A Nobel laureate offers a brief lesson on physics' biggest mystery, accessibly explaining the two quantum revolutions that changed our understanding of reality.At the start of the twentieth century, the first quantum revolution upset our vision of the world. New physics offered surprising realities, such as wave-particle duality, and led to major inventions: the transistor, the laser, and today's computers. Less known is the second quantum revolution, arguably init...

A groundbreaking work on quantum physics, tracing more than a century of physics history, that explores the questions that have occupied the greatest physicists.If Einstein Had Known is a unique exploration of Alain Aspect’s fascination with the debate between two giants of physics Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein over the interpretation of quantum mechanics. Aspect places this debate within the incredible history of quantum physics. And while his admiration...

Quantum physics, which offers an explanation of the world on the smallest scale, has fundamental implications that pose a serious challenge to ordinary logic. Particularly counterintuitive is the notion of entanglement, which has been explored for the past 30 years and posits an ubiquitous randomness capable of manifesting itself simultaneously in more than one place.This amazing 'non-locality' is more than just an abstract curiosity or paradox: it has entirely down-to-earth applica...

John Bell, FRS was one of the leading expositors and interpreters of modern quantum theory. He is particularly famous for his discovery of the crucial difference between the predictions of conventional quantum mechanics and the implications of local causality, a concept insisted on by Einstein. John Bell's work played a major role in the development of our current understanding of the profound nature of quantum concepts and of the fundamental limitations they impose on the applicability of...

Covering a number of important subjects in quantum optics, this textbook is an excellent introduction for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, familiarizing readers with the basic concepts and formalism as well as the most recent advances. The first part of the textbook covers the semi-classical approach where matter is quantized, but light is not. It describes significant phenomena in quantum optics, including the principles of lasers. The second part is devoted to the ...

"Human beings are a superstitious lot; we see patterns everywhere. But as Hand makes clear in this enlightening book, it all comes down to the math." —Jennifer Ouellette, The New York Times Book ReviewA Success Magazine Best Book of the YearIn The Improbability Principle, the renowned statistician David J. Hand argues that extraordinarily rare events are anythi...

The co-author of the internationally bestselling The Rebel Sell brings us "slow politics": promoting slow thought, slow deliberation and slow debate.Over the last twenty years, the political systems of the western world have become increasingly divided--not between right and left but between crazy and non-crazy. Whats more, the crazies seem to be gaining the upper hand. Rational thought cannot prevail in the current social and media environment, where ele...

Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein's general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united in a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum and cosmos ever be combined? On this issue, two of the world's most famous physicists--Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time) and Roger Penrose (The Emperor...

Explore the power of the underdog in Malcolm Gladwell's dazzling examination of success, motivation, and the role of adversity in shaping our lives, from the bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia.Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's vict...

Quantum physics is believed to be the fundamental theory underlying our understanding of the physical universe. However, it is based on concepts and principles that have always been difficult to understand and controversial in their interpretation. This book aims to explain these issues using a minimum of technical language and mathematics. After a brief introduction to the ideas of quantum physics, the problems of interpretation are identified and explained. The rest of the book surveys, ...

This book is a modern pedagogic introduction to the ideas and techniques of quantum field theory. After a brief overview of particle physics and a survey of relativistic wave equations and Lagrangian methods, the quantum theory of scalar and spinor fields, and then of gauge fields, is developed. The emphasis throughout is on functional methods, which have played a large part in modern field theory. The book concludes with a brief survey of 'topological' objects in field theory and, new to ...

A fun and fascinating look at great scientific paradoxes.Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. For example, how can a cat be both dead and alive at the same time? Why will Achilles never beat a tortoise in a race, no matter how fast he r...