Relativity Matters: From Einstein’s EMC2 to Laser Particle Acceleration and Quark-Gluon Plasma by Johann Rafelski (PDF)

Description

Rafelski presents Special Relativity in a language deemed accessible to students without any topical preparation – avoiding the burden of geometry, tensor calculus, and space-time symmetries – and yet advancing in highly contemporary context all the way to research frontiers. Special Relativity is presented such that nothing remains a paradox or just apparent, but rather is explained.A text of similar character, content, and scope, has not been available before. This textbook describes Special Relativity when rigid material bodies are introduced describing the reality of body contraction; it shows the relevance of acceleration and the necessary evolution of the theoretical framework when acceleration is critical. This book also presents the evolving views of Einstein about the aether.In addition to a careful and elementary introduction to relativity complete with exercises, worked examples and many discussions, this volume connects to current research topics so that readers can explore Special Relativity from the foundation to the frontier.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Is it possible to write something new about relativity 112 years after Einstein’s original work? This book show that it is. I have been for many years a physics educator, teaching relativity at the college level. I also authored articles on the pedagogic issues concerning relativity. I must confess that I greeted this book with a great deal of skepticism because of the above question. After analyzing it, however, all the skepticism evaporated: this is an amazing text that presents new views and corrects common problems, in particular about teaching relativity but also about using it for new problems.I would strongly recommend it to all the teachers at the graduate and undergraduate levels. This means of course all those who teach relativity, but also the teachers of subjects that are based on relativity. And I would also recommend it to all students in general, plus interested bystanders.One of the most amazing aspects is the way the author corrects very common mistakes and misconceptions about basic relativity notions. I would like to mention, for example (and because it is of direct interest for my research activities), the relativistic Doppler effect. Amazingly, a large portion of the introductory presentations are simply and fundamentally wrong. The author explains why in very simple and convincing terms, using his “Galileo-Socrates” discussion strategy. After reading his arguments, my first reaction was: “why did I not think about it before?”.So, if I had to propose a second title for the book, I would suggest the title of my review. I trust the readers will enjoy it and, indeed, finally discover what relativity really is.

⭐Still reading this book but one suggestion for future editions is to change the font on the discussions between the “professor” and ” Student”. To differentiate these excerpts from the rest of the text the font is both smaller and of a lighter color-kind of a grey ? If the goal was ever to make something hard to read you would surely decide to make the print smaller and fainter.

⭐Exceptionally high quality exposition of special relativity(SR) that ranges from a thorough grounding in foundational principles to advanced concepts that extend well into the research frontier of high intensity laser physics. This text is filled with an abundance of example problems completely worked out by the author which illustrate how to do calculations in this essential branch of physics.Professor Rafelski superbly weaves together the rich history of SR and experimental evidence with all of the essential mathematics of relativity theory. He crisply introduces and demonstrates how tensor notation and four-vectors are used in relativistic computations. The natural connection between special relativity and the classical theory of electromagnetism is highlighted via detailed discussion of the Lagrangian formalism of EM theory and the Faraday field tensor.Finally a SR text that clearly elucidates Einstein’s evolving view of the aether and why it is imperative to attaining a proper grasp of relativistic field theory, within which quantum fluctuations arise. Written by one of the great pioneers in quark gluon plasma physics, this text is an essential introduction to the theory of matter and light, and may well eventually be adopted as the gold standard for bringing SR into sharp focus for many future generations of physicists.

⭐I took a relativity class with professor Rafelski in the Fall 2016 when this book was still in the draft stage and I very much enjoyed reading it. Unlike many other textbooks which teach you mostly mathematical formalism of special relativity, “Relativity Matters” shows you how to think about special relativity! In fact there are very few equations in the opening chapters of the book and the material is presented through dialogues between a teacher and his students. I think that this method of explanation is very effective because it directly addresses the misconceptions which plague the special relativity. Often times I found myself reading exactly the questions which I would ask if I was discussing the topic with somebody. The book switches to a more math oriented mode in the later chapters so you won’t miss out on the 4-vectors and all the usual math stuff. I especially value the big number of exercises with solutions worked out in detail which make this book a great resource and reference. Finally, “Relativity matters” ends up with chapters discussing the research frontiers of relativistic physics such as light-particle interaction, critical acceleration, and radiation reaction, which are all very exciting in my opinion and this is a good place to learn more about them!

⭐I recommend to look here if you are in search for explanation of the aether and Einstein’s evolving views on it, beyond 1905! There is emphasis on requiring compatibility with Lorentz invariance without negating an aether entirely. The book begins with conversations between a professor and interested students, where connection between rest energy and speed of light emphasizes that matter is made up of light. Then in analogy to sound, we see that an airplane can carry air (aether) past the speed of sound, but an object which in a way is made up of sound waves cannot do so. This deduction is critical to understanding relativistic velocity addition. Starting from this historical motivation, the book leads with progressively more advanced calculation to the aether in modern context: critical field strengths in the quantum vacuum and the unresolved issues of acceleration.

⭐I liked this book because it covered relativistic space travel. I used this book to prepare a report on how long it would take a relativistic space traveler to travel to different distances in the universe. The book clearly sets up and explains the equations needed to calculate the time and energy requirements for relativistic space travel to different parts of the universe. If you are curious about this topic, this book is an excellent reference. In addition the book covers the topic of Special Relativity very thoroughly.

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