Related papers: Teaching "Symmetry" in the Introductory Physics Cu…
These lectures are an attempt to a pedagogical introduction into the elementary concepts of chiral symmetry in nuclear physics. Effective chiral models such as the linear and nonlinear sigma model will be discussed as well as the essential…
In teaching the physical sciences, a significant challenge lies in the student's tendency to consider the scientific world and the "real" world as separate. For example, Newton's 1st Law of Motion states that an object in motion remains in…
Symmetry is a fundamental concept in modern physics and other related sciences. Being such a powerful tool, almost all physical theories can be derived from symmetry, and the effectiveness of such an approach is astonishing. Since many…
These five lectures collect elementary facts about 4D supersymmetric theories with emphasis on N=1 supersymmetry, as well as the basic notions of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. Contents: I. From symmetries to supersymmetry; II. Basic…
Symmetry is key in classical and modern physics. A striking example is conservation of energy as a consequence of time-shift invariance from Noether's theorem. Symmetry is likewise a key element in statistics, which, as also physics,…
At many physics departments a significant fraction of teaching is in support of engineers and scientists in other majors. These service courses are thus an automatic crucible of interdisciplinary interaction, and at times, strife. For…
Symmetries are defined in histories-based theories paying special attention to the class of history theories admitting quasitemporal structure (a generalization of the concept of `temporal sequences' of `events' using partial semigroups)…
Along with weaving together observations, experiments, and theoretical constructs into a coherent mesh of understanding of the world around us, physics over its past five centuries has continuously refined the base concepts on which the…
Symmetry is one of the most central concepts in physics, and it is no surprise that it has also been widely adopted as an inductive bias for machine-learning models applied to the physical sciences. This is especially true for models…
A priority of physics instruction is to help students make the connection between the formulae they think they are required to memorize and the real world in which they interact every day. If you ask students to describe a situation in real…
The principles of energy, symmetry, entropy, and causality conservation are discussed in a "Tetrahedron Model" of a conceptually complete "T.O.E.:" "The charges of matter are the symmetry debts of light" (Noether's Theorem). Symmetry debts…
The standard model of particle physics represents the cornerstone of our understanding of the microscopic world. In these lectures we review its contents and structure, with a particular emphasis on the central role played by symmetries and…
These lectures aim at providing a pedagogical overview of neutrino physics. We will mostly deal with standard neutrinos, the ones that are part of the Standard Model of particle physics, and with their standard dynamics, which is enough to…
Why is gauge symmetry so important in modern physics, given that one must eliminate it when interpreting what the theory represents? In this paper we discuss the sense in which gauge symmetry can be fruitfully applied to constrain the space…
I discuss some central issues in particle physics which are potentially relevant to cosmology. I first briefly review the present (glorious) experimental status of the Standard Model, emphasizing that it provides a firm foundation both for…
In this paper, we argue that there are foundational dilemmas in theoretical physics related to the concept of reality and the nature of mathematics in physics. Physical theory is treated as a conceptual organism which develops under the…
Learning to create, use, and evaluate models is a central element of becoming a scientist. In physics, we often begin an analysis of a complex system with highly simplified or toy models. In introductory physics classes, we tend to use them…
In this paper I propose a new principle in physics: the principle of "finiteness". It stems from the definition of physics as a science that deals (among other things) with measurable dimensional physical quantities. Since measurement…
Noether's Theorem is familiar to most physicists due its fundamental role in linking the existence of conservation laws to the underlying symmetries of a physical system. Typically the systems are described in the particle-based context of…
This article describes an undergraduate physics module at a university in England that places year 3 student physicists in secondary school classrooms for a semester. This is done as a way of introducing them to the occupation of secondary…