Robert N. Cahn - Böcker

Our current understanding of elementary particles and their interactions emerged from break-through experiments. This book presents these experiments, beginning with the discoveries of the neutron and positron, and following them through mesons, strange particles, antiparticles, and quarks and gluons. This second edition contains new chapters on the W and Z bosons, the top quark, B-meson mixing and CP violation, and neutrino oscillations. This book provides an insight into particle physics for researchers, advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Throughout the book, the fundamental equations required to understand the experiments are derived clearly and simply. Each chapter is accompanied by reprinted articles and a collection of problems with a broad range of difficulty. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

A Course in Quantum Mechanics Unique graduate-level textbook on quantum mechanics by John David Jackson, author of the renowned Classical Electrodynamics A Course in Quantum Mechanics is drawn directly from J. D. Jackson’s detailed lecture notes and problem sets. It is edited by his colleague and former student Robert N. Cahn, who has taken care to preserve Jackson’s unique style. The textbook is notable for its original problems focused on real applications, with many addressing published data in accompanying tables and figures. Solutions are provided for problems that are critical for understanding the material and that lead to the most important physical consequences. Overall, the text is comprehensive and comprehensible; derivations and calculations come with clearly explained steps. More than 120 figures illustrate underlying principles, experimental apparatus, and data. In A Course in Quantum Mechanics readers will find detailed treatments of: Wave mechanics of de Broglie and Schrödinger, the Klein-Gordon equation and its non-relativistic approximation, free particle probability current, expectation values.Schrödinger equation in momentum space, spread in time of a free-particle wave packet, density matrix, Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem.WKB formula for bound states, example of WKB with a power law potential, normalization of WKB bound state wave functions, barrier penetration with WKB.Rotations and angular momentum, representations, Wigner d-functions, addition of angular momenta, the Wigner-Eckart theorem.Time-independent perturbation theory, Stark, Zeeman, Paschen-Back effects, time-dependent perturbation theory, Fermi’s Golden Rule.Atomic structure, helium, multiplet structure, Russell-Saunders coupling, spin-orbit interaction, Thomas-Fermi model, Hartree-Fock approximation.Scattering amplitude, Born approximation, allowing internal structure, inelastic scattering, optical theorem, validity criterion for the Born approximation, partial wave analysis, eikonal approximation, resonance.Semi-classical and quantum electromagnetism, Aharonov-Bohm effect, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations, gauge invariance, quantization of the electromagnetic field, coherent states.Emission and absorption of radiation, dipole transitions, selection rules, Weisskopf-Wigner treatment of line breadth and level shift, Lamb shift.Relativistic quantum mechanics, Klein-Gordon equation, Dirac equation, two-component reduction, hole theory, Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation, Lorentz covariance, discrete symmetries, non-relativistic and relativistic Compton scattering.

An enthralling and accessible account of humanity’s quest to make sense of our physical world, told through interwoven tales of inspiration, tragedy, and triumph.How do the remarkable recent discoveries of the Higgs boson, dark matter, and dark energy connect with the equally revolutionary discoveries in centuries past? In Grace in All Simplicity, readers will delight in Cahn and Quigg's engaging prose and see how the infinite and the infinitesimal are joined. Today, physicists and astronomers are exploring distances from a billionth of a billionth of the human scale to the entire cosmos, and contemplating time intervals that range from less than a trillionth of a trillionth of a second out to far longer than the age of the universe. Leaving home in this metaphorical way requires devising new instruments that spectacularly expand our senses and conceiving original ways of thinking that expand our minds. This is at once an act of audacity and an exercise in humility. Grace in All Simplicity narrates the saga of how we have prospected for some of Nature’s most tightly held secrets, the basic constituents of matter and the fundamental forces that rule them. Our current understanding of the world (and universe) we inhabit is the result of curiosity, diligence, and daring, of abstraction and synthesis, and of an abiding faith in the value of exploration. In these pages we will meet scientists of both past and present. These men and women are professional scientists and amateurs, the eccentric and the conventional, performers and introverts. Scientists themselves, Cahn and Quigg convey their infectious joy as they search for new laws of nature. Join the adventure as scientists ascend mountain tops and descend into caverns deep underground, travel to the coldest places on Earth, and voyage back in time to near the birth of the Universe. Visit today’s great laboratories and the astounding instruments they house. Grace in All Simplicity is a thrilling voyage filled with improbable discoveries and the extraordinary community of people who make them. Together, we will travel the path to the Higgs boson, weigh the evidence for subliminal dark matter, and learn what makes scientists invoke a mysterious agent named "dark energy." We will behold the emergence of a compelling picture of matter and forces, simple in its structure, graceful in the interplay of its parts, but still tantalizingly incomplete.