . . . . . . . . 111; title: 23.10 Large Hadron Collider∗ . . . . . . . . . . 111; title: 23.11 Summer 2011: results of the quest for; title: higgs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112; title: 24. Supersymmetry 113; title: 24.1 Spinor generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113; title: 24.2 Spinor-flavor generators . . . . . . . . . . 114; title: 24.3 Summer 2011: Results of the search for; title: light superparticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115; title: 24.4 Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115; title: 25. Grand Unification 116; title: xxii ABC of Physics: A very brief guide; title: 25.1 Running of three coupling constants . . . 116; title: 25.2 SU(5) symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117; title: 25.3 Proton and neutron decays . . . . . . . . 117; title: 25.4 Other symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118; title: 26. In the Vicinity of the Planck Mass 119; title: 26.1 Superstrings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119; title: 26.2 Ten spatial dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . 120; title: 26.3 M-theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121; title: 26.4 Anti-de Sitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121; title: 27. Concluding Remarks∗ 122; title: 27.1 “The sun rises, the sun sets.” . . . . . . . 122; title: 27.2 On teaching of physics . . . . . . . . . . . 123; title: 27.3 On the tragic fate of the SSC . . . . . . . 123; title: 27.4 LHC and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125; title: 27.5 On the gist of science and on truth in; title: science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126; title: Postscript I 128; title: Postscript II 130; title: Bibliography 131; title: Some Acronyms 136; title: Index 137