High Energy Electrodynamics In Matter

This highly-regarded text provides a comprehensive introduction to modern particle physics. Extensively rewritten and updated, this 4th edition includes developments in elementary particle physics, as well as its connections with cosmology and astrophysics. As in previous editions, the balance between experiment and theory is continually emphasised. The stress is on the phenomenological approach and basic theoretical concepts rather than rigorous mathematical detail. Short descriptions are given of some of the key experiments in the field, and how they have influenced our thinking. Although most of the material is presented in the context of the Standard Model of quarks and leptons, the shortcomings of this model and new physics beyond its compass (such as supersymmetry, neutrino mass and oscillations, GUTs and superstrings) are also discussed. The text includes many problems and a detailed and annotated further reading list.

Recent scientific and technical advances have made it possible to create matter in the laboratory under conditions relevant to astrophysical systems such as supernovae and black holes. These advances will also benefit inertial confinement fusion research and the nation's nuclear weapon's program. The report describes the major research facilities on which such high energy density conditions can be achieved and lists a number of key scientific questions about high energy density physics that can be addressed by this research. Several recommendations are presented that would facilitate the development of a comprehensive strategy for realizing these research opportunities.

Physics of Intense Charged Particle Beams in High Energy Accelerators is a graduate-level text — complete with 75 assigned problems — which covers a broad range of topics related to the fundamental properties of collective processes and nonlinear dynamics of intense charged particle beams in periodic focusing accelerators and transport systems. The subject matter is treated systematically from first principles, using a unified theoretical approach, and the emphasis is on the development of basic concepts that illustrate the underlying physical processes in circumstances where intense self fields play a major role in determining the evolution of the system. The theoretical analysis includes the full influence of dc space charge and intense self-field effects on detailed equilibrium, stability and transport properties, and is valid over a wide range of system parameters ranging from moderate-intensity, moderate-emittance beams to very-high-intensity, low-emittance beams. This is particularly important at the high beam intensities envisioned for present and next generation accelerators, colliders and transport systems for high energy and nuclear physics applications and for heavy ion fusion. The statistical models used to describe the properties of intense charged particle beams are based on the Vlasov-Maxwell equations, the macroscopic fluid-Maxwell equations, or the Klimontovich-Maxwell equations, as appropriate, and extensive use is made of theoretical techniques developed in the description of one-component nonneutral plasmas, and multispecies electrically-neutral plasmas, as well as established techniques in accelerator physics, classical mechanics, electrodynamics and statistical physics.Physics of Intense Charged Particle Beams in High Energy Accelerators emphasizes basic physics principles, and the thorough presentation style is intended to have a lasting appeal to graduate students and researchers alike. Because of the advanced theoretical techniques developed for describing one-component charged particle systems, a useful companion volume to this book is Physics of Nonneutral Plasmas by Ronald C Davidson./a

A valuable and complete resource that brings together many of the branches of physics needed in high-energy-density physics. Targeted at research scientists and graduate students in physics and astrophysics, this book begins with basic concepts and develops a detailed explanation of the physics of hydrodynamics and energy transport in plasma.

Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a quantum field theory describing light-matter interaction processes on all energy scales. In QED, not only photons are represented as occupied modes of a quantum field, but also electrons (matter) and positrons (antimatter). The necessity of the introduction of antimatter, which goes back to P.A.M. Dirac, has finally the consequence that the QED quantum field cannot be decomposed into its components (particles and photons), since in this sector of light-matter interactions there are processes allowed which violate the particle number conservation. This radically distinguishes QED from the low-energy sector of the light-matter interactions on the energy scale of atomic physics. Starting from the QED Hamiltonian in the Coulomb gauge, a unitary transformation is therefore sought that leads to a unitary equivalent QED Hamiltonian that manifestly preserves the particle number. This is feasible applying Wegner's flow equation in combination with perturbation theory, with the fine structure constant serving as the expansion parameter. In this way, first, high-energy photons, and second, modes of high matter and antimatter densities are eliminated from the QED quantum field up to second order. The resulting Hamiltonian preserves the particle number, is completely symmetric in all its constituents and in all interactions, and also includes terms which renormalize the bare mass of the electron (or the positron). Since this Hamiltonian is still in the Dirac representation, the matter and antimatter degrees of freedom must be decoupled from each other with the help of the Eriksen transformation. By this decoupling, the bare mass of the electron is consistently renormalized, and the anomalous magnetic moment is found in agreement with the Schwinger result. It is thus possible to establish the nonrelativistic limit of full QED as the low-energy sector of light-matter interaction processes in which the electron (or positron) can be interpreted as a classical point particle with the measurable attributes of mass, charge and spin, and in which the particle number is a conservation quantity.

This book contains lecture notes by world experts on topological quantum phenomena, which are being developed at unprecedented rates in novel material systems.

From molecular motors to bacteria, from crawling cells to large animals, active entities are found at all scales in the biological world. Active matter encompasses systems whose individual constituents irreversibly dissipate energy to exert self-propelling forces on their environment. Over the past twenty years, scientists have managed to engineer synthetic active particles in the lab, paving the way towards smart active materials. This book gathers a pedagogical set of lecture notes that cover topics in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and active matter. These lecture notes stem from the first summer school on Active Matter delivered at the Les Houches school of Physics. The lectures covered four main research directions: collective behaviours in active-matter systems, passive and active colloidal systems, biophysics and active matter, and nonequilibrium statistical physics--from passive to active.