Invitation to Contemporary Physics

From Book News, Inc.
This second edition of an introduction to ten important areas in modern physics adds three new chapters on Bose-Einstein condensation, nanostructures, and quantum computation and information. Written to be accessible to general readers and university undergraduates, the book describes natural phenomena and explains them in terms of basic principles, relying on physical insight instead of equations. Other areas covered are lasers and physics, symmetry in nature, superconductivity, chaos, bright stars and black holes, elementary particles and forces, and cosmology. Chapter problems and solutions are included. Ho-Kim is recently retired from teaching physics at Universite Laval, Canada.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Professor Tung-Mow Yan, Cornell University
up-to-date account of the world of modern physics from the smallest of elementary particles to the vast of the cosmos


Professor Paul Hoyer, University of Helsinki
impressed both with the choice of highly interesting topics and the pedagogical presentation


Professor S
addresses many of the most exciting topics of the day: quantum computation, Bose-Einstein condensation, cosmology, and nanotechnology


European Journal of Physics
… a fascinating and lively guide to the world of contemporary physics.


The Industrial Physicist
… a must-read for those wanting to put their finger back on the pulse of physics research today.


Book Description
This completely revised second edition of our hugely popular book invites the reader to explore ten of the most important areas of modern physics: Symmetry, Lasers, Superconductivity, Bose–Einstein Condensation, Nanoscience, Quantum Computation, Chaos and Fractals, Stellar Evolution, Particles, and Cosmology. The new edition adds three new chapters in about a third of the book, covering the latest, hottest topics in contemporary physics: Bose–Einstein Condensate: Where Many Become One and How to Get There: Bose Statistics: Counting of the Indistinguishables; Bose–Einstein Condensation (BEC): The Over-Population Crisis; Cooling and Trapping of Atoms: Towards BEC; Doppler Limit and its Break Down; Trapping of Cold Atoms: Magnetic and Magneto-Optic Trap; Evaporative Cooling; BEC Finally: But How do We Know?; BEC: What Good is it? Exploring Nanostructures: Towards the Bottom; The Rise of Nanoscience; Confined Systems; Quantum Devices; The Genius of Carbon; Spintronics; Nanos at Large. Quantum Computation and Information: Classical Computer; Quantum Computer; Quantum Gates; Deutsch's Algorithm; Finding the Period of a Function; Shor's Factorization Algorithm; Grover's Search Algorithm; Hardware and Error Correction; Cryptography; Quantum Teleportation. The authors give a fascinating, up-to-date account of the exciting advances in these fast-moving fields. Their emphasis is as much on describing natural phenomena as on attempting to explain them in terms of basic principles, replacing equations with physical insight. General readers and university undergraduates alike will find this unique book a useful guide to the worlds of modern physics, while the mature scientist will get an insightful survey of neighboring fields of research. For the teacher who takes a thematic approach to teaching physics, this book will be a complete source of current topics at the frontiers of research; and for the student, a valuable tool of study, made even more useful by numerous pertinent problems (with complete solutions) and references found at the end of each chapter.


From the Publisher
Students, researchers in physics, chemistry, engineering and mathematics, science writers and general readers.


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This second edition of an introduction to ten important areas in modern physics adds three new chapters on Bose-Einstein condensation, nanostructures, and quantum computation and information. Written to be accessible to general readers and university undergraduates, the book describes natural phenomena and explains them in terms of basic principles, relying on physical insight instead of equations. Other areas covered are lasers and physics, symmetry in nature, superconductivity, chaos, bright stars and black holes, elementary particles and forces, and cosmology. Chapter problems and solutions are included. Ho-Kim is recently retired from teaching physics at Universitè Laval, Canada. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


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