Books in the IOP Concise Physics series

As technology advances, education has expanded from the classroom into other formats including online delivery, flipped classrooms and hybrid delivery. Congruent with these is the need for alternative formats for laboratory experiences. This explosion in technology has also placed in the hands of a majority of students a sensor suite tucked neatly into their smartphones or smart tablets. The popularity of these devices provides a new avenue for the non-traditional kinematic lab experience. This book addresses this issue by providing 13 labs spanning the common topics in the first semester of university-level physics. Each lab is designed to use only the student's smartphone, laptop and items easily found and big-box stores or a hobby shop. Each lab contains theory, set-up instructions and basic analysis techniques. All of these labs can be performed outside of the traditional university lab setting and initial costs averaging less than $8 per student, per lab, excluding the smartphone and laptop. This text is not intended to replace in-lab experiences, but instead is designed to be a guide for those situations where an in-lab experience is not feasible. Instructors should feel free to modify the labs and the author looks forward to seeing the modifications and successes achieved.

This book is based on a commitment to teaching science to everybody. What may work for training professional scientists does not work for general science education. Students bring to the classrooms preconceived attitudes, as well as the emotional baggage called "e;"e;science anxiety."e;"e; Students may regard science as cold, unfriendly, and even inherently hostile and biased against women. This book has been designed to deal with each of these issues and results from research in both Denmark and the United States. The first chapter discusses student attitudes towards science and the second discusses science anxiety. The connection between the two is discussed before the introduction of constructivism as a pedagogy that can aid science learning if it also addresses attitudes and anxieties. Much of the book elucidates what the authors have learned as science teachers and science education researchers. They studied various groups including university students majoring in the sciences, mathematics, humanities, social sciences, business, nursing, and eduction; high school students; teachers' seminary students; science teachers at all levels from middle school through college; and science administrators. The insights of these groups constitute the most important feature of the book, and by sharing them, the authors hope to help their fellow science teachers to understand student attitudes about science, to recognize the connections between these and science anxiety, and to see how a pedagogy that takes these into account can improve science learning.

This is an in-depth look at baryon number violation in the Standard Model including the necessary background in finite temperature field theory, plasma dynamics and how to calculate the out of equilibrium evolution of particle number densities throughout a phase transition. It is a self-contained pedagogical review of the theoretical background to electroweak baryogenesis as well as a summary of the other prevailing mechanisms for producing the asymmetry between matter and antimatter using the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model as a pedagogical tool whenever appropriate.

This book attempts to explain why 'string theory' may provide the comprehensive underlying theory that describes and explains our world. It is an enthusiastic view of how compactified string/M-theories (plus data that may be reachable) seem to have the possibilities of leading to a comprehensive underlying theory of particle physics and cosmology, perhaps soon. We are living in a hugely exciting era for science, one during which it may be possible to achieve a real and true understanding of our physical world.

The electric dipole moment (EDM) challenge measures a non-zero proton EDM value. This book suggests how the challenge can be met. Any measurably large proton EDM would violate the standard model. The method to be employed uses an intense beam of "frozen spin" protons circulating for hour-long times in a storage ring "trap".

In September 2017, the Cassini spacecraft will point itself toward the atmoshpere of Saturn and end its 13-year mission of solving many of the mysteries of the ringed planet's system with a crash. This book is a dramatic, beautifully illustrated journey of discovery through the Saturn system. Cassini's instruments have revealed never seen before details including the only extraterrestrial lakes known in the solar system and have provided unprecedented views of the rings. It is a non-technical book for everyone who loves astronomy.

This volume is a basic introduction to certain aspects of elliptic functions and elliptic integrals. Primarily, the elliptic functions stand out as closed solutions to a class of physical and geometrical problems giving rise to nonlinear differential equations. While these nonlinear equations may not be the types of greatest interest currently, the fact that they are solvable exactly in terms of functions about which much is known makes up for this. The elliptic functions of Jacobi, or equivalently the Weierstrass elliptic functions, inhabit the literature on current problems in condensed matter and statistical physics, on solitons and conformal representations, and all sorts of famous problems in classical mechanics. The lectures on elliptic functions have evolved as part of the first semester of a course on theoretical and mathematical methods given to first and second year graduate students in physics and chemistry at the University of North Dakota. They are for graduate students or for researchers who want an elementary introduction to the subject that nevertheless leaves them with enough of the details to address real problems. The style is supposed to be informal. The intention is to introduce the subject as a moderate extension of ordinary trigonometry in which the reference circle is replaced by an ellipse. This entre depends upon fewer tools and has seemed less intimidating that other typical introductions to the subject that depend on some knowledge of complex variables. The first three lectures assume only calculus, including the chain rule and elementary knowledge of differential equations. In the later lectures, the complex analytic properties are introduced naturally so that a more complete study becomes possible.

Provides detailed and current information on using fullerenes (bucky-balls) in photodynamic therapy (PDT), one of the most actively studied applications of photonic science in healthcare. This volume will serve as a useful source for researchers working in photomedicine and nanomedicine, especially those who are investigating PDT for cancer treatment and infectious disease treatment.

This book explains the Lorentz mathematical group in a language familiar to physicists. While the three-dimensional rotation group is one of the standard mathematical tools in physics, the Lorentz group of the four-dimensional Minkowski space is still very strange to most present-day physicists. It plays an essential role in understanding particles moving at close to light speed and is becoming the essential language for quantum optics, classical optics, and information science. The book is based on papers and books published by the authors on the representations of the Lorentz group based on harmonic oscillators and their applications to high-energy physics and to Wigner functions applicable to quantum optics. It also covers the two-by-two representations of the Lorentz group applicable to ray optics, including cavity, multilayer and lens optics, as well as representations of the Lorentz group applicable to Stokes parameters and the Poincar sphere on polarization optics.

Searching for Dark Matter with Cosmic Gamma Rays summarizes the evidence for dark matter and what we can learn about its particle nature using cosmic gamma rays. It has almost been 100 years since Fritz Zwicky first detected hints that most of the matter in the Universe that doesn't directly emit or reflect light. Since then, the observational evidence for dark matter has continued to grow. Dark matter may be a new kind of particle that is governed by physics beyond our Standard Model of particle physics. In many models, dark matter annihilation or decay produces gamma rays. There are a variety of instruments observing the gamma-ray sky from tens of MeV to hundreds of TeV. Some make deep, focused observations of small regions, while others provide coverage of the entire sky. Each experiment offers complementary sensitivity to dark matter searches in a variety of target sizes, locations, and dark matter mass scales. We review results from recent gamma-ray experiments including anomalies some have attributed to dark matter. We also discuss how our gamma-ray observations complement other dark matter searches and the prospects for future experiments.

Provides a rigorous macroscopic description of the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and structures containing graphene sheets (two-dimensional structures). It presents canonical problems with translational invariant geometries, in which the solution of the original vectorial problem can be reduced to the treatment of two scalar problems, corresponding to two basic polarization modes.

Describes in detail what is known about the electrostatic environment of the solar system from early and current experiments on Earth as well as what is being learned from the instrumentation on the space exploration missions (NASA, European Space Agency, and the Japanese Space Agency) of the last few decades. It begins with a brief review of the basic principles of electrostatics.

Offers both an introduction and a demonstration of how Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) can greatly enhance Microsoft Excel (R) by giving users the ability to create their own functions within a worksheet and to create subroutines to perform repetitive actions. The book is written so readers are encouraged to experiment with VBA programming with examples.

The stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) is by far the most difficult source of gravitational radiation detect. At the same time, it is the most interesting and intriguing. This book describes the initial detection of the SGWB and describes the underlying mathematics behind one of the most amazing discoveries of the 21st century.

This book is taken from third and fourth year undergraduate Physics courses at Southampton University. The aim is to move beyond the initial courses in classical mechanics, special relativity, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to more sophisticated views of these subjects and their interdependence.

Examines the origin of the molecular architecture of crystals; a topic that is becoming increasingly important and is often termed, crystal engineering. Such studies are a means of predicting crystal structures, and of designing crystals with particular properties by manipulating the structure and interaction of large molecules.

Presents a bird's-eye view of microwave tubes (MWTs) which continue to be important despite competitive incursions from solid-state devices (SSDs). The book offers a broad and introductory survey to encourage readers to explore the field of MWTs further in selected areas of relevance to their respective interests.

Presents the most recent advances of the application of the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) to complex flow phenomena of scientific and technical interest with particular focus on the multi-scale modelling of heterogeneous catalysis within nano-porous media and multiphase, multicomponent flows.

Describes gravity gradiometers, magnetic gradiometers, and electromagnetic (EM) gradiometers. This book provides readers with a comprehensive introduction, history, potential applications, and current developments in relation to some of the most advanced technologies in the 21st Century.

Presents a bird's-eye view of microwave tubes (MWTs) which continue to be important despite competitive incursions from solid-state devices (SSDs). The book offers a broad and introductory survey to encourage readers to explore the field of MWTs further in selected areas of relevance to their respective interests.

Reviews typical material systems, which exhibit hyperbolic behaviour and outlines important new applications of hyperbolic metamaterials, such as imaging experiments with plasmonic hyperbolic metamaterials and novel VCSEL geometries, in which the Bragg mirrors may be engineered in such a way that they exhibit hyperbolic properties in the long wavelength infrared range.

A central issue in any relativistic quantum theory is how to introduce interactions without spoiling relativistic invariance. This volume shows that interactions can be incorporated in a mass operator, in such a way that relativistic invariance is maintained. Surprisingly for a relativistic theory, such a construction allows for instantaneous interactions.

Provides a clear and factual picture of the status of renewable energy and its capabilities today. The book covers all areas of renewable energy, starting from biomass energy and hydropower and proceeding to wind, solar and geothermal energy before ending with an overview of ocean energy.

Volume 2 of this three-part series presents the quantization of classical field theory using the path integral formalism.For this volume the target audience is students who wish to learn about relativistic quantum field theory applied to particle physics, however, it is still very accessible and useful for students of condensed matter. This volume begins with the introduction of the path integral formalism for non-relativistic quantum mechanics and then, using this as a basis, extends the formalism to quantum fields with an infinite number of degrees of freedom. Dr. Strickland then discusses how to quantize gauge fields using the Fadeev-Popov method and fermionic fields using Grassman algebra. He then presents the path integral formulation of quantum chromodynamics and its renormalization. Finally, he discusses the role played by topological solutions in non-abelian gauge theories.

Considers the importance of nanomaterials and their application in medicine, as well as the significant growth of biomaterials in research fields, introduces the variables law (Rabiee's theory) for the implementation of this research and the establishment of a proper strategy.

The development of man's understanding of planetary motions is the crown jewel of Newtonian mechanics. This book offers a concise but self-contained handbook-length treatment of this historically important topic for students at about the third-year-level of an undergraduate physics curriculum.

Phase transformations are among the most intriguing and technologically useful phenomena in materials, particularly with regard to controlling microstructure.After a review of thermodynamics, this book has chapters on Brownian motion and the diffusion equation, diffusion in solids based on transition-state theory, spinodal decomposition, nucleation and growth, instabilities in solidification, and diffusionless transformations. Each chapter includes exercises whose solutions are available in a separate manual.This book is based on the notes from a graduate course taught in the Centre for Doctoral Training in the Theory and Simulation of Materials. The course was attended by students with undergraduate degrees in physics, mathematics, chemistry, materials science, and engineering. The notes from this course, and this book, were written to accommodate these diverse backgrounds.

Offers a rigorous, physics focused, introduction to set theory that is geared towards natural science majors. The authors present the science major with a robust introduction to set theory, focusing on the specific knowledge and skills that will unavoidably be needed in calculus topics and natural science topics in general.

The Outside the Research Lab series is a testament to the fact that the physics taught to high school and university students IS used in the real world.This book explores the physics and technology inherent to a selection of sports which have caught the author's attention and fascination over the years. Outside the Research Lab, Volume 3 is a path to discovering how less commonly watched sports use physics to optimize performance, diagnose injuries, and increase access to more competitors. It covers Olympic and Paralympic fencing, show jumping horses, and arguably the most brutal of motorsports - drag racing. Stunning images throughout the book and clear, understandable writing are supplemented by offset detail boxes which take the physics concepts to higher levels.Outside the Research Lab, Volume 3 is both for the general interest reader and students in STEM. Lecturers in university physics, materials science, engineering and other sciences will find this an excellent basis for teaching undergraduate students the range of applications for the physics they are learning. There is a vast range of different areas that require expertise in physics...this third volume of Outside the Research Lab shows a few with great detail provided by professionals doing the work.