Book Description

Reviews (2)

All you wanted to know about q.m. but were afraid to ask
The solution to the blackbody radiation problem is often quoted in Physics books as the formal bridge between the classic and quantum world viewpoints. However, as Kuhn points out, the full solution and not just the answer is nowhere else to be found.
Well beyond the satisfaction that reading this book should present to any serious Quantum Physics related student it is an absoulte requirement in the History of Physics.
Yes, the mathematical arguments get quite dense and most are not trivial. However, little is needed beyond basic calculus, statiscal mechanics and thermodynamics. View this as an excellent excuse to get going in those areas.
If every time you hear something about the beginnings of q.m. something stirs in your guts telling you that something is not quite right about the story you're being fed, that the full story isn't being told, then who could be better than Kuhn to show you that you were after right, after all?

How the Quantum came to be
Excellent book, as Kuhn's usually are, on the origin of quantum theory. "Everyone" knows Planck arrived at the quantum by studying black-body radiation, but what you are never told is *why* he was doing that! Kuhn reaches back as to why Planck was, and has an interesting story to tell for it (the question of thermodynamic irreversability vs reversability in classical mechanics). Another major part of Kuhn's tale is that even after he arrived at his quantum hypothesis, Planck still saw it as a direct extension of classical physics. It was others, mainly Einstein, who realized the revolutionary nature of the quantum (and who ran with the idea), and physicists like Planck had to conceptually play catch up in the quantum revolution in the first decade of the 20th century. One serious WARNING: while interesting and well written, the book has some very technical parts, requiring at least intermediate college physics. While not flooded with equations, Kuhn freely gets into thermodynamics and statistical mechanics (entropy, free energy, H-theorem,...) in explaining the core of Planck's early work. The reader should be prepared for some technical physics on the journey! ... Read more

Book Description

Richard Feynman once quipped: "Time is what happens when nothing else does." But Julian Barbour disagrees: if nothing happened, if nothing changed, time would stop. For time is nothing but change. It is change that we perceive occurring all around us, not time. In fact, time doesn't exist.

In this highly provocative volume, Barbour presents the basic evidence for the nonexistence of time, explaining what a timeless universe is like and showing how the world will nonetheless be experienced as intensely temporal. It is a book that strikes at the heart of modern physics, that casts doubt on Einstein's greatest contribution, the space-time continuum, but that also points to the solution of one of the great paradoxes of modern science: the chasm between classical and quantum physics. Indeed, Barbour argues that the unification of Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics may well spell the end of time--time will cease to have a role in the foundations of physics.

Barbour writes with remarkable clarity, as he ranges from ancient philosophers such as Heraclitus and Parmenides, to such giants of science as Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, to the work of contemporary physicists such as John Wheeler, Roger Penrose, and Steven Hawking. Along the way, the author treats us to an enticing look at some of the mysteries of the universe and presents intriguing ideas about multiple worlds, time travel, immortality, and, above all, the illusion of motion.

Turning our understanding of reality inside-out, The End of Time is a vibrantly written and revolutionary book. ... Read more

Reviews (38)

Frustrating Read
There are currently several books dealing with new theories in physics, they are fascinating but I found the "End of Time" a bit disappointing after all the newspaper hype. What I want in a book of this type are three things, firstly to be educated on the general theoretical background, entertainingly presented the history of the subject up to the present day, secondly the author must, as succinctly as possible, explain their theory; show where it supports and where it overturns conventional ideas. Finally the books must present conclusions, sketch out the likely impact of the new concept. The "End of Time" devotes many pages to arguments in favour of the author's thesis, in a way that will bore the general reader but is unlikely to convince the physicist. Near the end of the book my feeling was ok ok you win, just tell me the implications, but that's the problem, the author refuses to speculate, possibly on the spurious grounds that predictions are impossible in a world without time. In summary a long, confusing and eventually a frustrating read. If you want to see how a book of this type should be handled read the unbelievably good "The Inflationary Universe" by Alan H. Guth.

Frustrating read
There are currently several books dealing with new theories in physics, they are fascinating but I found the "End of Time" a bit disappointing after all the newspaper hype. What I want in a book of this type are three things, firstly to be educated on the general theoretical background, entertainingly presented the history of the subject up to the present day, secondly the author must, as succinctly as possible, explain their theory; show where it supports and where it overturns conventional ideas. Finally the books must present conclusions, sketch out the likely impact of the new concept. The "End of Time" devotes many pages to arguments in favour of the author's thesis, in a way that will bore the general reader but is unlikely to convince the physicist. Near the end of the book my feeling was ok ok you win, just tell me the implications, but that's the problem, the author refuses to speculate, possibly on the spurious grounds that predictions are impossible in a world without time. In summary a long, confusing and eventually a frustrating read. If you want to see how a book of this type should be handled read the unbelievably good "The Inflationary Universe" by Alan H. Guth.

The End of Time
The essential idea from Julian Barbour's book is that the laws of physics can be formulated in such a way that time does not enter explicitly into the equations. If we accept this idea for the moment (and not all physicists do), the question then becomes: is making time disappear in this way just a mathematical trick, or does it lead to better physics?

Barbour has taken on an especially difficult task in trying to explain these esoteric concepts in a work of popular science. The book doesn't succeed, in my view, and the most I can do here is give him credit for trying. My negative review does not reflect any disagreement with his ideas - it is up to his peers in physics, not me, to decide whether he is on to something or not. I just don't think he's succeeded in putting his ideas across to a general audience. The book is so wordy, and its exposition so plodding and foggy and vague, that it is hard to imagine that most people would get much out of it.

I really don't like to write negative reviews, but sometimes they can be useful in steering readers away from books that are likely to frustrate and turn them off. Barbour is a respected physicist, an original thinker, and an interesting person, whose life trajectory has taken him far from the typical academic career. But I really hope he'll take on a co-writer, somebody who knows how to write clearly and informatively about popular science, on his next book.

A little too arcane for the average reader
Boy, talk about a difficult book to get through. I've no doubt that Mr. Barbour knows what he's talking about, but I have to admit that I got thoroughly lost on more than one occasion. Just when I thought I had the thread of his argument pinned down, he embarked on a new more arcane path, and I was lost again. I have to admit I am not really a math-physics type person, but I do read a fair amount of literature for amateurs on the topic of theoretical physics, and time is one of those subjects that intrigues me the most. I'm not quite sure for whom the book is intended either, because although it lost me as a neophyte, I can't imagine that it would hold the attention of someone well grounded and/or professionally involved in physics; it has too many words and too few mathematical formulae. In all though, I found the concept of time as a, more or less, static collection of instants all shuffled together like playing cards or like the frames of a 35mm film strip a provocative one. I just can't help feeling, though, that there is something significant missing in the author's argument. I'm sure he would insist that it is just the overwhelming psychological experience of time "flowing" that is throwing me off, but when I think of his perspective on time and history, I find the only way it makes sense is if I stand outside of the system to see how it might work. I find it difficult to see how the information about past experiences can be passed on to my memory in any given instant without some sort of connection between all the instants of which "I" am a part. That however would make consciousness a unique and special entity, which I find difficult to accept. Although consciousness has sometimes been claimed to be a factor in generating Newtonian reality from quantum "observations," I think there has been sufficient discussion that refutes it. Again, I found the book way over my head, but I hope to reread it on another occasion with hope of achieving better understanding. Definitely not a book to start with if you're not heavily into physics.

I Am Not Here
In our limited fashion we all approach this from the realm of existence. Platonia is only an architectural representation of a nonexistence. I would like mr. barbour to take his theory to the next level. Hello, Mr. Barbour? Are you out there? That is a rhetorical question...of course you're not. ... Read more

Book Description

If a butterfly stirs its wings in Brazil, does it cause a tornado in Texas?Chaos is the most important advance in science since the advent of Quantum Theory.The discovery of randomness in apparently predictable physical systems, has evolved into a new science that declares the universe to be far more unpredictable than we could have imagined. Continuing the now familiar format of the "Introducing..." series, this book documents how chaos is present in most events, from the fluctuation in small animal populations to the rise and fall of financial markets. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

"Chaos" (not Chaos theory) is all this book introduces you.
I was looking for an easy-to-understand book on Chaos Theory for some non-English speakers (say, some Japanese students) to read, and I personally like "Introducing Fractal Geometry", so I got my hand on this book...

It was a mistake.

I would not say much about this. The author did introduce Chaos, not really Chaos theory, to the readers. He tried his best, I believe, to make things easy to understand by simplifying things... However, in doing so, he had just created Chaos.

Hence, this book is probably one of the best examples of "How Simplicity creates Complexity and Chaos"... a simple scheme found in Complex systems (like complex Cellular Automata which emerged from a simple set of rules).

One thing, while a lot of names (technical terms) were introduced, almost all of them are left unexplained. And I think only "introducing" is never enough. (Well, it was the name of the book afterall... this book wasn't named "Explaing Chaos" :)

There are other good books on Chaos for layperson. And, in fact, "Introducing Fractal Geometry" did a far better job than this one.

Introduction is what it is!
This is an excellent introduction to Chaos. It is aimed at the general non academic reader who may have heard about this buzzword called "Chaos" and wondered what's it all about. It is not for the academic, informed reader but a quick introduction for the intelligent layman or someone who last formally studied science many years ago. It draws heavily on James Gleick's book "Chaos" which was the first book to popularise the subject. If you are busy and want to know something about chaos to see if you then want to find out more, this book is perfect.

Confused and Mistaken
The main problem with the book is its emphasis on multiculterism, not to mention that the author simply does not know his stuff. We are told that Galileo ignored friction in order to get "neat results" and somehow caused Western science to only study linear systems. He seems to think that nonlinearity and chaos are the same thing. He tells us that nonlinear problems are not solvable. He actually suggests that we have only recently seen that the three-body problem is chaotic. (Instead Poincare proved the chaotic nature of the problem around 1890.) He seems to think that Asian philosophies actually capture the mathematical substance of chaos theory. I could go on. If you want to study chaos get the volume "Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science" by Peitgen, Jurgens, and Saupe.

The author did introduce chaos, just never explained it
Too much cute, too little substance. The author seems more interested in making jokes than presenting the topics of chaos and fractals.

I was also frustrated with the presentation in that the examples were frequently not related with the topic at hand.

Chaos of the bad kind

chaotic and unpredictable
There were a few points made ... but nothing tied together .... almost a spewing of definitions like fractal, chaos, feedback, aperiodic behavior.... Not worth it. ... Read more

Book Description

The field of quantum noise in mesoscopic physics has experienced intensive development for more than a decade, and there is as yet no sign of a slow-down. This book presents a collection of reviews in which the leading research teams summarize their most recent results and chart new directions. Taken together, the reviews give a snapshot of the modern state of the field, which is not yet coherent. The book thus presents different approaches and conflicting views, as well as contradictory results and interpretations.The book is divided into three parts, according to the three main research streams: shot noise, quantum measurement and entanglement, and full counting statistics. ... Read more

Book Description

This text builds a solid introduction to the concepts and techniques of quantum mechanics in settings where the phenomena treated are sufficiently simple that the student does not face two fundamental difficulties simultaneously: viz, that of learning quantum mechanics and that of learning how to assess the validity of models or the reliability of approximations. The treatment thus confines itself to systems that can either be solved exactly or be handled by well-controlled, plausible approximations. With few exceptions, this means systems with a small number of degrees of freedom. The exceptions are a first pass at many-electron atoms, the electromagnetic field, and the Dirac equation. (The inclusion of these last two topics reflects the now widely held belief that every physicist should have at least a nodding acquaintance with these cornerstones of modern physics.)
Born in Vienna, Kurt Gottfried emigrated to Canada in 1939 and received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT in 1955. He is professor of physics at Cornell University, and had previously been at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and at CERN in Geneva. He is the co-author of ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good advanced QM book .
This is a complete , modern QM book ...
Authors discuss issues which are usually missed in other QM textbooks .
Not for beginner ... This is rather 2nd or 3rd reading .... ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A Treasure
All of these books titled "Problems and Solutions on (subject): Major American Universities Ph.D. Qualifying Questions and Solutions" are invaluable tools for a physics graduate student, in my experience. For quantum mechanics in particular, solved problems often illustrate difficult concepts better than any explanatory paragraph in a text.

Criticism: Sparse index and contents. You'll find yourself adding notes to pages in the book quite often.

If you are a student in physics, I suggest that you get your hands on these books.

An excellent handbook on the subject
Sometimes it is very difficult to teach a course in quantum mechanics because there are few problems that have solutions that do not require months of research and numerical methods to solve. I have found that in my own courses on quantum mechanics, I take a lot of notes and I do a lot of homework assignments, but I don't have a whole lot of concrete, well-explained problems and solutions to show for all of the work. Since I found this book and those that accompany it, however, I have a very good source for problems and their solutions in QM. These problems are an excellent study aid for the solutions provide insight into the basics of the field. Strongly recommended.

The Editor Needs Glasses
I study physics in Chile, and this book has been pretty useful for a first course in QM, but I have to note that the first 170 pages are titled "Problems and Solutions on Electromagnetism"! I hope someone gets word to the editor....

Other than that, I'm pretty sure this book will find a place on your private shelf.

This book is over priced
This is a good book, although it's hard to use, and the reason for that is simple: with such a great variety of problems in Quantum Mechanics it's next to impossible to conveniently systemize the content. I did find this book useful in preparation for my Ph.D. qualifying exam, but looking back I can tell that I would have passed without it. I think it's a great book for those looking for an easy way of doing homework, whereas educational value of this book is questionable. ... Read more

Book Description

This textbook covers elements of quantum field theory, symmetry principles, gauge field theories and phenomenological descriptions of hadrons, with special emphasis on topics relevant to hadron and nuclear physics. Written at an introductory level, it is aimed at nuclear physicists in general and experimentalists in particular who need a working knowledge of field theory, symmetry principles of elementary particles and their interactions and the quark structure of hadrons. It will also be of benefit to graduate students who need an understanding of the basics of these topics for their work in other fields. ... Read more

Book Description

In this classic work David Bohm, writing clearly and without technical jargon, develops a theory of quantum physics which treats the totality of existence as an unbroken whole. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Inspiring but difficult reading
David Bohm is truly a giant - I normally read with a pencil, marking issues of importance or thought provoking ideas and concepts. Reading Wholeness and Implicate Order put this practice to the test - my copy of the book is littered with lines, questions, remarks and NB's.

I do not have an interest in quantum physics, so some of the discussions were a bit beyond my comprehension - as a book on philosophy though, the text stands out. Suggestions made by Bohm with regard to our fragmented views and approach to life, how we can and should re-look at all our frames of reference and even the use of language have far reaching consequences for mankind - that is if we actually give heed to "the call".

The principles and dilemmas explored by Bohm are of great relevance to all - I must warn you though, the book is not an easy read! Have patience and don't give up - the wealth of understanding and insight one can obtain (or at least be made aware of) by this book is well worth the effort!

I'm not quite ready for this book
What Freud is to psychoanalysis, Thomas Merton and Aquinas are to Christian theology and spirituality, Maimonedes is to Judaism, Picasso is to modern art, Armstrong, Ellington, Parker and Coltrane are to jazz and Einstein is to the first half of the twentieth century in terms of science, is what this man and this book will probably be for the next hundred or so years of our culture. I am still having a hard time with this book, because he reifies and affirms so many of my most cherished intuitions regarding spirituality via using the highest brand of intellectuallisms one can probably hope to use in today's world--AND VICE VERSA.

I would recommend anyone who finds the majesty of today's world and its endeavors to bridge the gap between science and spirituality fascinating to read first the work of his would be disciples: Michael Talbot (the Holographic Universe) and Jenny Wade (Changes of Mind). They will prepare both your mind and heart for what Bohm elucidates in this book, the central one of his life, thought and career.

Nonetheless, this book effectively bridges the gap, and becomes in may ways the blue print by which the highest level of consciousness and perspective achievable in the context of Western Society today will be henceforth embraced and appreciated. Bohm was one of the most important thinkers in Western culture, not just our time or the last century. And this incredible challange of a work of his may not take you half as long to fully digest as it is taking me, but it will open your eyes in ways that you would not expect about possibility, mind, matter, energy, thought, order and existence in the universe. The yogis and the Memphite priests of ancient Egypt were right: here is the proof by the highest science.

As easy as wrestling a hologram!
At its heart, David Bohm's awe-inspiring book explores a deceptively simple and [I think] very old idea: everything in the universe that we can observe, measure, describe, and come to understand is connected, even if we cannot observe, measure, describe and come to understand that connection (Bohm's "implicate order"). It's not for the faint hearted. You'll be confronted with a devastatingly beautiful philosophical insight that completely undermines our post-"enlightenment" western tendency to divide, conquer, fragment and isolate everything we attempt to understand. You may need to skip the mathematical chunks and do some background reading into Quantum physics to survive the rigours of the argument. You'll probably get frustrated at Bohm's winsome ability to be mathematician and physicist one minute and philosopher and mystic the next. But if you hang in there, you'll find yourself returning again and again to contemplate this profound contribution to occidental thinking, as I have.

Ultimate Reality
Is there such a thing? Science and philosophy think so. It is their common fundamental quest.

But if there is an Ultimate Reality, is it perceivable by creatures bound by time and space and instruments conceived within that reality?

The sixth quark for instance, may only be seen in terms of where it was, and still other phenomena, only apprehendable by their absence. Newton's mechanistic universe seems especially anachronistic and inadequate in the face of quantum entanglement, where photons switch properties in accord with each other - effecting instantaneous 'spooky' action at a distance.

These mysterious connections which shocked Einstein have been empirically confirmed for fifteen years now, first by Aspect and again by Gisin in 1990, but no explanation has been forthcoming for this behaviour which defies all previous theories.

It is clearly not a question of developing better instruments. We need to be able to explain these phenomena, yet we cannot.

Bohm notes that there are two categories of criteria in simultaneous union at work: Einstein's local, causal, finite phenomena, and quantum's non-local, non-causal, infinite features.

But is quantum really non-causal? Are not both parts of the photon reciprocal causes of the other? And why should these connections surprise us? The universe is not a list of parts, but a whole system in connection with itself at fundamental levels.

As creatures of Einstein's model, is it plausible that we should we be able to explain Ultimate Reality? What is the logical or physical reason that this should be so? Even when we can verify these 'weird' phenomena empirically, we are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with them theoretically.

Superstring theory - mainstream science's leading conjecture, is lost floundering around postulating one unsatisfying multiple dimension scenario after another, looking more and more capricious with every move.

Is it indeed probable that as Bohm surmises, Ultimate Reality is inevitably beyond our grasp - as a necessary condition of our existence? That the very inability to satisfy our curiosity satisfies a higher level of knowledge, awareness, and logical typing?

Perhaps as he suggests, it is deep wisdom.

An Excellent Introduction to Bohmian Quantum Mechanics
The Stochastic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics was developed over a number of years, starting with Louis DeBroglie's 'pilot wave' innovation, then being much further refined by Jean Paul Vigier, and later David Bohm and Brian Hiley of University of London. Much of the theoretical basis for their work rests on the split photon experiments of Alain Aspect and colleagues at the University of Paris. I.e. Aspect et al evidently found 'correlations' between the polarizations of separated photons at significant (~ 12 m) distances.

All of which is the underpinning for David Bohm's book, 'Wholeness and The Implicate Order'. The book perfectly ties together all the loose ends and integrates them - starting with hidden variables theory, going on to the quantum potential and finally the explicate and implicate order.

In the most general sense, the apparently 'fragmented' universe we behold- made of disparate stars, galaxies, galaxy clusters etc. is the explicate order. The outwardly manfest reality occurring in 4 dimensional space time. However, we cannot be sure that at a higher dimensionality all the fragmented forms are not unified.

A good illustration is one that Bohm himself provides in this superb monograph. Imagine a fish in an aquarium tank and two TV cameras are trained on him. One captures his frontal view - the other his lateral view. These images are transmitted to two separate screens-monitors in another room. The casual observer on encountering the TV monitors most probably would infer two separate fish. But in fact they constitute one fish at the higher (3D) dimensionality.

This unified order would be described as 'implicate' - and one can ascertain that the explicate order is or can be 'enfolded' into it. In effect, one confronts a universe that has deceived our senses. We are decieved into believing there exist a multiplicity of entities, when in fact there is only one. We just can't apprehend it from our vantage point.

Now, a number of books have come out with similar themes. Some of these are simply too childish, and with too many mystical or 'supernatural' overtones. For example, David Talbot's 'Holographic Universe' falls under this rubric, where he gets carried away and led on to considering 'supernatural' mannifestations and 'miracles' merely because the universe may be implicate. Fritjof Capra's 'Tao of Physics' also falls under this, but nowhere near as badly. If nothing else, one can get a reasonable introduction to particle physics and group theory in Capra's book.

I think the interested reader is probably better served by three other books, which I think ought to be read before tackling David Bohm's - which, despite some portrayals - is not a popular science work! The first is perhaps the cartoon-plus-text book entitled 'Space, Time and Beyond' by Fred Alan Wolf and Bob Toben (Bantam New Age, 1982). After that, I recommend going on to 'The Non-Local Universe' by Robert Nadeau and Menas Kafatos (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999). Then, 'In Search of Reality' by Bernard d'Espagnat which is the best immediate introduction to Bohm's work. To really enable the reader to appreciate it.

It also helps to have some general familiarity with basic notions of physics- such as wave forms, interference and diffraction. For example, this would be particularly useful in seeing how Bohm composes 'the holomovement' (p.151).

The mathematics scattered throughout the text, cf. the chapter on 'Hidden Variables' is actually very basic for a book of this sort of depth and insight. However, to fully appreciate the gist of things, it does help to have a background at least in Calculus - if not Mechanics. (The latter is especially useful in understanding the sort of canonical transformations shown, e.g. on p. 92).

Finally, rather than supernaturalist drivel, I think the book really shows that we need to think of new ways- for example- to describe the phenomenon of human consciousness. I already attempted one such way, using 'Pauli spin operator' gates in the brain, in my book 'The Atheist's Handbook to Modern Materialism' (Chapter 5, 'Consciousness and Modern Materialism'). This also leads to the development of 'quantum' neural networks with the possibility of non-local features governing their operation (cf. p. 157 - my book).

The gateway to this whole panorama of ideas and concepts - connected to an inseparable cosmos- is Bohm's book. I've already re-read it three times, and still find new insights when I go back to it. I had hoped that before he died, Bohm (or colleague Brian Hiley) might have produced a more popular 'reader-friendly' version, but alas it was not to be. Still, it is possible for the non-physics specialist to get a lot out of it by navigating the route I suggested earlier.

The only ones likely to be disappointed, if any, will be those who either: a) are not familiar with the preliminary work leading up to Bohm's, or b) those who mistakenly think this book is of the 'popular' variety. ... Read more

Book Description

Although it is our most successful physical theory, quantum mechanics raises conceptual issues that have perplexed physicists and philosophers of science for decades. This book develops a new approach based on the proposal that quantum theory is not a complete, final theory, but, in fact, an emergent phenomenon arising from a more profound level of dynamics. ... Read more

Book Description

'Scientists other than quantum physicists often fail to comprehend the enormity of the conceptual change wrought by quantum theory in our basic conception of the nature of matter,' writes Henry Stapp. Stapp is a leading quantum physicist who has given particularly careful thought to the implications of the theory that lies at the heart of modern physics. In this book, which contains several of his key papers as well as new material, he focuses on the problem of consciousness and explains how quantum mechanics allows causally effective conscious thought to be combined in a natural way with the physical brain made of neurons and atoms. The book is divided into four sections. The first consists of an extended introduction. Key foundational and somewhat more technical papers are included in the second part, together with a clear exposition of the 'orthodox' interpretation of quantum mechanics. The third part addresses, in a non-technical fashion, the implications of the theory for some of the most profound questions that mankind has contemplated: How does the world come to be just what it is and not something else? How should humans view themselves in a quantum universe? What will be the impact on society of the revised scientific image of the nature of man? The final part contains a mathematical appendix for the specialist and a glossary of important terms and ideas for the interested layman. This new edition has been updated and extended to address recent debates about consciousness. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Quantum Physics and Consciousness
Though there is a fair amount of redundancy in this collection of papers originally published from the late 1960s to about 1990, I found the redundancy useful in coming to grips with the novel interpretations posited by Stapp. His primary thesis -- stunning in its simplicity -- is that consciousness can be usefully construed as the collapse of a superposition of brain states. Unlike the more mystical folks writing on quantum physics and consciousness, Stapp provides a number of highly technical examples of exactly how this process might work neurophysiologically. Essentially, his ideas are an explicit working-out of Heisenberg's ontology joined with William James' concepts. This brilliant and difficult book well rewards the effort necessary to master its ideas. It is, I believe, the most sophisticated attempt yet to explain consciousness in quantum mechanical terms, far superior to more naive dualist attempts such as those by Eccles and Popper. ... Read more

Book Description

Although there are many textbooks that deal with the formal apparatus of quantum mechanics (QM) and its application to standard problems, none take into account the developments in the foundations of the subject which have taken place in the last few decades. There are specialized treatises on various aspects of the foundations of QM, but none that integrate those topics with the standard material. This book aims to remove that unfortunate dichotomy, which has divorced the practical aspects of the subject from the interpretation and broader implications of the theory.

The book is intended primarily as a graduate level textbook, but it will also be of interest to physicists and philosophers who study the foundations of QM. Parts of it could be used by senior undergraduates too. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

This book will be a classic
This it's the best book on QM Who I read ever, I'm A Bch student of physics, and I readed many book on this subject, but always the authors just put some results from some stupid arguments like "It's Natural". In this case the author just give mathematical and very deep physical arguments in every step of the development of the QM theory.
It's the Clearest book on the subject and it's not hard to read, I strongly recomend read the hole book, after this you adquire a very deep knowlowedge of the theory, of the nature, and lot of tools to solve any QM problem. Congratulations Dr Ballentine you really do an excelent Job

wonderful treatment
This is a great book. Mathematically accurate and very precise. No bologne. I loved it. The only bummer is that it doesn't treat some experimentally useful topics (decay of states, e.g.) but it's a great book to learn from.

An excellent text
I am using this book as a supplimentary text for a 1st-year graduate course in quantum mechanics (the other text is Sakurai). I find the book extremely clear and well organized. In many ways, I like it more than Sakurai. For instance, many modern ideas are developed in detail - for instance Bell's inequality and related topics - but, as well, the more standard topics are also discussed thoroughly. Many references to original literature included. Good problems too.

One of the best
First of all, let me say that my review is based upon the first edition of this book. I haven't seen the 2nd edition, and 2nd editions aren't always better (e.g., Goldstein's 2nd edition is a disaster compared to his 1st). Now, for the review: There is only one other book which I consider to be as didactic as this one, which is Shankar's text. Shankar's book is more friendly and a better introduction to QM, but Ballentine's book is a bit more advanced and gives a lot of thought to

questions of interpretation which are seriously neglected in other books, while dealing with some advanced topics: the Wigner-Eckart theorem, BCS theory of superconductivity, etc. . . His presentations are lucid and to the point, and he is also careful to point out all sorts of common errors, which readers might have aquired from other books. Every idea is motivated before being introduced. Examples are provided throughout the text, and answers are given to selected exercises.

This book seems to me to truly teach, and is superior to Sakurai, Landau, Messiah and a host of others, which all have some major flaw or another. It's worth its price [...]

Foundations and Applications of QM
This is an interesting book to read and it is my favourite QM book. The author presents both foundations and applications of QM starting from the basic postulates. It includes standard topics like angular momentum and scattering theory but also an introduction to many-particle physics (second quantization) and to the quantization the EM field, as well as a very detailed(!) analysis of EPR like experiments. The treatment of the foundations of the subject is better than in most textbooks on QM and the author frequently points out flaws in the arguments presented by other authors and devotes a considerable space to the justification of his "purely statistical" interpretation of QM. I am not sure, however, whether a beginning student is more confused by the rather formal development in the first chapters, or whether he or she immediately benefits from it.

The discussion of the standard applications of QM is very lucid and mathematically exhaustive. Also in this part of the book the author does not refrain from pointing out shortcomings in other textbooks and different interpretations of QM. The ferocity with which the author does this is sometimes outright hilarious.

If a specific topic is covered in this book, I prefer Ballentine's more thorough treatment almost invariably over other standard textbooks with the only exception being Fermi's Golden Rule, which is better covered in Cohen-Tannoudji's book. ... Read more

Book Description

The widely used theoretical models for calculating properties of hot dense matter are studied in this book. Calculations using the presented formulas and algorithms are illustrated by plots, tables, and also are compared with experimental results. The purpose is to help understanding atomic physics in hot plasma and in developing efficient and robust computer codes for calculating opacity and equations of state for arbitrary material in a wide range of temperatures and densities.

Key features:
- complicated problems of atomic physics are clearly presented
- most parts of the book are accessible to students
- models are reduced to formulas and algorithms
- emphasis on computational aspects of the models, in particular on the computation of opacity and the equations of state for high-temperature plasmas

Book Description

Brings together for the 1st time the mystical writings of the world's great physicists - all of whom express a deep belief that physics and mysticism are somehow fraternal twins. Written in non-technical language. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Avoids the hard questions
The title is a bit misleading- very little of the implications of "quantum physics" is ever discussed in this book. Overall, this is a work of major political correctness-- nobody is right or wrong, it all depends on who and how you look at it. The book does a decent job of researching and commenting on the thoughts of past physicists, but the truth is they avoided telling the world their true thoughts on the matter. Research money would disappear if they did, so we will never really know. This book just helps the science-naive person realize that most physicists are not atheists, but agnostics (a word not specifically mentioned, but the only logical conclusion if you follow the text). Tough questions like analyzing today's most populous religions in terms of the scientific method are avoided. Only the more "logically" propositions of Eastern religions, like Buddhism, are talked about. The author seems to forget an important tenet of logically reason-- the reasoner should be non-biased. Four Math Phd's determining the truth of a mathematical proof is different than four Cardinals determining whether a miracle occurred. Simply because any four Math Phd's will come to the same conclusion, while four Rabis and four Cardinals will probably disagree on a lot of points. (Even though Rabis and Cardinals are both experts in matters of Religion and Soul).

Written by Heisenberg, Schroedinger, Einstein, De Broglie,
This is simply a fascinating collection of the words of many recognized masters of physics on the topic of the science of physics and how it relates (or doesn't) to religion and spirituality. There is a short introduction by Ken Wilber. If you value such information, here's your book.

I wrote this review because the book is worth 5 stars. The one person who criticized the book, and brought the rating down to 4 stars, seemed to be talking about some other book. The review made no sense. My take is that it was a rant against a perception rather than an experience of the book. There is nothing New Age about this book. And this is much less a book about Ken Wilber's views (which are not New Age anyway) and much more a book about the views of Eddington, Pauli, Planck, Jeans, etc. If you're curious about the spiritual views of these men, here's your opportunity. Enjoy!!!

A book uniting Science and religion
If science and religion split after Pythagoras, this book proves that is really was not so. If you believe that science takes away faith, think again. Ken Wilber gives us essays from the greatest minds that shaped the 20th Century. Starting with Heisenberg and ending with Eddington, Wilbers collection of essays is a wonderful example of how it was the deepest of faiths and ideas in God and religion that drove some of the best minds. In his introduction, Wilber goes the step ahead to actually almost lay such faith and views as a precondition to stellar scientific achievement. What Wilber attempts here in his introduction is a masterly synthesis of human thought, in some bold extrapolations.

Definitely worth reading and keeeping as a precious possession.

The Genius of Ken Wilber
Aside from the great collection of writings by the world's great physicists, the introduction by Ken Wilber is worth the price of this book. If the reader can understand this well written 25 pages, he or she will be able to understand the world and our place within it. Not recommended for close-minded, pseudo-scientific persons.

New Age Quackery
This book (as well as other things by this writer) will be a delight for the pseudo intellectual who is impressed with "New Age" writing that is filled with half, or less than half "truths" obscured with excess verbiage and biased assumptions about the natural world, as well as by those who want to feel that they are delving deeply into "spiritual insights." The writer appears to have little understanding of "Quantum Mechanics" and no knowledge of the field of psychology or religion. Apparently, he believes that physics stopped with Einstein, psychology with Freud and Jung (even though the latter two are not considered psychologists), and religion with Luther. Philosophers might wonder if the author had ever heard of Paul Tillich or Frank Tipler -- the latter actually might supply some support to his biases and the former might enlighten him on modern theology. For the serious reader who wants quick reads for enlightenment, one would recommend Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World," Stark's and Finke's, "Acts of Faith," and especially Mike Shermer's "Why People Believe Weird Things". ... Read more

Book Description

This book gives a comprehensive account of local quantum physics understood as the synthesis of quantum theory with the principle of locality. Centered on the algebraic approach, it describes both the physical concepts and the mathematical structures and their consequences. These include the emergence of the particle picture, general collision theory covering the cases of massless particles and infraparticles, the analysis of possible charge structures, and exchange sym metries including braid group statistics. Thermal states of an unbounded medium and local equilibrium are discussed in detail. The author takes care both to describe the ideas and to give a critical assessment of future perspectives. The new edition contains numerous improvements and a new chapter concerning formalism and interpretation of quantum theory. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

I practically owe my today's academical self to this work...
As someone working in the field created by Prof. Haag - Local Quantum Physics, aka Algebraic Quantum Field Theory - I feel somewhat oblidged to write a review on this book. This is all the more true when a large amount of misunderstandings about this subject among, so to speak, "outsiders", pervade the community of theoretical physics. As for me, I had the good luck of having Local Quantum Physics as my entering door to Quantum Field Theory, after my undergraduate involvement with Nuclear Physics. Learning this through (in a major part) Prof. Haag's book, alongside with a conventional course in QFT, has helped me clear several conceptual issues underlying QFT tools and calculations - specially renormalization - which alone seemed to me more witchcraft than physics.

The aims of Local Quantum Physics, even when linked to computational issues, are eminently structural and conceptual, going beyond particular models. These concerns are transparentin this book, where only the essentials of the Lagrangian approach are mentioned, and even these with a conceptually clean and deep purpose (just to cite an example, quantization of free fields are treated in a covariant way by using the Peierls' bracket, instead of canonical quantization), and with no predilection whatsoever by any particular quantization technique (for instance, path integrals are only mentioned "en passant", with no formulas, in Section VIII.1, in the discussion on the Euclidean/Lagrangian approach to QFT). This last proviso, which is a common source of complaint, actually (at least, it looks so to me) bears the following message under the aegis of the aims above: the physical concepts of QFT have nothing to do with the quantization method chosen. Although the justification for this is somewhat subtle, it ends up being a natural consequence of the line of thinking along which this book proceeds.

Most of the things about which Prof. Haag writes in this book seem to have been thought about for a pretty long time. It's thanks to this that the formalism of Local Quantum Physics acquired a remarkably flexible and synthetic language. The underlying idea, present in almost every topic treated in the book, is the principle of locality ("Nahwirkungsprinzip" = "Principle of local action", i.e., no action at a distance). Namely, that physical procedures are all localized in finitely extended regions of spacetime, as it "usually" happens in experimental situations, and that the matter of choosing a Hilbert space on which these procedures act (often based on global criteria such as the concept of a vacuum state) is mainly a matter of convenience. The abstract framework of C*- and von Neumann algebras is what allows one to work independently of a particular representation. This is strengthened by Einstein causality - physical procedures localized at causally disjoint regions commute with each other (This is quite distinct from locality in the sense of the EPR phenomenon, which is intrinsically linked to the notion - here generalized - of states, this one still highly nonlocal, as restrictions of a state to two causally disjoint local algebras of procedures can, and do, present quantum entanglement if this state is suitably prepared), and Poincaré covariance.

The principle of locality, when applied to the myriad of inequivalent representations of the local algebras which is characteristic of QFT, lead to enormous achievements (most of them described in the book), such as: the meaning of internal global symmetries and fermion degrees of freedom, and how these emerge from the observables alone, independently of the assumption of an underlying field theory (superselection sectors); the meaning of infinities and renormalization in perturbation theory (disjointness and quasi-equivalence of representations); a natural setting for QFT at finite temperature and its thermodynamics (KMS condition, modular techniques, phase space conditions); when moving to curved spacetime, the clarification of the (still open) issue of the choice of physical states from nonessentials and how this forces us to "unlearn" several concepts of Minkowski QFT (Unruh effect, etc.). Recent developments by the schools of Wald and Fredenhagen show the growing importance of the latter and related problems.

Finally, other two admirable aspects of Haag's book are the honest treatment of latest developments regarding conceptual open issues such as the meaning of local gauge invariance in quantum theory, the infrared problem, and questions regarding the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the meaning o spacetime itself. Haag's closing personal views on the latter, in the light of the mathematical formalism of Local Quantum Physics, bear an intriguing resemblance with modern ideas by Rovelli, Ashtekar, etc. on loop quantum gravity.

The book as a whole takes quite some time to digest, due to the mathematical machinery involved (functional analysis and an acquaintance in C*-algebra theory are a rather strongly recommended background) and the subtlety of the physical ideas. But, to sum up, for me it was, in due time, the ultimate temptress.

Story of a failed theory
Many new discoveries and advances in particle physics and quantum field theory have been made since the early days of axiomatic (or algebraic) quantum field theory. In the 1960s, this book might have been a legitimate attempt to establish a new, albeit controversial paradigm in the research of Quantum Field Theory. However the author was not too lucky because now, exactly 40 years later, we see that Axiomatic Field Theory (that he co-founded) has not led anywhere, despite the new name "local quantum physics", unlike the specific, constructive, and old-fashioned quantum field theories.

Axiomatic Field Theory has given no physical predictions and it has led to no conceptual developments. Today, Axiomatic Field Theory is not an active field of physics anymore. Moreover, most of its conclusions are believed to be incorrect.

Although some sections of the book may sound familiar and they are remotely related to some topics in contemporary physics, the book does not cover the most essential parts of current quantum field theory - such as gauge theories, path integrals, Higgs mechanism, confinement, asymptotic freedom, renormalization group, dualities, solitons, instantons, semiclassical treatment of quantum gravity, string theory, and many others - and even the topics that the book tries to cover are described in a confusing way. For example, Haag has a very confusing ideas about the meaning of quantum mechanics and his proposed deterministic explanations of quantum theory cannot work, as guaranteed by Bell's inequalities.

The discovery of the Renormalization Group (RG) showed that many exact - and seemingly rigorous - ideas about the operator algebras were too naive to be true. Today, a realistic quantum field theory must be given a distance scale, and all quantities are calculated with respect to this scale. There exists almost no useful quantum field theory that would satisfy the axioms of Axiomatic Field Theory, and therefore the "theorems" derived within the framework of Axiomatic Field Theory have almost no physical impact. Although there are many correct and useful statements in the book, the number of incorrect and misleading sections is too large and it makes the book useless. There are much better recent books written at a comparable level of difficulty, e.g. "Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell" by Anthony Zee.

A complete recapitulation
LQFT, a kind of Axiomatic Quantum Field theory, was slowly
developed during the 1970 age to provide solid fundamentals
to quantum fields. Haag was one of the leaders of the
development, and this book resumes the climax of the theory.

From here the development has continued, looking for nets
of observables as a tool to incorporate the renormalization
mechanism. But it is to be noted that, since then, a branch
of C* algebras has developed to formulate NonCommutative
geometry, a tool completely unavailable to the people working
in Local Quantum Field Theory. One should kept a leg in
each side, aiming to marry both formalims.

Deserves 10 stars
Quantum field theory is a subject that has occupied the time of an enormous number of researchers, both in physics and in mathematics. Those who have studied perturbation methods in quantum field theory have no doubt run acroos "Haag's theorem" that is usually loosely stated as saying that "the interactive representation does not exist". The statement of this theorem, and many other results in quantum field theory, particularly the procedure of renormalization, have been viewed by many as unsound from a mathematical standpoint, and so efforts were begun to put quantum field theory on a rigorous mathematical foundation. Going by the names of axiomatic or constructive quantum field theory, these approaches are interesting, but also a little troubling from a scientific perspective. Axiomitization is usually appropriate in mathematics when a subject has matured to the point where it can be "closed off", and this usually happens when the theory is very well understood and so its essence can be codified in a few well-forumlated axioms. But quantum field theory is no where near that stage; indeed one can say that it continues to be a theory that, oddly, has immense predictive power but whose rigorous mathematical formulation remains elusive. Not only that, quantum field theory is still in a course of evolution, and any attempt at axiomitization might become obsolete as soon as it is put down on paper. In addition, physical insight, as much as mathematical understanding, must not be sacrificed in any resulting axiomatization of quantum field theory. Frequently, the result of axiomatization is to divorce a physical theory from its physical roots, and beginning students of the theory then have difficulty in acquiring intuition of the essential physics of the theory.

One of the best attributes of this book is that the author realizes this, and early on he refers to "general", rather than "axiomatic" QFT as being more appropriate since it allows flexibility in relation to future discoveries. Not only that, the author endeavors to explain the formalism that he is expousing in the book, and he succeeds brilliantly. Anyone interested in the mathematical physics behind quantum field theory, and not just doing bread-and-butter perturbation calculations, will gain a lot from the reading of this book. It is packed full of insight, a rare occurence in books that employ the heavy mathematical formalism that this one does. One will need a strong background in operator theory, abstract theory, and several complex variables to read the book, but a lot of this is developed impromptu as the text unfolds. When it is not, the author gives references for those readers who need more in-depth discussion.

There are so many ineresting discussions in this book that space does not permit an evaluation of all of them, but the following is a short list of points in the book that I found particularly well-written: 1. The Wigner analysis of irreducible unitary representations of the Poincare group. This is not a mathematically rigorous discussion, but the author points out the physical relevance of the fact that the spectrum of the 4-momentum operator must be concentrated on a single orbit. This fact ensures the stability of matter. And, as frequently happens in physics, several mathematical consequences of a particular physical theory are discarded as not being relevant; in this case the other three classes of the irreducible representations. That being said, the author does include as of possible physical relevance the idea of parastatistics. He points out his reasons for this, namely that a strict adherence to the Bose-Fermi alternative is not operationally justified. 2. The role of fields in implementing the principle of locality and not as observable particles. This fact is usually not emphasized in books on quantum field theory. 3. The author clarifies the distinction between the notion of locality that deals with the commutation of two observables that are space-like separated, and the one dealing with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox and Bell's inequality. 4. The discussion on the Bose-Einstein alternative, in particular the suggestion that parastatistics can be replaced by Bose or Fermi statistics in the presence of a non-Abelian unbroken global gauge group. 5. The discussion on topological charges and their prohibition by the Doplicher-Haag-Roberts selection criterion. The Doplicher-Haag-Roberts criterion was used in scattering theory and thought to be reasonable, but the author shows that its use is problematic in this case also, as well as in prohibiting topological charge. Purely massive fields can, it turns out, have measurable correlations at large distances, and Borcher's selection criterion, also discussed along these lines, gives topological charges. 6. The treatment of the Tomita-Takesaki theorem, modular automorphisms, and their connection to the KMS-condition. 7. The discussion on the need for type III-1 von Neumann algebras in relativistic quantum field theory versus type I in ordinary quantum mechanics. Such a von Neumann algebra is hyperfinite and is unique. 8. The discussion on the impossibility of coherent wave packets of one-electron states in quantum field theory, as contrasted with the usual practice in quantum mechanics. This is dues to superselection rules and the "infraparticle" nature of electrically charged particles, which are not associated with discrete eigenvalues of the mass operator. The author asks the reader to justify electron interference experiments in quantum field theory.

The most important book about algebraic qft by its founder
In spite of the succes of quantum field theory it became very early clear that this theory needed a new mathematical formulation. Haag was one of the founders of this new theory which was later called algebraic quantumfield theory but Haag himself preferred "local quantum physics".

The algebra of observables is designed as the C*-inductive limit of anet of von Neumann-algebras the index set of which is formedof opensubsets of space-time. The book discusses the DHR-selection criterion aswell as the BF-criterion of Buchholz and Fredenhagen that is more adequateto massive fields. Furthermore Haag gives a short introduction tostatistical qft in the algebraic framework. Especially the KMS-conditionwhich was formulated in the sixties by Haag, Hugenholtz and Winnink isdiscussed.

A highly recommended book! ... Read more

Book Description

Providing an introduction to the theory of nonlinear Fokker-Planck equations, this book discusses fundamental properties of transient and stationary solutions, emphasizing the stability analysis of stationary solutions by means of self-consistency equations, linear stability analysis, and Lyapunov's direct method. Also treated are Langevin equations and correlation functions. Nonlinear Fokker-Planck Equations addresses various phenomena such as phase transitions, multistability of systems, synchronization, anomalous diffusion, cut-off solutions, travelling-wave solutions and the emergence of power law solutions. A nonlinear Fokker-Planck perspective to quantum statistics, generalized thermodynamics, and linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics is given. Theoretical concepts are illustrated where possible by simple examples. The book also reviews several applications in the fields of condensed matter physics, the physics of porous media and liquid crystals, accelerator physics, neurophysics, social sciences, population dynamics, and computational physics.

Book Description

The lecture notes of Julian Schwinger's UCLA course consist of three parts corresponding to the three quarters of teaching. The first part begins with an analysis of Stern--Gerlach-type experiments which accomplishes a self-contained physical and mathematical development of the general structure of quantum kinematics. The second part proceeds from there. The response to infinitesimal time displacements yields the equations of motion. Then the Quantum Action Principle (QAP) is derived, and accepted as a fundamental principle. In a sense, the rest of part two and all of part three consist of instructive applications of the QAP.

FROM THE REVIEWS:

MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS "The book is packed with exercises for the reader to attempt...Anyone who works religiously through these exercises will require a thoroughly adequate command of quantum mechanics."

CHOICE MAGAZINE "Editor Englert has performed a service for physicists everywhere by making available this book, which is based on Schwinger's unpublished UCLA lecture notes...There are excellent problems at the end of each chapter...This book would make an outstanding supplement and reference for a graduate quantum mechanics course. Theoretical physicists will delight in this wonderful book, which should be available in the library system of any institution with a research or graduate program in physics. Graduate students through professionals." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A unique perspective by a unique man
I presume I do not need to introduce Schwinger's list of credentials, including a nobel prize for QED alongside with Feynman and the third guy (I'm sorry, I never seem to remember his name). Schwinger has always had his own view of physics, much like Feynman, and in his books he usually follows that view. The consequence is a book on an old subject, such as QM, which includes many new viewpoints and ideas not found in other books, especially in use of action principles, of which Schwinger was a major proponent.

That being said, it should be stressed that you should not approach this book without taking a course or two in QM - Schwinger himself states so at the introduction. It would not only make the book hard to follow, but also make it pointless - the whole idea of reading this book is getting a fresh new perspective on QM.

For example, instead of stating the "axioms" of QM, Schwinger decides to examine physical experiments and try to see where these axioms come from. He is not always successful in doing that, but at the very least he should get every faithful reader to deeply ponder the foundations of QM. Instead of just writing down Schroedinger's equation and saying, "this is how our system evolves in time", he decides to take an action principle as his fundamental rule for time evolution and derive Schroedinger's equation from it. In short, he turns QM upside down - and gets away with it.

It is definitely worthwhile checking out this book, although many will not like the idea of doing things Schwinger's way - in a sense, the book's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. You have been warned.

The Perfect Way to Do Quantum Mechanics
Schwinger has presented in the text the perfect way to do Quantum Mechanics. It is actually transformed from lecture notes given by him for three quarters at UCLA in the mid-1980s. Just look at how he induses the general structure of quantum kinematics and establishes the dynamical principle - his quantum action principle, you would agree with me that it should be on the shelf of every physist, physics teacher and student. ... Read more

Book Description

Quantum information science is a new field of science and technology which requires the collaboration of researchers coming from different fields of physics, mathematics, and engineering: both theoretical and applied. Quantum Computing and Quantum Bits in Mesoscopic Systems addresses fundamental aspects of quantum physics, enhancing the connection between the quantum behavior of macroscopic systems and information theory. In addition to theoretical quantum physics, the book comprehensively explores practical implementation of quantum computing and information processing devices.On the experimental side, this book reports on recent and previous observations of quantum behavior in several physical systems, coherently coupled Bose-Einstein condensates, quantum dots, superconducting quantum interference devices, Cooper pair boxes, and electron pumps in the context of the Josephson effect. In these systems, the book discusses all required steps, from fabrication through characterization to the final basic implementation for quantum computing.On the theoretical side, Quantum Computing and Quantum Bits in Mesoscopic Systems provides models of the various mesostructures and of their response to external control signals, addressing the thorny problem of minimizing decoherence. Indeed, the book presents an improved understanding of the formal theory of quantum information encoding and manipulation.Topics include: Quantum Computing, Quantum Phenomena in Superconducting Devices (phase- and charge-space), Nanodevices, Dissipation and Docoherence in Mesoscopic Systems, and Macroscopic Quantum Coherence in Physical Systems, including: NMR, Quantum Dots, Ions, Magnetic Systems, and Bose-Einstein Condensation. ... Read more