Physics and Astronomy (R0)

This book presents fused deposition modeling (FDM) which is an additive manufacturing (AM) process to fabricate 3D parts from a build-up of 2D layers. The chapters present an experimental analysis of fatigue characteristics of FDM-processed PLA samples. The results indicate that the concentric build orientation provides highest cycles of fatigue, ultimate strength, and impact energy. The effect of layer orientation on the fatigue behavior of 3D-printed PLA samples is investigated in this case study.

What do the movements of molecules and the migration of humans have in common? How does the functionality of our brain tissue resemble the flow of traffic in New York City? How can understanding the spread of ideas, rumors, and languages help us tackle the spread a pandemic? This book provides an illuminating look into these seemingly disparate topics by exploring and expertly communicating the fundamental laws that govern the spreading and diffusion of objects. A collection of leading scientists in disciplines as diverse as epidemiology, linguistics, mathematics, and physics discuss various spreading phenomena relevant to their own fields, revealing astonishing similarities and correlations between the objects of study—be they people, particles, or pandemics.

This updated and expanded second edition of an award-winning book introduces timely coverage of a subject with the greatest societal impact in recent memory—the global fight against COVID-19. Winner of the 2019Literature Prize of the German Chemical Industry Fund and brainchild of the international and long-running Diffusion Fundamentals conference series, this book targets an interdisciplinary readership, featuring an introductory chapter that sets the stage for the topics discussed throughout. Each chapter provides ample opportunity to whet the appetite of those readers seeking a more in-depth treatment, making the book also useful as supplementary reading in appropriate courses dealing with complex systems, mass transfer, and network theory.

Chapter “Neolithic Transitions: Diffusion of People or Diffusion of Culture?” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This thesis makes significant advances in the use of microspheres in optical traps as highly precise sensing platforms. While optically trapped microspheres have recently proven their dominance in aqueous and vacuum environments, achieving state-of-the-art measurements of miniscule forces and torques, their sensitivity to perturbations in air has remained relatively unexplored. This thesis shows that, by uniquely operating in air and measuring its thermally-fluctuating instantaneous velocity, an optically trapped microsphere is an ultra-sensitive probe of both mass and sound. The mass of the microsphere is determined with similar accuracy to competitive methods but in a fraction of the measurement time and all while maintaining thermal equilibrium, unlike alternative methods. As an acoustic transducer, the air-based microsphere is uniquely sensitive to the velocity of sound, as opposed to the pressure measured by a traditional microphone. By comparison to state-of-the-art commercially-available velocity and pressure sensors, including the world’s smallest measurement microphone, the microsphere sensing modality is shown to be both accurate and to have superior sensitivity at high frequencies. Applications for such high-frequency acoustic sensing include dosage monitoring in proton therapy for cancer and event discrimination in bubble chamber searches for dark matter. In addition to reporting these scientific results, the thesis is pedagogically organized to present the relevant history, theory, and technology in a straightforward way.

The concept of Hybrid Warfare has gained prominence in recent decades. It is a novel terminology, but the concept is detectable since antiquity: Ancient Chinese, Ancient Greeks and the Jews of Exodus were all well familiar, so well to have let us know. Similarly, bioagents have been used malevolently since always. What is novel is that these two, in the present context, are not only interfacing smoothly, but in an enhanced context: The Hybrid Warfare, which has now enriched its portfolio, from actions of provocation, insurgency, economic warfare, special operations, proxy warfare and social destabilization to the Residual domain, the cyberspace, while the conventional, 3D space expands. Now the Space and the Deep are included in the topography of the friction zone.

In this, the bio- factor becomes not only relevant but also an amplifier: using the technology malevolently, all the advances made to combat disease may be used to cause, further, or perplex and complicate disease. Improved or totally novel or even alien germs may replace explosives in bombs, shells or suicidal /kamimaze drones and taint bullets and fragments. Microrobots may deliver cancer cells to targeted individuals to foster cancer, or specific supergerms for an infection to rage unchallenged. And what happens if the mechanism of these cancers and infections is intentionally provided with an Abort signal? Global extortions would become probable, not just possible.

Far from Science Fiction, this dystopia becomes more probable by the day. The Artificial Intelligence simply makes it easier to occur. Technology allows manipulation and intervention in levels and extends only imagined in the Past, but the application of these capabilities is clearly of dual use, with the destructive potential leveraged by the complexity of the social and state structure. Within this book, we explore the “How” (occasionally the “What” also) in some of these instances. From cyber terrorists to aggressive bioindustrialists and “democratized” ballistic and cruise missile technology, it could be coined as "The Book of Modern Mayhem”.

This textbook offers an introduction to statistical mechanics, special relativity, and quantum physics, developed from lecture notes for the "Quantum Physics" course at the University of Padua. Beginning with a brief review of classical statistical mechanics in the first chapter, the book explores special and general relativity in the second chapter. The third chapter delves into the historical analysis of light quantization, while the fourth chapter discusses Niels Bohr's quantization of energy levels and electromagnetic transitions. The Schrödinger equation is investigated in the fifth chapter. Chapter Six covers applications of quantum mechanics, including the quantum particle in a box, quantum particle in harmonic potential, quantum tunneling, stationary perturbation theory, and time-dependent perturbation theory. Chapter Seven outlines the basic axioms of quantum mechanics. Chapter Eight focuses on quantum atomic physics, emphasizing electron spin and utilizing the Dirac equation for theoretical justification. The ninth chapter explains quantum mechanics principles for identical particles at zero temperature, while Chapter Ten extends the discussion to quantum particles at finite temperature. Chapter Eleven provides insights into quantum information and entanglement, and the twelfth chapter explains the path integral approach to quantum mechanics.

This textbook provides a compendium of numerical methods to assist physics students and researchers in their daily work. It carefully considers error estimates, stability and convergence issues, the choice of optimal methods, and techniques to increase program execution speeds. The book supplies numerous examples throughout the chapters that are concluded by more comprehensive problems with a strong physics background. Instead of uncritically employing modern black-box tools, the readers are encouraged to develop a more ponderous and skeptical approach.

This revised and expanded edition now includes a new chapter on numerical integration and stable differentiation, as well as fresh material on optimal filtering, integration of gravitational many-body problems, computation of Poincaré maps, regularization of orbits, singular Sturm-Liouville problems, techniques for time evolution and spatial treatment of (semi)infinite domains in spectral methods, and phase retrieval. It also brings updated discussions of algebraic problems involving sparse matrices and of high-resolution schemes for partial differential equations.

This book proposes innovative and timely modeling, as well as simulation strategies based on tensor networks, to tackle the difficult problem of describing the dynamics of open quantum systems at the molecular or nanometer scale beyond a Markovian treatment. Among the many insights it delivers, the work includes calculations of the dynamics of a quantum system coupled to a bosonic environment that can be potentially structured and/or possess spatial correlations. The relevance of these strategies is exemplified with the analysis of complex bio-inspired nanodevices. Researchers in the field will find here a clear and reliable contribution to the understanding of open quantum systems in a still little-explored regime where the reservoirs are no longer considered as simple baths but as sub-systems treated on an equal footing with the reduced system of interest. Moreover, the author discusses how to handle the situation of a system coupled to multiple baths. This is a very important and generic scenario, crucial, for instance, when discussing non-equilibrium steady states.

Ball lightning is an enigma. These luminous objects that appear occasionally during thunderstorms and can reach several meters in diameter have been a mystery to science for about 200 years. Despite several thousands of reported observations, their nature is still unknown. In this book, well documented cases of ball lightning are described and used to unravel some aspects of this mysterious form of atmospheric electricity. Throughout the book, the author discusses the various facets of the problem in an accessible but rigorous style, delivering a readable and informative text that will captivate the curious reader. Now in an updated and expanded second edition, the author reports on groundbreaking new data on conditions under which ball lightning may form and its implications. These new discoveries are elucidated with new figures, additional case descriptions, new material on the interaction of ball lightning with humans, and a discussion of the reliability of ball lightning observations. This book presents the most up-to-date summary of the state of knowledge surrounding ball lightning.

A foreword by Earle Williams, leading lightning researcher at MIT, introduces the book.

This book reflects on 8 decades of research on one of the longest-standing unsolved problems in modern astrophysics: why does the Sun form a hot corona? The authors give a critical overview of the field and offer suggestions on how to bridge the chasm between what we can measure, and what we can calculate. They go back to basics to explain why the problem is difficult, where we have made progress and where we have not, to help the next generation of scientists devise novel techniques to crack such a long-lasting problem. A way forward is formulated centered around refutation, using Bayesian methods to propose and to try to reject hypotheses and models, and avoiding seduction by ``confirmation bias’’.

This book is aimed at physicists, students and researchers interested in understanding, learning from and solving the coronal heating problem, in an era of new dedicated facilities such as the Parker Solar Probe and the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.   

Thebook will appeal to those interested in understanding research methods and how they are changing in the modern academic environment, particular in astrophysics and Earth sciences where remote sensing is essential.

This open access book is a compilation of enlightening tutorial essays, showcasing the forefront of research by exceptional female scientists. This invaluable collection provides graduate students and researchers in the field with an engaging and pedagogical introduction to a wide range of compelling topics. Delve into the depths of theoretical and observational realms, exploring intriguing subjects including modified gravity models, quantum gravity, fields in curved space-time, particle dynamics, gravitational waves, and enigmatic black holes.
Embracing both the theoretical foundations and the practical applications, this comprehensive edited volume offers an accessible and all-encompassing panorama of gravity and cosmology. Moreover, it shines a much-needed spotlight on the significant contributions made by remarkable women across the globe, fostering recognition and admiration for their indispensable role in shaping this ever-evolving field.