E-Book, Englisch, 711 Seiten
Lawrie A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics, Third Edition
3. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4398-8447-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
E-Book, Englisch, 711 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-4398-8447-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
A Unified Grand Tour of Theoretical Physics invites its readers to a guided exploration of the theoretical ideas that shape our contemporary understanding of the physical world at the fundamental level. Its central themes, comprising space-time geometry and the general relativistic account of gravity, quantum field theory and the gauge theories of fundamental forces, and statistical mechanics and the theory of phase transitions, are developed in explicit mathematical detail, with an emphasis on conceptual understanding. Straightforward treatments of the standard models of particle physics and cosmology are supplemented with introductory accounts of more speculative theories, including supersymmetry and string theory.
This third edition of the Tour includes a new chapter on quantum gravity, focusing on the approach known as Loop Quantum Gravity, while new sections provide extended discussions of topics that have become prominent in recent years, such as the Higgs boson, massive neutrinos, cosmological perturbations, dark energy and matter, and the thermodynamics of black holes.
Designed for those in search of a solid grasp of the inner workings of these theories, but who prefer to avoid a full-scale assault on the research literature, the Tour assumes as its point of departure a familiarity with basic undergraduate-level physics, and emphasizes the interconnections between aspects of physics that are more often treated in isolation.
The companion website at www.unifiedgrandtours.org provides further resources, including a comprehensive manual of solutions to the end-of-chapter exercises.
Zielgruppe
Researchers and advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction: The Ways of Nature
Geometry
The Special and General Theories of Relativity
Spacetime as a Differentiable Manifold
Tensors
Extra Geometrical Structures
What is the Structure of our Spacetime?
Classical Physics in Galilean and Minkowski Spacetimes
The Action Principle in Galilean Spacetime
Symmetries and Conservation Laws
The Hamiltonian
Poisson Brackets and Translation Operators
The Action Principle in Minkowski Spacetime
Classical Electrodynamics
Geometry in Classical Physics
Hamiltonian Dynamics of Constrained Systems
General Relativity and Gravitation
The Principle of Equivalence
Gravitational forces
The Field Equations of General relativity
The Gravitational Field of a Spherical Body
Black Holes
Quantum Theory
Wave Mechanics
The Hilbert Space of State Vectors
Operators and Observable Quantities
Spacetime Translations and the Properties of Operators
Quantization of a Classical System
An Example: The One-dimensional Harmonic Oscillator
Second Quantization and Quantum Field Theory
The Occupation-Number Representation
Field Operators and Observables
Lagrangian Formalism for Field Operators
Second Quantization for Fermions
Relativistic Wave Equations and Field Theories
The Klein-Gordon Equation
Scalar Field Theory for Free Particles
The Dirac Equation and Spin-1/2 Particles
Spinor Field Theory
Weyl and Majorana Spinors
Particles of Spin, 1 and 2
Forces, Connections and Gauge Fields
Electromagnetism
Non-Abelian Gauge Theories
Non-Abelian Theories and Electromagnetism
Relevance of Non-Abelian Theories to Physics
The Theory of Kaluza and Klein
Interacting Relativistic Field Theories
Asymptotic States and the Scattering Operator
Reduction Formulae
Path Integrals
Perturbation Theory
Quantization of Gauge Fields
Renormalization
Quantum Electrodynamics
Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics
Ergodic Theory and the Microcanonical Ensemble
The Canonical Ensemble
The Grand Canonical Ensemble
Relation Between Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
Quantum Statistical Mechanics
Field Theories at Finite Temperature
Black Body Radiation
The Classical Lattice Gas
Analogies Between Field Theory and Statistical Mechanics
Phase Transitions
BoseEinstein Condensation
Critical Points in Fluids and Magnets
The Ising Model
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking
The GinzburgLandau Theory
The Renormalization Group
The GinzburgLandau Theory of Superconductors
Unified Gauge Theories of the Fundamental Interactions
The Weak Interaction
The GlashowWeinbergSalam Model for Leptons
Physical Implications of the Model for Leptons
Hadronic Particles in the Electroweak Theory
Colour and Quantum Chromodynamics
Loose Ends
Grand Unified Theories
Supersymmetry
Solitons and So On
Domain Walls and Kinks
The SineGordon Solitons
Vortices and Strings
Magnetic Monopoles
The Early Universe
The RobertsonWalker Metric
The FriedmannLemaˆitre Models
Matter, Energy and the Age of the Universe
The Fairly Early Universe
Nucleosynthesis
Recombination and the Horizon Problem
The Flatness Problem
Density Perturbations
The Very Early Universe
Dark Energy and Dark Matter
An Introduction to String Theory
The Relativistic Point Particle
The Free Classical String
Quantization of the Free Bosonic String
Physics of the Free Bosonic String
Further Developments
Gravity and Quantum Mechanics
Canonical Quantization of General Relativity
Quantum Cosmology
Black-Hole Entropy
Some Snapshots of the Tour
Some Mathematical Notes
Delta Functions and Functional Differentiation
The Levi-Civita Tensor Density
Vector Spaces and Hilbert Spaces
Gauss’ Theorem
Surface Area and Volume of a d-dimensional Sphere
Gaussian Integrals
Grassmann Variables
Some Elements of Group Theory
Natural Units
Scattering Cross-sections and Particle Decay Rates
