Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Physics - Quantum Theory

This book is a systematic study of the classical and quantum theories of gauge systems. It starts with Dirac's analysis showing that gauge theories are constrained Hamiltonian systems. The classical foundations of BRST theory are then laid out with a review of the necessary concepts from homological algebra. Reducible gauge systems are discussed, and the relationship between BRST cohomology and gauge invariance is carefully explained. The authors then proceed to the canonical quantization of gauge systems, first without ghosts (reduced phase space quantization, Dirac method) and second in...

Based on a highly regarded lecture course at Moscow State University, this is a clear and systematic introduction to gauge field theory. It is unique in providing the means to master gauge field theory prior to the advanced study of quantum mechanics. Though gauge field theory is typically included in courses on quantum field theory, many of its ideas and results can be understood at the classical or semi-classical level. Accordingly, this book is organized so that its early chapters require no special knowledge of quantum mechanics. Aspects of gauge field theory relying on quantum...

P.J.E. Peebles teaches the often counterintuitive physics of quantum mechanics by working through detailed applications of general ideas. A principal example used in the book is the hyperfine structure of atomic hydrogen (the 21 cm line): the computation of the energy splitting and the induced and spontaneous transition rates. Peebles makes room for such calculations by omitting unneeded elements that can be readily found in the standard treatises after one fully understands the principles of quantum mechanics. To give a flavor of the discovery of the remarkable world picture of quantum...

Quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of subatomic particles, seems to challenge common sense. Waves behave like particles; particles behave like waves. You can tell where a particle is, but not how fast it is moving--or vice versa. An electron faced with two tiny holes will travel through both at the same time, rather than one or the other. And then there is the enigma of creation ex nihilo, in which small particles appear with their so-called antiparticles, only to disappear the next instant in a tiny puff of energy. Since its inception, physicists and philosophers have...

Although the subject matter is standard, novel techniques have been employed that considerably simplify the technical presentation. The authors use their extensive experience of teaching and popularizing...