Particle Physics / Astrophysics / Cosmology

In recent years, the old idea that gauge theories and string theories are equivalent has been implemented and developed in various ways, and there are by now various models where the string theory/gauge theory correspondence is at work. One of the most important examples of this correspondence relates Chern-Simons theory, a topological gauge theory in three dimensions which describes knot and three-manifold invariants, to topological string theory, which is deeply related to Gromov-Witten invariants. This has led to some surprising relations between three-manifold geometry and enumerative geometry. This book gives the first presentation of this and other related topics. After an introduction to matrix models and Chern-Simons theory, the book describes in detail the topological string theories that correspond to these gauge theories and develops the mathematical implications of this duality for the enumerative geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds and knot theory.

This book is a historical account of how natural philosophers and scientists have endeavoured to understand the universe at large, first in a mythical and later in a scientific context. Starting with the creation stories of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the book covers all the major events in theoretical and observational cosmology, from Aristotle's cosmos over the Copernican revolution to the discovery of the accelerating universe in the late 1990s. The kind of cosmology it describes and analyses focuses on the physical and astronomical aspects, but these cannot always be separated from aspects of a philosophical and theological nature. The book presents cosmology as a subject including scientific as well as non-scientific dimensions, and tells the story of how it developed into a true science of the heavens. Contrary to most other books on the history of cosmology, it offers an integrated account of the development with emphasis on the modern Einsteinian and post-Einsteinian period. In addition, it pays attention not only to mainstream developments, but also to theories of the universe that are today considered to be blind alleys. Starting in the pre-literary era, the book carries the story of mankind's quest of understanding the universe onwards to the early years of the 21st century.

An understanding of thermal physics is crucial to much of modern physics, chemistry, and engineering. This book provides a modern introduction to the main principles that are foundational to thermal physics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. The key concepts are carefully presented in a clear way, and new ideas are illustrated with worked examples as well as a description of the historical background to their discovery. Applications are presented to subjects as diverse as stellar astrophysics, information and communication theory, condensed matter physics, and climate change. Each chapter concludes with detailed exercises. This second edition of the text maintains the structure and style of the first edition but extends its coverage of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics to include several new topics, including osmosis, diffusion problems, Bayes theorem, radiative transfer, the Ising model, and Monte Carlo methods. New examples and exercises have been added throughout.

The book provides a self-contained account of deep inelastic scattering (DIS) in high energy physics. It covers the classic results that lead to the quark-parton model of hadrons and the establishment of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), through to the new vistas in the subject opened up by the electron-proton collider HERA. The extraction of parton momentum distribution functions, a key input for physics at hadron colliders such as the Tevatron and Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is described in detail. The challenges of the HERA data at low-x are described, and possible explanations in terms of gluon dynamics outlined. Other chapters cover: jet production at large momentum transfer and the determination of the strong coupling constant; electroweak probes at very high momentum transfers; the extension of deep inelastic techniques to include hadronic probes; a summary of fully polarised inelastic scattering and the spin structure of the nucleon; and a brief account of methods for searching for signals ‘beyond the standard model’.

Einstein’s doctoral thesis and his Brownian motion paper were decisive contributions to our understanding of matter as composed of molecules and atoms. Einstein was one of the founding fathers of quantum theory: his photon proposal through the investigation of blackbody radiation, his quantum theory of specific heat, his calculation of radiation fluctuation giving the first statement of wave–particle duality, his introduction of probability in the description of quantum radiative transitions, and finally quantum statistics and Bose–Einstein condensation. Einstein’s special theory of relativity gave us the famous relation E = mc² and the new kinematics leading to the idea of 4D spacetime as the arena in which physical events take place. Einstein’s geometric theory of gravity, general relativity, extends Newton’s theory to time-dependent and strong gravitational fields. It laid the groundwork for the study of black holes and cosmology. This is a physics book with material presented in a historical context. Also, we do not stop at Einstein’s discovery, but carry the discussion onto some of the later advances: Bell’s theorem, quantum field theory, gauge theories, and Kaluza–Klein unification in a spacetime with an extra spatial dimension.

This book deals with neutrino physics and astrophysics — a field in which some of the most exciting recent developments in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology took place. The book discusses all the topics vital to the understanding of the nature of neutrinos such as what they are, how to describe them, how they behave in nature, and the roles that neutrinos play in shaping our universe. The book provides discussions, both experimental and theoretical, with relevant mathematical details, on neutrino oscillations, extra-terrestrial as well as terrestrial neutrinos and the relic neutrinos. It also discusses many implications of current experimental data on reactor, accelerator, atmospheric, solar, and supernova neutrinos with future perspectives. The book starts with an introduction to field theory and gauge theory, with helpful appendices, and it also provides pedagogical, but sufficiently detailed, reviews of supernova physics and cosmology, in particular the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

This book deals with all aspects of gravitational-wave physics, both theoretical and experimental. This first volume deals with gravitational wave (GW) theory and experiments. Part I discusses the theory of GWs, re-deriving afresh and in a coherent way all the results presented. Both the geometrical and the field-theoretical approach to general relativity are discussed. The generation of GWs is discussed first in linearized theory (including the general multipole expansion) and then within the post-Newtonian formalism. Many important calculations (inspiral of compact binaries, GW emission by rotating or precessing bodies, infall into black holes, etc.) are presented. The observation of GWs emission from the change in the orbital period of binary pulsar, such as the Hulse-Taylor pulsar and the double pulsar, is also explained, and the pulsar timing formula is derived. Part II discusses the principles of GW experiments, going into the detail of the functioning of both interferometers and resonant-mass detectors. One chapter is devoted to the data analysis techniques relevant for GW experiments.

This book reviews both the historical observations of supernovae (SNe) seen in our Galaxy over the last two millennia — and recorded in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) as ‘guest stars’, Europe and the Arab dominions — together with modern observations of the remnants of these supernovae. Introductory chapters provide background information on the historical observations and our modern understanding of supernovae and novae, and of supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsars. One chapter discusses the young SNR Cassiopeia A, and the proposed sighting of its SN in AD 1680 by Flamsteed. Subsequent chapters discuss the historical observations of the well-defined historical SNe and modern observations of their remnants. These chapters cover Kepler's SN of AD 1604, Tycho's SN of AD 1572, the SN of AD 1181, the SN of AD 1054 that produced the well-known Crab Nebula; and the especially bright SN of AD 1006. Earlier probable and possible supernovae of the preceding millennium chronicled in China are also discussed, along with their possible remnants. Other less certain observations of SNe, and the future potential for additional historical observations, are briefly discussed. This book also includes, as an appendix, a catalogue of over two hundred known Galactic SNRs.

This book is a thorough and up‐to‐date introduction to black hole physics. It provides a modern and unified overview of all their aspects, physical, mathematical, astrophysical, classical, and quantum. Black holes are the most intriguing objects in the Universe. For many years they have been considered just as interesting solutions of the General Relativity with a number of amusing mathematical properties. But now, after discovery of astrophysical black holes, the Einstein gravity has become a practical tool for their study. In this book we present the theory of black holes in the form which might be useful for students and young scientists. This is a self‐contained textbook. It includes pedagogically presented `standard' material on black holes and also quite new subjects such as black holes in spacetimes with large extra dimensions and a role of hidden symmetries in black hole physics.

The book begins by discussing i) the conflict between locality or hyperbolicity and positivity of the energy for relativistic wave equations, which marks the origin of quantum field theory, and ii) the mathematical problems of the perturbative expansion (canonical quantization, interaction picture, non-Fock representation, asymptotic convergence of the series, and so on). The general physical principles of positivity of the energy, Poincaré covariance, and locality provide a substitute for canonical quantization, qualify the non-perturbative foundations, and lead to very relevant results, such as the spin–statistics theorem, TCP symmetry, a substitute for canonical quantization, non-canonical behavior, the Euclidean formulation at the basis of the functional integral approach, the non-perturbative definition of the S-matrix (LSZ, Haag–Ruelle–Buchholz theory). A characteristic feature of gauge field theories is the Gauss law constraint; it is responsible for the conflict between locality of the charged fields and positivity, which yields the superselection of the (unbroken) gauge charges, provides a non-perturbative explanation of the Higgs mechanism in the local gauges, and implies the infraparticle structure of the charged particles in QED and the breaking of the Lorentz group in the charged sectors. A non-perturbative proof of the Higgs mechanism is discussed in the Coulomb gauge: the vector bosons corresponding to the broken generators cannot be massless, and their two-point function dominates the Goldstone spectrum, thus excluding the occurrence of massless Goldstone bosons. The solution of the U(1) problem in QCD, the theta vacuum structure, and the inevitable breaking of the chiral symmetry in each theta sector are derived solely from the topology of the gauge group, without relying on the semiclassical instanton approximation.