RIT Libraries Recent Acquisitions - Physics

A Passion for Discovery / Peter Freund

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: This fascinating book assembles human stories about physicists and mathematicians. Remarkably, these stories cluster around some general themes having to do with the interaction between scientists, and with the impact of historic events such as the advent of fascism and communism in the twentieth century on scientists behavior. Briefly, but lucidly, some of the beautiful science that brought these scientists together in the first place is explained.

Added: Thursday, Oct 2 2008

Planetary Rings / Larry Esposito

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Including results from the Cassini space mission to Saturn, this summary of current knowledge of planetary rings covers all aspects of the subject with particular emphasis on ring history and evolution. Basic physical processes and simple mathematical approaches are supported by many images and diagrams that display the spectacular phenomena seen in these fascinating structures. Highlighted topics include Saturn's F ring, Neptune's rings, Jupiter's rings, stochastic models, ring age and evolution, and Cassini results. The text is supported by a glossary of terms and an extensive bibliography directs the reader to original references and resources.

Added: Thursday, Oct 2 2008

From Quanta to Quarks : More Anecdotal History of Physics / Anton Z. Capri

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: This enlightening book, a sequel to QUIPS, QUOTES, AND QUANTA, helps readers to understand how physicists think about and look at the world. Starting with the discovery and investigation of cosmic rays, the book proceeds to cover some major areas of modern physics in laymen's terms. Unlike other books that deal with the history of physics, this volume concentrates on anecdotes about the physicists who created the new ideas, with a heavy emphasis on personal incidents and quotes. At the same time it presents, in every day language, the ideas created by these physicists. Both thematic and biographical in nature, readers will be entertained with humorous events in the lives of some famous scientists. Readers will also learn quite a lot about modern physics without the mathematical details, but with the important concepts intact.

Added: Thursday, Oct 2 2008

The Birth of Stars and Planets / John Bally, Bo Reipurth

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Star formation is the fundamental cosmic process which makes galaxies visible, and regulates the evolution of normal matter in the Universe. New instruments and technologies are now enabling the exploration of fundamental cosmic processes. Scientists are beginning to understand the beauty and complexity of star and planet formation and their role in cosmic evolution. This fascinating book combines the latest astronomical images and data with descriptions of the exciting recent developments in the study of star and planet formation. The authors discuss isolated star birth in dark clouds, the formation of star clusters and nebulae, the 'ecology' of interstellar gas and dust, and the violent starbursts that may produce black holes. They relate these processes to the evolution of galaxies and the origin of life on Earth. Written using non-technical language, the book will appeal to readers with an interest in understanding the Universe and our cosmic origins.

Added: Thursday, Oct 2 2008

Quips, Quotes, and Quanta : an Anecdotal History of Physics / Anton Z. Capri

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: This book deals with the history of physics, covering important developments in physics from the end of the nineteenth century to about 1930. Major topics include relativity theory (both special and general) and quantum mechanics. This book is unique in that it concentrates on anecdotes about the physicists creating the new ideas. Both thematic and biographical in nature, it contains a heavy emphasis on personal incidents or quotes. Readers will be entertained with humorous incidents in the lives of some famous scientists, and simultaneously learn quite a bit of modern physics without the mathematical details, but with the important concepts. Academics and anyone interested in science in the most general sense are likely to want to read this book.

Added: Tuesday, Sep 30 2008

Can Star Systems Be Explored? : the Physics of Star Probes / Lawrence B. Crowell

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: This book is an exposition of classical mechanics and relativity that addresses the question of whether it is possible to send probes to extrasolar systems. It examines largely well-understood physics to consider the possibility of exploring the nearby interstellar environment in a similar fashion to how the solar system has been explored. As such, this book is both a semipopularization of basic physics and an informal study of a likely future technological development. An auxilliary text on basic physics for students and laypersons as well as an illustration of the problems with interstellar exploration, this book is a must-read.

Added: Thursday, Sep 25 2008

Extrasolar Planets : Formation, Detection and Dynamics / Edited By Rudolf Dvorak

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: This latest, up-to-date resource for research on extrasolar planets covers formation, dynamics, atmospheres and detection. After a look at the formation of giant planets, the book goes on to discuss the formation and dynamics of planets in resonances, planets in double stars, atmospheres and habitable zones, detection via spectra and transits, and the history and prospects of ESPs as well as satellite projects. Edited by a renowned expert in solar system dynamics with chapters written by the leading experts in the method describedfrom the US and Europethis is an ideal textbook for graduates, students in astronomy, and astronomers.

Added: Thursday, Sep 25 2008

Handbook of Space Astronomy and Astrophysics / Martin V. Zombeck

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Fully updated with data from space-based observations and a comprehensive index and bibliography, this third edition contains the most frequently used information in modern astrophysics. As well as a vast number of tables, graphs, diagrams and formulae it also contains information covering topics including atomic physics, nuclear physics, relativity, plasma physics, electromagnetism, mathematics, probability and statistics, and geophysics. This handbook will be an essential reference for graduate students, researchers and professionals working in astronomy and the space sciences. A website containing extensive supplementary information and databases can be found at www.cambridge.org/9780521782425.

Added: Wednesday, Sep 17 2008

Low Temperature Plasmas : Fundamentals, Technologies, and Techniques / Edited By Rainer Hippler ... [et Al.]

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: With its strong focus on the links between theory and experiment or technological process, Low Temperature Plasmas presents the latest advances in our understanding of how plasmas behave. New contributions to this second edition cover dusty plasmas, cross-correlation spectroscopy, atmospheric pressure glow discharges, as well as applications in lightening, microelectronics, polymer surface modification, sterilization, biology and medicine. Straddling the boundaries between physics, chemistry and materials science, this is of interest to a wide community. From reviews of the first edition: "... it makes a highly valuable contribution to the subject area and will be accessible to scientists and engineers working in the field." ChemPhysChem

Added: Wednesday, Sep 17 2008

Gravitational Waves. Vol. 1, Theory and Experiments / Michele Maggiore

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: The aim of this book is to become THE reference text for gravitational-wave physics, covering in detail both the experimental and the theoretical aspects. It is he only existing book on gravitational waves, and it will likely remain unique for its broadeness and scope. It brings the reader to the forefront of present-day research, both theoretical and experimental, assuming no previous knowledge of gravitational-wave physics. Part I of this volume is devoted to the theory of gravitational waves. Here we have rederived - in a coherent way - most of the results that we present, clarifying or streamlining existing derivations. Part II is devoted to a description of experimental GW physics. We discuss in great detail exisiting and planned experiments, as well as data analysis techniques.

Added: Wednesday, Sep 17 2008

Cosmos : an Illustrated History of Astronomy and Cosmology / John North

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: For millennia humans have studied the skies to help them grow crops, navigate the seas, and earn favor from their gods. We still look to the stars today for answers to fundamental questions: How did the universe begin? Will it end, and if so, how? What is our place within it? John North has been examining such questions for decades. In Cosmos, he offers a sweeping historical survey of the two sciences that help define our place in the universe: astronomy and cosmology. Organizing his history chronologically, North begins by examining Paleolithic cave drawings that clearly chart the phases of the moon. He then investigates scientific practices in the early civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, and the Americas (among others), whose inhabitants developed sophisticated methods to record the movements of the planets and stars. Trade routes and religious movements, North notes, brought these ancient styles of scientific thinking to the attention of later astronomers, whose own theoriessuch as Copernicus' planetary theoryled to the Scientific Revolution. The work of master astronomers, including Ptolemy, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, is described in detail, as are modern-day developments in astrophysics, such as the advent of radio astronomy, the brilliant innovations of Einstein, and the many recent discoveries brought about with the help of the Hubble telescope. This new edition brings North's seminal book right up to the present day, as North takes a closer look at last year's reclassification of Pluto as a "dwarf" planet and gives a thorough overview of current research. With more than two hundred illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography, Cosmos is the definitive history of astronomy and cosmology. It is sure to find an eager audience among historians of science and astronomers alike. (19940101)

Added: Thursday, Sep 11 2008

The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory / By George Musser

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Everything is connected… We're living in the midst of a scientific revolution that's captured the general public's attention and imagination. The aim of this new revolution is to develop a "theory of everything"a set of laws of physics that will explain all that can be explained, ranging from the tiniest subatomic particle to the universe as a whole. Here, readers will learn the ideas behind the theories, and their effects upon our world, our civilization, and ourselves.

Added: Thursday, Sep 4 2008

A Primer on the Physics of the Cosmic Microwave Background / Massimo Giovannini

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: In the last fifteen years, various areas of high energy physics, astrophysics and theoretical physics have converged on the study of cosmology so that any graduate student in these disciplines today needs a reasonably self-contained introduction to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This book presents the essential theoretical tools necessary to acquire a modern working knowledge of CMB physics. The style of the book, falling somewhere between a monograph and a set of lecture notes, is pedagogical and the author uses the typical approach of theoretical physics to explain the main problems in detail, touching on the main assumptions and derivations of a fascinating subject. Contents: Why CMB Physics?; From CMB to the Standard Cosmological Model; Problems with the SCM; SCM and Beyond; Essentials of Inflationary Dynamics; Inhomogeneities in FRW Models; The First Lap in CMB Anisotropies; Improved Fluid Description of Pre-Decoupling Physics; Kinetic Hierarchies; Early Initial Conditions?; Surfing on the Gauges; Interacting Fluids; Spectator Fields; Appendices: The Concept of Distance in Cosmology; Kinetic Description of Hot Plasmas; Scalar Modes of the Geometry; Metric Fluctuations: Gauge Independent Treatment.

Added: Thursday, Sep 4 2008

Particle or Wave : the Evolution of the Concept of Matter in Modern Physics / Charis Anastopoulos

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Particle or Wave is the first popular-level book to explain the origins and development of modern physical concepts about matter and the controversies surrounding them. The dichotomy between particle and wave reflects a dispute--whether the universe's most elementary building blocks are discrete or continuous in nature--originating in antiquity when philosophers first speculated about the makeup of the physical world. Charis Anastopoulos examines two of the earliest known theories about matter--the atomic theory, which attributed all physical phenomena to atoms and their motion in the void, and the theory of the elements, which described matter as consisting of the substances earth, air, fire, and water. He then leads readers up through the ages to the very frontiers of modern physics to reveal how these seemingly contradictory ideas still lie at the heart of today's continuing debates. Anastopoulos explores the revolutionary contributions of thinkers like Nicolas Copernicus, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. He shows how Einstein's ideas about relativity unify opposing concepts by identifying matter with energy, and how quantum mechanics goes even further by postulating the coexistence of the particle and the wave descriptions. Anastopoulos surveys the latest advances in physics on the fundamental structure of matter, including the theories of quantum fields and elementary particles, and new cutting-edge ideas about the unification of all forces. This book reveals how the apparent contradictions of particle and wave reflect very different ways of understanding the physical world, and how they are pushing modern science to the threshold of new discoveries.

Added: Thursday, Sep 4 2008

Quantum Theory of Conducting Matter : Newtonian Equations of Motion for a Bloch Electron / Shigeji Fujita and Kei Ito

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: The measurements of the Hall coefficient RH and the Seebeck coefficient (thermoelectric power) S are known to give the sign of the carrier charge q. In sodium (Na) forming a body-centered cubic (bcc) lattice both RH and S are negative, indicating that the carrier is the "electron". In silver (Ag) forming a face-centered cubic (fcc) lattice the Hall coefficient RH is negative but the Seebeck coefficient S is positive. This complication arises from the Fermi surface of the metal. In conducting matter physics the "electrons" and the "holes" play important roles. The "electrons" ("holes") which by definition circulate counterclockwise (clockwise) around the magnetic field (flux) vector B cannot be discussed based on the prevailing equation of motion in the electron dynamics: dk/dt=q (E + v x B), k = k-vector, E = electric field, v = velocity since the energy-momentum relation is not incorporated in this equation. In this book we shall derive Newtonian equations of motion with a symmetric mass tensor. We diagonalize this tensor by introducing the principal masses and the principal axes of the inverse-mass tensor associated with the Fermi surface. We demonstrate that the "electrons" ("holes") are generated near the Fermi surface, depending on the curvature sign of the surface. As applications, we treat magnetic oscillations in the susceptibility and conductivity, cyclotron resonance, thermopower and infrared Hall effect. In each case we treat the phenomena, starting with the crystal structure and using the Fermi surface. Free-electron model, phonons, kinetic theory of the electron transport, the magnetic susceptibility and the Boltzmann equation method, which are normally covered in the introductory solid state physics course are included as the preliminaries. The text is composed of three parts, Part I preliminaries, Chap. 1-6, Bloch electron dynamics, Chap. 7-10, and applications, Chap. 11-15.

Added: Thursday, Sep 4 2008

Secrets of the Hoary Deep : a Personal History of Modern Astronomy / Riccardo Giacconi

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: The discovery of x-rays continues to have a profound and accelerating effect on the field of astronomy. It has opened the cosmos to exploration in ways previously unimaginable and fundamentally altered the methods for pursuing information about our solar system and beyond. Nobel Prize winner Riccardo Giacconi's highly personal account of the birth and evolution of x-ray astronomy reveals the science, people, and institutional settings behind this incalculably important and deeply influential discipline.Part history, part memoir, and part cutting-edge science, Secrets of the Hoary Deep is the tale of x-ray astronomy from its infancy through what can only be called its early adulthood. It also offers the companion story of how the tools, techniques, and practices designed to support and develop x-ray astronomy were transferred to optical, infrared, and radio astronomy, drastically altering the face of modern space exploration. Giacconi relates the basic techniques developed at American Science and Engineering and explains how, where, and by whom the science was advanced. From the first Earth-orbiting x-ray satellite, Uhuru, to the opening of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the lift-off of the Hubble Space Telescope to the construction of the Very Large Telescope, Giaconni recounts the ways in which the management methods and scientific methodology behind successful astronomy projects came to set the standards of operations for all subsequent space- and Earth-based observatories. Along the way he spares no criticism and holds back no praise, detailing individual as well as institutional failures and successes, reflecting upon how far astronomy has come and how far it has yet to go.Crisp, informative, and prognostic, Giacconi's story will captivate, inspire, and, at times, possibly infuriate professional and amateur astronomers across the breadth of the field and at all stages of their personal and professional development.

Added: Thursday, Sep 4 2008

Quantum Mechanics : Its Early Development and the Road to Entanglement / Edward G. Steward ; with a Contribution By Sara M. McMurry

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: This book provides the reader with an explanation of the origin and establishment of quantum mechanics, with the mathematics in a digestible form, together with a descriptive survey of later developments up to the present day. The mathematical treatment closely follows the original treatment, but in modern terms, using uniform symbolism as much as possible and with simplifications (e.g. the use of one dimension instead of three) to avoid unnecessarily complicated-looking mathematics. Containing an extensive bibliography and useful appendices as well as references to original works, reviews, and biographies, the reader is well-equipped to delve further into the subject. In addition to its importance for those studying physics, it is also valuable for those studying the history of science. Contents: <ul> <li>Setting the Scene; </li><li>Light: Aether and the Special Theory of Relativity; </li><li>Thermal Radiation and Planck s Energy Elements ; </li><li>Einstein and the Quantum; </li><li>The Quantum in the Atom: Optical Spectra; </li><li>Einstein s Transition Probabilities: Bohr s Theory and Planck s Law; </li><li>Wave Mechanics; </li><li>Matrix Mechanics; </li><li>Complementarity, the Uncertainty Principle and the Copenhagen Interpretation; </li><li>Indeterminacy and Entanglement (Sara M McMurry). </li></ul>

Added: Thursday, Sep 4 2008

The Black Hole War : My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics / Leonard Susskind

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: What happens when something is sucked into a black hole? Does it disappear? Three decades ago, a young physicist named Stephen Hawking claimed it did-and in doing so put at risk everything we know about physics and the fundamental laws of the universe. Most scientists didn't recognize the import of Hawking's claims, but Leonard Susskind and Gerard t'Hooft realized the threat, and responded with a counterattack that changed the course of physics. THE BLACK HOLE WAR is the thrilling story of their united effort to reconcile Hawking's revolutionary theories of black holes with their own sense of reality-effort that would eventually result in Hawking admitting he was wrong, paying up, and Susskind and t'Hooft realizing that our world is a hologram projected from the outer boundaries of space. A brilliant book about modern physics, quantum mechanics, the fate of stars and the deep mysteries of black holes, Leonard Susskind's account of the Black Hole War is mind-bending and exhilarating reading.

Added: Thursday, Sep 4 2008

SAT Subject Test. Physics / Hugh Henderson

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Features:3 Full-length practice testsDiagnostic test with targeted feedbackDetailed answer explanationsFocused chapter quizzesTargeted review of conceptsKaplan's proven score-raising strategiesChapter highlights and summaries

Added: Tuesday, Sep 2 2008

Nanomaterials and Nanochemistry / C. Brechignac, P. Houdy, M. Lahmani (eds.)

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Nanomaterials are a fast developing field of research and applications lie in many separate domains, such as in hi-tech (optics, electronics, biology, aeronautics), but also in consumer industries (automotive, concrete, surface treatments (including paints), cosmetics, etc.).

Added: Tuesday, Aug 26 2008