Electroweak Processes in External Electromagnetic Fields

ISBN-13: 9780387400747 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 120 str.

Alex V. Kuznetsov; A. Kuznetsov; N. Mikheev

Opis

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.

Spis treści

Solutions of the Dirac Equation in an External Electromagnetic Field.- Fermion Propagator in an External Electromagnetic Field.- Generalized Two-Point Loop Amplitude in an External Electromagnetic Field.- Tree-Level Quantum Processes in an External Field.- Loop-Level Quantum Processes in an External Electromagnetic Field.

Blurb

This book explores the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology known as astroparticle physics. Extreme electromagnetic conditions present in puslars and other stars allow for investigations of the role of quantum processes in the dynamics of astrophysical objects and in the early Universe. Based in part on the authors' own work, this book systematically describes several methods of calculation of the effects of strong electromagnetic fields in quantum processes using analytical solutions of the Dirac equation and Feynmann diagrams at both the loop and tree levels. The consideration is emphasized at the two limiting cases: the case of a very strong magnetic field, and the case of a crossed field. The presentation will appeal to graduate students of theoretical physics with prior understanding of Quantum Field Theory (QFT) and the Standard Model of Electroweak Interactions, as well as specialists in QFT wishing to know more about the problems of quantum phenomena in external electomagnetic fields.