The physicist Friedrich Houtermans (1903-1966) was an essential promoter and proponent of the development of physics in Berne. He introduced a number of activities in the field of elementary particles, with a special focus on the physics of cosmic rays, and important contributions in applied physics.
This biography of Houtermans was written by Edoardo Amaldi and was almost finished just before his unexpected death in 1989. The editors have only corrected typographical errors and have introduced only minimal text changes in order to preserve the original content. Additionally they have...
The physicist Friedrich Houtermans (1903-1966) was an essential promoter and proponent of the development of physics in Berne. He introduced a numb...
This Brief presents an introduction to the theory of the renormalization group in the context of quantum field theories of relevance to particle physics. Emphasis is placed on gaining a physical understanding of the running of the couplings. The Wilsonian version of the renormalization group is related to conventional perturbative calculations with dimensional regularization and minimal subtraction. An introduction is given to some of the remarkable renormalization group properties of supersymmetric theories.
This Brief presents an introduction to the theory of the renormalization group in the context of quantum field theories of relevance to particle physi...
Biomedical imaging is a relatively young discipline that started with Conrad Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of the x-ray in 1895. X-ray imaging was rapidly adopted in hospitals around the world. However, it was the advent of computerized data and image processing that made revolutionary new imaging modalities possible. Today, cross-sections and three-dimensional reconstructions of the organs inside the human body is possible with unprecedented speed, detail and quality. This book provides an introduction into the principles of image formation of key medical imaging modalities: X-ray...
Biomedical imaging is a relatively young discipline that started with Conrad Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of the x-ray in 1895. X-ray imaging was rapi...
The state-of-the-art in the theoretical statistical physics treatment of the Janus fluid is reported with a bridge between new research results published in journal articles and a contextual literature review. Recent Monte Carlo simulations on the Kern and Frenkel model of the Janus fluid have revealed that in the vapor phase, below the critical point, there is the formation of preferred inert clusters made up of a well-defined number of particles: the micelles and the vesicles. This is responsible for a re-entrant gas branch of the gas-liquid binodal. Detailed account of this findings are...
The state-of-the-art in the theoretical statistical physics treatment of the Janus fluid is reported with a bridge between new research results publis...
Glasses containing metallic nanoparticles exhibit very promising linear and nonlinear optical properties, mainly due to the surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) of the nanoparticles. The spectral position in the visible and near-infrared range and polarization dependence of the SPR are characteristically determined by the nanoparticles' shapes.
The focus of Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser Engineered Metal-Glass Nanocomposites is the interaction of intense ultra-short laser pulses with glass containing silver nanoparticles embedded in soda-lime glass, and nanostructural modifications in...
Glasses containing metallic nanoparticles exhibit very promising linear and nonlinear optical properties, mainly due to the surface plasmon resonan...
Recently the interest in Bohm realist interpretation of quantum mechanics has grown. The important advantage of this approach lies in the possibility to introduce non-locality ab initio, and not as an "unexpected host." In this book the authors give a detailed analysis of quantum potential, the non-locality term and its role in quantum cosmology and information. The different approaches to the quantum potential are analysed, starting from the original attempt to introduce a realism of particles trajectories (influenced by de Broglie's pilot wave) to the recent dynamic interpretation provided...
Recently the interest in Bohm realist interpretation of quantum mechanics has grown. The important advantage of this approach lies in the possibility ...
Ever since Einstein's special relativity in 1905, the principle of invariant light speed in vacuum has been attracting attention from a wide range of disciplines. How to interpret the principle of light speed? Is light referred to continuous light, or light pulse with definite boundaries? Recent discovery of superluminal medium triggered vigorous discussion within the Physics community. Can communication via such "superluminal channel" break the speed limit and thus violate causality principle? Or, will a single photon, which is not governed by classical laws of Physics, tend to break the...
Ever since Einstein's special relativity in 1905, the principle of invariant light speed in vacuum has been attracting attention from a wide range ...
This book represents the first detailed description, including both theoretical aspects and experimental methods, of the interaction of rare-earth ions with surface plasmon polariton from the point of view of collective plasmon-photon interactions via resonance modes (metal nanoparticles or nanostructure arrays) with quantum emitters (rare-earth ions). These interactions are of particular interest for applications to optical telecommunications, optical displays, and laser solid state technologies. Thus, our main goal is to give a more precise overview of the rapidly emerging field of...
This book represents the first detailed description, including both theoretical aspects and experimental methods, of the interaction of rare-earth ion...
Quantum correlations are not restricted to the well known entanglement investigated in Bell-type experiments. Other forms of correlations, for example quantum discord, have recently been shown to play an important role in several aspects of quantum information theory. First experiments also support these findings. This book is an introduction into this up-and-coming research field and its likely impact on quantum technology. After giving a general introduction to the concept of quantum correlations and their role in quantum information theory, the author describes a number of pertinent...
Quantum correlations are not restricted to the well known entanglement investigated in Bell-type experiments. Other forms of correlations, for example...
This brief offers a concise presentation of granular fluids from the point of view of non-equilibrium statistical physics. The emphasis is on fluctuations, which can be large in granular fluids due to the small system size (the number of grains is many orders of magnitude smaller than in molecular fluids).
Firstly, readers will be introduced to the most intriguing experiments on fluidized granular fluids. Then granular fluid theory, which goes through increasing levels of coarse-graining and emerging collective phenomena, is described. Problems and questions are initially posed at the...
This brief offers a concise presentation of granular fluids from the point of view of non-equilibrium statistical physics. The emphasis is on fluct...
