Springer Tracts in Modern Physics - Böcker

This book covers systematically and in simple language the physical foundations of evolution equations, stochastic processes, and generalized Master equations applied to complex economic systems. Strong emphasis is placed on concepts, methods and techniques for modeling, assessment and solving or estimation of economic problems in an attempt to understand the large variability of financial markets, trading and communication networks, barriers and acceleration of the economic growth as well as the kinetics of product and money flows. The main focus of the book is on a clear physical understanding of the self-organizing principles in social and economic systems. The book is a modern introduction and a helpful tool for researchers, engineers as well as post-docs and graduate students interested in econophysics and related topics.

This book deals with the acceleration and storage of polarized proton beams in cyclic accelerators. Polarized proton beams with hundreds of GeV are, for example, essential for resolving the “spin crisis,” i.e., for understanding the angular momentum distribution inside nucleons. Experience with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven NationalLaboratory(RHICatBNL)hasshownthatpolarizationat205GeV can be obtained, and tests at the pre-accelerating Alternating Gradient S- chrotron(AGS)haveshownthatatleastupto24GeV,thebeampolarization canbequiteundisturbedwhentheacceleratoriswelladjusted,exceptats- cial energies where resonances occur. In particular, it has not been necessary to study closely the variation of the protons’ spin directions across the phase space of the beam. However, at very high energies such as in RHIC, TEVA- TRON, HERA-p, LHC, or a future VLHC, new phenomena can occur that can lead to a signi?cantly diminished beam polarization. For these high energies, it is necessary to look in more detail at the spin motion at each point in phase space, and for this the invariant spin ?eld provestobeausefultool.This?eldgivesrisetoanadiabaticinvariantofsp- orbit motion, and it de?nes the maximum time-average polarization that is usable in a particle physics experiment. Furthermore, the invariant spin ?eld allows the amplitude dependent spin tune to be de?ned and computed and thereby opens the way to a clear evaluation of the e?ects of higher-order spin orbit resonances. In particular, the strengths and the depolarizing e?ects of these resonances can only be determined once the amplitude-dependent spin tune has been computed.

Usually, it is not easy to de?ne the main dates of creation of a new science – the birth date, when the ?rst distinct idea was generated, and the - turity date, when the science manifested itself as a separate and consistent discipline. For particle astrophysics, the science that has developed very - tensively over the last two decades, the birth is most likely to be dated to the beginning of the 1930s. Just then, after the discovery of a neutron by J. Chadwick in 1932, the concept of a neutron star was proposed by L.D. L- dau, and independently by W. Baade and F. Zwicky. The maturation of this science can be more or less con?dently be dated to 1987 when extragal- tic neutrinos were registered for the ?rst time from the supernova SN1987A explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. There are at least two excellent books on the topic written by G.G. R- felt: Stars as Laboratories for Fundamental Physics (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago 1996) and by H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus and K. Zuber: Particle Astrophysics. 2nd ed. (Inst. of Phys., Bristol 2000), where the basics of this new science can be studied. However, new facts and ideas appear so fast that it is necessary for specialists to follow not only journal papers but also electronic preprints, in order to keep abreast of the latest developments.

The physics of semiconductors has seen an enormous evolution within the last ?fty years. Countless achievements have been made in scienti?c research and device applications have revolutionized everyday life. We have learned how to customize materials in order to tailor their optical as well as electronic properties. The on- ing trend toward device miniaturization has been the driving force on the appli- tion side and it has fertilized fundamental research. Nowadays, advanced processing techniques allow the fabrication of sub-micron semiconductor structures in many university research laboratories. At the same time, experiments down to millikelvin temperatures allow researchers to anticipate the observation of quantum phenomena, so far hidden at room temperature by the large thermal energy and strong dephasing. The ?eld of mesoscopic physics deals with systems under experimental con- tions where several quantum length scales for electrons such as system size and phase coherence length, or phase coherence length and elastic mean free path, are compa- ble. Intense research over the last twenty years has revealed an enormous richness of quantum effects in mesoscopic semiconductor physics, which is typically charact- ized by an interplay of quantum interference and many-body interactions. The most famous phenomena are probably the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects, the quantization of conductance through a quantum point contact, the Aharonov–Bohm effect, and single-electron charging of quantum dots.

The mechanism responsible for the generation of the mass of an particle has emerged as one of the most urging questions in fundamental physics. The effective-theory approach provides the theoretical basis for a model-independent description of the effects sensitive to this mechanism and their impact on observables. This book systematically develops this method, relating the predictions of different physics scenarios in a unified treatment. It also contains a detailed discussion of the processes that can actually be observed, the status of calculations, methods to isolate the interesting signals, and expectations for the sensitivity of future collider experiments. The systematic bottom-up approach provides the appropriate framework for interpreting measurements that will be performed to better understand the physics of mass generation in the universe. No knowledge of quantum field theory is required other than familiarity with effective Lagrangians and Feynmann diagrams. This book will be useful for both theorists and experimentalists who are interested in the phenomenology of electroweak interactions.

The impact of Benard's discovery on 20th century physics is crucial to any modern research area such as fluid dynamics, nonlinear dynamics, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, just to name a few. This centenary review shows the broad scope and development including modern applications, edited and written by experts in the field. The foreword is written by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes.

Symmetries in Atomic Nuclei aims to present an overview of recent applications of symmetry to the description of atomic nuclei. Case studies show how these symmetries are displayed by real atomic nuclei which have been studied experimentally using state-of-the art spectroscopy.

Econophysics describes phenomena in the development and dynamics of economic systems by using of a physicMly motivated methodology. First of all, Mandelbrot had analyzed economic and social relations in terms of modern statistical physics. Since then, the number of publications related to this topic has increased irresistible greatly. To be fair to this historical evolution, I point out, however, that physical and economic concepts had already been connected long ago. Terms such as work, power, and efficiency factor have similar physical and economic meanings. Many physical discoveries for instance in thermodynamics, optics, solid state physics, or chemical physics correspond to a parallel evolution in the fields of technology and economics. The term econophysics, or social physics, also is not a recent idea. For ex ample, in the small book Sozialphysik published in 1925 [221], R. L£mmel demonstrates how social and economic problems can be understood by applying simple physical relations. Of course, the content of early social physics and the topics of modern econophysics are widely different. Nevertheless, the basic idea (i.e., the description and the explanation of economic phenomena in terms of a physical theory) did not change over the whole time. At this point, an important warning should be pronounced.

This book presents an analytical theory on the electronic states in low-dimensional systems and finite crystals recently developed by the author based on a differential equation theory approach. This theory gives some exact and general fundamental understandings on the electronic states in ideal low-dimensional systems and finite crystals such as the numbers and the behaviors of electronic states of different types; It provides new insights on some fundamental problems in low-dimensional systems such as surface states, quantum confinement effects etc, some of them are quite different from what are traditionally believed in the solid state physics community.

The physics of semiconductors has seen an enormous evolution within the last ?fty years. Countless achievements have been made in scienti?c research and device applications have revolutionized everyday life. We have learned how to customize materials in order to tailor their optical as well as electronic properties. The on- ing trend toward device miniaturization has been the driving force on the appli- tion side and it has fertilized fundamental research. Nowadays, advanced processing techniques allow the fabrication of sub-micron semiconductor structures in many university research laboratories. At the same time, experiments down to millikelvin temperatures allow researchers to anticipate the observation of quantum phenomena, so far hidden at room temperature by the large thermal energy and strong dephasing. The ?eld of mesoscopic physics deals with systems under experimental con- tions where several quantum length scales for electrons such as system size and phase coherence length, or phase coherence length and elastic mean free path, are compa- ble. Intense research over the last twenty years has revealed an enormous richness of quantum effects in mesoscopic semiconductor physics, which is typically charact- ized by an interplay of quantum interference and many-body interactions. The most famous phenomena are probably the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects, the quantization of conductance through a quantum point contact, the Aharonov–Bohm effect, and single-electron charging of quantum dots.

The mechanism responsible for the generation of the mass of an particle has emerged as one of the most urging questions in fundamental physics. The effective-theory approach provides the theoretical basis for a model-independent description of the effects sensitive to this mechanism and their impact on observables. This book systematically develops this method, relating the predictions of different physics scenarios in a unified treatment. It also contains a detailed discussion of the processes that can actually be observed, the status of calculations, methods to isolate the interesting signals, and expectations for the sensitivity of future collider experiments. The systematic bottom-up approach provides the appropriate framework for interpreting measurements that will be performed to better understand the physics of mass generation in the universe. No knowledge of quantum field theory is required other than familiarity with effective Lagrangians and Feynmann diagrams. This book will be useful for both theorists and experimentalists who are interested in the phenomenology of electroweak interactions.

By providing the reader with a foundational background in high spin nuclear structure physics and exploring exciting current discoveries in the field, this book presents new phenomena in a clear and compelling way. The quest for achieving the highest spin states has resulted in some remarkable successes which this monograph will address in comprehensive detail. The text covers an array of pertinent subject matter, including the rotational alignment and bandcrossings, magnetic rotation, triaxial strong deformation and wobbling motion and chirality in nuclei. This book offers a clearly-written and up-to-date treatment of the topics covered. The prerequisites for a proper appreciation are courses in nuclear physics and nuclear models and measurement techniques of observables like gamma-ray energies, intensities, multi-fold coincidences, angular correlations or distributions, linear polarization, internal conversion coefficients, short lifetime (pico-second range) of excited states etc. and instrumentation and data analysis methods.

By providing the reader with a foundational background in high spin nuclear structure physics and exploring exciting current discoveries in the field, this book presents new phenomena in a clear and compelling way. The quest for achieving the highest spin states has resulted in some remarkable successes which this monograph will address in comprehensive detail. The text covers an array of pertinent subject matter, including the rotational alignment and bandcrossings, magnetic rotation, triaxial strong deformation and wobbling motion and chirality in nuclei. This book offers a clearly-written and up-to-date treatment of the topics covered. The prerequisites for a proper appreciation are courses in nuclear physics and nuclear models and measurement techniques of observables like gamma-ray energies, intensities, multi-fold coincidences, angular correlations or distributions, linear polarization, internal conversion coefficients, short lifetime (pico-second range) of excited states etc. and instrumentation and data analysis methods.

A comprehensive overview of the physical mechanisms that control electron transport and the characteristics of metal-molecule-metal (MMM) junctions. As far as possible, methods and formalisms presented elsewhere to analyze electron transport through molecules are avoided. This title introduces basic concepts--a description of the electron transport through molecular junctions—and briefly describes relevant experimental methods. Theoretical methods commonly used to analyze the electron transport through molecules are presented. Various effects that manifest in the electron transport through MMMs, as well as the basics of density-functional theory and its applications to electronic structure calculations in molecules are presented. Nanoelectronic applications of molecular junctions and similar systems are discussed as well. Molecular electronics is a diverse and rapidly growing field. Transport Properties of Molecular Junctions presents an up-to-date survey of the field suitable for researchers and professionals.

Usually, it is not easy to de?ne the main dates of creation of a new science – the birth date, when the ?rst distinct idea was generated, and the - turity date, when the science manifested itself as a separate and consistent discipline. For particle astrophysics, the science that has developed very - tensively over the last two decades, the birth is most likely to be dated to the beginning of the 1930s. Just then, after the discovery of a neutron by J. Chadwick in 1932, the concept of a neutron star was proposed by L.D. L- dau, and independently by W. Baade and F. Zwicky. The maturation of this science can be more or less con?dently be dated to 1987 when extragal- tic neutrinos were registered for the ?rst time from the supernova SN1987A explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. There are at least two excellent books on the topic written by G.G. R- felt: Stars as Laboratories for Fundamental Physics (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago 1996) and by H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus and K. Zuber: Particle Astrophysics. 2nd ed. (Inst. of Phys., Bristol 2000), where the basics of this new science can be studied. However, new facts and ideas appear so fast that it is necessary for specialists to follow not only journal papers but also electronic preprints, in order to keep abreast of the latest developments.

This book deals with the acceleration and storage of polarized proton beams in cyclic accelerators. Polarized proton beams with hundreds of GeV are, for example, essential for resolving the “spin crisis,” i.e., for understanding the angular momentum distribution inside nucleons. Experience with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven NationalLaboratory(RHICatBNL)hasshownthatpolarizationat205GeV can be obtained, and tests at the pre-accelerating Alternating Gradient S- chrotron(AGS)haveshownthatatleastupto24GeV,thebeampolarization canbequiteundisturbedwhentheacceleratoriswelladjusted,exceptats- cial energies where resonances occur. In particular, it has not been necessary to study closely the variation of the protons’ spin directions across the phase space of the beam. However, at very high energies such as in RHIC, TEVA- TRON, HERA-p, LHC, or a future VLHC, new phenomena can occur that can lead to a signi?cantly diminished beam polarization. For these high energies, it is necessary to look in more detail at the spin motion at each point in phase space, and for this the invariant spin ?eld provestobeausefultool.This?eldgivesrisetoanadiabaticinvariantofsp- orbit motion, and it de?nes the maximum time-average polarization that is usable in a particle physics experiment. Furthermore, the invariant spin ?eld allows the amplitude dependent spin tune to be de?ned and computed and thereby opens the way to a clear evaluation of the e?ects of higher-order spin orbit resonances. In particular, the strengths and the depolarizing e?ects of these resonances can only be determined once the amplitude-dependent spin tune has been computed.

On March 15, 1901, Henri B' enard defended his thesis entitled "Les Tourbillons cellulaires dans une nappe liquide propageant de la chaleur par convection en 1 r' egime permanent" at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. The results contained in this thesis have been at the origin of recent intensive research activities on c- lular structures observed in many physicochemical systems far from equilibrium: instabilities, spatio-temporal patterns, chaos, and turbulence. The French Physical Society organized a scienti?c meeting to commemorate the centenary of B' enard's thesis, at the Ecole Sup' erieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de Paris (ESPCI). This meeting, which gathered approximately one hundred scientists and graduate students working in nonlinear science, was honored by the presence of the director of the ESPCI, Professor Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, Nobel laureate in physics (1991), who gave the opening talk. At the conference, lectures were given by internationally recognized scholars who have contributed to the development of B' enard's work: J.E. Wesfreid, P. Manneville,Y.Pomeau,M.Velarde,J.Gollub,M.Provansal,G.Nicolis,B.C- taing,andP.Coullet.Apostersessionandaroundtableonfurtherdevelopments in nonlinear physics were organized.In the present book, we have extended the list of contributors in order to cover all the aspects involved with B' enard's work, with a main focus on th- mal convection, on B' enard-Marangoni instability and on B' enard-von Karman instability. WewouldliketothankDr.HansKoelschfromSpringerforthepublicationof this monography in the Springer Tracts in Modern Physics series. We ackno- edge a critical reading by C.D. Mitescu and a very helpful technical assistance from Olivier Crumeyrolle.

A comprehensive overview of the physical mechanisms that control electron transport and the characteristics of metal-molecule-metal (MMM) junctions. As far as possible, methods and formalisms presented elsewhere to analyze electron transport through molecules are avoided. This title introduces basic concepts--a description of the electron transport through molecular junctions—and briefly describes relevant experimental methods. Theoretical methods commonly used to analyze the electron transport through molecules are presented. Various effects that manifest in the electron transport through MMMs, as well as the basics of density-functional theory and its applications to electronic structure calculations in molecules are presented. Nanoelectronic applications of molecular junctions and similar systems are discussed as well. Molecular electronics is a diverse and rapidly growing field. Transport Properties of Molecular Junctions presents an up-to-date survey of the field suitable for researchers and professionals.

This book introduces new developments in the field of Time-Reversal Symmetry presenting, for the first time, the Wigner time-reversal operator in the form of a product of two- or three time-reversal operators of lower symmetry.

This text is written for graduate students and researchers who want to understand and simulate experimental findings reflecting the fine structure of electronic or excitonic states in crystalline semiconductors.

This book presents quantum phononics as an exciting new field of research, and introduces readers to the quantum nature of phonons and their application to quantum technologies. Both the theory of and recent experiments in “quantum phononics,” involving e.g. coherent phonons, phonon squeezing, coherent control, and phonon quantum technologies, are presented. The theoretical background of the generation and detection of phonons is described in a way that will be easy to understand for graduate students and experimental scientists who are newcomers to the field. Moreover, the book focuses on coherent phonons produced by ultrafast laser pulses, which can be used for the coherent control of atomic motions in solids and phase transformation. The laser-matter interaction is treated using a density matrix formalism of the time-dependent Schröedinger equation. In addition, the third-order nonlinear optical response of condensed matter is also described.

This book presents quantum phononics as an exciting new field of research, and introduces readers to the quantum nature of phonons and their application to quantum technologies. coherent phonons, phonon squeezing, coherent control, and phonon quantum technologies, are presented.

The revised edition of this established work presents an extended overview of recent applications of symmetry to the description of atomic nuclei, including a pedagogical introduction to symmetry concepts using simple examples. Following a historical overview of the applications of symmetry in nuclear physics, attention turns to more recent progress in the field. Special emphasis is placed on the introduction of neutron-proton and boson-fermion degrees of freedom. Their combination leads to a supersymmetric description of pairs and quartets of nuclei.Expanded and updated throughout, the book now features separate chapters on the nuclear shell model and the interacting boson model, the former including discussion of recent results on seniority in a single-j shell. Both theoretical aspects and experimental signatures of dynamical (super)symmetries are carefully discussed.  This book focuses on nuclear structure physics, but its broad scope makes it suitable for final-year or post-graduate students and researchers interested in understanding the power and beauty of symmetry methods in physics.Review of the 1st Edition:"The subject of this book, symmetries in physical systems, with particular focus on atomic nuclei, is of the utmost importance in modern physical science. In contrast to most treatments, frequently characterized by fearsome formalism, this book leads the reader step-by-step, in an easily understandable way, through this fascinating field...this book is remarkably accessible to both theorists and experimentalists. Indeed, I view it as essential reading for experimental nuclear structure physicists. This is one of the finest volumes on this subject I have ever encountered."Prof. R.F. Casten, Yale University

The revised edition of this established work presents an extended overview of recent applications of symmetry to the description of atomic nuclei, including a pedagogical introduction to symmetry concepts using simple examples. Following a historical overview of the applications of symmetry in nuclear physics, attention turns to more recent progress in the field. Special emphasis is placed on the introduction of neutron-proton and boson-fermion degrees of freedom. Their combination leads to a supersymmetric description of pairs and quartets of nuclei.Expanded and updated throughout, the book now features separate chapters on the nuclear shell model and the interacting boson model, the former including discussion of recent results on seniority in a single-j shell. Both theoretical aspects and experimental signatures of dynamical (super)symmetries are carefully discussed.  This book focuses on nuclear structure physics, but its broad scope makes it suitable for final-year or post-graduate students and researchers interested in understanding the power and beauty of symmetry methods in physics.Review of the 1st Edition:"The subject of this book, symmetries in physical systems, with particular focus on atomic nuclei, is of the utmost importance in modern physical science. In contrast to most treatments, frequently characterized by fearsome formalism, this book leads the reader step-by-step, in an easily understandable way, through this fascinating field...this book is remarkably accessible to both theorists and experimentalists. Indeed, I view it as essential reading for experimental nuclear structure physicists. This is one of the finest volumes on this subject I have ever encountered."Prof. R.F. Casten, Yale University

This book focuses on the topological fermion condensation quantum phase transition (FCQPT), a phenomenon that reveals the complex behavior of all strongly correlated Fermi systems, such as heavy fermion metals, quantum spin liquids, quasicrystals, and two-dimensional systems, considering these as a new state of matter.

This book focuses on the topological fermion condensation quantum phase transition (FCQPT), a phenomenon that reveals the complex behavior of all strongly correlated Fermi systems, such as heavy fermion metals, quantum spin liquids, quasicrystals, and two-dimensional systems, considering these as a new state of matter.

This book introduces the reader to the field of jet substructure, starting from the basic considerations for capturing decays of boosted particles in individual jets, to explaining state-of-the-art techniques.

This book introduces the reader to the field of jet substructure, starting from the basic considerations for capturing decays of boosted particles in individual jets, to explaining state-of-the-art techniques.

This book presents a complementary perspective to Schrödinger theory of electrons in an electromagnetic field, one that does not appear in any text on quantum mechanics. The perspective, derived from Schrödinger theory, is that of the individual electron in the sea of electrons via its temporal and stationary-state equations of motion – the ‘Quantal Newtonian’ Second and First Laws. The Laws are in terms of ‘classical’ fields experienced by each electron, the sources of the fields being quantum-mechanical expectation values of Hermitian operators taken with respect to the wave function. Each electron experiences the external field, and internal fields representative of properties of the system, and a field descriptive of its response. The energies are obtained in terms of the fields. The ‘Quantal Newtonian’ Laws lead to physical insights, and new properties of the electronic system are revealed. New mathematical understandings of Schrödinger theory emerge which show the equation to be intrinsically self-consistent.  Another complimentary perspective to Schrödinger theory is its manifestation as a local effective potential theory described via Quantal Density Functional theory. This description too is in terms of ‘classical’ fields and quantal sources. The theory provides a rigorous physical explanation of the mapping from the interacting system to the local potential theory equivalent.The complementary perspective to stationary ground state Schrödinger theory founded in the theorems of Hohenberg and Kohn, their extension to the presence of a magnetic field and to the temporal domain – Modern Density Functional Theory -- is also described. The new perspectives are elucidated by application to analytically solvable interacting systems. These solutions and other relevant wave function properties are derived.