Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Quantum Vacuum: An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics
    The Quantum Vacuum: An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics
    The Quantum Vacuum: An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics
    Ebook411 pages10 hours

    The Quantum Vacuum: An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics

    By Peter W. Milonni

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In modern physics, the classical vacuum of tranquil nothingness has been replaced by a quantum vacuum with fluctuations of measurable consequence. In The Quantum Vacuum, Peter Milonni describes the concept of the vacuum in quantum physics with an emphasis on quantum electrodynamics. He elucidates in depth and detail the role of the vacuum electromagnetic field in spontaneous emission, the Lamb shift, van der Waals, and Casimir forces, and a variety of other phenomena, some of which are of technological as well as purely scientific importance. This informative text also provides an introduction based on fundamental vacuum processes to the ideas of relativistic quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory, including renormalization and Feynman diagrams. Experimental as well as theoreticalaspects of the quantum vacuum are described, and in most cases details of mathematical derivations are included.

    Chapter 1 of The Quantum Vacuum - published in advance in The American Journal of Physics (1991)-was later selected by readers as one of the Most Memorable papers ever published in the 60-year history of the journal. This chapter provides anexcellent beginning of the book, introducing a wealth of information of historical interest, the results of which are carefully woven into subsequent chapters to form a coherent whole.

    • Does not assume that the reader has taken advanced graduate courses, making the text accessible to beginning graduate students
    • Emphasizes the basic physical ideas rather than the formal, mathematical aspects of the subject
    • Provides a careful and thorough treatment of Casimir and van der Waals forces at a level of detail not found in any other book on this topic
    • Clearly presents mathematical derivations
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAcademic Press
    Release dateOct 22, 2013
    ISBN9780080571492
    The Quantum Vacuum: An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics

    Related to The Quantum Vacuum

    Related ebooks

    Physics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      How the Universe Remembers Information

      Feb 28, 2019

      It was one of the great missed connections of physics. In 1965 a particle theorist derived a formula for the collision of elementary particles. Twenty years later two gravitation theorists, using completely different techniques, derived a formula for

      6 min read

    • Article

      Antenna Misconceptions

      Jan 1, 2023

      Antenna Misconceptions
      4 min read

    • Article

      When Gravity Breaks Down

      Feb 15, 2019

      When Gravity Breaks Down
      5 min read

    • Article

      Analog Adventures

      Dec 1, 2022

      Analog Adventures
      5 min read

    • Article

      Using Vitamin K (Kirchhoff)

      Jun 1, 2022

      Using Vitamin K (Kirchhoff)
      4 min read

    • Article

      Is The Standard Model Broken?

      Jun 2, 2021

      Is The Standard Model Broken?
      3 min read

    • Article

      Analog Adventures

      Dec 1, 2019

      Analog Adventures
      7 min read

    • Article

      Fusion Breakthrough Explained: What Are Quarks Again?

      Dec 11, 2017

      Physicists have confirmed the existence of a doubly charmed baryon, opening the door to an entirely new kind of fusion, known as quark fusion.

      3 min read

    • Article

      As We See It

      Dec 5, 2023

      As We See It
      3 min read

    • Article

      Voltage Value

      Jan 13, 2023

      Voltage Value
      8 min read

    • Article

      Analog Adventures

      Jun 1, 2019

      Analog Adventures
      8 min read

    • Article

      Learning Curve

      Mar 1, 2020

      Learning Curve
      10 min read

    • Article

      Quantum 101

      Dec 27, 2021

      We have a man called Max Planck to blame for all this. His discovery of energy quanta – the idea that the heat or light coming off something is not a constant force, but a stream of little lumps – won him the Nobel Prize in 1918. This threw open the

      1 min read

    • Article

      Quantum 101

      Nov 9, 2021

      We have a man called Max Planck to blame for all this. His discovery of energy quanta—the idea that the heat or light coming off something is not a constant force, but a stream of little lumps—won him the Nobel Prize in 1918. This threw open the whol

      1 min read

    • Article

      How to Bench Test a Magneto

      Nov 12, 2021

      How to Bench Test a Magneto
      9 min read

    • Article

      Light Could Solve One Of Quantum Computing’s Big Problems

      May 8, 2018

      Researchers have demonstrated how infrared laser pulses can shift electrons between two different states, the classic 1 and 0, in a thin sheet of semiconductor. The technique could help to solve a major issue with quantum computing. “Ordinary electro

      3 min read

    • Article

      What You’re Doing Right Now Is Proof of Quantum Theory

      Nov 24, 2021

      Nobody understands quantum mechanics,” Richard Feynman famously said. Long after Max Planck’s discovery in 1900 that energy comes in separate packets or quanta, quantum physics remains enigmatic. It is vastly different from how things work at bigger

      8 min read

    • Article

      S Parameters Made Easy

      Dec 1, 2022

      S Parameters Made Easy
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Quantum Vacuum

    3.5/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Quantum Vacuum - Peter W. Milonni

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1