Modern Physics: The Scenic Route

205 Pages·2022·15.431 MB·English

by  Leo Bellantoni

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Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bellantoni, Leo, author.
Title: Modern physics : the scenic route / Leo Bellantoni,
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, USA.
Description: New Jersey : World Scientific, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021050500 (print) | LCCN 2021050501 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789811242205 (hardcover) | ISBN 9789811243172 (paperback) |
ISBN 9789811242212 (ebook for institutions) | ISBN 9789811242229 (ebook for individuals)
Subjects: LCSH: Physics.
Classification: LCC QC21.3 .B455 2022 (print) | LCC QC21.3 (ebook) |
DDC 530--dc23/eng/20211201
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050500
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050501
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2022 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.
For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance
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is not required from the publisher.
For any available supplementary material, please visit
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12416#t=suppl
Typeset by Stallion Press
Email: [email protected]
Printed in Singapore
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
1. Symmetry 1
2. Mathematical Symmetries and Newton 5
3. A Symmetry That Is Not 9
4. Groups 17
5. Generators 23
6. Noether’s Theorem 25
7. The Quantum Mechanical Robert Frost 31
8. The Central Procedure of Quantum Mechanics 35
9. Your First Quantum Calculation 39
10. Your First Quantum Experiment 43
v
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vi Modern Physics: The Scenic Route
11. What Heisenberg Didn’t Know 47
12. Gauge Invariance 53
13. Where Do the Quanta Come From? 57
14. The Quest for Meaning: Particles and Waves 61
15. The Logos 65
16. Mental Waves 69
17. Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen 73
18. About Spin 79
19. Bell’s Theorem: Setting up the Equipment 83
20. Bell’s Theorem: Taking the Data 87
21. I Do Not Like It 91
22. If You Do Not Know Who Minkowski Was,
What are You Doing in His Space? 93
23. Rotational Symmetries and Matrices 97
24. The Sort-of Rotation 101
25. 299,792,548 Meters per Second — and No More! 107
26. Going Slower by Going Faster 109
27. The Twins 111
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Contents vii
28. Momentum in Minkowski Space 117
29. Why E Is In Fact mc2 119
30. Antimatter 123
31. Your First Nuclear Physics Theory: Protons
and Neutrons 127
32. Your First Nuclear Physics Theory: Symmetry 131
33. SU(2): A Matrix Group 135
34. Your First Nuclear Physics Theory: Pions 139
35. Your First Particle Physics Theory: The Λ 143
36. Your First Particle Physics Theory: Strange
Mesons 147
37. The Eightfold Way and Quarks 149
38. Another Symmetry that Is Not 155
39. γ, W, Z, and H 159
40. Bra-Kets 163
41. Two Fermions in a Pod 167
42. The Back of the Book 171
Index 189
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Preface
“Wish I’d seen that sooner!”
There is by now a fairly conventional way to present modern
physics at the undergraduate level, and that approach does have
a lot to be said for it. In particular, a student comes out of a
set of conventional courses with the ability to solve a collection of
problems that are very similar to ones that are likely to need to
be solved later on in another science or engineering class or job.
Of course, those problem-solving skills also simplify the educator’s
task of assessing the student’s nominal intellectual progress. This
book exists though because we found, rather later in in our own
personal educational trajectories, different approaches to some of
the topics of an introductory modern physics class that are really
illuminating as well as just plain nifty. We wish we had seen these
different approaches a bit earlier on in the learning process. They do
not make solving problems any easier, but they give us a whole new
insight into how nature works.
While not forgoing the historical approach that is common in
many modern physics courses (in fact we try to provide citations to
theoriginalworkswediscuss),wewilltryamoreaxiomatic approach
to central concepts. In particular, we will place one of the more
important ideas of modern physics, the idea of symmetry, front and
center.
Unlike conventional texts, this book will also take some time to
look over the fence that stands at the boundaries of what is scientif-
ically known. For example, what is reality, really? So we will discuss
ix