Quantum field theory is the basic mathematical framework that is used to describe elementary particles. This textbook provides a complete and essential introduction to the subject. Assuming only an undergraduate knowledge of quantum mechanics and special relativity, this book is ideal for graduate students beginning the study of elementary particles. The step-by-step presentation begins with basic concepts illustrated by simple examples, and proceeds through historically important results to thorough treatments of modern topics such as the renormalization group, spinor-helicity methods for quark and gluon scattering, magnetic monopoles, instantons, supersymmetry, and the unification of forces. The book is written in a modular format, with each chapter as self-contained as possible, and with the necessary prerequisite material clearly identified. It is based on a year-long course given by the author and contains extensive problems, with password protected solutions available to lecturers at www.cambridge.org/9780521864497.

A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future. One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible , the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future. From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today. He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never. In a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains: · How the science of optics and electromagnetism may one day enable us to bend light around an object, like a stream flowing around a boulder, making the object invisible to observers “downstream” · How ramjet rockets, laser sails, antimatter engines, and nanorockets may one day take us to the nearby stars · How telepathy and psychokinesis, once considered pseudoscience, may one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, superconductivity, and nanotechnology · Why a time machine is apparently consistent with the known laws of quantum physics, although it would take an unbelievably advanced civilization to actually build one Kaku uses his discussion of each technology as a jumping-off point to explain the science behind it. An extraordinary scientific adventure, Physics of the Impossible takes readers on an unforgettable, mesmerizing journey into the world of science that both enlightens and entertains.

Nobel Prize-winning German physicist Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) is known for the development of quantum mechanics and the principle of indeterminancy. In physics and Philosophy he explains how modern advances in science alter, and often destroy, traditional ways only when the philosophical assumptions embedded in scientific method allow for modifications when new evidence emerges. Scientific advances alone do not change a culture when it is stripped of the new knowlage that accompanies the new science.

This is a bold and all-embracing exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge from one of today's great thinkers. Throughout history, mankind has struggled to understand life's mysteries, from the mundane to the seemingly miraculous. In this important new book, David Deutsch, an award-winning pioneer in the field of quantum computation, argues that explanations have a fundamental place in the universe. They have unlimited scope and power to cause change, and the quest to improve them is the basic regulating principle not only of science but of all successful human endeavor. This stream of ever improving explanations has infinite reach, according to Deutsch: we are subject only to the laws of physics, and they impose no upper boundary to what we can eventually understand, control, and achieve. In his previous book, "The Fabric of Reality", Deutsch describes the four deepest strands of existing knowledge - the theories of evolution, quantum physics, knowledge, and computation-arguing jointly they reveal a unified fabric of reality. In this new book, he applies that worldview to a wide range of issues and unsolved problems, from creativity and free will to the origin and future of the human species. Filled with startling new conclusions about human choice, optimism, scientific explanation, and the evolution of culture, "The Beginning of Infinity" is a groundbreaking book that will become a classic of its kind.

本书介绍爱因斯坦和他的追随者通过近一个世纪的努力所构造的近代物理学基础理论的框架。他们将对称性作为指导原则，并深信这是揭示自然基础设计秘密的钥匙。本书第一部分从艺术、建筑、科学到物理学的弱作用宇称不守恒等方面探讨对称性与建筑设计到自然界基础规律的设计的关系；第二部分介绍爱因斯坦在创立相对论的过程中所得出的“对称性指挥设计”的观点；第三部分介绍对称性在认识和诠释量子世界中所取得的成果；第四部分介绍杨-米尔斯规范理论并将对称性思想再次引入物理学基础的舞台，在此基础上进一步探索“最终设计”及遇到的问题。

From one of our greatest living scientists, a magnificent book that provides, for the serious lay reader, the most comprehensive and sophisticated account we have yet had of the physical universe and the essentials of its underlying mathematical theory. Since the earliest efforts of the ancient Greeks to find order amid the chaos around us, there has been continual accelerated progress toward understanding the laws that govern our universe. And the particularly important advances made by means of the revolutionary theories of relativity and quantum mechanics have deeply altered our vision of the cosmos and provided us with models of unprecedented accuracy. What Roger Penrose so brilliantly accomplishes in this book is threefold. First, he gives us an overall narrative description of our present understanding of the universe and its physical behaviors–from the unseeable, minuscule movement of the subatomic particle to the journeys of the planets and the stars in the vastness of time and space. Second, he evokes the extraordinary beauty that lies in the mysterious and profound relationships between these physical behaviors and the subtle mathematical ideas that explain and interpret them. Third, Penrose comes to the arresting conclusion–as he explores the compatibility of the two grand classic theories of modern physics–that Einstein’s general theory of relativity stands firm while quantum theory, as presently constituted, still needs refashioning. Along the way, he talks about a wealth of issues, controversies, and phenomena; about the roles of various kinds of numbers in physics, ideas of calculus and modern geometry, visions of infinity, the big bang, black holes, the profound challenge of the second law of thermodynamics, string and M theory, loop quantum gravity, twistors, and educated guesses about science in the near future. In The Road to Reality he has given us a work of enormous scope, intention, and achievement–a complete and essential work of science 从古希腊人探寻我们身边的秩序与混沌的最早期的努力开始，人们对支配着我们生活的宇宙的法则的理解也在不断加速。而通过相对论与量子力学这样的革命性理论而取得的重要进展，已经深刻地改变了我们观察宇宙的视野。在这本书中，作者Roger Penrose首先对我们目前对宇宙的理解给出一个全面的概述，从我们看不到的亚原子粒子的微小运动到漫天星斗的运行。在物质的世界与用以解释和描述它们的微妙的数理概念之间存在一种关系，揭示这一关系中所呈现的美是作者接下来要做的事。在此基础上，作者又进而对现有的理论加以思考。依着这一思路，他在此书讨论了大量的问题、争论以及现象，不仅是前面提到的相对论，还包括正诱惑着科学家们智慧的膜理论等。作者彭罗斯早已为中国读者所熟悉，他曾于1988年与霍金共同分享当年授予物理学家的沃尔夫奖。他的作品《皇帝新脑》、《时空本性》（与霍金合著）此前曾在我国翻译出版。来自《星期天泰晤士报》的评论说，彭罗斯的书揭示了纠结在自然与人类想像力之间的美与精妙之处。