World Scientific Series In Contemporary Chemical Physics – serie

This book is intended as a tutorial approach to some of the techniques used to deal with quantum dissipation and irreversibility, with special focus on their applications to the theory of measurements. The main purpose is to provide readers without a deep expertise in quantum statistical mechanics with the basic tools to develop a critical judgement on whether the major achievements in this field have to be considered a satisfactory solution of quantum paradox, or rather this ambitious achievement has to be postponed to when a new physics, more general than quantum and classical physics, will be discovered.

Beltrami fields exist commonly in all areas of wave theory. In particular, Beltrami fields are necessary to analyze electromagnetic wave propagation in isotropic chiral materials, numerous examples of which are found in organic chemistry. Artificial chiral composites are evaluated for electromagnetic engineering purposes as well. In this book a comprehensive analysis of electromagnetic fields in chiral materials has been made.

This book addresses the problem of teaching the Electronic Structure and Chemical Bonding of atoms and molecules to high school and university students. It presents the outcomes of thorough investigations of some teaching methods as well as an unconventional didactical approach which were developed during a seminar for further training organized by the University of Bordeaux I for teachers of the physical sciences.The text is the result of a collective effort by eleven scientists and teachers: physicists and chemists doing research at the university or at the CRNS, university professors, and science teachers at high-school or university level.While remaining wide open to the latest discoveries of science, the text also offers a large number of problems along with their solutions and is illustrated by several pedagogic suggestions. It is intended for the use of teachers and students of physics, chemistry, and of the physical sciences in general.

It is well known that classical electrodynamics is riddled with internal inconsistencies springing from the fact that it is a linear, Abelian theory in which the potentials are unphysical. This volume offers a self-consistent hypothesis which removes some of these problems, as well as builds a framework on which linear and nonlinear optics are treated as a non-Abelian gauge field theory based on the emergence of the fundamental magnetizing field of radiation, the B(3) field.

The author of this book presents conceptual and experimental evidence showing that Heisenberg's uncertainty relations are not valid in all cases. Furthermore, he derives a more general set of uncertainty relations. The new relations result from the replacement of the Fourier nonlocal and nontemporal paradigm by wavelet local analysis. These results lead to a coherent and beautiful causal synthesis unifying quantum and classical physics.

This volume is the second edition of the first-ever elementary book on the Langevin equation method for the solution of problems involving the Brownian motion in a potential, with emphasis on modern applications in the natural sciences, electrical engineering and so on. It has been substantially enlarged to cover in a succinct manner a number of new topics, such as anomalous diffusion, continuous time random walks, stochastic resonance etc, which are of major current interest in view of the large number of disparate physical systems exhibiting these phenomena. The book has been written in such a way that all the material should be accessible to an advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student. It draws together, in a coherent fashion, a variety of results which have hitherto been available only in the form of research papers or scattered review articles.

Liquid Crystals, Laptops and Life connects the laptop computer with life itself via liquid crystals, the phases of matter essential to both. In the process it provides an integrated introduction to those parts of chemistry and physics that are necessary for understanding the basic science and technology embedded in the laptop and in life. This book can be understood by students with a good background in high school chemistry and physics; yet it can also serve as a primer for scientists who are not well versed in the areas covered.The first section of the book is devoted to discussion of basic concepts of chemistry and physics. The second section applies these concepts and extends them to three classes of materials that make the laptop possible: liquid crystals, polymers, and semiconductors. The first two classes of materials relate naturally to the molecules essential to life, thus providing an introduction to this area in an independent chapter. The third section focuses on the applied science and technology of semiconductors, digital devices, and computers, as well as liquid crystal displays. This section concludes by illustrating how these materials and technologies are combined in and make possible the laptop computer. The final section discusses applications of liquid crystals to the arts and to life. Each chapter rounds off with references to more advanced literature, exercises that test the reader's understanding, and open-ended questions that encourage the reader to explore the topics in greater depth.

Advances in experimental techniques are allowing researchers to investigate the extremes of the dynamics of particle interactions with electromagnetic fields. The theoretical tools at our disposal are classical and quantum mechanics and experience has shown that it is dangerous to dismiss one at the expense of the other. Each has merits that should be fully explored; the problem, however, is to bridge the gap between them so that the information they give is complementary rather than contradictory. In this book, that goal is achieved by formulating five postulates, and the level of their implementation distinguishes the two mechanics. That the dynamics of particles (charges) is not complete without unifying it with the dynamics of electromagnetic fields is given special emphasis.In the first of three parts in the book, Newton dynamics is formulated from the Liouville equation. In the third part, this forms the basis for implementing the uncertainty postulate to formulate quantum mechanics. The theories of relativity and electromagnetic interactions are derived from one of the five postulates in the second part, and the unification of the dynamics of particles and electromagnetic fields is formulated in the second and the third parts. Numerous examples from each section illustrate the theory.Employing functional analysis instead of the more abstract techniques of linear spaces, linear operators, group theory, etc., the book makes well suited to advanced undergraduate level courses in classical and quantum mechanics. The material is also intended for postgraduate courses, in atomic and molecular physics in particular, with examples covering modern trends in research.The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM featuring various illustrative examples.

Topological Foundations of Electromagnetism seeks a fundamental understanding of the dynamics of electromagnetism; and marshals the evidence that in certain precisely defined topological conditions, electromagnetic theory (Maxwell's theory) must be extended or generalized in order to provide an explanation and understanding of, until now, unusual electromagnetic phenomena. Key to this generalization is an understanding of the circumstances under which the so-called A potential fields have physical effects. Basic to the approach taken is that the topological composition of electromagnetic fields is the fundamental conditioner of the dynamics of these fields. The treatment of electromagnetism from, first, a topological perspective, continuing through group theory and gauge theory, to a differential calculus description is a major thread of the book. Suggestions for potential new technologies based on this new understanding and approach to conditional electromagnetism are also given.

Our original objective in writing this book was to demonstrate how the concept of the equation of motion of a Brownian particle — the Langevin equation or Newtonian-like evolution equation of the random phase space variables describing the motion — first formulated by Langevin in 1908 — so making him inter alia the founder of the subject of stochastic differential equations, may be extended to solve the nonlinear problems arising from the Brownian motion in a potential. Such problems appear under various guises in many diverse applications in physics, chemistry, biology, electrical engineering, etc. However, they have been invariably treated (following the original approach of Einstein and Smoluchowski) via the Fokker-Planck equation for the evolution of the probability density function in phase space. Thus the more simple direct dynamical approach of Langevin which we use and extend here, has been virtually ignored as far as the Brownian motion in a potential is concerned. In addition two other considerations have driven us to write this new edition of The Langevin Equation. First, more than five years have elapsed since the publication of the third edition and following many suggestions and comments of our colleagues and other interested readers, it became increasingly evident to us that the book should be revised in order to give a better presentation of the contents. In particular, several chapters appearing in the third edition have been rewritten so as to provide a more direct appeal to the particular community involved and at the same time to emphasize via a synergetic approach how seemingly unrelated physical problems all involving random noise may be described using virtually identical mathematical methods. Secondly, in that period many new and exciting developments have occurred in the application of the Langevin equation to Brownian motion. Consequently, in order to accommodate all these, a very large amount of new material has been added so as to present a comprehensive overview of the subject.

This volume is the third edition of the first-ever elementary book on the Langevin equation method for the solution of problems involving the translational and rotational Brownian motion of particles and spins in a potential highlighting modern applications in physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, and so on. In order to improve the presentation, to accommodate all the new developments, and to appeal to the specialized interests of the various communities involved, the book has been extensively rewritten and a very large amount of new material has been added. This has been done in order to present a comprehensive overview of the subject emphasizing via a synergetic approach that seemingly unrelated physical problems involving random noise may be described using virtually identical mathematical methods in the spirit of the founders of the subject, viz., Einstein, Langevin, Smoluchowski, Kramers, etc. The book has been written in such a way that all the material should be accessible both to an advanced researcher and a beginning graduate student. It draws together, in a coherent fashion, a variety of results which have hitherto been available only in the form of scattered research papers and review articles.

This book is a collection of papers on a fundamentally new concept in physics — the photon's magnetic field, Bπ. It discusses various applications of Bπ to predict the existence of new magneto-optic phenomena and to reinterpret some of the fundamentals of optics in terms of Bπ of the photon. One of these new phenomena, optical NMR spectroscopy, has already been verified experimentally, leading to a new analytical technique of widespread potential utility.

The book is suitable for a lecture course on the theory of Brownian motion, being based on final year undergraduate lectures given at Trinity College, Dublin. Topics that are discussed include: white noise; the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation — Kramers-Moyal expansion; the Langevin equation; the Fokker-Planck equation; Brownian motion of a free particle; spectral density and the Wiener-Khintchin theorem — Brownian motion in a potential application to the Josephson effect, ring laser gyro; Brownian motion in two dimensions; harmonic oscillators; itinerant oscillators; linear response theory; rotational Brownian motion; application to loss processes in dielectric and ferrofluids; superparamagnetism and nonlinear relaxation processes.As the first elementary book on the Langevin equation approach to Brownian motion, this volume attempts to fill in all the missing details which students find particularly hard to comprehend from the fundamental papers contained in the Dover reprint — Selected Papers on Noise and Stochastic Processes, ed. N Wax (1954) — together with modern applications particularly to relaxation in ferrofluids and polar dielectrics.

This first volume of this two-volume set deals with the important recent discovery of the photomagneton of electromagnetic radiation, a discovery which is fundamental in quantum field theory and in quantum mechanics in matter. The photomagneton is the elementary quantum of magnetic flux density carried by the individual photon in free space, and is generated directly by the intrinsic angular momentum of the free photon. The volume develops the theory of the photomagneton in a series of papers, which cover all the major aspects of the theory, from classical electrodynamics to the relativistic quantum field. Several suggestions are given for experimental tests, and the available experimental evidence is discussed in detail. The overall conclusion of the series of papers is that the photomagneton, which is observable experimentally in magneto-optical phenomena, indicates the presence in free space of a novel, longitudinal, magnetic flux density, linked ineluctably to the usual transverse components. If the photomagneton is not observed, then a paradox would have emerged at the most fundamental electrodynamical level, necessitating a modification of the Maxwell equations themselves.

Until recently, the Mori-Zwanzig projection operator method, though powerful and simple, has been considered as a half-heuristic one. This book is devoted to a rigorous generalization of this method as well as its applications to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The well-known idea of the description of dynamical system evolution in terms of collective dynamical variables has been developed to a functional perturbation theory, which results in the master equation of any given accuracy. Examples of statistical mechanics applications of the method include a linearized transport theory and explicit expressions for transport coefficients of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous liquids, which are in good agreement with experimental data and simulation results.

This multi-authored book includes selected contributions reviewing the results achieved in the synthesis and characterization of organized polymeric materials. The focus is on competitive materials with liquid crystalline or electroconductive properties. The fine tuning of the properties offered by advanced chemical synthesis has been investigated by a large number of state-of-the-art techniques, including both microscopic (ESR, NMR, dielectrometry, fluorescence, IR, Raman spectroscopy) and macroscopic (calorimetric, mechanical) methodologies. The book also provides an updated coverage of the most challenging applications of organized polymers as functional materials in the fields of electrooptical devices, information retrieval and organic electroconductors.

This book is conceived as a lecture course on the theory of dielectric and Kerr effect relaxation in molecular fluids. It is based on seminars and lectures to final year graduate students and students preparing for a Ph.D. The book comprises the following: the rotational diffusion equation; perturbative solution obtained from convolution products; Kerr effect response in pulsed electric fields; rotary friction and diffusion coefficients in the case of partial slip conditions; linear detection; electric birefringence in time-varying fields; study of phase angles; the Fokker-Planck-Kramers equation; the role of molecular rotational inertia; and nonlinear dielectric relaxation in coupled electric fields.The literature on the subject originates essentially from review articles which, however, are pitched at such a high level that it is very difficult for students to understand. Moreover, a lot of details are missing from the calculations in these fundamental papers. This book therefore attempts, in a more didactic manner, to fill these gaps.

The topics covered in this book provide a qualitative and sometimes quantitative classic description of the wide-band 0-THz dielectric spectra of polar liquids, molecular libration-rotation (which is the reason for dielectric loss and absorption of electromagnetic waves), simple molecular models differing by the intermolecular-potential profiles, and present a comparison between the theoretical and experimental dependencies and derivation of the main results. A new feature is the application of a number of analytical models to different substances, including strongly absorbing nonassociating liquids, liquid water, water bound by macromolecules, and gas-like liquids. The presentation of the theory in this book is also new. It is based on the dynamic method in which the Brownian reorientations are considered implicitly, without direct solution of stochastic equations. This approach simplifies the theory. Senior students and experimentalists will find many of the results valuable.

The central theme, which threads through the entire book, concerns computational modeling methods for water. Modeling results for pure liquid water, water near ions, water at interfaces, water in biological microsystems, and water under other types of perturbations such as laser fields are described. Connections are made throughout the book with statistical mechanical theoretical methods on the one hand and with experimental data on the other. The book is expected to be useful not only for theorists and computer analysts interested in the physical, chemical, biological and geophysical aspects of water, but also for experimentalists in these fields.

This book provides a comprehensive account, from first principles, of the methods of numerical quantum mechanics, beginning with formulations and fundamental postulates. The development continues with that of the Hamiltonian and angular momentum operators, and with methods of approximating the solutions of the Schroedinger equation with variational and perturbation methods.Chapter 3 is a description of the Hartree-Fock self-consistent field method, which is developed systematically for atoms. The Born-Oppenheimer approximation is introduced, and the numerical methods presented one by one thereafter in a logically consistent way that should be accessible to undergraduates. These include LCAO, Hartree-Fock-SCF method for molecules, Roothaan LCAO-MO-SCF method, and electron correlation energy.Chapter 4 is devoted to the more sophisticated computational methods in quantum chemistry, with an introduction to topics that include: the zero differential overlap approximation; Huckel MO theory of conjugated molecules; Pariser-Parr-Pople MO method; extended Huckel theory; neglect of differential overlap methods; invariance in space requirements; CNDO; INDO; NDDO; MINDO; MNDO; AM1; MNDO-PM3; SAM1; SINDO1; CNDO/S; PCILO,Xα; and ab initio methods.This is followed by an introduction to Moller-Plesset perturbation theory of many electrons, and coupled perturbed Hartree Fock theory, with a description of the coupled cluster method. Finally Chapter 5 applies these methods to problems of contemporary interest.The book is designed to be a junior/senior level text in computational quantum mechanics, suitable for undergraduates and graduates in chemistry, physics, computer science, and associated disciplines.

This volume contains the Proceedings of the International Workshop on “Non-Equilibrium Phenomena in Supercooled Fluids, Glasses and Amorphous Materials”, held in Pisa in the early fall of 1995 as a joint initiative of the University of Pisa and of the Scuola Normale Superiore. The goal was to bring together liquid state physicists, chemists and engineers, to review current developments and comparatively discuss experimental facts and theoretical predictions in this vast scientific area. The core of the Workshop was a set of general lectures followed by more specific presentations on current issues in the main areas of the field. This structure has been maintained in this volume, in which a set of five overviews is followed by topically grouped contributions in the five areas of ionic glasses and glassy materials, the glass transition, viscous flow and microscopic relaxation, complex fluids, and polymers. The volume also preserves a record of the many short contributions given to the Workshop through posters, which are grouped in it under the subjects of inorganic glasses, organic glasses and complex fluids, polymers, and theoretical aspects.

This book is devoted to the classical and quantum phases in wave and particle optics from the viewpoint of both theory and applications. Wave and beam light optics are reviewed in considerable detail, featuring optical imaging and holography in linear optics and phase conjugation methods in nonlinear optics. Photon optics is embodied here as quantum optics with the modes treated as quantum harmonic oscillators. The importance of the Wigner function for the phase space description in the context of canonical quantization is respected and the method of quasidistributions related to operator orderings in the second-quantized theory is exposed. The history of the quantum phase problem, characterized by renewed interest in the solution to the problem, is included and brought up to date. Approaches based on exponential phase operators, discrete phase states, the enlargement of the Hilbert space of the harmonic oscillator leading to the phase representations and distributions, together with solutions motivated by the quasidistributions, are introduced. The operational approach to the quantum phase is contrasted with the previous formalisms. The results of the study of the coherent states and the ordinary squeezed states from the viewpoint of the quantum phase and those of the analysis of the quantum statistics of phase-related special states of the light field are provided. The quantum phase is also treated with respect to quantum interferometry, particle interferometry, nonlinear optical processes, and quantum nondemolition measurements.The book will prove indispensable to research workers in general optics, quantum optics and electronics, optoelectronics, and nonlinear optics, as well as to students of physics, optics, optoelectronics, photonics, and optical engineering.

This book presents extended forms of the Maxwell equations as well as electromagnetic fields, based on a non-zero divergence of the electric field and a non-zero electric conductivity in vacuo. These approaches, which predict new features of the electromagnetic field, such as the existence of both longitudinal and transverse solutions, the existence of space-charge current in vacuo, and steady electromagnetic equilibria, have possible applications to charge and neutral leptons and new photon physics. The present theory can also clear up some unsolved problems, such as the total reflection of light at the interface between a vacuum and a dissipative medium, and the appearance of an angular momentum of the photon, thereby leading to a rest mass and an axial magnetic field component of the photon. This axial magnetic field component may be related to the B(3) field proposed by Evans and Vigier. A new gauge condition has been proposed to maintain consistency of the theory with the non-zero photon mass. Several consequences of the non-zero mass of the photon are also discussed, especially in the astrophysical context.

This book, a companion volume to Electronic Structure and Chemical Bonding (World Scientific, 1996), is concerned with the teaching of optical spectroscopies of electronic absorption. It is the culmination of about ten years of experience in the teaching of the subject and the training of students to become teachers in the physical sciences.The book covers topics of current research and includes about 30 problems with solutions, most of which are adapted from tests proposed recently at the “Aggregation” in chemistry and physics. It provides as much coverage of elementary quantum mechanics, group theory and the electronic structure of molecules as is necessary for the reader to understand the rest of the topics. Also included are numerous appendices, often presented as charts to facilitate assimilation, as well as short bibliographies, limited to basic books and review articles.This volume will be an invaluable guide for teachers and potential teachers in the physical sciences, and more generally for students and engineers in chemical physics and physics.

Divergencies in quantum field theory referred to as “infinite zero-point energy” have been a problem for 70 years. Renormalization has always been considered an unsatisfactory remedy.In 1985 it was found that Maxwell's equations generally do not have solutions that satisfy the causality law. An additional term for magnetic dipole currents corrected this shortcoming. Rotating magnetic dipoles produce magnetic dipole currents, just as rotating electric dipoles in a material like barium titanate produce electric dipole currents. Electric dipole currents were always part of Maxwell's equations.This book shows that the correction of Maxwell's equations eliminates the infinite zero-point energy in quantum electrodynamics. In addition, it presents many more new results.

This book is aimed at a large audience: scientists, engineers, professors and students wise enough to keep a critical stance whenever confronted with the chilling dogmas of contemporary physics. Readers will find a tantalizing amount of material calculated to nurture their thoughts and arouse their suspicion, to some degree at least, on the so-called validity of today's most celebrated physical theories.

This book discusses in detail the mathematical aspects and physical applications of a new geometrical structure of space-time. It is based on a generalization (”deformation”) of the usual Minkowski space, supposedly endowed with a metric whose coefficients depend on the energy.Energy and Geometry: Geometrical Description of Interactions is suitable for researchers, academics and students in mathematical and theoretical physics.This book has been selected for coverage in:• CC / Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences• Index to Scientific Book Contents® (ISBC)

Three key aspects of quantum gravity are considered in this book: phenomenology, potential experimental aspects and foundational theory. The phenomenology is the treatment of metric quantum fluctuations as torsional curves that deviate from classical expectations. This leads to possible experimental configurations that may detect such fluctuations. Most of these proposed experiments are quantum optical measurements of subtle quantum gravity effects in the interaction of photons and atoms. The foundational discussions attempt to find an substratum to string theories, which are motivated by the phenomenological treatment. Quantum gravity is not the quantization of general relativity, but is instead the embedding of quantum theory and gravitation into a more fundamental field theoretic framework.