This book aims to integrate, in a pedagogical and technical manner, with detailed derivations, all essential principles of fundamental theoretical physics as developed over the past 100 years. It covers: Quantum physics and Stability Problems in the Quantum World, Minkowski Spacetime Physics Particle Classifications and Underlying Symmetries, Symmetry Violations, Quantum Field Theory of Particle Interactions, Higgs Field Physics, Supersymmetry: A Theory with Mathematical Beauty Superstrings, Gravity and Supergravity, General Relativity Predictions, including Frame Dragging, Intricacies of Black Hole Physics, Perturbative and Non-perturbative Quantum Gravity Intricacies of Modern Cosmology, including Inflation and Power Spectrum If you are in the process of learning, or are lecturing on, any of the subjects above, then this is your book - irrespective of your specialty. With over-specialization and no time to master all the fields given above, students, and perhaps many physicists, may find it difficult to keep up with all the exciting developments going on, and are even less familiar with their underlying technicalities: e.g. they might have heard that the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, but have no idea on how this number is actually computed. This unique book will be of great value to graduate students, instructors and researchers interested in the intricacies and derivations of the many aspects of modern fundamental theoretical physics. And, although a graduate level book, some chapters may also be suitable for advanced undergraduates in their final year.

"It is over half a century since The Feynman lectures on physics were published. A new authoritative account of fundamental physics covering all branches of the subject is now well overdue. The physical world has been written to satisfy this need."--Back cover.

This brilliantly innovative textbook is intended as a first introduction to quantum mechanics and its applications. Townsend's new text shuns the historical ordering that characterizes so-called Modern Physics textbooks and applies a truly modern approach to this subject, starting instead with contemporary single-photon and single-atom interference experiments. The text progresses naturally from a thorough introduction to wave mechanics through applications of quantum mechanics to solid-state, nuclear, and particle physics, thereby including most of the topics normally presented in a Modern Physics course. Examples of topics include blackbody radiation, Bose-Einstein condensation, the band-structure of solids and the silicon revolution, the curve of binding energy and nuclear fission and fusion, and the Standard Model of particle physics. Students can see in quantum mechanics a common thread that ties these topics into a coherent picture of how the world works, a picture that gives students confidence that quantum mechanics really works, too. The book also includes a chapter-length appendix on special relativity for the benefit of students who have not had a previous exposure to this subject.Translation into Chinese.

Lucid, accessible introduction to the influential theory of energy and matter features careful explanations of Dirac's anti-particles, Bohr's model of the atom, and much more. Numerous drawings. 1966 edition.

We live in exciting times. the frontiers of physics have been pushed to unprecedented horizons. the Holy Grail of fundamental physics research today is to find and describe a theory that explains, at least in principle, all physical phenomena, which in turns explains chemistry, biology and other material sciences. This, however, is not without controversy. the current candidate for such a theory is known as string or superstring theory. It suffers from the problem of being a purely mathematical science with no experimental backing and belief in it has been criticized as bordering on "faith" as opposed to scientific scrutiny. On the other hand the recent switching-on of our most advanced experimental tool, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, gives new hope in our search for clues as to what the universe is made of on a fundamental level. What happened exactly on, or even before, the Big Bang? Where are we coming from and where are we going? Questions that have never been addressed before by physicists. the game is afoot and the search is on. This book contains articles by leading physicists describing the current situation. Among them are proponents as well as opponents of string theory, proponents of other ideas, and experimentalists.

Uniting the usually distinct areas of particle physics and quantum field theory, gravity and general relativity, this expansive and comprehensive textbook of fundamental and theoretical physics describes the quest to consolidate the basic building blocks of nature, by journeying through contemporary discoveries in the field, and analysing elementary particles and their interactions. Designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate students and abounding in worked examples and detailed derivations, as well as including historical anecdotes and philosophical and methodological perspectives, this textbook provides students with a unified understanding of all matter at the fundamental level. Topics range from gauge principles, particle decay and scattering cross-sections, the Higgs mechanism and mass generation, to spacetime geometries and supersymmetry. By combining historically separate areas of study and presenting them in a logically consistent manner, students will appreciate the underlying similarities and conceptual connections to be made in these fields.