http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
200 years of discovery in the golden era of mathematics and physics
1 online resource (xiv, 379 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color).
"The Wonder of Quantum Spin is a confection of the history and the science of quantum spin covering two centuries of the golden era in mathematics and physics. First glimpses of spin appeared nearly 200 years ago in the study of rotations where spinors emerged as a new entity that changes sign after a 360 degree rotation, reminiscent of the Mobius geometry. A century later, quantum spin described by the spinor was discovered in physics. Among many other things, it led to the discovery of antimatter, raised the possibility of parity violation, and gave the first warning that protons and neutrons are not elementary. The MRI--one of the most important medical advances of the twentieth century--is an application of quantum spin to humanity. As we approach the centennial of the discovery of spin in Nature, the spin mystique prevails as we have no clue of what exactly spinning is. On the other hand, the theoretical framework underlying the spin determines why we exist, explains the mysteries of the 3000 years-old phenomena of magnetism, is behind the precision measurements of electron and muon spin magnetic moments displaying a mindboggling confrontation between theory and experiment that serves as an ambassador to quantum physics. Some of the other frontiers of physics that revolve around spin-1/2 include exotic states of matter known as topological insulators and the qubit--the quantum bits for tomorrow's computers." --
'The Wonder of Quantum Spin' discusses the key role quantum spin continues to play in many frontiers of physics that include the study of new exotic states of matter, quantum information and quantum computing. Spin tales also include the story of MRI - one of the most important applications of quantum science to humanity.
Introduction -- Part I: The Mystique of Quantum Spin-From Rodrigues and Hamilton... to Pauli, Dirac and Hesteness. The 18th Century--The Unification of Algebra and Geometry -- 1897--Landmarks in the History of the Discovery of Spin -- 1928-- "Found Beautiful"--The Dirac Equation -- Part II: Marbles that Fell from Dirac Equation: Handedness, Majorana Fermion, Spin-Statistics, QED.... 1929--Weyl and Majorana Fermions, "Närrisch" Neutrino, and the Revelation of Parity Violation -- 1933-- A Peek Inside the Nucleus: From Proton-Neutron to Flavored and Colored Quarks -- 1933--Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and (N)MRI -- 1939--Spin-Statistics and the Stability of the Universe -- 1947--The Lore of the g-factor -- Part III: Quantum Spin and Seminal Discoveries Past Quantum Revolution. 1960--Twister Theory: Spinors Describe Spacetime -- 1980s--Spin, Spinor, and the Geometric Phase -- Pseudo-Spin-1/2 Models and Topological States of Matter -- Part IV: Quantum Computing: Second Quantum Revolution? A Prelude to Quantum Computing -- Spin and Quantum Information -- Appendix A: Spinor Is the Square Root of a Null Vector -- Appendix B: The Magic of Complex Numbers
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2024]