The Lorentz group, which is the underlying scientific language for modern optics, has most notably been used for understanding Einstein’s special relativity. By using a simplified approach of two-by-two matrices and Wigner functions, this book provides a basic and novel approach to classical and quantum optics, making these difficult subjects more transparent to the reader. Written by three experts in the field, Sibel Başkal, Young S Kim and Marilyn E Noz, this book will provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of how fundamental issues in quantum mechanics can be approached using various optical instruments, Wigner functions and quantum entanglement.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 - Forms of Quantum Mechanics
Chapter 2 - Lorentz Group and Its Representations
Chapter 3 - Internal Space-time Symmetries
Chapter 4 - Photons and Neutrinos in the Relativistic World of Maxwell and Wigner
Chapter 5 - Wigner Functions
Chapter 6 - Coherent States of Light
Chapter 7 - Squeezed States and Their Symmetries
Chapter 8 - Entanglement and Entropy
Chapter 9 - Ray Optics and Optical Activities
Chapter 10 - Polarization Optics
Chapter 11 - Stokes Parameters and Poincaré Sphere
Appendix – Covariant Harmonic Oscillators and the Quark-Parton Puzzle
Index
About the Author :
Sibel Başkal is a physics professor at the Middle East Technical University. Her research interests extend to current problems in classical field theories, mostly on alternative approaches to Einstein’s gravity. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers and is the co-author of two books with Young S Kim and Marilyn E Noz.
Young S Kim graduated from Princeton University in 1961 and has been a faculty member of the University of Maryland since 1962. As a well-respected and learned physicist, he has published numerous works throughout his extensive career and continues to work closely with pupils and colleagues as well as continuing his own research in particle theory, quantum mechanics and further contents of Einstein’s work.
Marilyn E Noz is a professor emerita in the Department of Radiology at the NYU School of Medicine. Over more than 40 years, she has collaborated with Kim on relativistic quantum mechanics using two-by-two matrices, harmonics oscillators and the Lorentz group. She has contributed to more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in elementary particle physics and optics. She has also written three books with Kim and two books with Kim and Başkal, and continues to do research in elementary particle physics and quantum optics.
Sibel Başkal is a physics professor at the Middle East Technical University.
Young S Kim graduated from Princeton University in 1961 and has been a faculty member of the University of Maryland since 1962.
Marilyn E Noz is a professor emerita in the Department of Radiology at NYU School of Medicine.
