Drawing Theories Apart

Author : David Kaiser
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2009-11-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226422657

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Drawing Theories Apart by David Kaiser Pdf

Winner of the 2007 Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society. Feynman diagrams have revolutionized nearly every aspect of theoretical physics since the middle of the twentieth century. Introduced by the American physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) soon after World War II as a means of simplifying lengthy calculations in quantum electrodynamics, they soon gained adherents in many branches of the discipline. Yet as new physicists adopted the tiny line drawings, they also adapted the diagrams and introduced their own interpretations. Drawing Theories Apart traces how generations of young theorists learned to frame their research in terms of the diagrams—and how both the diagrams and their users were molded in the process. Drawing on rich archival materials, interviews, and more than five hundred scientific articles from the period, Drawing Theories Apart uses the Feynman diagrams as a means to explore the development of American postwar physics. By focusing on the ways young physicists learned new calculational skills, David Kaiser frames his story around the crafting and stabilizing of the basic tools in the physicist's kit—thus offering the first book to follow the diagrams once they left Feynman's hands and entered the physics vernacular.

Author : Freeman Dyson
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2011-11-25
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789814397193

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Advanced Quantum Mechanics by Freeman Dyson Pdf

Renowned physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson is famous for his work in quantum mechanics, nuclear weapons policy and bold visions for the future of humanity. In the 1940s, he was responsible for demonstrating the equivalence of the two formulations of quantum electrodynamics — Richard Feynman's diagrammatic path integral formulation and the variational methods developed by Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonoga — showing the mathematical consistency of QED. This invaluable volume comprises the legendary lectures on quantum electrodynamics first given by Dyson at Cornell University in 1951. The late theorist Edwin Thompson Jaynes once remarked, “For a generation of physicists they were the happy medium: clearer and better motivated than Feynman, and getting to the point faster than Schwinger”. This edition has been printed on the 60th anniversary of the Cornell lectures, and includes a Foreword writer science historian David Kaiser, as well as notes from Dyson's lectures at the Les Houches Summer School of Theoretical Physics in 1954. The Les Houches lectures, described as a supplement to the original Cornell notes, provide a more detailed look at field theory, a careful and rigorous derivation of Fermi's Golden Rule, and a masterful treatment of renormalization and Ward's Identity. Future generations of physicists are bound to read these lectures with pleasure, benefiting from the lucid style that is so characteristic of Dyson's exposition. Contents:Introduction:BooksSubject MatterDetailed ProgramOne-Particle TheoriesThe Dirac Theory:The Form of the Dirac EquationLorentz Invariance of the Dirac EquationTo Find the SThe Covariant NotationConservation Laws. Existence of SpinElementary SolutionsThe Hole TheoryPositron StatesElectromagnetic Properties of the ElectronThe Hydrogen AtomSolution of Radial EquationBehaviour of an Electron in a Non-Relativistic ApproximationSummary of Matrices in the Dirac Theory in Our NotationSummary of Matrices in the Dirac Theory in the Feynman NotationScattering Problems and Born Approximation:General DiscussionProjection OperatorsCalculation of TracesScattering of Two Electrons in Born Approximation. The Møller FormulaRelation of Cross-sections to Transition AmplitudesResults for Møller ScatteringNote on the Treatment of Exchange EffectsRelativistic Treatment of Several ParticlesField Theory:Classical Relativistic Field TheoryQuantum Relativistic Field TheoryThe Feynman Method of QuantizationThe Schwinger Action PrincipleExamples of Quantized Field Theories:The Maxwell FieldTheory of Line Shift and Line WidthField Theory of the Dirac Electron, Without InteractionField Theory of Dirac Electron in External FieldField Theory of Dirac and Maxwell FieldsFree Particle Scattering Problems:Møller Scattering of Two ElectronsScattering of a Photon by an Electron. The Compton Effect. Klein-Nishina FormulaTwo Quantum Pair AnnihilationBremsstrahlung and Pair Creation in the Coulomb Field of an AtomGeneral Theory of Free Particle Scattering:The Reduction of an Operator to Normal FormFeynman GraphsFeynman Rules of CalculationThe Self-Energy of the ElectronSecond-Order Radiative Corrections to ScatteringThe Treatment of Low-Frequency Photons. The Infra-Red CatastropheScattering by a Static Potential. Comparison with Experimental Results:The Magnetic Moment of the ElectronRelativistic Calculation of the Lamb Shift Readership: Physicists, graduate and undergraduate students. Keywords:Relativistic Quantum Mechanics;Quantum Field Theory;Quantum ElectrodynamicsKey Features:Freeman Dyson's first physics textbookMany important details clearly explained, including the reason for 4 x 4 Dirac matrices, the magnetic moment of the electron, etc.Very well-balanced treatment of field theory and QEDThe original exposition has been expanded by about 40% with the Les Houches lecturesReviews: Reviews of the First Edition “… one can profit significantly from the insight into the physics beneath the apparatus, and the extensive and detailed treatment of some problems. Therefore it may be very useful as an additional source in the preparation of a course on quantum field theory … I highly recommend this book to get a different view on quantum field theory, and also to understand how quantum field theory emerged in its present form at all.” Mathematical Reviews “The fame of these lectures as well as of this author, together with the enduring interest in their contents attested by this transcription, obviously classify the book as of great interest to students and researchers willing to hear a presentation of quantum electrodynamics from one of the founding fathers.” Zentralblatt MATH “This book is likely to be of interest mainly to historians of science … one thing was done rather well was the relativistic treatment of the spectrum of the hydrogen atom, which is found algebraically and, rather elegantly and efficiently. The treatment of fluctuations in fields had some nice points …” CERN Courier

Author : David Kaiser
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 305 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2022-10-25
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780262371391

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"Well, Doc, You're In" by David Kaiser Pdf

The life and work of Freeman Dyson—renowned scientist, visionary, and iconoclast—and his particular way of thinking about deep questions. Freeman Dyson (1923–2020)—renowned scientist, visionary, and iconoclast—helped invent modern physics. Not bound by disciplinary divisions, he went on to explore foundational topics in mathematics, astrophysics, and the origin of life. General readers were introduced to Dyson’s roving mind and heterodox approach in his 1979 book Disturbing the Universe, a poignant autobiographical reflection on life and science. “Well, Doc, You’re In” (the title quotes Richard Feynman’s remark to Dyson at a physics conference) offers a fresh examination of Dyson’s life and work, exploring his particular way of thinking about deep questions that range from the nature of matter to the ultimate fate of the universe. The chapters—written by leading scientists, historians, and science journalists, including some of Dyson’s colleagues—trace Dyson’s formative years, his budding interests and curiosities, and his wide-ranging work across the natural sciences, technology, and public policy. They describe Dyson’s innovations at the intersection of quantum theory and relativity, his novel nuclear reactor design (and his never-realized idea of a spacecraft powered by nuclear weapons), his years at the Institute for Advanced Study, and his foray into cosmology. In the coda, Dyson’s daughter Esther reflects on growing up in the Dyson household. “Well, Doc, You’re In” assesses Dyson’s successes, blind spots, and influence, assembling a portrait of a scientist’s outsized legacy. Contributors Jeremy Bernstein, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Esther Dyson, George Dyson, Ann Finkbeiner, Amanda Gefter, Ashutosh Jogalekar, David Kaiser, Caleb Scharf, William Thomas

Author : Bryan Gin-ge Chen,David Derbes,David Griffiths,Brian Hill,Richard Sohn,Yuan-Sen Ting
Publisher : World Scientific Publishing
Page : 1196 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2018-11-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789814635523

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Lectures of Sidney Coleman on Quantum Field Theory by Bryan Gin-ge Chen,David Derbes,David Griffiths,Brian Hill,Richard Sohn,Yuan-Sen Ting Pdf

'Sidney Coleman was the master teacher of quantum field theory. All of us who knew him became his students and disciples. Sidney’s legendary course remains fresh and bracing, because he chose his topics with a sure feel for the essential, and treated them with elegant economy.' Frank WilczekNobel Laureate in Physics 2004 Sidney Coleman was a physicist's physicist. He is largely unknown outside of the theoretical physics community, and known only by reputation to the younger generation. He was an unusually effective teacher, famed for his wit, his insight and his encyclopedic knowledge of the field to which he made many important contributions. There are many first-rate quantum field theory books (the venerable Bjorken and Drell, the more modern Itzykson and Zuber, the now-standard Peskin and Schroeder, and the recent Zee), but the immediacy of Prof. Coleman's approach and his ability to present an argument simply without sacrificing rigor makes his book easy to read and ideal for the student. Part of the motivation in producing this book is to pass on the work of this outstanding physicist to later generations, a record of his teaching that he was too busy to leave himself.

Author : David Kaiser
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 450 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Education
ISBN : 0262112884

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Pedagogy and the Practice of Science by David Kaiser Pdf

Studies examining the ways in which the training of engineers and scientists shapes their research strategies and scientific identities.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : PediaPress
Page : 1121 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2024-06-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Superstrings, P-branes and M-theory by Anonim Pdf

Author : Christopher Gregory Weaver
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2018-08-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781315449074

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Fundamental Causation by Christopher Gregory Weaver Pdf

Fundamental Causation addresses issues in the metaphysics of deterministic singular causation, the metaphysics of events, property instances, facts, preventions, and omissions, as well as the debate between causal reductionists and causal anti-reductionists. The book also pays special attention to causation and causal structure in physics. Weaver argues that causation is a multigrade obtaining relation that is transitive, irreflexive, and asymmetric. When causation is singular, deterministic and such that it relates purely contingent events, the relation is also universal, intrinsic, and well-founded. He shows that proper causal relata are events understood as states of substances at ontological indices. He then proves that causation cannot be reduced to some non-causal base, and that the best account of that relation should be unashamedly primitivist about the dependence relation that underwrites its very nature. The book demonstrates a distinctive realist and anti-reductionist account of causation by detailing precisely how the account outperforms reductionist and competing anti-reductionist accounts in that it handles all of the difficult cases while overcoming all of the general objections to anti-reductionism upon which other anti-reductionist accounts falter. This book offers an original and interesting view of causation and will appeal to scholars and advanced students in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of physics.

Author : Hélène Mialet
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2012-06-28
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780226522265

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Hawking Incorporated by Hélène Mialet Pdf

These days, the idea of the cyborg is less the stuff of science fiction and more a reality, as we are all, in one way or another, constantly connected, extended, wired, and dispersed in and through technology. One wonders where the individual, the person, the human, and the body are—or, alternatively, where they stop. These are the kinds of questions Hélène Mialet explores in this fascinating volume, as she focuses on a man who is permanently attached to assemblages of machines, devices, and collectivities of people: Stephen Hawking. Drawing on an extensive and in-depth series of interviews with Hawking, his assistants and colleagues, physicists, engineers, writers, journalists, archivists, and artists, Mialet reconstructs the human, material, and machine-based networks that enable Hawking to live and work. She reveals how Hawking—who is often portrayed as the most singular, individual, rational, and bodiless of all—is in fact not only incorporated, materialized, and distributed in a complex nexus of machines and human beings like everyone else, but even more so. Each chapter focuses on a description of the functioning and coordination of different elements or media that create his presence, agency, identity, and competencies. Attentive to Hawking’s daily activities, including his lecturing and scientific writing, Mialet’s ethnographic analysis powerfully reassesses the notion of scientific genius and its associations with human singularity. This book will fascinate anyone interested in Stephen Hawking or an extraordinary life in science.

Author : Aaron Sidney Wright
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 425 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2024-03-11
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780190062804

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More Than Nothing by Aaron Sidney Wright Pdf

Across decades and disciplines, More than Nothing offers a scoping history of the vacuum as a lens into the development of modern physics.

Author : A. Zee
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 608 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2010-02-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781400835324

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Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell by A. Zee Pdf

A fully updated edition of the classic text by acclaimed physicist A. Zee Since it was first published, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell has quickly established itself as the most accessible and comprehensive introduction to this profound and deeply fascinating area of theoretical physics. Now in this fully revised and expanded edition, A. Zee covers the latest advances while providing a solid conceptual foundation for students to build on, making this the most up-to-date and modern textbook on quantum field theory available. This expanded edition features several additional chapters, as well as an entirely new section describing recent developments in quantum field theory such as gravitational waves, the helicity spinor formalism, on-shell gluon scattering, recursion relations for amplitudes with complex momenta, and the hidden connection between Yang-Mills theory and Einstein gravity. Zee also provides added exercises, explanations, and examples, as well as detailed appendices, solutions to selected exercises, and suggestions for further reading. The most accessible and comprehensive introductory textbook available Features a fully revised, updated, and expanded text Covers the latest exciting advances in the field Includes new exercises Offers a one-of-a-kind resource for students and researchers Leading universities that have adopted this book include: Arizona State University Boston University Brandeis University Brown University California Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon College of William & Mary Cornell Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Northwestern University Ohio State University Princeton University Purdue University - Main Campus Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rutgers University - New Brunswick Stanford University University of California - Berkeley University of Central Florida University of Chicago University of Michigan University of Montreal University of Notre Dame Vanderbilt University Virginia Tech University

Author : Jonathan Eburne
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
Page : 555 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2018-09-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781452958255

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Outsider Theory by Jonathan Eburne Pdf

A vital and timely reminder that modern life owes as much to outlandish thinking as to dominant ideologies What do the Nag Hammadi library, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, speculative feminist historiography, Marcus Garvey’s finances, and maps drawn by asylum patients have in common? Jonathan P. Eburne explores this question as never before in Outsider Theory, a timely book about outlandish ideas. Eburne brings readers on an adventure in intellectual history that stresses the urgency of taking seriously—especially in an era of fake news—ideas that might otherwise be discarded or regarded as errant, unfashionable, or even unreasonable. Examining the role of such thinking in contemporary intellectual history, Eburne challenges the categorical demarcation of good ideas from flawed, wild, or bad ones, addressing the surprising extent to which speculative inquiry extends beyond the work of professional intellectuals to include that of nonprofessionals as well, whether amateurs, unfashionable observers, or the clinically insane. Considering the work of a variety of such figures—from popular occult writers and gnostics to so-called outsider artists and pseudoscientists—Eburne argues that an understanding of its circulation and recirculation is indispensable to the history of ideas. He devotes close attention to ideas and texts usually omitted from or marginalized within orthodox histories of literary modernism, critical theory, and continental philosophy, yet which have long garnered the critical attention of specialists in religion, science studies, critical race theory, and the history of the occult. In doing so he not only sheds new light on a fascinating body of creative thought but also proposes new approaches for situating contemporary humanities scholarship within the history of ideas. However important it might be to protect ourselves from “bad” ideas, Outsider Theory shows how crucial it is for us to know how and why such ideas have left their impression on modern-day thinking and continue to shape its evolution.

Author : James Mattingly
Publisher : SAGE Publications
Page : 1801 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2022-10-28
Category : Reference
ISBN : 9781506353289

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The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics by James Mattingly Pdf

Project Description: Theories are part and parcel of every human activity that involves knowing about the world and our place in it. In all areas of inquiry from the most commonplace to the most scholarly and esoteric, theorizing plays a fundamental role. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics focuses on the ways that various STEM disciplines theorize about their subject matter. How is thinking about the subject organized? What methods are used in moving a novice in given field into the position of a competent student of that subject? Within the pages of this landmark work, readers will learn about the complex decisions that are made when framing a theory, what goes into constructing a powerful theory, why some theories change or fail, how STEM theories reflect socio-historical moments in time and how – at their best – they form the foundations for exploring and unlocking the mysteries of the world around us. Featuring more than 200 authoritative articles written by experts in their respective fields, the encyclopedia includes a Reader’s Guide that organizes entries by broad themes; lists of Further Readings and cross-references that conclude each article; and a Resource Guide listing classic books in the field, leading journals, associations, and key websites.

Author : Eberhard Zeidler
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 1060 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2007-04-18
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783540347644

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Quantum Field Theory I: Basics in Mathematics and Physics by Eberhard Zeidler Pdf

This is the first volume of a modern introduction to quantum field theory which addresses both mathematicians and physicists, at levels ranging from advanced undergraduate students to professional scientists. The book bridges the acknowledged gap between the different languages used by mathematicians and physicists. For students of mathematics the author shows that detailed knowledge of the physical background helps to motivate the mathematical subjects and to discover interesting interrelationships between quite different mathematical topics. For students of physics, fairly advanced mathematics is presented, which goes beyond the usual curriculum in physics.

Author : Tristan Hübsch
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 581 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2023-01-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781009291521

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Advanced Concepts in Particle and Field Theory by Tristan Hübsch Pdf

This 2015 advanced textbook, now OA, provides students with a unified understanding of all matter at a fundamental level.

Author : Anthony Duncan
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2012-08-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780191642203

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The Conceptual Framework of Quantum Field Theory by Anthony Duncan Pdf

The book attempts to provide an introduction to quantum field theory emphasizing conceptual issues frequently neglected in more "utilitarian" treatments of the subject. The book is divided into four parts, entitled respectively "Origins", "Dynamics", "Symmetries", and "Scales". The emphasis is conceptual - the aim is to build the theory up systematically from some clearly stated foundational concepts - and therefore to a large extent anti-historical, but two historical Chapters ("Origins") are included to situate quantum field theory in the larger context of modern physical theories. The three remaining sections of the book follow a step by step reconstruction of this framework beginning with just a few basic assumptions: relativistic invariance, the basic principles of quantum mechanics, and the prohibition of physical action at a distance embodied in the clustering principle. The "Dynamics" section of the book lays out the basic structure of quantum field theory arising from the sequential insertion of quantum-mechanical, relativistic and locality constraints. The central role of symmetries in relativistic quantum field theories is explored in the third section of the book, while in the final section, entitled "Scales", we explore in detail the feature of quantum field theories most critical for their enormous phenomenological success - the scale separation property embodied by the renormalization group properties of a theory defined by an effective local Lagrangian.