Foundations of Physical Law by
The book originated in a series of lectures given at Liverpool in 2013 to a group that included postgraduate and undergraduate students and staff of the Physics Department. They followed from two very successful lectures given to the undergraduate Physical Society. It seemed that there was a very large interest among the students in investigating the foundations of physics in a way that was never done in physics courses, and was not available in books or other outlets. However, the idea was to create a framework in which students (and interested staff) could develop their own thinking relative to the ideas in the lectures. So it was important to create both conceptual and mathematical structures on the issues that are important at this level. The book has the right sort of technical content to allow for this development, but doesn' t lose itself in excessive details. The ideal use for this book would be on postgraduate courses where students would be encouraged to think about the foundations in a way that is well beyond the superficial. However, a course on aspects of this material would also be valuable at the undergraduate level, where students could be stimulated into believing that creative thinking could solve the problems that emerge when we confront foundational problems.
ISBN: 9789814618373Publication Date: 2014-09-01
How Schrödinger's Cat Escaped the Box by
This book attempts to explain the core of physics, the origin of everything and anything. It explains why physics at the most fundamental level, and especially quantum mechanics, has moved away from na#65533;ve realism towards abstraction, and how this means that we can begin to answer some of the most fundamental questions which trouble us all, about space, time, matter, etc. It provides an original approach based on symmetry which will be of interest to professionals as well as lay people.In the book, virtually no prior knowledge is assumed, but the readers are allowed to participate in a discussion of very deep ideas. Throughout the book, the readers are guided through some important ideas which need to be explained mathematically. The key fact is that the mathematics is not about calculation but about concepts. Much of it can be simplified using coloured text and diagrams. This means that ideas which are important to everyone who wants to know how the universe is structured are not glossed over as being too difficult for anybody but the experts.This book is written for a wide audience. Experts will gain a great deal, but so will lay readers. This would be an ideal book for students to read before progressing to another book by the author, The Foundations of Physical Law.
ISBN: 9789814635219Publication Date: 2014-11-27
Physics in a Mad World by
This book tells captivating stories of misadventures of two renowned theoretical physicists in the Soviet Union. The first part is devoted to Friedrich (Fritz) Houtermans, an outstanding Dutch-Austrian-German physicist who was the first to suggest that the source of stars' energy is thermonuclear fusion, and also made a number of other important contributions to cosmochemistry and geochemistry. In 1935, Houtermans, a German communist, in an attempt to save his life from Hilter's Gestapo, fled to the Soviet Union. He took up an appointment at the Kharkov Physico-Technical Institute, working there for two years with the Russian physicist Valentin P Fomin. In the Great Purge of 1937, Houtermans was arrested in December by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police, KGB's predecessor). He was tortured, and confessed to being a Trotskyist plotter and German spy, out of fear of threats against his wife Charlotte. However, Charlotte had already escaped from the Soviet Union to Denmark, after which she went to England and finally the USA. As a result of the Hilter-Stalin Pact of 1939, Houtermans was turned over to the Gestapo in May 1940 and imprisoned in Berlin.The second part consists of two essays that narrate the life story of Yuri Golfand, one of the codiscoverers of supersymmetry, a major discovery in theoretical physics in the 20th century. In 1973, just two years after the publication of his seminal paper, he was fired from the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow. Because of his Jewish origin he could find no job. Under such circumstances, he applied for an exit visa to Israel, but his application was denied. Yuri Golfand became a refusnik and joined the Human rights movement, along with two other prominent physicists, Andrei Sakharov and Yuri Orlov. To earn his living, he had to do manual work, repeatedly being intimidated by KGB. Only 18 years later, shortly before the demise of the Soviet Union, did he obtain permission to leave the country, emigrating to Israel in 1990.These personal life stories of two outstanding theorists are interwined with the tragedies of the 20th century and make for compelling reading.
ISBN: 9789814619288Publication Date: 2016-01-01
A Singularly Unfeminine Profession by
In 1981 Mary K Gaillard became the first woman on the physics faculty at the University of California at Berkeley. Her career as a theoretical physicist spanned the period from the inception — in the late 1960s and early 1970s — of what is now known as the Standard Model of particle physics and its experimental confirmation, culminating with the discovery of the Higgs particle in 2012. A Singularly Unfeminine Profession recounts Gaillard's experiences as a woman in a very male-dominated field, while tracing the development of the Standard Model as she witnessed it and participated in it. The generally nurturing environment of her childhood and college years, as well as experiences as an undergraduate in particle physics laboratories and as a graduate student at Columbia University — which cemented her passion for particle physics — left her unprepared for the difficulties that she confronted as a second year graduate student in Paris, and later at CERN, another particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. The development of the Standard Model, as well as attempts to go beyond it and aspects of early universe physics, are described through the lens of Gaillard's own work, in a language written for a lay audience.Contents: PrefaceBeginningsHollins and Paris: To Paris and BackBrookhaven and ColumbiaParis Again: The Worst YearCERNFermilab: Charm, The Delta I=½ Rule, Search for CharmCERN Again: Two Weeks in the Soviet Union, The Higgs Particle, Gluon Jets, Bottom Quarks, Penguins and GUTsUnrest: Annecy: SupergutsReturningMy Survival MechanismAfterlife: Physics at a Trillion Electron Volts, Physics at the Planck EnergyReflectionsAcronymsGlossary Readership: Students interested in women's issues and/or particle physics, professionals interested in women's issues and/or the history of the development of the Standard Model, general public interested in women's issues and/or particle physics. Key Features: Professor Gaillard is a leading particle theorist who has participated in many important contributions to the development of the Standard Model, including the prediction of the quark mass and of gluon jets. She is a recipient of the E O Lawrence Award and the J J Sakurai prize. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical SocietyAs a woman in physics at a time when there were very few, her account of the history of the Standard Model offers a unique perspective on both the physics and the issue of gender bias in a very male-dominated fieldThe history of the development of the Standard Model, as well as attempts to understand deeper physics underlying that model and concomitant developments in cosmology, is described in conjunction with her own research and life experiences
ISBN: 9789814644242Publication Date: 2015-06-10
eBooks, explained
Electronic books (eBooks) are digitally published books that are read on computers, phones, tablets, or dedicated eBook readers. eBooks have some advantages over traditional print books, including access from anywhere with an internet connection, search functions inside the book, hyperlinked content, and the ability to print or email pages and chapters.
Start Your Search
Because eBooks are discoverable via Library databases, students must be logged in for access. You will either need to log in through the MyCF portal with your CF ID number and MyCF password, and click on 'Library' in the Quick Links box at page-left.
OR
If you are starting your search here, sign in with your Borrower ID = Your CF ID number, and your PIN/Password = last 4 digits of your social security number. For further assistance, go to the 'Questions?' page in this guide.
How to find an eBook
The CF Library has over 50,000 eBooks available entirely online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To find eBooks in the catalog, perform a basic keyword search, narrowing your results to eBooks in the "Format" or "Subject: Genre" sections of the left-column limiters on the results screen (see image below).
To access an eBook, you will need to use the "Full Text" link and log in to the Library's online resources.
