This book introduces a geometric view of fundamental physics, ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in quantum mechanics and mathematical physics.
Classical dynamics is traditionally treated as an early stage in the development of physics, a stage that has long been superseded by more ambitious theories. Here, in this book, classical dynamics is treated as a subject on its own as well as a research frontier. Incorporating insights gained over the past several decades, the essential principles of classical dynamics are presented, while demonstrating that a number of key results originally considered only in the context of quantum theory and particle physics, have their foundations in classical dynamics.Graduate students in physics and practicing physicists will welcome the present approach to classical dynamics that encompasses systems of particles, free and interacting fields, and coupled systems. Lie groups and Lie algebras are incorporated at a basic level and are used in describing space-time symmetry groups. There is an extensive discussion on constrained systems, Dirac brackets and their geometrical interpretation. The Lie-algebraic description of dynamical systems is discussed in detail, and Poisson brackets are developed as a realization of Lie brackets. Other topics include treatments of classical spin, elementary relativistic systems in the classical context, irreducible realizations of the Galileo and Poincaré groups, and hydrodynamics as a Galilean field theory. Students will also find that this approach that deals with problems of manifest covariance, the no-interaction theorem in Hamiltonian mechanics and the structure of action-at-a-distance theories provides all the essential preparatory groundwork for a passage to quantum field theory.This reprinting of the original text published in 1974 is a testimony to the vitality of the contents that has remained relevant over nearly half a century.
When scientists and philosophers construct models to explain the phenomena and laws of nature, do those models simulate what's really out there in the world, or do they only represent the languages we use to describe the world? In this far-reaching, thought-provoking book, two world-class physicists from different worlds—one born and raised in the West, the other in the East—examines some of the most profound questions ever to be investigated by science.Against the background of one of the most imaginative settings ever devised for a science book—a fictional modern-day version of Plato's Academy—Tony Rothman and George Sudarshan, along with an eclectic assortment of students and academics, delve deep into modern physics and Eastern philosophy, and come up with startling insights on the structure of the physical world. To gain these insights, the Academy members must tackle questions such as, How much of the millennium synthesis of science and philosophy is meaningful and how much is pure nonsense? Which New Age trends are compatible with physics? Can we learn anything from parallels between physics and Eastern philosophy?The common thread that runs through the debates is the tension between the seemingly opposite, but really complementary, notions of doubt and certainty: doubt that certain fields of science really succeed in describing the world versus the rock-solid certainty in the predictions of theories like Newton's mechanics and Einstein's relativity.In these intriguing, often funny, sometimes violent, but always stimulating debates, Rothman and Sudarshan cover a wide range of subjects, including cosmology, quantum mechanics, theology, mathematics, complexity, synchronicity, and the past and future.
This invaluable book takes the reader from Planck's discovery of the quantum in 1900 to the most recent interpretations and applications of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics.The introduction of the quantum idea leads off the prehistory of quantum mechanics, featuring Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Compton, and de Broglie's immortal contributions. Their original discovery papers are featured with explanatory notes and developments in Part 1.The invention of matrix mechanics and quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Dirac, and Schrödinger is presented next, in Part 2.Following that, in Part 3, are the Einstein-Bohr debates on the interpretation of quantum mechanics culminating in Bell's inequality and Aspect's experiment demonstrating the actuality of the long range quantum correlations to which Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen took great exception. Resolutions of quantum paradoxes and the current state of such debates are summarized.Part 4 presents a selection of the most dramatic modern developments, both theoretical and experimental. These include Feynman path integrals, the modern interpretation based on decoherence, quantum optics experiments leading to teleportation, DeWitt's wave function of the universe, and a brief introduction to the end-of-the-millennium prospects of quantum computation. A concluding chapter presents the authors' conjectures for the next 100 years of the quantum.This book is ideally suited to anyone with a junior level background in modern physics and quantum mechanics, and a cultural interest in the original sources of the greatest ideas of the greatest founders of this subject as derived from their first discovery papers. These papers have led, in giant strides across the whole of the twentieth century, to the revolutionary experimental advances of the last decade. The book makes accessible — physically and intellectually — both the deepest roots and the highest branches of nonrelativistic quantum physics.
This 2004 textbook provides a pedagogical introduction to the formalism, foundations and applications of quantum mechanics. Part I covers the basic material which is necessary to understand the transition from classical to wave mechanics. Topics include classical dynamics, with emphasis on canonical transformations and the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, the Cauchy problem for the wave equation, Helmholtz equation and eikonal approximation, introduction to spin, perturbation theory and scattering theory. The Weyl quantization is presented in Part II, along with the postulates of quantum mechanics. Part III is devoted to topics such as statistical mechanics and black-body radiation, Lagrangian and phase-space formulations of quantum mechanics, and the Dirac equation. This book is intended for use as a textbook for beginning graduate and advanced undergraduate courses. It is self-contained and includes problems to aid the reader's understanding.
This book makes broadly accessible an understandable proof of the infamous spin-statistics theorem. This widely known but little-understood theorem is intended to explain the fact that electrons obey the Pauli exclusion principle. This fact, in turn, explains the periodic table of the elements and their chemical properties. Therefore, this one simply stated fact is responsible for many of the principal features of our universe, from chemistry to solid state physics to nuclear physics to the life cycle of stars.In spite of its fundamental importance, it is only a slight exaggeration to say that “everyone knows the spin-statistics theorem, but no one understands it”. This book simplifies and clarifies the formal statements of the theorem, and also corrects the invariably flawed intuitive explanations which are frequently put forward.The book will be of interest to many practising physicists in all fields who have long been frustrated by the impenetrable discussions on the subject which have been available until now. It will also be accessible to students at an advanced undergraduate level as an introduction to modern physics based directly on the classical writings of the founders, including Pauli, Dirac, Heisenberg, Einstein and many others.
Sermons by George is a compilation of Rev. George O. Stapleton's best sermons over the last 50 years, and is offered for the reader's enlightenment, consideration, biblical understanding, and enjoyment. May God bless you as you read!
This is the continued story of a missionary life well lived for his family, friends, and his Lord. All the stories are interesting. Some are funny; some are touching; some are informative; but all are uplifting.
The late Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman, Virginia’s foremost citizen, editor, biographer and historian, in 1939 said of Dr. George W. Truett: “He is one of the most notable figures of twentieth-century Christianity—a man to whom, along with millions of Americans, I owe a debt in spirit.” There were many reasons for Dr. Freeman’s estimate, one of them being the fact that Dr. Truett ever proclaimed a very high standard of conduct for Christians and always practiced what he preached. Every sermon in this volume emphasizes some phase of Christian living, such as witnessing, resisting evil, obedience, dedication of life, stewardship, giving Christ first place. For this reason the title is given to this volume. Three sermons herein were first published in 1915 by Fleming H. Revell Co. of New York in a volume of sermons by Dr. George W. Truett which was compiled and edited by Dr. J. B. Cranfill. The title of that first volume of Dr. Truett's sermons was We Would See Jesus. It is now out of print and the Fleming H. Revell Company has graciously given permission to reprint these sermons in re-edited form. Your present compiler and editor greatly appreciates this favor, because these particular sermons seem to fit so well in After His Likeness and also because they are so worthy of reprinting. They are: “We Would See Jesus,” “The Temptation of Our Saviour,” and “The Supreme Gift to Jesus.” That first volume of Truett sermons went through seventeen printings, a high tribute to the value of the messages therein. What was said of Abel may also be said of George W. Truett: “He being dead yet speaketh.” Powhatan W. James. Dallas, Texas August 1, 1954
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