Anca Tureanu – författare

Mechanics is one of the oldest and at the same time newest disciplines, in the sense that there are methods and principles developed first in mechanics but now widely used in almost all branches of physics: electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, classical and quantum field theory, special and general theory of relativity, etc. More than that, there are some formalisms like Lagrangian and Hamiltonian approaches, which represent the key stone for the development of the above-mentioned disciplines.

During the last 20-25 years, classical mechanics has undergone an important revival associated with the progress in non-linear dynamics, applications of Noether’s theorem and the extension of variational principles in various interdisciplinary sciences (for instance, magnetofluid dynamics). Thus, there ought to exist a book concerned with the applied analytical formalism, first developed in the frame of theoretical mechanics, which has proved to be one of the most efficient tools of investigation in the entire arena of science.

The present book is an outcome of the authors’ teaching experience over many years in different countries and for different students studying diverse fields of physics. The book is intended for students at the level of undergraduate and graduate studies in physics, engineering, astronomy, applied mathematics and for researchers working in related subjects. 

We hope that the original presentation and the distribution of the topics, the various applications in many branches of physics and the set of more than 100 proposed problems, shall make this book a comprehensive and useful tool for students and researchers.

The present book is an outcome of the authors’ teaching experience over many years in different countries and for different students studying diverse fields of physics. The book is intended for students at the level of undergraduate and graduate studies in physics, engineering, astronomy, applied mathematics and for researchers working in related subjects. 

We hope that the original presentation and the distribution of the topics, the various applications in many branches of physics and the set of more than 100 proposed problems, shall make this book a comprehensive and useful tool for students and researchers.

This book is devoted to the fundamentals of classical electrodynamics, one of the most beautiful and productive theories in physics. A general survey on the applicability of physical theories shows that only few theories can be compared to electrodynamics. Essentially, all electric and electronic devices used around the world are based on the theory of electromagnetism.

It was Maxwell who created, for the first time, a unified description of the electric and magnetic phenomena in his electromagnetic field theory. Remarkably, Maxwell’s theory contained in itself also the relativistic invariance of the special relativity, a fact which was discovered only a few decades later.

We hope that the reader will not only acquire knowledge, but will also grasp the beauty of theoretical physics. A set of about 130 solved and proposed problems shall help to attain this aim.

"Basic Concepts in Physics: From the Cosmos to Quarks" is the outcome of the authors'' long and varied teaching experience in different countries and for different audiences, and gives an accessible and eminently readable introduction to all the main ideas of modern physics. The book’s fresh approach, using a novel combination of historical and conceptual viewpoints, makes it ideal complementary reading to more standard textbooks. The first five chapters are devoted to classical physics, from planetary motion to special relativity, always keeping in mind its relevance to questions of contemporary interest. The next six chapters deal mainly with newer developments in physics, from quantum theory and general relativity to grand unified theories, and the book concludes by discussing the role of physics in living systems. A basic grounding in mathematics is required of the reader, but technicalities are avoided as far as possible; thus complex calculations are omitted so long as the essential ideas remain clear. The book is addressed to undergraduate and graduate students in physics and will also be appreciated by many professional physicists. It will likewise be of interest to students, researchers and teachers of other natural sciences, as well as to engineers, high-school teachers and the curious general reader, who will come to understand what physics is about and how it describes the different phenomena of Nature. Not only will readers of this book learn much about physics, they will also learn to love it.

This book is the second edition of an excellent undergraduate-level overview of classical and modern physics, intended  for students of physics and related subjects, and also perfectly suited for the education of physics teachers. The twelve-chapter book begins with Newton’s laws of motion and subsequently covers topics such as thermodynamics and statistical physics, electrodynamics, special and general relativity, quantum mechanics  and cosmology , the standard model and quantum chromodynamics. The writing is lucid, and the theoretical discussions are easy to follow for anyone comfortable with standard mathematics.

This book is a translation of the 8th edition of Prof. Kazuhiko Nishijima’s classical textbook on quantum field theory. It is based on the lectures the Author gave to students and researchers with diverse interests over several years in Japan. The book includes both the historical development of QFT and its practical use in theoretical and experimental particle physics, presented in a pedagogical and transparent way and, in several parts, in a unique and original manner.

The Author, Academician Nishijima, is the inventor (independently from Murray Gell-Mann) of the third (besides the electric charge and isospin) quantum number in particle physics: strangeness. He is also most known for his works on several other theories describing particles such as electron and muon neutrinos, and his work on the so-called Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula.

The present English translation from its 8th Japanese edition has been initiated and taken care of by theeditors Prof. M. Chaichian and Dr. A. Tureanu from the University of Helsinki, who were close collaborators of Prof. Nishijima. Dr. Yuki Sato, a researcher in particle physics at the University of Nagoya, most kindly accepted to undertake the heavy task of translation. The translation of the book can be regarded as a tribute to Prof. Nishijima''s memory, for his fundamental contributions to particle physics and quantum field theory.

The book presents with utmost clarity and originality the most important topics and applications of QFT which by now constitute the established core of the theory. It is intended for a wide circle of graduate and post-graduate students, as well as researchers in theoretical and particle physics. In addition, the book can be a useful source as a basic material or supplementary literature for lecturers giving a course on quantum field theory.