According to the author of this concise, high-level study, physicists often shy away from group theory, perhaps because they are unsure which parts of the subject belong to the physicist and which belong to the mathematician. However, it is possible for physicists to understand and use many techniques which have a group theoretical basis without necessarily understanding all of group theory. This book is designed to familiarize physicists with those techniques. Specifically, the author aims to show how the well-known methods of angular momentum algebra can be extended to treat other Lie groups, with examples illustrating the application of the method. Chapters cover such topics as a simple example of isospin; the group SU3 and its application to elementary particles; the three-dimensional harmonic oscillator; algebras of operators which change the number of particles; permutations; bookkeeping and Young diagrams; and the groups SU4, SU6, and SU12, an introduction to groups of higher rank. Four appendices provide additional valuable data.

Lie Groups for Pedestrians (Dover Books on Physics)

Science & Math

Lipkin, Harry J.

Mathematics

Dover Publications

The "pedestrian approach" was developed to describe some essentially simple experimental results and their theoretical implications in plain language. In this graduate-level text, Harry J. Lipkin presents simply, but without oversimplification, the aspects of beta decay that can be understood without reference to the formal theory; that is, the reactions that follow directly from conservation laws and elementary quantum mechanics. The pedestrian treatment is neither a substitute for a complete treatment nor a watered-down version. Its derivation of results obtainable without the formal theory makes these results more understandable and less mysterious to those who have neither the time nor the inclination to master the details of the theory. On the other hand, those already acquainted with the formal theory will find in the pedestrian treatment a clear distinction between results dependent on the specific assumptions underlying the formal theory and those independent of these assumptions, which follow from simple general principles. Since peculiar experimental results are an ever-present possibility, it is always useful to have a simple method of evaluating challenges to theoretical assumptions or approximations.

Beta Decay for Pedestrians (Dover Books on Physics)

Physics

Dover `

Acclaimed as "excellent" (Nature) and "very original and refreshing" (Physics Today), this collection of self-contained studies is geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Its broad selection of topics includes the Mössbauer effect, many-body quantum mechanics, scattering theory, Feynman diagrams, and relativistic quantum mechanics. Author Harry J. Lipkin, a well-known teacher at Israel's Weizmann Institute, takes an unusual approach by introducing many interesting physical problems and mathematical techniques at a much earlier point than in conventional texts. This method enables students to observe the physical implications and useful applications of quantum theory before mastering the formalism in detail, and it provides them with new mathematical tools at an earlier stage for use in subsequent problems.

Quantum Mechanics: New Approaches to Selected Topics (Dover Books on Physics)

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Beta Decay for Pedestrians

Hassell Street Press

In 1980, the Cold War was in full bloom. The Soviet father of the hydrogen bomb and Nobel Peace Laureate turned dissident physicist, Andrei Sakharov, had been exiled to Gorki by the Soviet authorities. Called "senile" and under heavy Soviet censorship, Sakharov had a hard time communicating his latest scientific results to readers outside of Gorki. Some smuggled results reached the author, Harry Lipkin, who then realized that he and Sakharov were both pioneers in a new revolution on our understanding the structure of matter. The particle physics community had resisted their revelation that the accepted building blocks of matter, neutrons and protons, were composed of tinier building blocks called "quarks." What followed was a remarkable adventure in which both scientists fought the Soviet censors, smuggling postcards and manuscripts into and out of the Soviet Union while trying to further scientific progress.Against a backdrop of politics, suppression, and genius, Andrei Sakharov, Quarks and the Structure of Matter details the search for the basic building blocks of matter, the path to understanding the forces that bind them together, and how scientific knowledge is learned, communicated and passed from one group of investigators to another.

Andrei Sakharov: Quarks And The Structure Of Matter

History & Philosophy

WSPC