4 comments about Quantum Optics: An Introduction (Oxford Master Series in Physics, 6).

1. I developed an interest in quantum optics in my last year of undergraduate school but I became discouraged with it since every book that I picked up on the subject was esoteric and too involved for an introduction. It seemed as if NONE of the quantum optics textbooks available were appropriate as an introduction. But then I found this book.
   
   Although not as mathematically intensive as I was hoping for it to be, it explains the physics very well. And although it doesn't compensate for many years of post-graduate study, I was able to better understand research papers in quantum optics due to this book.
   
   The book follows a rather traditional approach to developing quantum optics...first starting off with a discussion of important results in electromagnetism, classical optics, and quantum mechanics...then progressing to the theory of photons (discussing photon statistics, coherent states, and second quantization (with regard to photon number states)). Furthermore, it discusses the essential "backbone" of quantum optics (light-matter interactions) and then applications of quantum optics (quantum computing, quantum entanglement, etc.).
   
   I broke the rules and skipped ahead to the applications section and I must say that everything seems to make sense because of Fox's ability to convey difficult ideas in a simple, easy-to-understand manner.
   
   For anybody just starting to take an interest in quantum optics (like I was at one point), I would strongly suggest this book. It's not as mathematically sophisticated as Loudon's "The Quantum Theory of Light" (which is another must-have for quantum optics), but it's an excellent introduction.



2. At last we have a text that provides a comprehensive introduction to quantum optics for the beginner - both theory and experiment - and one which takes you through many of the most recent concepts and potential applications in computation, cryptography and teleportation etc.
   
   A feature of this text is the clear explanations and carefully explained jargon - it's NOT just mostly a collection of math like some other supposedly introductory texts.
   
   If you want to find out what quantum optics is all about - this is a great book to start with.



3. This is our textbook and is easy to understand. It also has answers for the exercise questions. That helps a lot.



4. Fox does a great job explaining a complex and dense field from an intuitive and experimental standpoint. I read this book after one term of 1-D introductory Q.M. and everything made sense. The experiments and set-ups described throughout the book are a great tool and were particularly handy since I was using the book to get ready for a summer internship in a Quantum Optics group. The only downside is that the book is quite lacking from a theoretical standpoint. If you are a bit more comfortable with Q.M., say at the level of Shankar, Liboff, or Sakuri, try Knight instead. Nonetheless, this is a great book.

5 comments about Gauge Theories in Particle Physics, 2 Volume Set.

1. This book (2nd edition) has 15 chapters . I have just finished chapter 4 entitled QFT and I am compeled to write this review! After a year of studying of QFT informally I can report that this is the way to introduce yourself to the topic. I've been through Mandl & Shaw, Peskin & Schoeder, Ryder, Weinberg and a few others and this is heads and tails the BEST intro available. In 42 pages, Aitchison & Hey make the transistion from classical to QM and from QM to QFT as gracefully as I can conceive. For example, the transition from the discrete Lagrangian to the field Lagrangian is very explicit. One benfit of this is that the dependence of L on partial of phi wrt x is clearly motivated leading to the manifestly relativistically invariant form of L. They explicitly develop physical intuition at every step of the way - for example, this is the only book that I have found that explicitly asks the question where is QM's wavefunction in the QFT formalism? Answer - The vacuum to one-particle matrix elements of the field operators. The transistion from free fields to interacting fields is far clearer than any other treatment I've seen. I also appreciated that the problems were used to basically fill in details left out of the text. I was able to 'practice' the various kinds of manipulations that are required.



2. 
   The 3rd edition of that book clarified to a degree the fog left in my mind by a two-semester QFT course. The book is better suited for beginners than Peskin & Shroeder, Mandl & Show or Lahiri & Pal simply because it senses better the difficult points for beginners and tries to explain them at lower level. It focuses on the main concepts and doesn't try to `cover broad material in shortest time' or get into extreme computational technicalities totally irrelevant to beginners. The correct historical perspective of many ideas is given and the important historical papers are cited. The theory is frequently compared to the experimental results. Violin string is used as a prototype of a continuous system described by a classical field which is the first field quantized later. The book develops physical intuition showing how a scattering process can be analyzed in full QED (all fields are operators), in semiclassical approximation (all fields are operators except the EM field) or using the lowest level wavefunction approximation (all fields are treated like wave functions just like scattering in nonrelativistic QM) often getting the same result (see chapter 8). Important concepts like Feynman diagrams and Renormalization of a theory are first explored in a simple theoretical playground - a hypothetical `ABC theory' of three massive scalar fields with an interaction ABC term - and later discussed again in the case of QED with all the complications like fermions and Electromagnetic gauge field.
   
   Topics discussed include gauge invariance principle; relativistic field equations describing free particles like Klein-Gordon and Dirac; Feynman interpretation of the negative energy solutions of Dirac eq. (no its not `antiparticle going back in time'); Dirac equation with EM field; Lagrangian and Hamiltonian densities for continuous systems; quantization of free fields like KG (real and complex scalar), Dirac and Electromagnetic field [the quantization is by postulating commutators/anticommutators, no path integrals]; Normal ordering of operators; Interaction picture for interacting fields, Time ordering of operators, Dyson expansion of the S matrix; Wick's theorem; scattering processes in QED at tree level; Ward identity; form factors for scattering from non point particle; parton model, Bjorken scaling; diagrams with loops, regularization and renormalization of ultraviolet divergences in QED.
   
   It took me a month and a half to read the book and solve all problems (10 problems per chapter on average). The problems are exactly the ones every beginner should solve and usually revolve about filling in details from the text or proving statements in the text. Solving them is usually easy with a few exceptions and teaches you the typical computational tricks of the trade. You have to know quantum mechanics (at least have seen scattering theory) and special relativity. You have to at least have heard of Green function and contour integration in the complex plane. The book provides nice appendices about all these.
   
   Not everything is crystal clear in that book, sometimes it took me a few days for an idea to sink in or I understood some paragraphs only after I read the whole book. Other ideas I did not understand at all. Sometimes it's hard to tell what they are trying to say although they say it several times from different angles ... The authors should work on expressing an idea in a direct succinct way once and for all instead of repeating several fuzzy versions of it. Overall that book made me understand MUCH more than a regular QFT course and I highly recommend it as a prep for such a course.



3. Like the 2nd edition this 2 volume set is very readable. I like it's informal style, and the wealth of background material presented, as well as the hints about when to expect further discussions of a subject in succeding chapters. By far the best Quantum Field Theory book I've come across.



4. 
   I received my copy of Aitchison and Hey last week and have nearly finished reading the first volume. So far, the text is living up to its legend: it is very readable, well cited (so the historical context can be reconstructed) and pitched for a graduate student who has seen the topic before but is looking for the kind of "handle" on the subject that is missing in nearly all other volumes on QFT (esp so Peskin). If you are struggling with your first look at QFT, reviewing the subject or trying to get a headstart through self instruction --- this book is essential. I would strongly recommend that all physics graduate students read this text after completing the usual third semester grad course in QM that often includes a first look at relativistic QM, KG eqn, and Spinors. I would also recommend that one begin by just READING the book carefully before trying problems. Aitchison and Hey have created a very reader friendly intro to QFT and the standard model that is not watered down.
   
   Take my advice: start reading this book in parallel with your QFT coursework or beforehand if you can. These books are worth every penny and every minute of your study time. Many mysteries are resolved! Enjoy.



5. I have read a number of books on gauge field theory. This one just seems to be the clearest presentation, balanced with unerstandable problems, I have ever seen. Many physics texts leave you wishing they would get to a point. Others leave you wondering what truckload of math just ran over you. This book, and its first volume, just satisfy. Each section is clear, to the point, and enjoyable. If you want to learn some field theory, just read these books. Actually, you may need a couple of basic quantum mechanics books first. But it's well worth it, to see the beauty of gauge theory.

5 comments about Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists.

1. While an easy to read book, Jungk presents some false information that depreciates the value of the book.

   The first is the impression that Von Weisacker and other German scientists attempted to give to the post war world, that they were not really trying to build a bomb, but were merely interested in nuclear power. This is refuted by Jeremy Bernstein, in his book "Hitler's Uranium Club." The historical record shows that there were many memorandums sent to the German Military, by the scientists, about the possibility of producing an atomic bomb.

   The more serious misstatement however, is about Klaus Fuchs' espionage on the Manhattan Project which was the most damaging espionage committed by any of the atomic spies of that era. Jungk claims that Fuchs decided to spy for the Soviet Union when he learned about plans to bomb Hiroshima. This is so off base that one has to question Jungk's scholarship or motives. Here is why: Fuchs began spying for the Soviets in 1941 in Britain, before Pearl Harbor and before there was even a Manhattan Project. The decision to acutally bomb Hiroshima was made in 1945. None of the scientists know what the targets were.

   This is such a huge distortion of the facts that it should be mentioned in any review of this book. The book has lots of details but if you buy it, beware of some of the downright distortions of history. A better choice is Richard Rhodes's book, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb".




2. This book was written nearly 50 years ago in the 1950's, so naturally some of the stories are incomplete with todays hindsight, but I wish I'd read this book 20 years ago. It is extremely well written, and full of fascinating anecdotes. Although I am familiar with many of the characters & stories, there was something new for me in every chapter, for example the insights into Oppenheimer in Germany before WWII. It would be wonderful if a revised version could be published incorporating the story of the Soviet Atom Scientists.



3. This a clear and terrible book. It can be considered as one of the most complete compelling and passionate works about the most chilling decision in the mankind story . the moral and politic story of the atomic scientists or the underground account of what happened among stage sceneries while the atomic finding and the construction of the atomic weapons . An impressing gallery where you will finf the famous and glorious names osuch as Niels Bohr , Oppenheimer , Heisenberg , Rutherford, Enrico Fermi , Szilard , Dirac , Joliot Curie , Kapitza , Otto Hahn , Weizacker their political approach , from Hitler to Roosvelt and Truman .
   Jungk presnts us the collective drama of the atomic energy and the responsibility of the scientists who wishing or not they finally finished accepting the tragicg fate and the ethical dilemma .
   The fir4st part is an account which reveals how gradually at early 1939 , many of them were frightened about the final consequences of their discovery , but in the other hand the suspect the german scientists could be capable of making the expected weapon under Hitler service .
   Then the author explores the work of the German scientists around the atom fission , the intensive and unfinished stages work in U.K. and U.SA. under the Oppenheimer control, Los Alamos review and the famous July 16 , the countless Szilard and Frank efforts for preventing and avoid the use of the Atomic Bomb over Japan absolutely useless as all we know .
   This book shows us how the science has created its own world having lost of any moral force to oppose the development of the most destructive weapons .
   The moral crossroad of a notable group of men who escaping from a demolisher oppressive nazi regime fell under a new form of destructor power of its own individuality , freedom and conscience
   To have an absolute domain of that complex web I recommend to acquire The great decision whose author is Michael Amrine..
   A must for any kind of reader , no matter your job is .



4. Robert Jungk’s Brighter than a Thousand Suns encompasses one of the most recent subjects in Physics, Atomic Energy. He begins by describing the Environment the most prominent physicists were educated in, Gottingen University in Germany, although an insight into the lives of these emerging physicists was well depicted, I felt that it was little too much background information and not enough explanations of the developments these budding physicists generated. The pattern of excessive background information seems to continue throughout the book, but there is much valuable information to be had throughout the book. The book covers everything from the plethora of atomic physicists sprouting after the First World War to the Manhattan Project and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s trial that removed him from his lofty position at the head of America’s Atomic Energy Commission. This book presents good information, but it is not very accessible as it was written by a German Physicist and later translated into English, and an immense interest in the topic is required to appreciate it.



5. Recently, in theatres in London and New York, the public was treated to the drama "Copenhagen," by British playwright Michael Frayn, and it revisited the theme of this now old book. The play was about a visit in September 1941 by the then young German physicist Werner Heisenberg to his mentor and dear friend Niels Bohr in Nazi-occupied Denmark. So a detail in a bigger picture, but still a key detail!
   
   The wider subject of Robert Jungk's book is a biographical sketch of the pioneers in nuclear physics, the individual scientist who built the atomic bomb (the time before Hiroshima and Nagasaki), or whose theories were instrumental. The debate about the history, the science, and its implications of the nuclear bomb started after World War II, and it is important to remember that nuclear scientists worked on both sides of this conflicts. Now with hindsight, the Cold War, and nuclear proliferation have taken centre stage, but back in 1956 when Robert Jungk's book first appeared, World War II was still casting a big shadow on events and on the debate about nuclear deterrence. In my opinion Robert Jungk's book was one of the first serious attempts at a general account on what was clearly a watershed in history, a series of events that are shaping our lives even today. Since 1956, Robert Jungk's book was reprinted many times, and many more related books appeared.
   
   Jungk's book is interesting in that it paints a vivid portrait of such scientists as Robert Oppenheimer, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and other leading physicists at the time, and on both sides of that conflict.
   
   What is interesting now is to view Robert Jungk's book in the light of Michael Frayn's play, and especially in light of newly released papers on the Niels Bohr archives in 2002, following the wide attention given to Michael Frayn's version of the 1941 meeting in Copenhagen. The 2002 addition to Niels Bohr's archives is a deposit comprising documents either dictated or written by Niels Bohr referring to what was said at the fateful 1941 meeting.
   
   Michael Frayn's play makes it clear that the two Bohr and Heisenberg were very close both scientifically and personally, and that the 1941 meeting changed all of that. Both men were devastated!
   
   Heisenberg was a leading scientific advisor to the German government in post WWII Europe; and yet he spent the rest of his life attempting to put his spin on his war work; his work on a nuclear bomb for Hitler, or perhaps rather denying these efforts. Niels Bohr who died in 1962 had been extraordinarily tight lipped about his meeting with Heisenberg in 1941. So while the newly released letters supplement and confirm previously published statements of Bohr's recollections of the meeting, especially those of his son, Aage Bohr, this part of the story is not well known, and especially not to Robert Jungk. The letters are from Niels Bohr to Heisenberg, and they are interesting for many reasons, not least of which is that they were never mailed, and so their contents were never known to Heisenbrg. Quoting from one of Bohr's letters to Heisenberg: "--- I think that I owe it to you to tell you that I am greatly amazed to see how much your memory has deceived you in your letter to the author [Robert Jungk] of the book ["Brighter than a thousand suns"],---." Review by Palle Jorgensen, July 2006.

5 comments about The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex.

1. The "reductionistic" scientific method, which seeks to reduce phonomena to simpler and more general underlying bludprints, has dominated the last three centuries. It works great in physics, as Newton domonstrated, but less well in other disciplines such as biology and psychology. For example, molecular biologists have isolated DNA, but have yet to adequately explain embroyonic development, protein folding and other riddles. To overcome these shortcomings, many are calling for a theory of complexity, which should focus on systems and the dynamics of development where order appears to organize itself from a bewildering number of interacting factors.
   
   Gell-Mann argues that rather than replacing reductionist methods, complexity theory complements that approach. The quark is the simple and universal, the jaguar the complex. He suggests that between these two exists an unbroken chain.
   
   Gell-Mann attempts to make his contribution with teh "complex adaptive system" that "acquires information about its environment" and indentifies "regularities in that information", which are then condensed into a "schema" or "model"; these latter are "non-static," and unlike a quark can evolve. Each complex adaptive system contains three strands: 1) basic rules; 2) frozen accidents; 3) a selection process. For example, language has genetically inherited cognitive capabilites with certain quirky attributes that persist and yet can change as the individual must describe new phenomena. A lot of the book is devoted to finding and explaining similar examples. It is a panoramic and entertaining excursion through human knowledge, if a bit cursory.
   
   Gell-Mann also hopes to guide scientists into a more holistic and cross-disciplinary approaches. With its focus on historical development and links between the simple and complex, the study of complex adaptive systems, he argues, may be the spur required to stimulate such approaches, briging physics, chemistry, biology and even the social sciences. This is what he is doing at the Santa Fe Institute.
   
   At its best, the book is a window into a great scientific mind, with fascinating mini-essays on state of the art science. Unfortunately, Gell-Mann is an uneven writer. Many passages are impenetrable to lay readers like myself. At a deeper level, he fails to critique the vague research agendas of the complexologists, who have been ridiculously popularised in such enues as Wired. Even the complex adaptive system may say too little about too much. Through it all, Gell-Mann maintains his pose as a total pedant.
   
   REcommended. It is uneven, but this is one of the greatest thinks of the 20C.



2. I might also have entitled my review, "See Carlos Camara's review of April 11, 2002." Camara captures my own thoughts to a tee. Where Gell-Mann is strongest, namely, on particle physics, his strengths shine through. Though hardly a rigorous survey of the field, the second section of Q&J is a compelling introduction to it -- and certainly whets one's appetite for further reading. The book's first section (an overview of the notion of complexity) is decent (though far better popular treatments can be found elsewhere). The book's third and fourth sections, however, are pretty much a total wash. I could tolerate them only insofar as they reflected the obvious integrity of the author. He is a political kindred spirit. That said, having purchased Q&J and had high expectations of it, I was surprised and not a little frustrated at how bereft of substance it was on matters "Jaguarian". More than a little disconnected, I found the second half of Q&J rambling, pedestrian, and even sophomoric. Certainly not what one expects of a Nobel prize winning physicist and of one of the founders of the Santa Fe institute. My respect for Gell-Mann, as a scientist and a humanist, is in no way diminished by Q&J, but I cannot help but feel that he (and his publisher) faltered with this effort. My advice: read the first half of Q&J for a cursory -- but well-written -- survey of complexity and particle physics. Skip the second half altogether.



3. Gell-Mann went to much effort to weave the diverse topics of this book together under the theme of complex adaptive systems. I found this to be a pointless endeavor. A good theme should provide cohesion or make the subject more approachable. Conceiving of both a single-celled organism and a culture as complex adaptive systems, however, provides little insight into the functioning of either and serves mostly to drive home the point that the notion of a complex adaptive system is so broad that nearly anything worth discussing falls under that heading.
   
   Quantum physics is discussed at length. Unfortunately this section reads more like a catalog of concepts and discoveries than like a good introduction conveying key concepts. Other subjects (biology, evolution, ecosystems, computer learning, economics, public policy) are covered too superficially to yield anything of interest.
   
   The major arguments of _The Quark and the Jaguar_ are as follows:
   
   1) Effective complexity is not the same as algorithmic complexity. Algorithmic complexity is 0 for uniform data and highest for completely random data. (Potential) effective complexity is highest in the middle, where patterns and rules (schema) can be derived and minimal for both uniform data and random data.
   
   2) Classical physics implies a deterministic world. How can anything interesting happen? Because quantum physics offers randomness.
   
   3) Complex adaptive systems create schemas to model the data. This is true for the formation of life, to children learning to speak, to scientific progress, etc. Successful complex adaptive systems are solutions to problems. So the biological and cultural diversity on the planet represents a huge amount of valuable information.
   
   4) We should preserve biological and cultural diversity so we don't lose valuable information.



4. Mr. Gell-Mann won a Nobel Prize for his work in physics, but he will never will a Pulitzer for his writing. It's too tedious to endure.
   
   I love reading books about physics. I tried to read this book -- twice. I wanted to like it. But both times, I got no more than a third of the way through, and couldn't force myself to read another word.
   
   Mr. Gell-Mann's writing is too convoluted and dry, his theories so superficially presented. Unless you're a speed reader, I'd imagine there are very few people who would ever waste the time required to force themselves through this very disappointing book.



5. This book gives valuable information on how complex systems arise out of a simple, natural ground. Gell-Mann's theories are useful in understanding chaos theory as well as many branches of quantum physics. A description of Gell-Mann's ecological explorations and efforts to maintain the biosphere is also given. The magician and student of physics will be well rewarded for reading Gell-Mann's work. The processes of consciousness and so magical phenomena may be understood in this light.

No comments about The Nuclear Waste Primer: A Handbook for Citizens.

5 comments about Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness.

1. This book is by far one of the most concise and simplest elucidations of various quantum phenomena... treating Copenhagen interpretation, the famous EPR paradox, Bell's theorem & inequality and more. Since I am not a physicist or physics major, I found their approach welcoming and I cannot critique the physics of the book, but I do have some major qualms with Quantum Enigma.
   
   My prime objection to this book is that the authors implicitly believe in the reality & truth of free will throughout the text. I was a student in Bruce Rosenblum's class at UC Santa Cruz so I was able to ask questions to one of the authors of the book. The issue of free will was one that Rosenblum was not a fan of discussing, often dismissing the nearly uniform proclamation of the natural sciences that free will (i.e. our conscious control of choices) is an illusion.
   
   This is may not seem like a profound objection to a book about physics, but Rosenblum & Kuttner insist themselves on the importance of free will to their book: "the existence of a quantum enigma depends crucially on free will." (p.168) If this is true, one would expect a substantial discussion of this concept yet the authors devote less than 2 pages to it. In these 2 pages, the authors admit, "Though it is hard to fit free will into a scientific worldview, we cannot ourselves, with any seriousness, doubt it. J.A. Hobson's comment seems apt to us: `Those of us with common sense are amazed at the resistance put up by psychologists, physiologists, and philosophers to the obvious reality of free will.'"
   
   This quotation is essentially saying that Rosenblum and Kuttner cannot accept the notion that free will is an illusion because of "common sense." Physicists of all people should know that our so-called "common sense" and our intuitions are often skewed and sometimes totally incorrect. Quantum mechanics is a perfect example of this - as is Copernicus' discovery that we live in a heliocentric system - yet this notion of not trusting our "common sense" seems to not occur to Rosenblum and Kuttner in relation to free will. Often in the Quantum Enigma course (Physics 75), Bruce Rosenblum would simply say, "I know I have free will" - a statement that should make any philosopher, physicist, or biologist cringe - and presumably anyone who values empirical data over subjective "intuitions." Why should we trust our intuitions and "common sense" over the empirical data in this one case of our apparent free will?
   
   The quotation above also belies a major problem with Quantum Enigma, where physics supposedly meets consciousness. The views of those fields named in the quotation above - psychologists, physiologists, and philosophers - are notably absent from Rosenblum and Kuttner's book. In Quantum Enigma where "physics meets consciousness," David Chalmers' book from the 80s is invoked often; they also mention Libet's studies from the 1980s. The problem with this is that an immense amount of research has been done since the 1980s in the blossoming field of neuroscience, which relate directly to our notions of intention, free will, consciousness, and self-representations. None of these findings are even mentioned even in passing in Quantum Enigma.
   
   Patricia Churchland, a philosopher and neuroscientist, states in her book Brain-Wise, "So far, there is no evidence at all that some neuronal events happen without any cause... Importantly, even were uncaused neuronal events to be discovered, it is a further, substantial matter to show that precisely those events constitute choice." From a biological perspective, there appears to be no room for free will. Rosenblum and Kuttner even admit as much when they begin the quotation above with the phrase, "Though it is hard to fit free will into a scientific worldview..." If free will is hard to fit into a scientific worldview, and "the existence of a quantum enigma depends crucially on free will," would it not seem practical to devote a little more than two pages to the discussion of free will? Wouldn't it be necessary to understand the views of biologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers on these issues of consciousness and free will to have a full, accurate, scientific picture of the situation?
   
   Certainly physics can expect to "encounter" consciousness because physics intends to find a holistic explanation of the universe, and consciousness is obviously part of the universe physics intends to explain. In our search to understand both quantum mechanics and consciousness, we must be honest and open to all sides of the story. Unfortunately, Rosenblum and Kuttner leave out the arguments from biology, psychology, neurology, and some physicists when discussing the quantum enigma where "physics encounters consciousness." This is an overwhelming handicap, especially because of the authors' supposedly "common sense" presupposition that humans have free will. I admit that there is certainly a quantum enigma that presents itself in what we know as the "measurement problem," and Rosenblum and Kuttner should be congratulated to attempt to bring this to light to combat pseudoscience. But to understand the Quantum Enigma, we cannot start with presupposed truths, especially including the notion that we have free will.
   
   With this in mind, I give the book 3 stars for its extraordinary conciseness with which it explains the phenomena of physics but the lack of biology, philosophy, neuroscience, etc. severely handicaps their interpretations and conclusions.



2. This book on interpreting the quantum facts is one of the best I've read. It is one of the best, I think, in its understandability of the enigma one is faced with in trying to go beyond the Copenhagen interpretation.
   This book presents the measurement problem of quantum physics and explains why conscious observation must have some role in influencing reality, if you choose to go beyond CI. The way the authors explain Bell's Theorem and how it became a testable theory that answered the EPR challenge to quantum theory is succinct and comprehensible to the layman, for which it was writen.



3. Quantum Enigma goes where few science books dare to go: right up to the border that separates physics from philosophy. And there it stops. The implication though is strong that something, a field of consciousness (?), is behind the universe and everything in it.



4. It takes a little while to grasp its concepts and I am not completely convinced of all arguments. However, its a very interesting read and I'm naturally a "doubting Jane" when science is involved. I question everything beyond the norm. What this has done is spiked my interest in String Theory so as well as recommending this book as a good starter, I would then recommend you read The Elegant Universe. Better to read this one first.
   
   Happy enlightenment!



5. Truly a classic book! If I had read this book during my college years, I definitely would have been a physics student instead of doing computer engineering. Even though I knew about Schrödinger Cats, It was the biggest surprise for me to read that it was in fact physics' encounter with consciousness. It was always - shut up and calculate approach for most of us. Also being a Vedanta student, it feels good to see that philosophy and science are converging to the same point. Simply the best book on science that I ever read! And it was such a great coincidence that I saw Dr. Fred Alan Wolf and Larry King on CNN discussing the similar subject the day I finished this book.

5 comments about Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters and Complexity (Oxford Master Series in Physics).

1. I immensely enjoyed studying this statistical mechanics book. I think that the author, James Sethna, has a "Feynman-like" ability to explore his subject matter with much depth, insight, and many playfully creative excursions. The exercises cover such topics as the thermodynamics of Dyson Spheres and black holes; of how many shuffles it takes to fully randomize a card deck; and of whether an advanced, intelligent being or civilization can, from a thermodynamic standpoint, manage to process an infinite number of thoughts before the heat death of the universe, or whether they are limited to a finite number of thoughts. I think that there is a lot of wisdom and insights in this book which is missing in other books I've read on statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, where I often feel overwhelmed by a zoo of partial derivatives and thermodynamic equations with little guidance given on how the entire structure fits together. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who has studied some statistical mechanics and/or thermodynamics in a lower-level undergraduate course, and is looking for more advanced upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level text.



2. This book is great, if you've already got an advanced physics degree and want a new/fresh look at Statistical Mechanics with a modern bent. The problems are very long and wordy, but that ususally means there's a lot of explanation...which is because none of it is explained in the text.



3. This books is reader friendly and very interesting. In the chapter about correlation function & linear response theory, the demonstration is very clear and self-consistent. As a student who is new to this topic, I think this chapter is even better than Chandler's book on this topic( I love Chandler's intro too). The problem set seems to be stimulating and may need more time than learning the main text. And more, the appendix is on Fourier Transform, a saver to the chemistry student like me.



4. The book Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters and Complexity by James Sethna is excellent. I have used it as the main textbook in my course on Statistical Physics for first year graduate students at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. The students and I liked it very much.
   
   I think that the main quality of the book is that it presents Statistical Physics as a very dynamical subject, interconnected with several subjects within physics, as well as outside it.
   
   Since the book is aimed for a one semester course on the subject, the author had to make important choices. I really liked his choices. For instance, the book does not discuss approximate methods used to treat systems with interacting particles, instead the author has chosen to have a chapter on Calculation and Computation. Although these methods have played an important role in the past, nowadays the study of the relevant problems in the field require computer simulations. The chapter on Computer Simulation is excellent. Instead of only discussing how to perform a Monte Carlo simulation, it proofs mathematically in detail (except for the Perron-Frobenius theorem) why one ends up with an equilibrium probability distribution after a number of Monte Carlo steps. Another important subject covered in the book is that of Abrupt Phase Transitions. For most Statistical Physics books, only Second Order or Continuous Transitions exist. The exercises are also another very important and interesting choice made by the author. They are very different from the usual exercises one can find in a regular textbook on Statistical Physics. The exercises are in general very intelligent and they appear in a broad range of difficulty, from those which can be solved by inspection to those that are small projects. I recall two great examples, exercises 5.7 and 5.10, where it is shown in a very clear and clever way that, when we know the system from a microscopic point of view, its entropy does not increase, whereas if we know only a coarse-grained description of it, then its entropy does increase. Some exercises lead the reader, in a secure way, through aspects of the theory that are not covered in the text. For instance, Landau's theory for phase transitions is presented in a very nice way in exercise 9.5.
   
   Perhaps, the aspect that I have enjoyed most in the book is that the author does not shy away from discussing one of the thorniest points in the fundamentals of Statistical Physics: what entropy really is. The book discusses in some detail Phase Space Dynamics and Ergodicity. It presents some physical situations where the ergodic hypothesis breaks down. Usually this problem with the theory is swept under the rug in most textbooks. One very interesting case is that of the entropy of glasses. A subject the author himself has worked on. If a liquid is cooled down very fast it may become a glass, undergoing what is called a glass transition. When the system is in the liquid phase its atoms are diffusing and the system goes through all different possible configurations, that is believed to be the cause for its entropy (ergodicity). When the liquid undergoes a glass transition, the atoms cease diffusing and the system is jammed in one (a single one) structure of the liquid that generated it. If the system is not anymore going through all the possible configurations available what has happened to its entropy? No heat is released in this transition, therefore, one does not expect a change in its entropy. A hardcore purist would answer that the glass is not a system in equilibrium and, therefore, the entropy is not well defined. The point is, it may take much more than the age of the Universe for the glass to reach the final equilibrium and become a crystal (reported changes in glasses of ancient churches are urban legends). The question about what has happened to the entropy of the liquid remains there, despite the purist's answer. The experimentalists can measure very well the residual entropy of a glass. For the author, for me and fortunately nowadays for many others, the satisfactory answer is that the entropy of a glass is the missing information about the system. Another example of residual entropy can be found in the ice cubes in your refrigerator.
   
   At last but not least, I would like to comment on a misconception of a previous reviewer about Shannon's Information Theory. The entropy proposed by Shannon is a measure of the uncertainty of a set of possible messages that can be exchanged, regardless the content of each message. Therefore, this entropy is related to the probability distribution associated with the ensemble of possible messages, regardless of their content. If there are any doubts, I would suggest reading the first chapter of the book Mathematical Foundations of Information Theory by A. Ya. Khinchin. In section 5.3.2 of the book, the author is just analyzing the properties of the Shannon entropy of a probability distribution using a humorous example. The probability distribution can be associated with anything, even with a key lost by a careless room-mate. This entropy is a property of the probability distribution, independent of any possible meaning attributed to it by a human being.



5. This advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate level text on statistical mechanics is clearly written by a master and perhaps visionary teacher. Statistical mechanics remains, in my opinion, the only truly rigorous science of emergent phenomena. As the scientific community in general focuses more on complex systems, it is likely that the techniques developed for the theoretical study of the statistical thermodynamic properties of matter will find widespread applications from biology to banking. In this spirit, this book is written to educate the next generation of scientists rather than as a text focused solely on existing applications.
   
   While the subject matter of this book easily devolves into mathematical gymnastics, this text is wonderfully written to simultaneously build up an intuitive grasp along with proficiency with mathematical concepts. Introductory chapters on "What is statistical mechanics?" and "Random walks and emergent properties" are deceptively simple: the mathematical techniques employed in these chapters should be immediately accessible to senior level physics and engineering students. Yet by the end of Chapter 2, one finds oneself deriving a simple one-dimensional Fokker-Planck equation--a nontrivial application in statistical mechanics with applications in chemical kinetics, transport phenomena, mathematical biology, and finance.
   
   This appeal to potentially broad applications is part of what makes this book unique. While a great number of important physical concepts are developed, this is really not an ordinary physics book. Instead, the tools and techniques of statistical mechanics are developed from an exceptionally broad perspective.
   
   While I have worked very few of the problems, the end-of-chapter problems sets present deep and detailed questions that are critically integrated into the text. A reader who has the time and dedication to do the problems will gain much more than one who does not.

5 comments about Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics.

1. Excellent introduction to Particle Physics. Q and L should be accessible to anyone with one semester of a standard quantum mechanics course.

   As for graduate students, I'd offer that Q and L is as good a book to fall back on in a graduate particle physics course as is Griffith's book is in a Jackson Electrodynamics course.




2. If you are a grad student in high energy/nuclear/heavy ion physics, experimental or theoretical, do yourself a favour and buy this book. It starts really from the begining (scalar fields, spinors, dirac equation, propagators) and slowly but steadily reaches the point of gauge field theory, QCD, partons, electroweak interactions , spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Weinberg-Salam model. Dont expect to find anything rigorous about renormalization. Chapter 7 has some calculations about running coupling constants etc. but most of it is intuitive (describing rather than proving) in order to give you a glimpse about these matters and serve as a tool for later chapters. Although I knew the basics of Quantum Field Theory before I read this book, it helped me understand topics like deep inelastic scattering, parton distribution functions, scaling, weak interactions,spontaneous symmetry breaking. Caution: It is not a Quantum Field Theory book, it is a particle physics book. If you are looking for gribov anomalies,ward-takahashi identities, and renormalization of the weinberg-salam model and stuff like that then this is not the place to find it. The book is about particles and their interactions. Its purpose is to prepare the serious student for more rigorous Quantum Field Theory books and give him/her the big picture of the standard model (the forest) rather than the little details of field theory (the tree). I strongly recommend it to any student in the field. The language is clear and the concepts are easy to follow. Its a down to earth approach trying to explain things in a clear cut manner rather than confusing the student with "big words" and terminology. A nice suplement to this book is the book by Chris Quigg (...huge number of references). In short, this book is worth its money ! Buy it !



3. I love this book, mostly because this book told me very well about how to do every kind of particle physics problems.
   Before you read it, you needn't have much background in Quantum Field Theory (while it should be quite good to read this book before studying QFT), and you can get almost all ideas of High Energy Physics in an aspect of phenomenology.
   If you wanna prepare for a professional particle physics test (such as a PhD Qualification test), for sure this book is the best one to read --- you can pass any kind of these tests if you concentrate more than 2 days on this book.
   And even you are not worrying about any test, this book is very good for a beginner to know particle physics quantitatively.



4. This is a very good treatment of particle physics. Unfortunately, its one of those textbooks where exercises are dispersed throughout the text and which form an integral part of the pedagogy. In other words, the reader must work through the problems as they appear in the book as subsequent material is based upon it; not to do the exercies will result in an incomplete and fragmented exposure to the material. Some might like that approach but I personally find it irritating and slows down the reading. As I mentioned its a very well written expose of particle physics but it could have been great if its format had been more traditional.



5. This book is really a jewel. It was used extensively to support two famouse theoretical courses at Imperial College London, namely, Unification and Advanced Particle Physics. It doesn't have typos, its extremely concise and the mathematics are extremely well presented and explained (without hand-waving anything). It explains very simply and clearly hard-to-grasp concepts (a lot of it as part of the Appendix) such as symmetries and their link to particle physics, spontaneous symmetry breaking, Feynman diagrams, Abelian and Non Abelian groups, Fermi theory and in general an excellent explanation of the properties of particles. I would recommend buying this book to any Theoretical Physicist taking Advanced Particle Physics courses or interested in knowing the mathematics of High Energy Physics (and not just the theory, because for that there are many other good story-teller books!).

5 comments about Making Waves: Irving Dardik and His Superwave Principle.

1. In his/her short "review," "jubjub" makes the extremely serious accusation that either I, as author, or Irving Dardik, as the subject of the book, must have "paid" some of the reviewers, because of their positive comments. ("Jubjub" uses the derogatory term "infomercial language.") While I refrain from stooping to respond to such a base claim, I would ask why "jubjub" would seek to hide behind a mask of anonymity while making such a claim about me in such a public arena? Does she/he not have the decency or courage to simply identify themselves? What does she/he have to hide, if anything? (In entering this "review," I was asked to select a rating; as author, I simply entered its current rating, not wishing to skew the rate either way.)



2. Corrupting the integrity of the amazon review system with viral marketers is a distasteful annoyance but it pales in comparison to preying on the hopes of the ill.
   
   I love books that are on the fringe of science--they are often thought-provoking and entertaining even if they report on findings that are ultimately flawed. However, seeing how the grandiose claims of this book ultimately led to the defrauding of the elderly and chronically sick makes me ashamed that a fraction of the money I paid for this book went into the pocket of the author.



3. Dardik's work is, IMO, profound and still in its infancy. He offers a model of how both life and the physical world 'work'. Most immediately and as a doctor, Dardik focused initially on how our Western life-style works against human performance, and produces chronic disease -- and what may be done to reverse this by strengthening the body's natural ability to create health.
   
   Lewin's book is an excellent introduction for both lay people and subject experts. Lewin describes well the important first practical applications in health and physics of Dardik's concept of SuperWaves. It is clear that applications will continue to be discovered as others in other fields, such as politics, sociology and psychology, consider the implications of Superwaves.
   
   Lewin's book is a handy entry into this model of how both life and the physical world work, and a good launching point for people who find traditional models inadequate.
   
   At the same time, Lewin's book offers a fascinating look into the world of creative people who tackle areas in which a prevailing wisdom is (too) well-entrenched. It is a world of joyous intellectual breakthroughs and of numbing institutional defeats, of lasting friendships and loyal support and of belligerent personal attacks.
   
   This world requires perseverance, sacrifice, enduring curiosity and open-mindedness, and as with all the great pioneers of history, it is fortunate that Dardik has these aplenty, and that the benefits of his insights are thus entering into our lives.
   
   Lewin's book is a great help in furthering this tendentious, difficult, important and rewarding process.
   
   Lawrence de Bivort



4. The only reason I decided to buy this book was because of the "John Doe" and "jubjub" below, who both use the term viral marketers to describe some honest people reviewing the book, and then pretending to feel bad about wasting fifteen bucks to the author's grubby capitalist pockets; I'm sure they haven't even held the book in their hands. They mentioned no details about the book they didn't like, why they didn't like it, and gave it the lowest score possible. Get a life.
   
   Dan Winter already has an incredible amount of information online at his Golden Mean site for free. I was fascinated by the incredible life-like symmetries in the graphs and charts, even though he has a ton of crazy ideas... which seem to make sense under this universal paradigm. Can't wait to read the book.



5. I really liked the book, on a literary level. It was well written, engaging, and thought provoking. However, it really fails, and fails badly at giving the how to's. I'd love to try the protocol the Dradik has developed and the book describes, but there just isn't enough detail about how to institute it. i feel like I was shown a menu and then told I couldn't ordewr the food. From what I undersatnd, Dardi charges $5,ooo a month to enroll in his program! That leaves out most of the planet. So much for sharing usable information.

5 comments about Physics of Radiology, Fourth Edition.

1. This text has been considered the bible of radiation therapy. It is in need of updating to current therapy modalities. Some of the problem answers are incorrect.



2. Dear sir,
   I am an oncologist,I read this book during my M.Phil course.It was 4th edition.I need this book very much.I hope that a new edition will come soon.
   Its an important book for me and i hope that all the oncologist of the world will agree with me.
   Thanks.
   Dr.Q.M.Hussain



3. It's quite clear most of the time. It has basic physics in it so you'd never need to refer to another textbook for simple things that you've forgotten. I wish it was a little more updated though. It's limited in it's coverage of things like neutron therapy. But this book is so good, you could use it as a self study guide, almost.



4. I am a norwegian radiology student, and after searching through a heap of books on this subject, I found out this one was the best of the lot, even if it is outdated. Yes, an update would be nice..



5. Physics of Radiology isn't as complete a text as Martin's, it seems more like a handbook than a physics text, but it is definitely useful and is full of examples that I can't find in other books. It's a little difficult to read straight through because of the visual format (it looks like it was written on a typewriter), but the examples are great references. I would have liked it if the authors used units more often, so that I could more easily adapt the examples but in all, it was a good investment.