Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

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Format: XI, 349 p. 196 illus., 195 illus. in color. , online resource.

Edition: 2nd ed. 2022.

ISBN: 9783030987534

Series Statement: The Frontiers Collection,

Content: This book provides unique and comprehensive conceptual explanations of quantum field theory and the standard model of particle physics. How can fundamental particles exist as waves in the vacuum? How can such waves have particle properties such as inertia? What is behind the notion of virtual particles? Why and how do particles exert forces on one another? Not least: What are forces anyway? These are some of the central questions that have intriguing answers in Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Unfortunately, these theories are highly mathematical, so that most people-even many scientists-are not able to fully grasp their meaning. This book untangles these theories in a conceptual non-mathematical way, using more than 190 figures and extensive explanations and will provide the nonspecialist with great insights that are not to be found in the popular science literature. This fully revised and expanded second edition adds remarkable insights into the transition from quantum to classical world using the concepts of quantum decoherence, while also explaining "collapse of the wave function", tunnelling and quantum computing.

Note: Introduction -- Particles or waves? -- Fields -- What is a particle if it is a wave? -- A matter of energy exchange -- A wave of relativity -- Quantization of fields -- Energy in waves and fields -- Symmetry and the origin of force -- Propagators and virtual particles -- Renormalisation of fearful infinities -- Spin makes up bosons and fermions -- Conservation of charge and particle number -- Particle zoo -- Electroweak force in the early universe -- The breaking of the world will never be the same -- The strong force: Quantum Chromo Dynamics -- Gravity as a field -- Further reading -- References and sources.

In: Springer Nature eBook

Additional Edition: Printed edition: ISBN 9783030987527

Additional Edition: Printed edition: ISBN 9783030987541

Language: English

Subjects: Physics

Keywords: Lehrbuch ; Einführung

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-98753-4

URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98753-4

URL: Volltext  (URL des Erstveröffentlichers)

URL: lizenzpflichtig

UID:

Format: 1 online resource (347 pages)

Edition: Second edition.

ISBN: 3-030-98753-1 , 9783030987534

Series Statement: Frontiers collection

Note: Intro -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Particles or Waves? -- 2.1 How to Describe a Wave -- 2.1.1 Wavelength Represents Momentum -- 2.1.2 Frequency Represents Energy -- 2.1.3 Superposition and Interference of Waves -- 2.1.4 Measurement -- 2.2 Probability Amplitude -- 2.3 What Is Waving? -- 3 Fields and Waves Making Up Reality -- 3.1 What Is a Field? -- 3.2 All We Are Is Waves in a Field -- 3.2.1 Objection 1: How Can a Billiard Ball Be a Wave? -- 3.2.2 Objection 2: But Things Do Not Look Like Waves -- 3.2.3 Objection 3: How Can Waves Make a Table Seem Massive? -- 3.2.4 Objection 4: But Waves Die Out, Don't They? -- 3.2.5 Objection 5: What, Then, Is Empty Space, Through Which I Can Throw a Ball? -- 3.2.6 Objection 6: Oh-No, Not the Ether Again… -- 3.3 Conclusion -- 4 What Is a Particle If It Is a Wave? -- 4.1 Where Is a Particle? -- 4.2 Waves in Space -- 4.3 Waves in Space and the Double Slit Experiment -- 4.4 Waves in Time -- 4.5 A Particle Is a Bunch of Waves -- 4.6 Velocity of Particles and Waves -- 5 The Potential of a Field's Elasticity -- 5.1 Exchanging Energy in a Field -- 5.2 Waves in a Medium -- 6 A Wave of Relativity -- 6.1 Wave Velocity -- 6.2 How Does a Wave Become Massive? -- 6.2.1 A Game with Rope and Springs -- 6.2.2 Consequence 1: You Cannot Go Faster Than Light -- 6.2.3 Consequence 2: The Relation Between Frequency and Wavelength Depends on the Mass -- 6.2.4 Consequence 3: Mass = Inertia -- 6.2.5 Consequence 4: Other Potential Differences Can Create "Mass" -- 6.2.6 Consequence 5: Mass Can Be Changed Into Energy -- 6.2.7 Example: Photons in a Plasma -- 6.2.8 Conclusion and Summary -- 6.3 The Elasticity of the Minkowski Metric -- 6.4 Length Contraction and Time Dilation of Waves -- 6.5 About Higgs -- 7 Quantization of Fields -- 7.1 First Quantization -- 7.2 Second Quantization -- 7.3 Phonons -- 7.4 Conclusion. , 8 Energy in Waves and Fields -- 8.1 Conservation Laws -- 8.1.1 Energy-Momentum Tensor -- 8.2 How to Envision a Field Quantum -- 8.2.1 Coupled Oscillators -- 8.3 Annihilation of a Field Quantum -- 8.4 Describing a Field Quantum -- 9 Symmetry and the Origin of Force -- 9.1 Rotational Symmetry -- 9.1.1 Rotations in a Plane -- 9.1.2 Rotations in Three Dimensions -- 9.1.3 Rotations in Eight Dimensions -- 9.2 The Electromagnetic Field -- 9.2.1 QED -- 9.2.2 The Electromagnetic Field -- 9.3 Path Integral -- 9.4 How Does Symmetry Create a Force? -- 9.5 A Constant Field and the Refractive Index -- 9.6 Conclusion Regarding the Electromagnetic Force -- 10 Propagators and Virtual Particles -- 10.1 Time Order of Events and Feynman Diagrams -- 10.2 Propagator -- 10.3 Relation Between Virtual and Real Particles -- 10.3.1 Summarizing -- 10.4 What Is an Electron Really? -- 10.5 How Do Virtual Particles Create a Force? -- 10.5.1 Electrons of Equal Charge -- 10.5.2 An Electron and a Positron -- 10.5.3 Conclusion -- 10.6 Path Integral Revisited -- 10.7 Fluctuating Fields -- 10.7.1 Casimir effect -- 10.8 The Arrow of Time -- 11 Renormalisation of Fearful Infinities -- 11.1 Renormalizing Mass -- 11.2 Renormalizing Charge -- 11.3 Renormalisation Group -- 12 Is the Cat Dead or Alive? How Quantum Decoherence 'Digitized' the Universe -- 12.1 Quantum De-Coherence and "Collapse of the Wave Function" -- 12.1.1 Entanglement -- 12.1.2 Quantum Decoherence -- 12.1.3 The Transition from Quantum Behaviour to Classical Behaviour -- 12.2 Tunnelling and Decoherence -- 12.3 Quantum Computing -- 12.4 Schrödinger's Cat -- 13 Spin Makes Up Bosons and Fermions -- 13.1 What Is Spin? -- 13.1.1 Orbital Momentum in the Atom -- 13.1.2 The Origin of Spin -- 13.1.3 Spin as a Wave -- 13.2 Fermions and Bosons -- 13.2.1 Wave Phase -- 13.2.2 Fermions -- 13.2.3 Bosons -- 13.2.4 Spinor Fields. , 13.2.5 Fermions in Opposite Spin -- 13.3 Helicity -- 13.4 Chirality -- 13.4.1 Fermions Come with Two Chiralities, Called Left and Right. Bosons Do Not -- 13.4.2 Under Parity, the Chirality of a Fermion Is Swapped to the Opposite Chirality -- 13.4.3 Low Velocity Fermions Flip Chirality at the Frequency of Their Mass -- 13.4.4 Chirality Is Not the Same as Spin -- 13.4.5 Fermions of Different Chirality Are Different Particles -- 13.4.6 At Very High Velocities, the Chirality of Fermions Becomes Fixed and Related to Their Helicity -- 13.5 Fermions Becoming Bosons -- 13.6 Conclusions on Spin, Helicity, and Chirality -- 14 Conservation of Charge and Particle Number -- 14.1 Particle Number Conservation -- 14.2 Charge Conservation -- 15 Particle Zoo -- 15.1 A Visit to the Particle Zoo -- 15.2 Introducing the Fundamental Particle Overview -- 15.3 The Rabbit Hole -- 16 Electroweak Force in the Early Universe -- 16.1 The First 10−12 s -- 16.1.1 Electron and Neutrino Waves -- 16.1.2 Introducing the Original U(1) Gauge Field -- 16.2 Symmetry Amongst the Waves -- 16.2.1 Introducing the SU(2) Gauge Field -- 16.2.2 Including Isospin Symmetry in the Overview of Waves -- 16.3 Introducing the Higgs Field -- 16.3.1 Fields Overview First 10−12 s -- 16.4 Fundamental Particle Overview 2 -- 17 Symmetry Breaking and the World Was Never the Same Again -- 17.1 Mixing Fields -- 17.1.1 What Condensates in the Vacuum? -- 17.2 Breaking the Symmetry of the Higgs Field -- 17.2.1 Consequences for the U(1) and SU(2) Gauge Bosons -- 17.2.2 Mass of the W−, W+ and Z° -- 17.2.3 Consequences for the Fermion Interaction Potentials -- 17.3 Interactions -- 17.3.1 Photon Interactions -- 17.3.2 W-Interactions -- 17.3.3 Z-Interactions -- 17.3.4 Z-W Self-interactions -- 17.3.5 Neutron Decay -- 17.3.6 Radioactive Decay -- 17.3.7 Cabibbo Rotation -- 17.3.8 Neutrino Oscillations -- 17.3.9 Concluding. , 17.4 Fermions Gaining Mass -- 17.5 Parity Violation and CPT Symmetry -- 17.6 Family Business -- 17.7 Fundamental Particle Overview 3 -- 18 The Strong Force: Quantum Chromodynamics -- 18.1 The Big Why -- 18.2 The Colour Symmetry -- 18.3 QCD Fields: Overview -- 18.3.1 Colour Confinement -- 18.3.2 Quark Jets -- 18.3.3 Asymptotic Freedom -- 18.4 Composite Particles -- 18.5 Interactions -- 18.5.1 Quark-Quark Colour Interactions -- 18.5.2 Annihilation and Creation -- 18.5.3 Gluon-Gluon Interactions -- 18.5.4 Proton-Anti-proton Collisions -- 18.5.5 Residual Strong Force or "Nuclear Force" -- 18.6 Masses of Quarks, Mesons, and Baryons -- 18.7 Fundamental Particle Overview 4 -- 19 Gravity as a Field -- 19.1 A Field Theory of Gravity -- 19.2 Background Independence -- 19.3 Other Problems -- 20 Further Reading -- 20.1 Pop Science -- 20.2 The Internet -- References and Sources -- Index.

Additional Edition: ISBN 3-030-98752-3

Additional Edition: ISBN 9783030987527

Language: English