Bøger i IOP Concise Physics serien

Sound-Power Flow: A practitioner's handbook for sound intensity is a guide for practitioners and research scientists in different areas of acoustical science. There are three fundamental quantities in acoustics: sound pressure, sound particle velocity, and sound intensity. This book is about sound intensity and demonstrates the advantages and uses of acoustical sensing compared with other forms of sensing. It describes applications such as: measuring total sound power; directional hearing of humans and mammals; echolocation; measuring sound-power flow in ducts; and uses of non-contact, focused, high-frequency, pulse-echo ultrasonic probes.This book presents computational approaches using standard mathematics, and relates these to the measurement of sound-power flow in air and water. It also uses linear units rather than logarithmic units - this making computation in acoustics simpler and more accessible to advanced mathematics and computing. The book is based on work by the author and his associates at General Motors, the University of Mississippi, and Sonometrics.

How does it happen that billions of stars can cooperate to produce the beautiful spirals that characterize so many galaxies, including ours? This book reviews the history behind the discovery of spiral galaxies and the problems faced when trying to explain the existence of spiral structure within them. In the book, subjects such as galaxy morphology and structure are addressed as well as several models for spiral structure. The evidence in favor or against these models is discussed. The book ends by discussing how spiral structure can be used as a proxy for other properties of spiral galaxies, such as their dark matter content and their central supermassive black hole masses, and why this is important.

Origins of Life: A Cosmic Perspective presents an overview of the concepts, methods, and theories of astrobiology and origins of life research while presenting a summary of the latest findings. The book provides insight into the environments and processes that gave birth to life on our planet, which naturally informs our assessment of the probability that has arisen (or will arise) elsewhere. In addition, the book encourages readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and to engage in lively discussions. The text is intended to be suitable for mid- and upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students and more generally as an introduction and overview for researchers and general readers seeking to follow current developments in this interdisciplinary field. Readers are assumed to have a basic grounding in the relevant sciences, but prior specialized knowledge is not required. Each chapter concludes with a list of questions and discussion topics as well as suggestions for further reading. Some questions can be answered with reference to material in the text, but others require further reading and some have no known answers. The intention is to encourage readers to go beyond basic concepts, to explore topics in greater depth, and, in a classroom setting, to engage in lively discussions with class members.

The electric dipole moment (EDM) challenge measures a non-zero proton EDM value and 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'. The smallness of EDMs allows them to test existing theories, but also makes them hard to measure. Such EDM experiments are inexpensive, at least compared to building accelerators of ever-greater energy.

Space curves around you, time slows down, particles are waves, a cat is both alive and dead. What's going on? It all starts to make sense when we untangle the universe with this clear and enlightening book. Day-dreamers and deep-thinkers, these are the concepts that will send your mind wandering to new places with a deeper understanding of the natural world. Physics has always been a tricky subject for the general public. Millions are fascinated by the laws of the physical world, but there has been a lack of books written specifically for general readers. The Universe Untangled is for those who are curious; yet do not have an extensive mathematical background. It uses images, analogies and comprehensible language to cover popular topics of interest including the evolution of the universe, fundamental forces and particle interactions, the nature of space and time according to Special and General Relativity, the ideas of Quantum Mechanics and the quest for knowing the unknown. The Universe Untangled is a unique book because it is written by an author whose career has been built on making science accessible to all. She has contributed to the design and content production of educational games, professional development courses, and science workbooks. In essence, this is not a book written by a physicist for other physicists. It is written by an educator who cares only about sharing her passion for science with others.

Computational Approaches in Physics reviews computational schemes which are used in the simulations of physical systems. These range from very accurate ab initio techniques up to coarse-grained and mesoscopic schemes. The choice of the method is based on the desired accuracy and computational efficiency. A bottom-up approach is used to present the various simulation methods used in Physics, starting from the lower level and the most accurate methods, up to particle-based ones. The book outlines the basic theory underlying each technique and its complexity, addresses the computational implications and issues in the implementation, as well as present representative examples. A link to the most common computational codes, commercial or open source is listed in each chapter. The strengths and deficiencies of the variety of techniques discussed in this book are presented in detail and visualization tools commonly used to make the simulation data more comprehensive are also discussed. In the end, specific techniques are used as bridges across different disciplines. To this end, examples of different systems tackled with the same methods are presented. The appendices include elements of physical theory which are prerequisites in understanding the simulation methods.

Recent important discoveries and developments in nanotechnology have had a remarkable and ever-increasing impact on many industries, especially materials science, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. Nanocarriers have been investigated for a wide variety of different medical applications. Some examples of these nanocarriers include polymersomes, liposomes, micelles and carbon-based nanomaterials. Within this book, the authors describe different features of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), survey the properties of both the multi-walled and single-walled varieties, and cover their applications in drug and gene delivery. In addition, the book explains the structure and properties of CNTs prepared by different method, and discussed their isolation and purification. The future of CNTs in the field of biomedical science will depend on minimizing their adverse effects by careful study of their structure and properties.

An Introduction to the Gas Phase is adapted from a set of lecture notes for a core first year lecture course in physical chemistry taught at the University of Oxford. The book is intended to give a relatively concise introduction to the gas phase at a level suitable for any undergraduate scientist. After defining the gas phase, properties of gases such as temperature, pressure, and volume are discussed. The relationships between these properties are explained at a molecular level, and simple models are introduced that allow the various gas laws to be derived from first principles. Finally, the collisional behavior of gases is used to explain a number of gas-phase phenomena, such as effusion, diffusion, and thermal conductivity.

This book looks at the early history of nuclear power, at what happened next, and at its longer-term prospects. The main question is: can nuclear power overcome the problems that have emerged? It was once touted as the ultimate energy source, freeing mankind from reliance on dirty, expensive fossil energy. Sixty years on, nuclear only supplies around 11.5% of global energy and is being challenged by cheaper energy options. While the costs of renewable sources, like wind and solar, are falling rapidly, nuclear costs have remained stubbornly high. Its development has also been slowed by a range of other problems, including a spate of major accidents, security concerns and the as yet unresolved issue of what to do with the wastes that it produces. In response, a new generation of nuclear reactors is being developed, many of them actually revised versions of the ideas first looked at in the earlier phase. Will this new generation of reactors bring nuclear energy to the forefront of energy production in the future?

This is an overview of different models and mechanisms developed to describe the capture and relaxation of carriers in quantum-dot systems. Despite their undisputed importance, the mechanisms leading to population and energy exchanges between a quantum dot and its environment are not yet fully understood. The authors develop a first-order approach to such effects, using elementary quantum mechanics and an introduction to the physics of semiconductors. The book results from a series of lectures given by the authors at the Master's level.

This book describes modern focused ion beam microscopes and techniques and how they can be used to aid materials metrology and as tools for the fabrication of devices that in turn are used in many other aspects of fundamental metrology.

Electromagnetism: Problems and solutions is an ideal companion book for the undergraduate student-sophomore, junior, or senior-who may want to work on more problems and receive immediate feedback while studying. Each chapter contains brief theoretical notes followed by the problem text with the solution and ends with a brief bibliography. Also presented are problems more general in nature, which may be a bit more challenging.

FPGAs have almost entirely replaced the traditional Application Specific Standard Parts (ASSP) such as the 74xx logic chip families because of their superior size, versatility, and speed. For example, FPGAs provide over a million fold increase in gates compared to ASSP parts. The traditional approach for hands-on exercises has relied on ASSP parts, primarily because of their simplicity and ease of use for the novice. Not only is this approach technically outdated, but it also severely limits the complexity of the designs that can be implemented. By introducing the readers to FPGAs, they are being familiarized with current digital technology and the skills to implement complex, sophisticated designs. However, working with FGPAs comes at a cost of increased complexity, notably the mastering of an HDL language, such as Verilog. Therefore, this book accomplishes the following: first, it teaches basic digital design concepts and then applies them through exercises; second, it implements these digital designs by teaching the user the syntax of the Verilog language while implementing the exercises. Finally, it employs contemporary digital hardware, such as the FPGA, to build a simple calculator, a basic music player, a frequency and period counter and it ends with a microprocessor being embedded in the fabric of the FGPA to communicate with the PC. In the process, readers learn about digital mathematics and digital-to-analog converter concepts through pulse width modulation.

Measurements and experiments are made each and every day, in fields as disparate as particle physics, chemistry, economics and medicine, but have you ever wondered why it is that a particular experiment has been designed to be the way it is. Indeed, how do you design an experiment to measure something whose value is unknown, and what should your considerations be on deciding whether an experiment has yielded the sought after, or indeed any useful result? These are old questions, and they are the reason behind this volume. We will explore the origins of the methods of data analysis that are today routinely applied to all measurements, but which were unknown before the mid-19th Century. Anyone who is interested in the relationship between the precision and accuracy of measurements will find this volume useful. Whether you are a physicist, a chemist, a social scientist, or a student studying one of these subjects, you will discover that the basis of measurement is the struggle to identify the needle of useful data hidden in the haystack of obscuring background noise.

This book shows how the web-based PhysGL programming environment (http: //physgl.org) can be used to teach and learn elementary mechanics (physics) using simple coding exercises. The book's theme is that the lessons encountered in such a course can be used to generate physics-based animations, providing students with compelling and self-made visuals to aid their learning. Topics presented are parallel to those found in a traditional physics text, making for straightforward integration into a typical lecture-based physics course. Users will appreciate the ease at which compelling OpenGL-based graphics and animations can be produced using PhysGL, as well as its clean, simple language constructs. The author argues that coding should be a standard part of lower-division STEM courses, and provides many anecdotal experiences and observations, that include observed benefits of the coding work

This book reviews basic electromagnetic (EM) wave theory and applies it specifically to lasers in order to give the reader not only tangible examples of how the theory is manifested in real life, but also practical knowledge about lasers, and their operation and usage. The latter can be useful for those involved with using lasers. As a short treatise on this subject matter, this book is not intended to dwell deeply into the details of EM waves nor lasers. A bibliography is provided for those who wish to explore in more depth the topics covered in this book. Rather the aim of this book is to offer a quick overview, which will allow the reader to gain a competent general understanding of EM waves and lasers.

The development of nuclear weapons by the Manhattan Project during World War II was one of the most dramatic scientific/technological episodes in human history. This book, prepared by a recognized expert on the Manhattan Project, offers a concise survey of the essential physics concepts underlying fission weapons. The text describes the energetics and timescales of fast-neutron chain reactions, why only certain isotopes of uranium and plutonium are suitable for use in fission weapons, how critical mass and bomb yield can be estimated, how the efficiency of nuclear weapons can be enhanced, how the fissile forms of uranium and plutonium were obtained, some of the design details of the 'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' bombs, and some of the thermal, shock, and radiation effects of nuclear weapons. Calculation exercises are provided, and a Bibliography lists authoritative print and online sources of information for readers who wish to pursue more detailed study of this fascinating topic.

This book demonstrates the concept of Fourier ptychography, a new imaging technique that bypasses the resolution limit of the employed optics. In particular, it transforms the general challenge of high-throughput, high-resolution imaging from one that is coupled to the physical limitations of the optics to one that is solvable through computation. Demonstrated in a tutorial form and providing many MATLAB(R) simulation examples for the reader, it also discusses the experimental implementation and recent developments of Fourier ptychography. This book will be of interest to researchers and engineers learning simulation techniques for Fourier optics and the Fourier ptychography concept.

The book is an introduction to the subject of fluid mechanics, essential for students and researchers in many branches of science. It illustrates its fundamental principles with a variety of examples drawn mainly from astrophysics and geophysics as well as from everyday experience. Prior familiarity with basic thermodynamics and vector calculus is assumed.

This book introduces the reader into the field of the physics of processes occurring in porous media. It targets Master and PhD students who need to gain fundamental understanding the impact of confinement on transport and phase change processes. The book gives brief overviews of topics like thermodynamics, capillarity and fluid mechanics in order to launch the reader smoothly into the realm of porous media. In-depth discussions are given of phase change phenomena in porous media, single phase flow, unsaturated flow and multiphase flow. In order to make the topics concrete the book contains numerous example calculations. Further, as much experimental data as possible is plugged in to give the reader the ability to quantify phenomena.

This is a companion textbook for an introductory course in physics. It aims to link the theories and models that students learn in class with practical problem-solving techniques. In other words, it should address the common complaint that 'I understand the concepts but I can't do the homework or tests'. The fundamentals of introductory physics courses are addressed in simple and concise terms, with emphasis on how the fundamental concepts and equations should be used to solve physics problems.

This book provides non-specialists with a basic understanding ofthe underlying concepts of quantum chemistry. It is both a text for second or third-year undergraduates and a reference for researchers who need a quick introduction or refresher. All chemists and many biochemists, materials scientists, engineers, and physicists routinely user spectroscopic measurements and electronic structure computations in their work. The emphasis of Quantum Chemistry on explaining ideas rather than enumerating facts or presenting procedural details makes this an excellent foundation text/reference. The keystone is laid in the first two chapters which deal with molecular symmetry and the postulates of quantum mechanics, respectively. Symmetry is woven through the narrative of the next three chapters dealing with simple models of translational, rotational, and vibrational motion that underlie molecular spectroscopy and statistical thermodynamics. The next two chapters deal with the electronic structure of the hydrogen atom and hydrogen molecule ion, respectively. Having been armed with a basic knowledge of these prototypical systems, the reader is ready to learn, in the next chapter, the fundamental ideas used to deal with the complexities of many-electron atoms and molecules. These somewhat abstract ideas are illustrated with the venerable Huckel model of planar hydrocarbons in the penultimate chapter. The book concludes with an explanation of the bare minimum of technical choices that must be made to do meaningful electronic structure computations using quantum chemistry software packages.

This book is intended to be a course about the creation and evolution of the universe at large, including the basic macroscopic building blocks (galaxies) and the overall large-scale structure.This text covers a broad range of topics for a graduate-level class in a physics department where students' available credit hours for astrophysics classes are limited. The sections cover galactic structure, external galaxies, galaxy clustering, active galaxies, general relativity and cosmology.