Ageing and the Glass Transition
Understanding cooperative phenomena far from equilibrium is one of fascinating challenges of present-day many-body physics. Glassy behaviour and the physical ageing process of such materials are paradigmatic examples. The present volume, primarily intended as introduction and reference for postgraduate students and nonspecialist researchers from related fields, collects six extensive lectures addressing selected experimental and theoretical issues in the field of glassy systems.
Advanced Visual Quantum Mechanics
Investigate and to teach quantum mechanics with the aid of computer-generated animations. It is a self-contained textbook that combines selected topics from atomic physics (spherical symmetry, the hydrogen atom, and particles with spin) with an introduction to quantum information theory (qubits, EPR paradox, teleportation, quantum computers). It explores relativistic quantum mechanics and the strange behavior of Dirac equation solutions. A series of appendices covers important topics from perturbation and scattering theory. The book places an emphasis on ideas and concepts, with a fair to moderate amount of mathematical rigor. Though this book stands alone, it can also be paired with Thaller Visual Quantum Mechanics to form a comprehensive course in quantum mechanics. The software for the first book earned the European Academic Software Award 2000 for outstanding innovation in its field.
Advanced computer simulation approaches for soft matter sciences I
Soft matter science is nowadays an acronym for an increasingly important class of materials, which ranges from polymers, liquid crystals, colloids up to complex macromolecular assemblies, covering sizes from the nanoscale up the microscale. Computer simulations have proven as an indispensable, if not the most powerful, tool to understand properties of these materials and link theoretical models to experiments. In this first volume of a small series recognized leaders of the field review advanced topics and provide critical insight into the state-of-the-art methods and scientific questions of this lively domain of soft condensed matter research.
A Subtle and Mysterious Machine : The Medical World of Walter Charleton (1619-1707)
Walter Charleton (1619-1707) has been widely depicted as a natural philosopher whose intellectual career mirrored the intellectual ferment of the ‘scientific revolution’. Instead of viewing him as a barometer of intellectual change, I examine the previously unexplored question of his identity as a physician. Examining three of his vernacular medical texts, this volume considers Charleton’s thoughts on anatomy, physiology and the methods by which he sought to understand the invisible processes of the body.
A History of Thermodynamics : The Doctrine of Energy and Entropy
The development of thermodynamics in the second half of the 19th century has had a strong impact on both technology and natural philosophy. It is true that the steam engine for the conversion of heat into work existed before thermodynamics was developed as a branch of physics. However, the systematic theory improved the conversion process, and it succeeded in developing other processes essential to modern life, notably refrigeration and rectification. So, altogether thermodynamics has provided humanity with cheap energy, and cheap fuel, -- consequently with cheap, and abundant, and unspoiled food. Thus thermodynamics has made populations grow, and life expectancy increase beyond anything people could possibly have imagined 200 years ago.




