Physic Technology (PAT 102/3)

Overview of the development of physics in the 20th century.

This introduction to Atomic and Molecular Physics explains how our present model of atoms and molecules has been developed during the last two centuries by many experimental discoveries and from the theoretical side by the introduction of quantum physics to the adequate description of micro-particles. It illustrates the wave model of particles by many examples and shows the limits of classical description. The interaction of electromagnetic radiation with atoms and molecules and its potential for spectroscopy is outlined in more detail and in particular lasers as modern spectroscopic tools are discussed more thoroughly. Many examples and problems with solutions should induce the reader to an intense active cooperation.

Theoretical physics is in trouble. At least that's the impression you'd get from reading a spate of recent books on the continued failure to resolve the 80-year-old problem of unifying the classical and quantum worlds. The seeds of this problem were sewn eighty years ago when a dramatic revolution in physics reached a climax at the 1927 Solvay conference in Brussels. It's the story of a rush to formalize quantum physics, the work of just a handful of men fired by ambition, philosophical conflicts and personal agendas. Sheilla Jones paints an intimate portrait of the key figures who wrestled with the mysteries of the new science of the quantum, along with a powerful supporting cast of famous (and not so famous) colleagues. The Brussels conference was the first time so many of the "quantum ten" had been in the same place: Albert Einstein, the lone wolf; Niels Bohr, the obsessive but gentlemanly father figure; Max Born, the anxious hypochondriac; Werner Heisenberg, the intensely ambitious one; Wolfgang Pauli, the sharp-tongued critic with a dark side; Paul Dirac, the silent Englishman; Erwin Schrodinger, the enthusiastic womanizer; Prince Louis de Broglie, the French aristocrat; and Paul Ehrenfest, who was witness to it all. Pascual Jordan, the ardent Aryan nationalist, came uninvited. This is the story of quantum physics that has never been told, an equation-free investigation into the turbulent development of the new science and its very fallible creators, including little-known details of the personal relationship between the deeply troubled Ehrenfest and his dear friend Albert Einstein. Jones weaves together the personal and the scientific in a heartwarming - and heartbreaking - story of the men who struggled to create quantum physics: a story of passion, tragedy, ambition and science.

Are the phenomena of physics discovered or rather constructed? If physical phenomena are to be understood as constructions, then physics is nothing more than useful fiction, lacking relevance for the characterisation of such a thing as real nature. This book puts forward two theses: First, that astroparticle physics is a very appropriate field for examining this issue; and second, that scientific research would unfold differently, depending on whether such research follows a realistic or a constructivist dynamics. In addition to the presentation of the key elements of astroparticle physics and the summary of evidence for the evaluation of the realistic and social constructivist positions at the present state of this discipline, this book provides some specific examples of research developments that will evolve in different ways in the near future, depending on whether astroparticle physicists pursue their research in the sense of realism or in the sense of social constructivism.

This book identifies opportunities, priorities, and challenges for the field of condensed-matter and materials physics. It highlights exciting recent scientific and technological developments and their societal impact and identifies outstanding questions for future research. Topics range from the science of modern technology to new materials and structures, novel quantum phenomena, nonequilibrium physics, soft condensed matter, and new experimental and computational tools. The book also addresses structural challenges for the field, including nurturing its intellectual vitality, maintaining a healthy mixture of large and small research facilities, improving the field's integration with other disciplines, and developing new ways for scientists in academia, government laboratories, and industry to work together. It will be of interest to scientists, educators, students, and policymakers.