Overview
- Authors:
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Walter Greiner
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Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität, Frankfurt/Main, Fed. Rep. of Germany
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Berndt Müller
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Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität, Frankfurt/Main, Fed. Rep. of Germany
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Johann Rafelski
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Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa
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Table of contents (21 chapters)
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 1-25
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 26-58
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 59-91
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 92-111
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 112-121
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 122-173
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 174-193
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 194-211
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 212-256
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 257-299
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 300-312
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 313-344
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 345-388
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 389-414
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 415-430
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 431-469
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 470-483
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 484-498
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- Walter Greiner, Berndt Müller, Johann Rafelski
Pages 499-519
About this book
The fundamental goal of physics is an understanding of the forces of nature in their simplest and most general terms. Yet there is much more involved than just a basic set of equations which eventually has to be solved when applied to specific problems. We have learned in recent years that the structure of the ground state of field theories (with which we are generally concerned) plays an equally funda mental role as the equations of motion themselves. Heisenberg was probably the first to recognize that the ground state, the vacuum, could acquire certain prop erties (quantum numbers) when he devised a theory of ferromagnetism. Since then, many more such examples are known in solid state physics, e. g. supercon ductivity, superfluidity, in fact all problems concerned with phase transitions of many-body systems, which are often summarized under the name synergetics. Inspired by the experimental observation that also fundamental symmetries, such as parity or chiral symmetry, may be violated in nature, it has become wide ly accepted that the same field theory may be based on different vacua. Practical ly all these different field phases have the status of more or less hypothetical models, not (yet) directly accessible to experiments. There is one magnificent ex ception and this is the change of the ground state (vacuum) of the electron-posi tron field in superstrong electric fields.