A Short Journey from Quarks to the Universe
This book takes the reader for a short journey over the structures of matter showing that their main properties can be obtained even at a quantitative level with a minimum background knowledge. The latter, besides some high school physics and mathematics,
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Eleftherios N. Economou
A Short Journey from Quarks to the Universe Selected Solutions
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Eleftherios N. Economou University of Crete FORTH IESL N. Plastira Street 100 70013 Iraklion Greece e-mail: [email protected]
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ISSN 2191-5423 ISBN 978-3-642-20088-5 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20089-2
e-ISSN 2191-5431 e-ISBN 978-3-642-20089-2
Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Eleftherios N. Economou 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: eStudio Calamar, Berlin/Figueres Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
There is, of course, an immense liberating role of Science at the central existential level. It is what Aristotle was saying about ‘‘hatl afeiv’’. Science humanizes us, liberates us from our animal instincts, just because it makes us wondering and at the same time desiring to explain… Yet it shows us our limits and our mortality… Thus Science is something immeasurably precious…. Science can help us approach anew the real poetic and mythical dimension of human existence. C. Castoriadis
To Christos, Eleni, Zinovia, Yiannis, and Evropi with wishes ‘‘cia jakg9 rsqa9sa’’ in life’s pathway. Suggested by A., of course
Preface
This short book grew out of lectures presented to different audiences (physics students, physicists, material scientists, engineers) and on various occasions (colloquia and seminars in physics and other departments, conferences, special events). The main purpose of these lectures and, obviously, of the present book is to show that basic formulae concerning the various structures of the physical world pop out quickly, if some basic ideas, the universal physical constants, and dimensional considerations are exploited. Of course, as R. Feynman pointed out, ‘‘a little thinking has to be applied too’’. The basic ideas include the three cornerstones of science, namely the atomic idea, the wave-particle duality, and the minimization of free energy as the necessary and sufficient condition for equilibrium (these are presented in Chaps. 2, 3, and 4 respectively). These fundamen
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