Detection and Generation of Gravitational Waves (Weber, pp. 306-313) + Quasi-Particles and Gauge Invariance in the Theory of Superconductivity (pp. Nambu, 648-663) + Canonical Variables for General Relativity (Arnowitt, pp. 1595-1602) in Physical Review Volume 117, 1960, [FULL VOLUME WITH WRAPS BOUND IN]
Lancaster: American Physical Society, 1960. 1st Edition. Full volume with original wrappers bound in. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPS OF WEBER’S INVENTION OF THE FIRST GRAVITATIONAL WAVES DETECTOR. Hamiltonian formulation of the equations of general relativity now known as ADM formalism.
WEBER: “The detection of gravitational waves is sometimes described as the Holy Grail of Modern Physics” (Blair, Advances Gravitational Wave Detectors, xvi). Gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of spacetime, were first predicted by Einstein’s 1916 general theory of relativity. In February 2016, the September 2015 detection of gravitational waves, waves first predicted by Einstein over a hundred years ago, was announced.
“The saga of gravitational wave detection goes back a long way: Einstein believed they existed but thought they were not physically detectable. Eddington queried their existence: he suggested that ‘they travel at the speed of thought’. But in the 1950’s Pirani, Feynman, Bondi and later Isaacson proved their physical reality, and in 1960 Joseph Weber began to develop his famous resonant mass detectors… (Blair, Advances Gravitational Wave Detectors, xvi).
Weber’s “famous resonant mass detector” “consisted of large vibration-isolated aluminium cylinders constructed with piezoelectric crystals glued on the surface near to the center. These crystals are able to develop a large voltage when they undergo deformation. A low noise amplifier and lock-in amplifier allowed detection of the energy of the fundamental longitudinal resonance of the bar. A gravitational wave applies a time-varying quadrupole deformation and does mechanical work on the fundamental acoustic modes of the test mass.
“The absorption cross-section of the mechanical resonator to gravitational waves depends on its mass and sound velocity and is highest at the fundamental resonant frequency. The latter is linked to sound velocity and the resonator’s length, since the length must be half an acoustic wavelength at the fundamental longitudinal resonance. Weber chose aluminum because of its high sound velocity, and availability in large pieces, and because it has quite low acoustic losses” (Blair ibid, 61).
NAMBU: In this paper, Nambu provides an “essential aid to understanding hidden symmetry in quantum field theory [with his] remarkable insight that the vacuum state of a quantum field theory is analogous to the ground state of an interacting many-body system. It is the state of lowest energy – the equilibrium state, given the kinetic and potential energies as specified in the Hamiltonian” (Aitchison, Gauge Theories, 199). Nambu is suggesting “that some massless particles transform themselves into massive particles as a result of spontaneous symmetry breaking at low energies” (Wenner). In 2008 Nambu won the Nobel Prize for his work on this subject; specifically, “"for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics” (NPC).
ARNOWITT: One of a series of papers in which Misner, Deser, and Arnowit formulated a Hamiltonian formulation of the equations of general relativity that are more easily quantized than Einstein’s original equations. A Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity that plays an important role in canonical quantum gravity and numerical relativity, their set of equations is now called the ADM formalism. Item #1344
CONDITION & DETAILS: Complete. Volume 117, January to March 1960. Original wrappers bound. Handsome (oddly enough) pictorial bookplate on front pastedown and a quite light stamp on each front wrap. Bound in brown buckram, gilt-lettered at the spine. Likely never opened or used. Tightly and very solidly bound. Bright and clean inside and out. Very good + condition.
Price: $275.00