Physics in a New Era


Book Description

Physics at the beginning of the twenty-first century has reached new levels of accomplishment and impact in a society and nation that are changing rapidly. Accomplishments have led us into the information age and fueled broad technological and economic development. The pace of discovery is quickening and stronger links with other fields such as the biological sciences are being developed. The intellectual reach has never been greater, and the questions being asked are more ambitious than ever before. Physics in a New Era is the final report of the NRC's six-volume decadal physics survey. The book reviews the frontiers of physics research, examines the role of physics in our society, and makes recommendations designed to strengthen physics and its ability to serve important needs such as national security, the economy, information technology, and education.




Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos


Book Description

Advances made by physicists in understanding matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole have closely intertwined the question being asked about the universe at its two extremesâ€"the very large and the very small. This report identifies 11 key questions that have a good chance to be answered in the next decade. It urges that a new research strategy be created that brings to bear the techniques of both astronomy and sub-atomic physics in a cross-disciplinary way to address these questions. The report presents seven recommendations to facilitate the necessary research and development coordination. These recommendations identify key priorities for future scientific projects critical for realizing these scientific opportunities.




Science and Creationism


Book Description

This edition of Science and Creationism summarizes key aspects of several of the most important lines of evidence supporting evolution. It describes some of the positions taken by advocates of creation science and presents an analysis of these claims. This document lays out for a broader audience the case against presenting religious concepts in science classes. The document covers the origin of the universe, Earth, and life; evidence supporting biological evolution; and human evolution. (Contains 31 references.) (CCM)




Primordial Nucleosynthesis and Evolution of Early Universe


Book Description

The International Conference "Primordial Nucleosynthesis and Evolution of Early Universe" was held in the presence of Prof. William Fowler on 4 - 8 September 1990 at the Sanjo Conference Hall, the University of Tokyo. This conference was co-sponsored by IUPAP, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and by the University of Tokyo. The number of participants was 156, 58 from 15 foreign countries and 98 from Japan. About 120 contributions were submitted orally or as posters. Originally this conference was planned as a small gathering on Primordial Nucleosynthesis as indicated in the title, since primordial nucleosynthesis is the most important probe of the early stage of the universe. As is well known, light element abundances strongly depend on the time evolution of temperature and density. In this sense we can say that primordial nucleosynthesis is both the thermometer and speedometer of the early universe. Moreover, recently it has been claimed that primordial nucleosynthesis is an indicator of inhomogeneity of the early universe too. Now research of the primordial nucleosynthesis is in a boom. We, however, decided to include observational cosmology, of observations. taking into account the recent remarkable results Nowadays, to reveal the large scale structure of the universe and discover its origin is a main subject in cosmology. We invited distinguished scientists from all over the world, and very fortunately almost all these people accepted to attend this conference.




The Cosmic Web


Book Description

Semi-autobiographical discussion of astronomy and astronomers, and history of astronomy and cosmology.--




The First Stars


Book Description

The formation of the first stars (Pop III stars) and galaxies is one of the great outstanding challenges in modern astrophysics and cosmology. The first stars are likely key drivers for early cosmic evolution and will be at the center of attention over the next decade. The best available space and ground-based telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope probe the Universe to high redshifts and provide us with tantalizing hints; but they cannot yet directly detect the first generation of stars and the formation of the first galaxies. This is left as key science for future telecopes like the James Webb Space Telescope. This book is based in part on classroom tested lectures related to Pop III stars, but also draws from the author's review articles of the main physical principles involved. The book will thus combine pedagogical introductory chapters with more advanced ones to survey the cutting-edge advances from the frontier of research. It covers the theory of first star formation, the relation between first stars and dark matter, their impact on cosmology, their observational signatures, the transition to normal star formation as well as the assembly of the first galaxies. It will prepare students for interpreting observational findings and their cosmological implications.




Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations


Book Description

Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations is a comprehensive presentation of the theory of stellar evolution and its application to the study of stellar populations in galaxies. Taking a unique approach to the subject, this self-contained text introduces first the theory of stellar evolution in a clear and accessible manner, with particular emphasis placed on explaining the evolution with time of observable stellar properties, such as luminosities and surface chemical abundances. This is followed by a detailed presentation and discussion of a broad range of related techniques, that are widely applied by researchers in the field to investigate the formation and evolution of galaxies. This book will be invaluable for undergraduates and graduate students in astronomy and astrophysics, and will also be of interest to researchers working in the field of Galactic, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. comprehensive presentation of stellar evolution theory introduces the concept of stellar population and describes "stellar population synthesis" methods to study ages and star formation histories of star clusters and galaxies presents stellar evolution as a tool for investigating the evolution of galaxies and of the universe in general




Structure Formation in the Universe


Book Description

This text provides an up-to-date and pedagogical introduction to this exciting area of research.







Cosmological Inflation and Large-Scale Structure


Book Description

A thorough and up-to-date graduate textbook on the most promising theory of the universe - inflationary cosmology.