Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

Key Features of the new edition

Besides a general revision of text and formulae, three new chapters have been added.

- Chapter 17 introduces and discusses double beta decay processes with and without neutrino emission, the latter being the only process able to determine the Dirac or Majorana nature of the neutrino (discussed in Chapter 13). A discussion of the limits to the Majorana neutrino mass obtained recently in several underground laboratories is included.

- Chapter 18 illustrates the calculation of the mass spectrum of "quarkonia" (mesons composed by a pair of heavy, charm or beauty quarks), in analogy with the positronium spectrum discussed in Chapter 12. This calculation has put into evidence the existence of "unexpected" states and has led to the new field of "exotic hadrons", presently under active theoretical and experimental scrutiny.

- Chapter 19 illustrates the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, extensively used in the computation of simple molecules, and its application to the physics of exotic hadrons containing a pair of heavy quarks, with application to the recently observed doubly charmed baryons.