There Are No Electrons

An off-beat introduction to how electricity works in practical applications.

An understanding of the effects of electronic correlations in quantum systems is one of the most challenging problems in physics, partly due to the relevance in modern high technology. Yet there exist hardly any books on the subject which try to give a comprehensive overview on the field covering insulators, semiconductors, as well as metals. The present book tries to fill that gap.It intends to provide graduate students and researchers a comprehensive survey of electron correlations, weak and strong, in insulators, semiconductors and metals. This topic is a central one in condensed matter and beyond that in theoretical physics. The reader will have a better understanding of the great progress which has been made in the field over the past few decades.

Low-energy electrons are ubiquitous in nature and play an important role in natural phenomena as well as many potential and current industrial processes. Authored by 16 active researchers, this book describes the fundamental characteristics of low-energy electron–molecule interactions and their role in different fields of science and technology, including plasma processing, nanotechnology, and health care, as well as astro- and atmospheric physics and chemistry. The book is packed with illustrative examples, from both fundamental and application sides, features about 130 figures, and lists over 800 references. It may serve as an advanced graduate-level study course material where selected chapters can be used either individually or in combination as a basis to highlight and study specific aspects of low-energy electron–molecule interactions. It is also directed at researchers in the fields of plasma physics, nanotechnology, and radiation damage to biologically relevant material (such as in cancer therapy), especially those with an interest in high-energy-radiation-induced processes, from both an experimental and a theoretical point of view.

As a continuation of classical condensed matter physics texts, this graduate textbook introduces advanced topics of correlated electron systems, mesoscopic transport,quantum computing, optical excitations and topological insulators. The book is focusing on an intuitive understanding of the basic concepts of these rather complex subjects.

Reveals the links between an atom's structure and its chemical destiny showing how an atom makes its passage through nature.

An intellectual biography of J. J. and G. P. Thomson for academics and graduate students, focusing on the concept of the electron.

This textbook sets out to enable readers to understand fundamental aspects underlying quantum macroscopic phenomena in solids, primarily through the modern experimental techniques and results. The classic independent-electrons approach for describing the electronic structure in terms of energy bands helps explain the occurrence of metals, insulators and semiconductors. It is underlined that superconductivity and magnetism can only be understood by taking into account the interactions between electrons. The text recounts the experimental observations that have revealed the main properties of the superconductors and were essential to track its physical origin. While fundamental concepts are underlined, those which are required to describe the high technology applications, present or future, are emphasized as well. Problem sets involve experimental approaches and tools which support a practical understanding of the materials and their behaviour.

Conquering the Electron offers readers a true and engaging history of the world of electronics, beginning with the discoveries of static electricity and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smartphone and the iPad. This book shows the interconnection of each advance to the next on the long journey to our modern-day technologies. Exploring the combination of genius, infighting, and luck that powered the creation of today's electronic age, Conquering the Electron debunks the hero worship so often plaguing the stories of great advances. Want to know how AT&T’s Bell Labs developed semiconductor technology—and how its leading scientists almost came to blows in the process? Want to understand how radio and television work—and why RCA drove their inventors to financial ruin and early graves? Conquering the Electron offers these stories and more, presenting each revolutionary technological advance right alongside blow-by-blow personal battles that all too often took place.

The bestselling author of E=mc2 weaves tales of romance, divine inspiration, and fraud through an account of the invisible force that permeates our universe—electricity—and introduces us to the virtuoso scientists who plumbed its secrets. For centuries, electricity was seen as little more than a curious property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention. The force that once seemed inconsequential was revealed to be responsible for everything from the structure of the atom to the functioning of our brains. In harnessing its power, we have created a world of wonders—complete with roller coasters and radar, computer networks and psychopharmaceuticals. In Electric Universe, the great discoverers come to life in all their brilliance and idiosyncrasy, including the visionary Michael Faraday, who struggled against the prejudices of the British class system, and Samuel Morse, a painter who, before inventing the telegraph, ran for mayor of New York City on a platform of persecuting Catholics. Here too is Alan Turing, whose dream of a marvelous thinking machine—what we know as the computer—was met with indifference, and who ended his life in despair after British authorities forced him to undergo experimental treatments to “cure” his homosexuality. From the frigid waters of the Atlantic to the streets of Hamburg during a World War II firestorm to the interior of the human body, Electric Universe is a mesmerizing journey of discovery.