20 Best Books On Modern Physics (2023 Update)

It is over a decade since the first edition of the bestseller elements of modern x-ray physics was published. given the immense level of interest in x-rays and their exploitation, there have been extensive developments in this field in the intervening years. in response to this progress, elements of modern x-ray physics has been completely revised and updated and includes: a new chapter on x-ray imaging with an emphasis on recent progress a new chapter on the determination of the structure of non-crystalline materials, including liquids, glasses, polymers and bio-molecules exercises and solutions at the end of most chapters this new edition will appeal to students of courses in x-ray science, as well as biologists, materials scientists, chemists, geologists and physicists using synchrotron radiation in their research. the capabilities of these new sources is exemplified on the front cover which shows the diffraction pattern from a crystal of the photo active protein (pyp) obtained using a single pulse of x-rays lasting only 100 pico seconds from a synchrotron storage ring. this extremely short exposure time is contrasted on the back cover with the 1000 seconds or so it took von laue to record one of the first one of the first ever x-ray diffraction pattern from crystal of zbs approximately a century ago.

For courses in calculus-based physics. guided practice helps students develop into expert problem solvers the new 15th edition of university physics with modern physics, now in si units, draws on insights from several users to help students see patterns and make connections between problem types. students learn to recognise when to use similar steps in solving the same problem type and develop an understanding for problem solving approaches, rather than simply plugging values into an equation. this edition addresses students' tendency to focus on the objects and situations posed in a problem, rather than recognising the underlying principle or the problem type. new key concept statements identify the main idea used in examples to help students recognise the underlying concepts and strategy. new key example variation problems within new guided practice sections group problems by type so students recognise when problems can be solved in similar ways, regardless of wording or numbers.

This innovative modern physics textbook is intended as a first introduction to quantum mechanics and its applications. townsend's new text shuns the historical ordering that characterizes other so-called modern physics textbooks and applies a truly modern approach to this subject, starting instead with contemporary single-photon and single-atom interference experiments. the text progresses naturally from a thorough introduction to wave mechanics through applications of quantum mechanics to solid-state, nuclear, and particle physics, thereby including most of the topics normally presented in a modern physics course.

Description this combination of study guide and workbook covers the following essential topics from modern physics: special relativity (concepts and mathematics)blackbody radiation (in-depth coverage)the photoelectric effect (concepts and equations)schrödinger's equation (thorough solutions to the most basic problems: the step potential, barrier potential, and square well)the compton effect (including the derivation)heisenberg's uncertainty principle (in terms of momentum and also energy)the de broglie relation (and related formulas)bohr's model of the atom (includes dozens of equations)level the student should know derivatives and integrals from a standard calculus course, and should have already studied first-year physics (newton's laws, conservation of energy, e&m, and waves). chapter 12 provides a concise review of essential skills from a course on differential equations, and there is a little bit of math with complex numbers (mostly, finding the complex conjugate as it relates to schrödinger's equation). format this study guide workbook focuses on essential concepts, formulas, and problem-solving skills: fully-solved examples with explanations show you how to apply standard problem-solving techniques. – handy charts tabulate the symbols, what they mean, and their si units. – problem-solving strategies are broken down into steps and illustrated with examples. – essential terms and concepts are defined and explained. – each chapter includes a variety of practice problems. the paperback edition includes space to solve the problems in the workbook. – the full solution to every practice problem can be found at the back of the book. – author the author, dr. chris mcmullen, has over 20 years of experience teaching university physics in california, oklahoma, pennsylvania, and louisiana (and has also taught physics to gifted high school students). he has also published a half-dozen papers on the collider phenomenology of superstring-inspired large extra dimensions. chris mcmullen earned his ph. – d. in particle physics from oklahoma state university (and his m.s. in physics from california state university, northridge). dr. mcmullen is well-known for: engaging physics students in challenging ideas through creativitybreaking difficult problems down into manageable stepsproviding clear and convincing explanations to subtle issueshis mastery of physics and strong background in mathematicshelping students become more fluent in practical math skills

With more than 100 years of combined teaching experience and phds in particle, nuclear, and condensed-matter physics, these three authors could hardly be better qualified to write this introduction to modern physics. they have combined their award-winning teaching skills with their experience writing best-selling textbooks to produce a readable and comprehensive account of the physics that has developed over the last hundred years and led to today's ubiquitous technology. assuming the knowledge of a typical freshman course in classical physics, they lead the reader through relativity, quantum mechanics, and the most important applications of both of these fascinating theories.

A revision of the leading text on experimental physics. the feature of this book that has made it one of the most loved texts on the subject is that it goes far beyond a mere description of key experiments in physics. the author successfully provides the reader with an understanding and appreciation of the 'physics' behind the experiments. the second edition will be an extensive revision introducing many new devices, including the use of computers and software programs, that have come into use since the publication of the first edition. in addition the important areas of condensed matter physics and optical physics will be added, including two entirely new chapters on lasers and optics. modern analysis and acquisition techniques integration with matlab for data analysis and display new experiments include fundamentals of lasers

Here internationally bestselling author micho kaku confidently hurdles today�s frontier of science, revealing the actual possibilities of perpetual motion, force fields, invisibility, ray guns, anti-gravity and anti-matter, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots and cyborgs, time travel, zero-point energy, even extraterrestrial life. and he shows how few of these ideas actually violate the laws of physics. where does the realm of science fiction end? �anything that is not impossible, is mandatory! � declares kaku in this lucid, entertaining and enlightening read.

In this deeply original book, science writer anil ananthaswamy sets out in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology. why is the universe expanding at an ever faster rate? what is the nature of the "dark matter" that makes up almost a quarter of the universe? why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life? are there others besides our own? ananthaswamy soon finds himself at the ends of the earth—in remote and sometimes dangerous places. take the atacama desert in the chilean andes, one of the coldest, driest places on the planet, where not even a blade of grass can survive. its spectacularly clear skies and dry atmosphere allow astronomers to gather brilliant images of galaxies billions of light-years away. ananthaswamy takes us inside the european southern observatory's very large telescope on mount paranal, where four massive domes open to the sky each night "like dragons waking up." he also takes us deep inside an abandoned iron mine in minnesota, where half-mile-thick rock shields physicists as they hunt for elusive dark matter particles. and to the east antarctic ice sheet, where engineers are drilling 1.5 miles into the clearest ice on the planet. they're building the world's largest neutrino detector, which could finally help reconcile quantum physics with einstein's theory of general relativity. the stories of the people who work at these and other dramatic research sites—from lake baikal in siberia to the indian astronomical observatory in the himalayas to the subterranean lair of the large hadron collider—make for a compelling new portrait of the universe and our quest to understand it. an atmospheric, engaging, and illuminating read, the edge of physics depicts science as a human process, bringing cosmology back down to earth in the most vivid terms.

It is commonly held that there is no place for the 'now’ in physics, and also that the passing of time is something subjective, having to do with the way reality is experienced but not with the way reality is. indeed, the majority of modern theoretical physicists and philosophers of physics contend that the passing of time is incompatible with modern physical theory, and excluded in a fundamental description of physical reality. this book provides a forceful rebuttal of such claims. in successive chapters the author explains the historical precedents of the modern opposition to time flow, giving careful expositions of matters relevant to becoming in classical physics, the special and general theories of relativity, and quantum theory, without presupposing prior expertise in these subjects. analysing the arguments of thinkers ranging from aristotle, russell, and bergson to the proponents of quantum gravity, he contends that the passage of time, understood as a local becoming of events out of those in their past at varying rates, is not only compatible with the theories of modern physics, but implicit in them.

A modern primer in particle and nuclear physics provides a cohesive introduction to the fundamentals of the field and is designed to be accessible to undergraduate students. the textbook provides an ideal entry point and presents the modern concepts, theories, and experiments that explain the elementary constituents and basic forces of the universe. starting with the basic concepts and definitions, the textbook goes on to cover core developments, such as the links between quantum chromodynamics and nuclear physics, the higgs boson, and the first observation of gravitational waves. new concepts are introduced gradually and clarified by intuitive explanations, exercises, and concrete examples linking particle physics to nuclear physics, astrophysics, and gravitation. the book also includes appendices on special relativity and non-relativistic quantum mechanics for those needing a basic grounding in these areas. the text is an expert guide for undergraduate physics students wanting to expand their knowledge, and also provides fascinating insights to graduate students, junior researchers, and physics enthusiasts.

The text presents a modern view of classical mechanics and electromagnetism for today's science and engineering students, including coverage of optics and quantum physics and emphasizing the relationship between macroscopic and microscopic phenomena.organized to address specific concepts and then build on them, this highly readable text divides each chapter into short, focused sections followed by review questions. using real-world examples, the authors offer a glimpse of the practical applications of physics in science and engineering, developing a solid conceptual foundation before introducing mathematical results and derivations (a basic knowledge of derivatives and integrals is assumed).

With a wide spectrum of theories, from general relativity to quantum mechanics, our conceptions of the very big and the very small are no longer intuitively obvious. many philosophers, even scientists have expressed the opinion that the counterintuitive conclusions posited in modern physics are best understood using spiritual terminology. in the 11 lectures in this volume, harav ginsburgh, one of our generation's foremost scholars, innovators, and teachers of kabbalah, reveals how modern physics reflects foundational concepts in the torah's inner dimension. a wide range of topics from relativity (special and general), quantum mechanics, and string theory are addressed. elegantly and gracefully, harav ginsburgh's exposition of the topics switches back and forth between the scientific and torah perspectives. with his deep insight, harav ginsburgh gives even well-known physical concepts a refreshing and new treatment. apart from carefully drawing parallels and correspondences between the torah's inner dimension and modern physics, in these lectures, harav ginsburgh proposes new directions for scientific research into important areas such as a unified field theory, cpt symmetry, the relationship between acceleration and gravitation, and the possibility of uncovering additional dimensions in physical reality, demonstrating how the torah's depth can be used to fertilize science and further our understanding of nature. harav yitzchak ginsburgh is one of our generation's foremost expositors of kabbalah and chassidut and is the author of over 100 books in hebrew, english, french, russian, and spanish. he is also the founder and dean of the ba'al shem tov school of jewish psychology, and his unique approach to mathematics in torah is now the basis of a new math curriculum for jewish schools.

A modern course in statistical physics is a textbook that illustrates the foundations of equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical physics, and the universal nature of thermodynamic processes, from the point of view of contemporary research problems. the book treats such diverse topics as the microscopic theory of critical phenomena, superfluid dynamics, quantum conductance, light scattering, transport processes, and dissipative structures, all in the framework of the foundations of statistical physics and thermodynamics. it shows the quantum origins of problems in classical statistical physics. one focus of the book is fluctuations that occur due to the discrete nature of matter, a topic of growing importance for nanometer scale physics and biophysics. another focus concerns classical and quantum phase transitions, in both monatomic and mixed particle systems. this fourth edition extends the range of topics considered to include, for example, entropic forces, electrochemical processes in biological systems and batteries, adsorption processes in biological systems, diamagnetism, the theory of bose-einstein condensation, memory effects in brownian motion, the hydrodynamics of binary mixtures. a set of exercises and problems is to be found at the end of each chapter and, in addition, solutions to a subset of the problems is provided. the appendices cover exact differentials, ergodicity, number representation, scattering theory, and also a short course on probability.

The seminal work by one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, physics and philosophy is werner heisenberg's concise and accessible narrative of the revolution in modern physics, in which he played a towering role. the outgrowth of a celebrated lecture series, this book remains as relevant, provocative, and fascinating as when it was first published in 1958. a brilliant scientist whose ideas altered our perception of the universe, heisenberg is considered the father of quantum physics; he is most famous for the uncertainty principle, which states that quantum particles do not occupy a fixed, measurable position. his contributions remain a cornerstone of contemporary physics theory and application.

A groundbreaking text and reference book on twenty-first-century classical physics and its applications – this first-year graduate-level text and reference book covers the fundamental concepts and twenty-first-century applications of six major areas of classical physics that every masters- or ph – d-level physicist should be exposed to, but often isn't: statistical physics, optics (waves of all sorts), elastodynamics, fluid mechanics, plasma physics, and special and general relativity and cosmology. growing out of a full-year course that the eminent researchers kip thorne and roger blandford taught at caltech for almost three decades, this book is designed to broaden the training of physicists. its six main topical sections are also designed so they can be used in separate courses, and the book provides an invaluable reference for researchers. – presents all the major fields of classical physics except three prerequisites: classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and elementary thermodynamics – elucidates the interconnections between diverse fields and explains their shared concepts and tools – focuses on fundamental concepts and modern, real-world applications – takes applications from fundamental, experimental, and applied physics; astrophysics and cosmology; geophysics, oceanography, and meteorology; biophysics and chemical physics; engineering and optical science and technology; and information science and technology – emphasizes the quantum roots of classical physics and how to use quantum techniques to elucidate classical concepts or simplify classical calculations – features hundreds of color figures, some five hundred exercises, extensive cross-references, and a detailed index – an online illustration package is available

Is there a higher power in the universe? leading physicist frank j. tipler tackles these questions and more in an astonishing and profoundly important book that scientifically proves the existence of god and the physical resurrection of the dead.

Over the course of the past two to three decades, new tools of presentation and mathematical treatment have emerged and the subject matter of quantum mechanics has gone through significant changes. a textbook on modern quantum mechanics presents the selected elementary, intermediate, and advance topics with rejuvenated approach to the subject matter. newly merged topics from contemporary physics and chemistry are included in the text as well as solved examples. the book covers: (i) fundamental discoveries that are the foundation of modern quantum mechanics; (ii) solution of schrödinger's wave equation for 1d problems and their importance; (iii) matrix and vector formulation of quantum mechanics; (iv) transformations, symmetries, and conservation laws; (v) angular and spin momenta; (vi) solution of schrödinger equation for central potentials; (vii) time-independent perturbation theory, variational method and wkb approximation; (viii) quantum theory of scattering; (xi) many-particle systems and their quantum mechanical treatments; (x) time-dependent perturbations and the interaction of fields with matter; (xi) relativistic quantum mechanics; and (xii) quantization of fields and the second quantization. key features: it provides everything a student needs to know for succeeding at all levels of the undergraduate and graduate studies. it covers most of the topics that are taught under (a) elementary, (b) intermediate, and advance courses of quantum mechanics at universities and colleges. it has detailed and elegant mathematical treatment with contemporary style of interpretation and presentation in simple english. solved examples and unsolved exercises that are part of each chapter to consolidate the readers' understanding of fundamental concepts. the subject matter of the book is well tested on the students taught by the author over a period of 30 years. this is a valuable textbook for students pursuing bachelor of science, master of science, and doctor of philosophy (phd) degrees in the subjects of physics, chemistry, and materials science in india, south asian countries, the united states, and europe.

“science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science, but man needs both.” —fritjof capra, ph.d.their paths to the truth could not be more different—but the amazing thing is that, in their own ways, the mystics and the scientists are discovering the same truths about our world. in non-technical language, with no complex mathematics or formulae, this thought-provoking program explores the main concepts and theories of modern physics, the revelations coming from particle accelerators and laboratories—and compares them with the ancient tenets of hinduism, buddhism and taoism.

Accessible and flexible, modern physics, third edition has been specifically designed to provide simple, clear, and mathematically uncomplicated explanations of physical concepts and theories of modern physics. the authors clarify and show support for these theories through a broad range of current applications and examples-attempting to answer questions such as: what holds molecules together? how do electrons tunnel through barriers? how do electrons move through solids? how can currents persist indefinitely in superconductors? to pique student interest, brief sketches of the historical development of twentieth-century physics such as anecdotes and quotations from key figures as well as interesting photographs of noted scientists and original apparatus are integrated throughout. the third edition has been extensively revised to clarify difficult concepts and thoroughly updated to include rapidly developing technical applications in quantum physics. to complement the analytical solutions in the text and to help students visualize abstract concepts, the new edition also features free online access to qmtools, new platform-independent simulation software created by co-author, curt moyer, and developed with support from the national science foundation. icons in the text indicate the problems designed for use with the software.important notice: media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Accessible and flexible, modern physics, third edition has been specifically designed to provide simple, clear, and mathematically uncomplicated explanations of physical concepts and theories of modern physics. the authors clarify and show support for these theories through a broad range of current applications and examples-attempting to answer questions such as: what holds molecules together? how do electrons tunnel through barriers? how do electrons move through solids? how can currents persist indefinitely in superconductors? to pique student interest, brief sketches of the historical development of twentieth-century physics such as anecdotes and quotations from key figures as well as interesting photographs of noted scientists and original apparatus are integrated throughout. the third edition has been extensively revised to clarify difficult concepts and thoroughly updated to include rapidly developing technical applications in quantum physics. to complement the analytical solutions in the text and to help students visualize abstract concepts, the new edition also features free online access to qmtools, new platform-independent simulation software created by co-author, curt moyer, and developed with support from the national science foundation. icons in the text indicate the problems designed for use with the software.important notice: media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.