ADVANCED SERIES ON THEORETICAL PHYSICAL SCIENCE – serie

This book is divided into two parts. In the first part we introduce the foundations of special relativity, such as, the inertial frame of reference, the definition of simulataneity, and Einstein's two basic hypotheses. We give the main relativistic effects, e.g. the relativity of simultaneity, velocity addition, length-contraction, the apparent shape of a moving body, time-dilation, Doppler effect, and the Thomas precession, In particular, the simultaneity problem and slow transport of clocks are investigated in detail by means of the test theories of special relativity. In the second part, variant types of experiments performed up to now are analyzed and compared to the predictions of special relativity. This shows that the experiments are a test of the two-way speed of light, but not of the one-way speed of light.

This book is divided into fourteen chapters, with 18 appendices as introduction to prerequisite topological and algebraic knowledge, etc. The first seven chapters focus on local analysis. This part can be used as a fundamental textbook for graduate students of theoretical physics. Chapters 8–10 discuss geometry on fibre bundles, which facilitates further reference for researchers. The last four chapters deal with the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, its generalization and its application, quantum anomaly, cohomology field theory and noncommutative geometry, giving the reader a glimpse of the frontier of current research in theoretical physics.

This book shows how one can combine Yang–Mills gauge symmetry and effective Einstein–Grossmann metric tensors to tackle physical problems at microscopic, macroscopic and super-macroscopic length scales. In particular, the combination of gauge symmetry and an effective metric tensor provides a framework for and leads to an alternative dynamics of cosmic expansion based on quantum Yang–Mills gravity at the super-macroscopic limit. Together with the cosmological principle, one can investigate and derive expanding scale factors, the age of the universe, the cosmic redshift, and the Hubble recession velocity. Furthermore, this framework leads to a possible explanation for the late-time accelerated cosmic expansion due to baryon masses and charges. All these discussions are based on the operationally defined space and time coordinates of inertial frames. Finally, this book expounds on the intimate relationship between space-time translation gauge symmetry and the beautiful ideas of the Lie derivative and Pauli's variation. One interesting application of the Lie derivative is to formulate a gravitational theory with an external space-time gauge group, which leads to Yang–Mills gravity.

This monograph expounds on general Yang–Mills symmetry, a new symmetry based on arbitrary vector gauge functions and Hamilton's characteristic phase functions in the gauge transformations of Abelian and non-Abelian groups. General Yang–Mills symmetry includes the conventional gauge symmetries as special cases and is useful for describing phenomena at scales ranging from the super-macroscopic such as dark matter, to the ultra-microscopic such as the quantum 3-body problem of baryons. Moreover, this symmetry supports the Broader Particle-Cosmology framework based on particle physics and quantum Yang–Mills gravity in flat space-time, which can explain why the gravitational force is always attractive. This volume also discusses how CPT invariance in particle physics suggests a "Big Jets" model for the birth of the universe, proposing one explanation for the dearth of anti-matter in our universe. Finally, we discuss a simplified quantum shell model for N baryons with a quark Hamiltonian and a Sonine–Laguerre equation that gives reasonable eigenvalues for the energies of the 29 N baryons.

The quest for the unification of fundamental interactions has become the most challenging frontier of sciences in the 21st century. This book presents a detailed analysis and systematic investigation of the foundations of the hyperunified field theory (HUFT) in light of the path integral formulation with the least action principle. Alternative to other unification theories, the starting point of HUFT is initiated from a simple notion that the universe is made of the fundamental building block which is always moving and obeys the basic rule. Such a rule is delved into in this book by proposing the maximum locally entangled-qubits motion principle together with the scaling and gauge invariance principle. These two basic guiding principles are demonstrated to lay the foundations of HUFT, which enable enables us to discuss a series of long-standing fundamental questions, such as: why does the fundamental building block of nature appear as an entangled qubit-spinor field? what brings about the fundamental symmetry of nature? how does the inhomogeneous hyperspin gauge symmetry govern all basic forces? what is the nature of gravity and space–time? how can the space–time dimension and qubit-spinor field be categorized? why do we live in a universe with only four-dimensional space–time? why are there more than one family of leptons and quarks? how does the early universe evolve to be inflationary? what is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?Foundations of the Hyperunified Field Theory will be of great interest to graduate and senior undergraduate students, junior and senior researchers in theoretical physics, quantum field theory, particle physics, gravitational theory, cosmology, as well as mathematical physics and general physics.

A Broader View of Relativity shows that there is still new life in old physics. The book examines the historical context and theoretical underpinnings of Einstein's theory of special relativity and describes Broad Relativity, a generalized theory of coordinate transformations between inertial reference frames that includes Einstein's special relativity as a special case. It shows how the principle of relativity is compatible with multiple concepts of physical time and how these different procedures for clock synchronization can be useful for thinking about different physical problems, including many-body systems and the development of a Lorentz-invariant thermodynamics. Broad relativity also provides new answers to old questions such as the necessity of postulating the constancy of the speed of light and the viability of Reichenbach's general concept of time. The book also draws on the idea of limiting-four-dimensional symmetry to describe coordinate transformations and the physics of particles and fields in non-inertial frames, particularly those with constant linear accelerations. This new edition expands the discussion on the role that human conventions and unit systems have played in the historical development of relativity theories and includes new results on the implications of broad relativity for clarifying the status of constants that are truly fundamental and inherent properties of our universe.

Yang–Mills gravity is a new theory, consistent with experiments, that brings gravity back to the arena of gauge field theory and quantum mechanics in flat space-time. It provides solutions to long-standing difficulties in physics, such as the incompatibility between Einstein's principle of general coordinate invariance and modern schemes for a quantum mechanical description of nature, and Noether's ‘Theorem II’ which showed that the principle of general coordinate invariance in general relativity leads to the failure of the law of conservation of energy. Yang–Mills gravity in flat space-time appears to be more physically coherent than conventional gravity in curved space-time. The problems of quantization of the gravitational field, the operational meaning of space-time coordinates and momenta, and the conservation of energy-momentum are all resolved in Yang–Mills gravity.The aim of this book is to provide a treatment of quantum Yang–Mills gravity, with an emphasis on the ideas and evidence that the gravitational field is the manifestation of space-time translational symmetry in flat space-time, and that there exists a fundamental space-time symmetry framework that can encompass all of physics, including gravity, for all inertial and non-inertial frames of reference.

The exact solution of C N Yang's one-dimensional many-body problem with repulsive delta-function interactions and R J Baxter's eight-vertex statistical model are brilliant achievements in many-body statistical physics. A nonlinear equation, now known as the Yang-Baxter equation, is the key to the solution of both problems. The Yang-Baxter equation has also come to play an important role in such diverse topics as completely integrable statistical models, conformal and topological field theories, knots and links, braid groups and quantum enveloping algebras.This pioneering textbook attempts to make accessible results in this rapidly-growing area of research. The author presents the mathematical fundamentals at the outset, then develops an intuitive understanding of Hopf algebras, quantisation of Lie bialgebras and quantum enveloping algebras. The historical derivation of the Yang-Baxter equation from statistical models is recounted, and the interpretation and solution of the equation are systematically discussed. Throughout, emphasis is placed on acquiring calculation skills through physical understanding rather than achieving mathematical rigour.Originating from the author's own research experience and lectures, this book will prove both an excellent graduate text and a useful work of reference.

This book contains a comprehensive description of the mechanical equilibrium and deformation of membranes as a surface problem in differential geometry. Following the pioneering work by W Helfrich, the fluid membrane is seen as a nematic or smectic — A liquid crystal film and its elastic energy form is deduced exactly from the curvature elastic theory of the liquid crystals. With surface variation the minimization of the energy at fixed osmotical pressure and surface tension gives a completely new surface equation in geometry that involves potential interest in mathematics. The investigations of the rigorous solution of the equation that have been carried out in recent years by the authors and their co-workers are presented here, among which the torus and the discocyte (the normal shape of the human red blood cell) may attract attention in cell biology. Within the framework of our mathematical model by analogy with cholesteric liquid crystals, an extensive investigation is made of the formation of the helical structures in a tilted chiral lipid bilayer, which has now become a hot topic in the fields of soft matter and biomembranes.

The purposes of this book are (1) to explore and expound relativity physics and four-dimensional symmetry from the logically simplest viewpoint by making one single postulate instead of two; and (2) to indicate the simplest generalization of the Lorentz transformation in order to cope with frames with constant linear accelerations. The fundamentally new ideas of the first purpose are developed on the basis of the term paper of a Harvard physics undergraduate. They lead to an unexpected affirmative answer to the long-standing question of whether it is possible to construct a relativity theory without postulating the constancy of the speed of light and retaining only the first postulate of special relativity. This question was discussed in the early years following the discovery of special relativity by many physicists, including Ritz, Tolman, Kunz, Comstock and Pauli, all of whom obtained negative answers. Furthermore, the new theory of relativity indicates the truly universal and fundamental constants in physics, and provides a broad view of relativistic physics beyond special relativity. It substantiates the view and sheds light on the understanding that the four-dimensional symmetry framework can accommodate many different concepts of physical time, including common time and Reichenbach's general concept of time. This logically simplest viewpoint of relativity allows a natural extension of the physics of particles and fields from inertial frames to noninertial frames in which the speed of light is not constant. New predictions in physics resulting from this new viewpoint are discussed. The book is based on papers by the author and his collaborators in Physics Letters A, Nuovo Cimento B, and Physical Review A and D.

This collection of papers provides a broad view of the development of Lorentz and Poincaré invariance and spacetime symmetry throughout the past 100 years. The issues explored in these papers include: (1) formulations of relativity theories in which the speed of light is not a universal constant but which are consistent with the four-dimensional symmetry of the Lorentz and Poincaré groups and with experimental results, (2) analyses and discussions by Reichenbach concerning the concepts of simultaneity and physical time from a philosophical point of view, and (3) results achieved by the union of the relativity and quantum theories, marking the beginnings of quantum electrodynamics and relativistic quantum mechanics.Ten of the fundamental experiments testing special relativity are also discussed, showing that they actually support a four-dimensional spacetime based on broad Lorentz and Poincaré invariance which is more general than and includes the special theory of relativity. The generalization of the concepts of simultaneity, physical time and the nature of the speed of light within a four-dimensional spacetime framework leads to the conclusion that the symmetries embodied by the special theory of relativity can be realized using only a single postulate — the principle of relativity for physical laws.