ABC's Of Quantum Mechanics

About the book: This book will tell you about the origin and development of quantum mechanics, about its new concepts. It will describe how the new theory deciphered the secrets of the structure of atoms, molecules, crystals, atomic nuclei, and how quantum mechanics is dealing with the problem of the most fundamental of all properties of matter - the interaction of particles and the relationships between fields and matter. The book was translated from the Russian by and was first published by Mir in 1966. This is a digitally typeset LaTeX version of the book. Project details https://gitlab.com/mirtitles/rydnik-abc-qm Credits to itanveer for the original scan. Credits to Hemant Garach for providing the missing pages 258-259 from the scan. We cleaned the 2-in-1 scan and added a new cover and bookmarks. The Internet Archive Link Original scan as uploaded by itanveer . IA link for the same. Please note pages 258-259 are missing from the scan. There is a Bengali version of the book available also. Thanks to Siddharth for pointing this link: Link to the Bengali version. Contents FROM CLASSICAL MECHANICS TO QUANTUM MECHANICS In Lieu of an Introduction 11 The Outlines of the New World 12 The Temple of Classical Mechanics 15 The Temple Collapses 17 How the New Theory was Named 18 Physicists Build Models 20 Not Everything Can be Modelled 23 The Invisible, Untouchable World 25 Difficult but Interesting 26 THE FIRST STEPS OF THE NEW THEORY Heat and Light 29 Blacker than Black 31 Exact Laws, Not Rough Approximations 32 The Ultraviolet Catastrophe 34 Classical Physics at an Impasse 35 The Way out 36 Quanta of Energy 38 The Elusive Quanta 40 An Unaccountable Phenomenon 43 Photons 44 What is Light? 46 The Visiting Cards of Atoms 48 Why do Bodies Emit Light? 50 The Biography of the Atom Written by Niels Bohr 53 From Where do We Reckon the Energy? 57 Excited Atoms 59 The First Setbacks 61 FROM BOHR'S THEORY TO QUANTUM MECHANICS A Remarkable Article 65 A Little about Ordinary Waves 66 Getting Acquainted With Matter Waves 67 Why Can't We See de Broglie Waves? 68 The Wave is Found 71 Two-Faced Particles 75 P1lot Waves 76 Together or Separately? 78 A Visit to the Shooting Range 80 Waves of Probability 83 Probability Enters into Physics 84 Cautious Predictions 87 Waves of Particles and Particles of Waves 90 On the Way to the Wave Law 91 Measuring Instruments Take over 95 The Uncertainty Relation 98 What IS to Blame, the Instrument or the Electron? 101 An Attempt with Rather Faulty Tools 103 Another Marvel 106 The Uncertainty Relation Once Agam 109 Matter Waves Again 112 The Wave FunctiOn 114 Waves and Quanta are United 116 ATOMS. MOLECULES. CRYSTALS Clouds in Place of Orbits 120 Monotony in Diversity 124 Another Marvel- But as Yet Unexplained 125 The Atomic Architect at Work 128 Crazy Atoms 130 Atoms and Chemistry 132 The Birth of a Spectrum 136 Fat Lines and Double Lines 140 Atoms Get Married 142 Solid Bodies are Really Solid 147 Skeletons and Multistorey Structures of Crystals 149 Insulators Can Conduct Current 155 How does Current Move in a Metal? 158 Those Wonderful "Semi-Things" 162 Useful 'Dirt' 164 Generous and Greedy Atoms 165 THE INTERIOR OF THE ATOMIC NUCLEUS On the Threshold 171 The First Step 173 The Second Step 176 The Search for the Mysterious Meson 180 The Strongest Forces of All 181 Once Again about the Stability of Nuclei 185 Tunnels in Nuclei 187 Does the Nucleus Consist of Shells? 191 Where do Gamma Rays Come from? 193 The Nucleus as a Liquid Drop? 196 The Liquid-Drop Nucleus Splits 198 The Secrets of Nuclear Fission 200 How Many Nuclei Can There Be? 203 The Nucleus as Shells and Liquid Drop Together 204 Particles Fly out of the Nucleus that Were Never There 207 The Electron Has an Accomplice 209 Electrons are Born in Nuclei 212 The Hungry Nucleus 215 FROM ATOMIC NUCLEI TO ELEMENTARY PARTICLES The Discovery of a New World 219 The Invisible Dividing Line 221 A Bit More about the Theory of Relativity 224 The First Difficulties 226 An Unexpected Discovery 228 A Still More Unexpected Discovery 231 The Birth of a 'Hole' 235 The Outlines of Emptiness 237 Complete Emptiness? 240 Emptiness depends on Bodies 242 Matter and Fields 245 There is No Emptiness 246 What the Whales Rest on 249 Particles Change Their Guise 251 The Two-Faced Pi-Meson 254 A Clue to Meson Exchange 256 The Secret of Interaction 259 The Kingdom of Virtualities 264 The Virtual Becomes Real 265 In the Search for New Particles 268 Sorting the Booty 270 Antiparticles Come into Action 274 Particles Disintegrate 276 Physicists Classify Interactions 279 The Mystery of the K-Mesons 281 Is the Left Any Different from the Right? 283 A Way out is Found 287 Worlds and Antiworlds 290 What Goes on Inside Particles? 292 The Mysterious Resonances 295 The Curtain Rises 297 Resonances Get Citizenship 299 Triplets, Octets- 302 Quarks 306 Old Ideas Hold One Back 308 The Reverse of the Obvious 310 The Ubiquitous Quantum 312 FROM QUANTUM MECHANICS TO ·> Indeterminable Determinacies 315 The Biography of Quantum Mechanics 320 Quantum Mechanics Gets Its Second Wind 324