This textbook bridges the gap between the level of introductory courses on mechanics and electrodynamics and the level of application in high energy physics and quantum field theory. After explaining the postulates that lead to the Lorentz transformation and after going through the main points special relativity has to make in classical mechanics and electrodynamics, the authors gradually lead the reader up to a more abstract point of view on relativistic symmetry - illustrated by physical examples - until finally motivating and developing Wigner's classification of the unitary irreducible representations of the inhomogeneous Lorentz group. Numerous historical and mathematical asides contribute to the conceptual clarification.
Format: Paperback / softback
CONTRIBUTORS: Roman U. Sexl
EAN: 9783211834435
COUNTRY: Austria
PAGES:
WEIGHT: 1540 g
HEIGHT: 254 cm
PUBLISHED BY: Springer Verlag GmbH
DATE PUBLISHED: 2000-10-03
CITY:
GENRE: SCIENCE / Physics / Electricity, SCIENCE / Physics / Mathematical & Computational, SCIENCE / Physics / Nuclear, SCIENCE / Physics / Relativity
WIDTH: 178 cm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Physics, Gravity, Electricity, electromagnetism and magnetism, Particle and high-energy physics, Mathematical physics
"... I wish that many readers from the large English-speaking area ... will step on it and profit from an illuminating textbook which was reserved to German-language readers up to now." Wolfgang Hasse - General Relativity and Gravitation, vol. 34, 12/2002
