Fundamental forces of nature : the story of gauge fields / Kerson Huang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Huang, Kerson, 1928-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gauge fields (Physics).

Equations of motion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (285 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Singapore ; Hackensack, NJ : World Scientific, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Gauge fields are the messengers carrying signals between elementary particles, enabling them to interact with each other. Originating at the level of quarks, these basic interactions percolate upwards, through nuclear and atomic physics, through chemical and solid state physics, to make our everyday world go round. This book tells the story of gauge fields, from Maxwell's 1860 theory of electromagnetism to the 1954 theory of Yang and Mills that underlies the Standard Model of elementary particle theory. In the course of the narration, the author introduces people and events in experimental and

Contents:

Contents; Preface; Introduction; 1. What Makes the World Tick?; 2. Electromagnetism; 3. The Vacuum is the Medium; 4. Let There be Light; 5. Heroic Age: The Struggle for Quantum Theory; 6. Quantum Reality; 7. What is Charge?; 8. The Zen of Rotation; 9. Yang-Mills Field: Non-Commuting Charges; 10. Photons Real and Virtual; 11. Creation and Annihilation; 12. The Dynamical Vacuum; 13. Elementary Particles; 14. The Fall of Parity; 15. The Particle Explosion; 16. Quarks; 17. All Interactions are Local; 18. Broken Symmetry; 19. Quark Confinement; 20. Hanging Threads of Silk

21. The World in a Grain of Sand22. In the Space of All Possible Theories; Epilogue: Beauty is Truth; Appendix. Nobel Prize in Physics; Name Index; Subject Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786611121778

9781281121776

1281121770

9789812770714

9812770712

OCLC:

476100035