Abc Of Physics: A Very Brief Guide: A Very Brief Guide

Translated from Russian by Vitaly Kisin

This little book concentrates on the foundations of modern physics (its “ABC's”) and its most fundamental constants: c — the velocity of light and ℏ — the quantum of action.

First of all, the book is addressed to professional physicists, but in order to achieve maximal concentration and clarity it uses the simplest (high school) mathematics. As a result many pages of the book will be useful to college students and may appeal to a more general audience.

• The Fundamentals
• Units
• A Minimum of Mathematics
• Translational Motion
• Rotation and Quantization
• Particles as Corpuscles and Waves
• More About Units
• The Hydrogen Atom
• Periodic Table of Chemical Elements
• Substance
• Quantum Electrodynamics — QED
• Transition to Classical Theory
• Gravitation
• Other Galaxies
• Big Bang
• Quantum Gravidynamics — QGD
• Intranuclear Forces
• Particles in Cosmic Rays
• Particles in Accelerators
• Three Discrete Symmetries
• Half a Century Later
• On Quantum Chromodynamics
• On the Electroweak Theory
• Supersymmetry
• Grand Unification
• In the Vicinity of the Planck Mass
• Concluding Remarks