CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- CHAPTER I LASERS AND PHYSICS -- 1. INVITATION TO THE NEW OPTICS -- 2. CONVENTIONAL LIGHT SOURCES -- 2.1 Light and Electromagnetic Radiation -- 2.2 Spontaneous Radiation -- 3. LASER LIGHT -- 4. TYPES OF LASERS -- 4.1 Solid-state Lasers -- 4.2 Gas Lasers -- 4.3 Semiconductor Lasers -- 4.4 And all the Others -- 5. APPLICATIONS OF LASERS -- 5.1 Microelectronics and Microsurgery -- 5.2 Surveying and Fitting -- 5.3 Interferometry -- 5.4 Communications -- 5.5 Holography -- 6. QUANTUM OPTICS -- 6.1 Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy -- 6.2 Nonlinear Optics -- 6.3 Is Quantum Physics Real? -- 7. LOOKING BEYOND -- CHAPTER II SUPERCONDUCTIVITY -- 1. ZERO ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE -- 1.1 Metallic Resistance -- 1.2 Superconductivity is Common -- 2. INFINITE MAGNETIC RELUCTANCE -- 3. FLUX TRAPPING -- 4. WHOLENESS OF TRAPPED FLUX -- 5. TEMPERATURE AND PHASE TRANSITION -- 5.1 Order Parameter -- 5.2 Free Energy and Entropy -- 6. TYPE I SUPERCONDUCTORS -- 7. TYPE II SUPERCONDUCTORS -- 8. THE CRITICAL CURRENT -- 9. UNDERSTANDING SUPERCONDUCTIVITY -- 9.1 Fermions -- 9.2 Bosons -- 9.3 Bose Condensation and Superfluidity -- 9.4 Phonon Mediated Attraction -- 10. COOPER PAIRS AND THE BCS THEORY -- 11. SOME MACROSCOPIC QUANTUM EFFECTS -- 11.1 Flux Quantization Revisited -- 11.2 Josephson Tunneling and the Superconducting Interference -- 12. SUPERCONDUCTOR COMES OUT OF THE COLD -- CHAPTER III SYMMETRY OF NATURE AND NATURE OF SYMMETRY -- 1. WHAT IS SYMMETRY THAT WE SHOULD BE MINDFUL OF IT? -- 2. SPACE-TIME SYMMETRIES: INVARIANCE AND THE GREAT CONSERVATION LAWS -- 3. REFLECTION SYMMETRY -- 4. GAUGE SYMMETRY -- 5. SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING (SSB) -- CHAPTER IV CHAOS: CHANCE OUT OF NECESSITY -- 1. INTRODUCTION: CHAOS LIMITS PREDICTION -- 1.1 The Butterfly Effect -- 1.2 Chaos Is Common -- 1.3 Can Small Be Chaotic? -- 2. LESSON OF THE LEAKING FAUCET.

3. A MODEL FOR CHAOS -- 3.1 The Logistic Map -- 3.2 Iteration of Map -- 3.3 The Period Doubling Bifurcation -- 3.4 Universality -- 3.5 Fully Developed Chaos -- 4. STRANGE ATTRACTORS AND ROUTES TO CHAOS -- 4.1 Stable Fixed Point -- 4.2 Limit Cycle -- 4.3 The Biperiodic Torus -- 4.4 The Strange Attractor -- 4.5 The Henon Attractor -- 4.6 The Lorenz Attractor -- 4.7 Routes to Chaos -- 5. FRACTALS AND STRANGE ATTRACTORS -- 5.1 The Koch Snowflake -- 5.2 The Cantor Dust -- 6. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE STRANGE ATTRACTOR FROM A MEASURED SIGNAL: THE INVERSE PROBLEM -- 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS: HARVESTING CHAOS -- CHAPTER V BRIGHT STARS AND BLACK HOLES -- 1. WATCHERS OF THE SKIES -- 2. GATHERING CLOUDS -- 2.1 Basic Thermal Properties of Matter and Radiation -- 2.2 Spectral Analysis -- 2.3 The Discovery of Interstellar Medium -- 2.4 The Spiral Structure of the Galaxy -- 2.5 Interstellar Dust -- 2.6 Giant Molecular Clouds -- 2.7 Interstellar Magnetic Field -- 3. THE BIRTH OF STARS -- 3.1 The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram -- 3.2 Evidence for Stellar Birth -- 3.3 Formation of Protostars -- 3.4 Evolution of Protostars -- 4. BRIGHT, SHINING STARS -- 4.1 Nuclear Sources of Stellar Energy -- 4.2 On the Main Sequence -- 4.3 Away from the Main Sequence -- 5. THE FINAL STATES OF STARS -- 5.1 White Dwarfs -- 5.2 Neutron Stars -- 5.3 Black Holes -- CHAPTER VI THE INNERMOST SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE -- 1. ELEMENTARY CONSTITUENTS OF MATTER -- 2. FUNDAMENTAL FORCES -- 3. THEORY OF FORCES -- 3.1 Range and Mass -- 3.2 Inverse-Square Law vs Confinement -- 3.3 Spin and the Nature of Forces -- 3.4 Feynman Diagrams -- 4. QUANTUM NUMBERS, CONSERVATION LAWS, AND SYMMETRY -- 4.1 Exactly Conserved Quantum Numbers -- 4.2 Vectorial Quantum Numbers -- 4.3 Approximate and High Temperature Conservation Laws -- 4.4 Symmetry and Conservation Laws.

4.5 Multiplicative Quantum Numbers and Discrete Symmetries -- 5. GAUGE THEORIES -- 5.1 Electromagnetic Theory -- 5.2 Yang-Mills Theory -- 5.3 Electroweak Theory -- 5.4 Strong Interactions -- 6. RENORMALIZATION -- 6.1 Removal of Infinities -- 6.2 Renormalizability -- 6.3 Running Parameters -- 7. OUTLOOK -- 7.1 The Strong CP Problem and Axions -- 7.2 Grand Unified Theories -- 7.3 The Hierarchy Problem -- 7.4 Kaluza-Klein Theories -- 7.5 Superstring Theories -- CHAPTER VII COSMOLOGY -- 1. HUBBLE'S LAW -- 1.1 Astronomical Distances -- 1.2 Velocity Measurements -- 2. THE BIG BANG -- 3. THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE -- 3.1 Open, Critical, and Closed Universes -- 3.2 Gravitational Physics -- 4. COSMIC BACKGROUND RADIATION -- 5 . THE THERMAL EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE -- 5.1 A Brief History of the Universe -- 5.2 Quantitative Estimates -- 6. PRIMORDIAL NUCLEOSYNTHESIS -- 7. COSMOLOGY AND PARTICLE PHYSICS -- 7.1 Cosmological Constant -- 7.2 Topological Objects -- 7.3 The Asymmetry between Nucleons and Antinucleons -- 7.4 Superstring Theory -- 8. INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE -- APPENDICES -- APPENDIX A GENERAL CONCEPTS IN CLASSICAL PHYSICS -- 1. THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE -- 2. MATTER AND MOTION -- 3. WAVES AND FIELDS -- APPENDIX B GENERAL CONCEPTS IN QUANTUM PHYSICS -- 1. INTRODUCTION -- 2. HEISENBERG'S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE -- 3. WAVE FUNCTION AND PROBABILITY: STATE OF THE SYSTEM -- 4. SUPERPOSITION OF STATES AND WAVE INTERFERENCE -- 5. INDISTINGUISHABILITY OF IDENTICAL PARTICLES -- 6. QUANTUM MECHANICS AND NAIVE REALISM -- APPENDIX C THERMAL PHYSICS AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS -- 1. THERMODYNAMICS -- 2. STATISTICAL MECHANICS -- 3. DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS -- GLOSSARY -- INDEX.