Advanced Theoretical Physics

A Historical Perspective

Nick Lucid

June 2015
Last Updated: July 2019
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Contents

Preface ix

1 Coordinate Systems 1
1.1 Cartesian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Polar and Cylindrical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Spherical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Bipolar and Elliptic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2 Vector Algebra 11
2.1 Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Vector Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3 Vector Calculus 19
3.1 Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 Del Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3 Non-Cartesian Del Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.4 Arbitrary Del Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.5 Vector Calculus Theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The Divergence Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Curl Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

4 Lagrangian Mechanics 45
4.1 A Little History... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 Derivation of Lagrange’s Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 Generalizing for Multiple Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.4 Applications of Lagrange’s Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.5 Lagrange Multipliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.6 Applications of Lagrange Multipliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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4.7 Non-Conservative Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

5 Electrodynamics 77
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.2 Experimental Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Coulomb’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Biot-Savart Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.3 Theoretical Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Ampére’s Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Faraday’s Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Gauss’s Law(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Ampére’s Law Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.4 Unification of Electricity and Magnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.5 Electromagnetic Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.6 Potential Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Maxwell’s Equations with Potentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.7 Blurring Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

6 Tensor Analysis 131

6.1 What is a Tensor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.2 Index Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.3 Matrix Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.4 Describing a Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Line Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Metric Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Raising and Lowering Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Coordinate Basis vs. Orthonormal Basis. . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.5 Really... What’s a Tensor?! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.6 Coordinate Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.7 Tensor Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

7 Special Relativity 167

7.1 Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.2 Spacetime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Line Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Metric Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Coordinate Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

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CONTENTS v

Taking Measurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

7.3 Lorentz Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
7.4 Relativistic Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Four-Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Four-Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Four-Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Four-Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
7.5 Relativistic Electrodynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Maxwell’s Equations with Potentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Electromagnetic Field Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Maxwell’s Equations with Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Lorentz Four-Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
7.6 Worldines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Null World Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Space-Like World Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
7.7 Weirder Stuff: Paradoxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

8 General Relativity 265

8.1 Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
8.2 Einstein’s Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
8.3 Hilbert’s Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
8.4 Sweating the Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Stress-Energy Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Weird Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
8.5 Special Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Spherical Symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Perfect Fluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
The Vacuum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
8.6 Geodesics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Time-Like Geodesics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Null Geodesics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Non Geodesics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
8.7 Limits and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Black Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Cosmology and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

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9 Basic Quantum Mechanics 335

9.1 Descent into Madness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
9.2 Waves of Probability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Schrödinger’s Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
9.3 Quantum Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Observables vs. States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Bra-Ket Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Time-Independent Schrödinger’s Equation . . . . . . . . . 356
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
9.4 Simple Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Infinite Square Well. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Finite Square Well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Harmonic Oscillator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

10 Modern Quantum Mechanics 417

10.1 Finding Wave Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
10.2 Single-Electron Atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Shells and Orbitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Spin Angular Momentum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Full Angular Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Fine Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
10.3 Multiple-Electron Atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
Periodic Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
10.4 Art of Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Ensemble of Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Bell’s Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Copenhagen Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Particles vs. Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Macroscopic vs. Microscopic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Bridging the Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

A Numerical Methods 481

A.1 Runge-Kutta Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
A.2 Newton’s Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
A.3 Orders of Magnitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

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B Useful Formulas 487

B.1 Single-Variable Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
B.2 Multi-Variable Calculus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
B.3 List of Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

C Useful Spacetime Geometries 493

C.1 Minkowski Geometry (Cartesian) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
C.2 Minkowski Geometry (Spherical) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
C.3 Schwarzchild Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
C.4 Eddington-Finkelstein Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
C.5 Spherically Symmetric Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
C.6 Cosmological Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

D Particle Physics 501

D.1 Categorizing by Spin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
D.2 Fundamental Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
D.3 Building Larger Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
D.4 Feynman Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

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170 CHAPTER 7. SPECIAL RELATIVITY

7.2 Spacetime
When a physics student first learns about special relativity, abstract equa-
tions are often thrown at them with little and/or poor explanation. This is
a cause for much of the confusion regarding the ideas in this theory. I find it
best to build an idea from other ideas a student (or reader) already knows,
which is a philosophy I’ve used in writing this book. We’ve spent a lot of
time focused on coordinate systems and diagrams. This also seems like a
good place to start with this.
A major implication of special relativity is that time deserves as much
attention as space. Diagrammatically, that means we’ll need to include it in
the coordinate system resulting in a four-dimensional spacetime. With the
new idea of a spacetime comes some new terminology:

• Spacetime diagram - A diagram which includes both space and time.

• Event - A point in spacetime designated by four coordinates, (ct, x, y, z).

Essentially, it’s a place and time for some phenomenon.

• Separation - The straight line connecting two events in spacetime.

The word “distance” is improper with a time component involved.

• World line - The path taken by a particle/object in spacetime. The

word “trajectory” is improper with a time component involved.

In Figure 7.2, we see two objects initially located at events 1 and 3. At

some time ∆t later, they are at events 2 and 4, respectively, where they are
now closer in space. The line between events 1 and 2 is labeled ∆s, which
represents the world line of that object. The length of this world line is
spacetime invariant (i.e. it doesn’t change under coordinate transforma-
tions).

Line Element
The best tools we have to describe a space are given in Section 6.4. However,
we have to be very careful when we incorporate time. First, time is not
measured in the same units as space, so a conversion factor of c (the speed
of light) appears. Secondly, by observation, we see that time behaves a little

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7.2. SPACETIME 171

Figure 7.2: This is a spacetime diagram where the horizontal axis, x, represents space (y
and z are suppressed for simplicity) and the vertical axis, ct represents time measured in
spatial units (c = 299, 792, 458 m/s is like a unit conversion between meters and seconds).

differently than space. It behaves oppositely to space, so a negative sign also

appears. Keeping all this in mind, the Cartesian line element is now

ds2 = −c2 dt2 + dx2 + dy 2 + dz 2 , (7.2.1)

which is similar to Eq. 6.4.1. Similar to Eq. 6.4.2, we can write

ds2 = −c2 dt2 + dr2 + r2 dθ2 + r2 sin2 θ dφ2 , (7.2.2)

which is the line element in spherical coordinates. We have simply replaced

the spatial terms, with the appropriate dimension-3 line element.
Formulating the mathematics of special relativity in this way was not
initially done by Einstein. Einstein’s methods involved simple algebra and
thought experiments (“Gedankenexperimente” as he called them). He was
self-admittedly poor with advanced math. In 1908, Hermann Minkowski gen-
eralized Einstein’s work with tensor analysis (described in Chapter 6). This is
why the space described in this chapter is sometimes called the Minkowski
space.
Since the labeled world line in Figure 7.2 is straight (true of all world lines
in IRFs), we can write it as (∆s)2 = −c2 (∆t)2 + (∆x)2 , which looks a lot like

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172 CHAPTER 7. SPECIAL RELATIVITY

the Pythagorean theorem by no coincidence. The negative sign on the time

component provides some interesting consequences. One consequence is the
square of the separation, (∆s)2 , is not restricted to positive values. We can
use this fact to categorize separations in spacetime.
• If (∆s)2 < 0, then the two events have a time-like separation meaning
the time component dominates. All events on world lines showing the
motion of massive objects have this kind of separation (considering the
large value of c). These world lines are often referred to as time-like
world lines.

• If (∆s)2 = 0, then the two events have a light-like separation because

these world lines show the motion of light (and any other massless par-
ticle). It is sometimes called a null separation because the separation
is zero.

• If (∆s)2 > 0, then the two events have a space-like separation meaning
the space component dominates. These two events are considered non-
interactive. For an object to travel on a space-like world line, it would
require speeds faster than c. For this reason, it is unlikely the motion
of anything could be represented by a space-like world line.
From a mathematical standpoint, you could write the time component as an
imaginary number since
q √
−c2 (∆t)2 = −1 c∆t = ic∆t.

This isn’t traditionally done. However, it’s mathematically consistent and

may be useful under circumstances when you’re dealing with the components
by themselves rather than in a line element.

Metric Tensor
We can also write something like Eq. 6.4.3 to generalize the line element.
The result is

ds2 = gαδ dxα dxδ , (7.2.3)

where the use of greek indices indicates four dimensions and repeated indices
indicates a summation. Remember to distinguish between exponents of 2

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Index

21 cm line, 450 Bipolar coordinates, 8, 491

Black holes, 281, 314, 318, 325
Action, 273 Radius of, see Schwarzchild ra-
generalized, 273 dius
Ampére’s law, 98, 229, 231 static, 314
expanded by Maxwell, 114 Bohr radius, 425
expanded by Maxwell (in del form), Bosons, 501, 502, 504
112
in del form, 99 Calculus, 19, 487
Ampérian loop, 98 Fundamental theorem of calculus,
Angular momentum, 56, 133, 145, 151, 487
311, 326, 338, 353, 363, 364,
with vectors, see Vector calculus
430, 441, 462
Cartesian coordinates, 2, 20, 490
Bohr, 339
Curl, 21
Conservation of, 57, 311
Del operator, 20
in a coordinate basis, 151, 153
Divergence, 21
in an orthonormal basis, 151, 152
Gradient, 21
in index notation, 154
Laplacian, 22, 23
Anti-matter, 466, 506
Line element (3D), 141
Atomic mass, 457
Line element (4D), 171, 191
Atomic number, 338, 419, 431, 457
Metric tensor (3D), 142, 143
Baryons, 505, 507 Metric tensor (4D), 173, 191
Basis vectors, 8, 355 Moment of inertia, 139
Cylindrical, 5 Rotation matrix, 146
Spherical, 7 Tensor calculus with, 154
Bell’s inequality, 466 Volume element, 35
Consequences of, 467 Center of mass, see Mass
Bianchi identity, 269, 271 Chain rule, 19
Biot-Savart law, 87 Charge, 22, 77–79, 98, 102, 109, 110,
Solving the, 88 117, 130, 204, 211, 233, 303,

510
INDEX 511

313, 338, 349, 418, 438, 447, Cosmology, 327

479, 501 Cosmological Constant, 330, 333
Conservation of, 112, 116, 211, 349 Dark Energy, 330, 333
density, 107, 109, 110, 112, 116, FLRW Metric, 328, 329, 498
125, 212, 349 Friedmann Equations, 332
density (proper), 212 Friedmann Solutions, 333
element, 79, 80 Scale Factor, 328
of particles, 504, 507 Coulomb’s law, 78, 418
Charged rod, 81 for electric fields, 79, 80
Electric field around a, 86 Solving, 80
Christoffel symbols, 156, 157, 269, 278, Covariant derivative, 156, 161, 162,
306 211–213, 230, 232, 272, 279,
for orthogonal coordinates, 157 305
for spherical symmetry, 287 Covariant derivatives, 269, 278
ClebschGordan coefficients, 442 Cross product, 14
Commutators, 360, 363, 364, 438, 440 Cubic harmonics, 432, 437, 454
Canonical, 361 Curl, 21
Generalized, 362 Cartesian, 21
Conducting loop, 89 Cylindrical, 32
Magnetic field around a, 93 Generalized, 36, 489
Conservation, 204, 308 Generalized (index notation), 165
of angular momentum, 57, 311 Spherical, 33
of charge, 112, 116, 211, 349 theorem, 42, 489
of energy, 45, 123, 204, 211, 270, Current, 77, 87, 88, 97–99, 102, 105,
310 111, 148, 149, 255
of four-current, 212 density, 89, 99, 112, 114, 125, 212,
of four-momentum, 204, 207, 281 349, 351
of momentum, 45, 204, 254, 348 Displacement, 112–114
of probability, 352 Four-, see Four-current
Constraint force, 66–68, 70, 75 Curvilinear coordinates, 4, 5, 8
Contravariant derivative, 162, 216 Cylindrical coordinates, 4, 490
Coordinate basis, 142, 143 Curl, 32
Angular momentum in a, 151, 153 Derivation of del in, 24
Copenhagen interpretation, 468 Divergence, 32
Strong, 468 Gradient, 32
Cosmological Constant, see Cosmol- Jacobian for, 150
ogy Laplacian, 32

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512 INDEX

Volume element, 35 Electromagnetic field tensor, 215–217,

229, 231, 233, 274, 313
dAlembertian, 213 Electromagnetic waves, 119, 121, 122
Dark Energy, see Cosmology Electrons, 77, 111, 243, 336, 338–340,
de Broglie frequency, 341 343, 344, 351, 418, 438, 447,
de Broglie wavelength, 342, 343 455, 457, 458, 466, 467, 470,
as an orbit, 344 472, 473, 476, 477, 479, 502,
Degeneracy, 376, 415, 445, 450, 455 504, 509
Del operator, 20, 24, 33 Configuration of, 457, 461, 462
Cartesian, 20 Discovery of, 335
Product rules for, 490 Full angular momentum of, 441
Second derivative rules for, 490 Repulsion in atoms, 454, 455
Dirac delta function, 104, 105, 111, Spin of, 439, 447, 448, 455, 462
448 Elliptic coordinates, 491
Displacement current, see Current Elliptical coordinates, 8
Divergence, 21
Energy, 45, 123, 235, 245, 295, 326,
Cartesian, 21
338, 346, 357, 358
Cylindrical, 32
Bohr, 339
Generalized, 36, 488
Conservation of, 45, 123, 204, 211,
Generalized (index notation), 162
270, 310
Spherical, 33
density, 137, 280, 282
theorem, 39, 489
flux, 122, 137, 280–282
Dot product, 13
Hamiltonian, see Hamiltonian
Double pendulum, 60
Kinetic, 45, 49, 52, 240, 281, 348,
Eddington-Finkelstein solution, 315, 446
319, 321, 322, 495 of a photon, 243, 336, 339
Eigenstates, 358, 359, 365, 368, 380, of spacetime, 267, 269, 274
406, 417 operator, see Hamiltonian
Eigenvalues, 359 Potential, 47, 50, 66, 75, 281, 348,
Einstein’s equation, 272, 277, 281, 295, 417
296, 330 Relativistic, 204, 211, 245, 310,
in geometrized units, 284 312, 342
Electric current, see Current Rest, 180, 204, 210, 280
Electric fields, see Fields Equivalence principle, 202, 266
Electric flux, 114 Event horizon, 315
Electric Force, see Force Expectation value, 353–355, 361, 362,
Electric Potential, see Potentials 365, 392, 394, 398

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INDEX 513

Faraday’s law, 106, 231, 447 Force, 15, 16, 46, 50, 51, 66, 70, 75,
in del form, 107 77, 148, 206
Fermions, 501 carrier particles, 502, 504
Feynman diagrams, 506 Central, 57, 148
Examples of, 509 Conservative, 47
Rules for, 506 Constraint, 66–68, 70, 75
Fields, 22, 79, 117, 130, 272, 302 Electric, 78, 418
Conservative, 124 Fictitious, 265
Displacement, 114–116 Four-, see Four-force
Electric, 22, 79, 97, 107, 109, 110, Gravitational, 78, 202, 266, 303,
113–118, 123, 124, 126, 129, 307, 312, 313
214, 255, 447 Lorentz, 117, 130, 224, 228, 233
Electric (index notation), 215 Magnetic, 87
Electromagnetic, 130 Non-conservative, 47, 75
Gravitational, 60, 266, 270 Proper, 228
Hysteresis, 115 Relativistic, 206
Magnetic, 22, 87, 97, 99, 105, 107, Four-acceleration, 197, 199, 201, 202,
109, 110, 115, 117, 118, 123, 205, 243, 303, 305, 312
124, 126, 129, 148, 149, 214, Four-current, 212, 214, 215, 229
348, 447, 450 Conservation of, 212
Magnetic (index notation), 216 Four-force, 205, 243, 303, 312, 313
Mathematical, 11 Lorentz, 233, 235, 238, 313
Fine structure, 445 Four-momentum, 203, 204, 207, 241,
adjustment, 448, 450 243, 312, 342
constant, 445 Conservation of, 204, 207, 281
Finite square well, 376 of a photon, 241
Finding expectation values for, 391 with magnetic potential, 348
Finding probabilities for, 390 Four-potential, 213, 214
Finding specific solutions for, 384– Four-velocity, 196–198, 201, 203, 212,
390 233, 292, 303, 305, 312, 313
General coefficients for, 382, 384 for a static fluid, 292
General eigenstates for, 381 Friedmann Equations, see Cosmology
Potential energy for, 377 Full angular momentum, 440, 441, 448
Schrödinger’s equation for, 379 in terms of angular momentum and
FLRW Metric, see Cosmology spin, 441
Fluid continuity, 112 Fundamental particles, 504
Fluid flux, 106 Fundamental theorem of calculus, 19,

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514 INDEX

487 Potential energy for, 400

Fundamental theorem of vector cal- Schrödinger’s equation for, 402
culus, 35, 488 Stationary states for, 415
Heisenberg uncertainty principle, see
Gauge invariance, 126 Uncertainty principle
Gauss’s law, 108, 229 Helium, 453
for magnetism, 108, 231 Helmholtz coil, 93, 95
for magnetism in del form, 110 Hermite polynomials, 409, 412, 415
in del form, 110 Equation for even, 409
Geodesics, 302, 304 Equation for odd, 409
for photons, 312 List of, 410
in curved spacetime, 305 Orthogonality, 412
in flat spacetime, 303 Recursion formula for, 410
Geometrized Units, 283, 284 Hilbert space, 354, 359
Gluons, 502, 504 Hund’s rules, 455
Gradient, 21 Hydrogen, see Single-electron atoms
Cartesian, 21 Hyperfine adjustment, 449, 450
Cylindrical, 32
Generalized, 35, 488 Index notation, 131
Spherical, 33 Angular momentum in, 154
Gravitational Force, see Force Infinite square well, 366, 476, 477
Group velocity, 344 3D, 373
Eigenstates for, 370
Hadrons, 503, 507 Energy for, 369
Halley’s comet, 57, 58 Potential energy for, 366
Hamiltonian, 346, 347, 353, 357, 358, Schrödinger’s equation for, 367
360, 363, 364, 430, 441 Stationary states for, 371, 476, 477
Definition of, 346 Intensity, see Energy flux
for helium, 453 Ionization energy, 456
generalized for all atoms, 454
in 1D, 398 Jacobian, 149, 150
Relativistic, 447 Cylindrical, 150
Spin-orbit coupling, 447
Spin-spin coupling, 448 Kepler’s first law, 60
Harmonic oscillator, 400 Kepler’s second law, 57
3D, 400, 415 Kinetic energy, see Energy
Eigenstates for, 414 Kretschmann invariant, 315
Energy for, 407 for the Schwarzchild solution, 317

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INDEX 515

Kronecker delta tensor, 135, 137, 138, matrix (generalized), 193

296, 313, 359
Magnetic fields, see Fields
Lagrange multipliers, 66–68 Magnetic flux, 106
Lagrange’s equation, 50, 273, 303 Magnetic Force, see Force
for constraint forces, 68 Magnetic potential, see Potentials
for non-conservative forces, 75 Magnetostatics, 124
Solving, 52 Mass, 46, 172, 299, 303, 306, 342, 480
Solving with constraints, 68 Atomic, 457
Lagrangian, 50, 52, 68, 75, 273, 276 Center of, 133, 134, 211
Electromagnetic, 273 density, 106, 270
for spacetime, 274 element, 134
Laguerre polynomials, 426 inside a star, 294, 318
List of, 427 of a black hole, 314, 318
Lamb shift, 449, 450 of particles, 504, 507
Laplace’s equation, 125 Reduced, 446
Laplacian, 22 Rest, 179, 203, 205, 280, 303, 310,
Cartesian, 22, 23 311, 341, 342, 501
Cylindrical, 32 Massless particles, see Photons
Generalized, 36, 489 Maxwell-Heaviside equations, 117
Spherical, 33 in a vacuum, 118
Legendre functions, 423 with EM tensor, 231, 233
List of, 424 with four-potential, 214
Length contraction, 182–184, 212, 218, with potentials, 127–129
220, 224, 249, 251–253, 256 Mesons, 505, 507
Leptons, 502–504 Metric tensor, 141
Line element, 141 Cartesian (3D), 142, 143
Cartesian (3D), 141 Cartesian (4D), 173, 191
Cartesian (4D), 171, 191 Generalized orthogonal, 157
Generalized, 141 Spherical (3D), 142, 143
Spherical (3D), 141 Spherical (4D), 173
Spherical (4D), 171 Momentum, 45, 56, 151, 204, 239, 244,
Lorentz transformations, 185, 198, 215, 346, 353, 355, 359, 364, 365
219, 246 Conservation of, 45, 204, 254, 348
for acceleration, 190 density, 137, 280–282
for velocity, 187 Four-, see Four-momentum
in index notation, 190 in a coordinate basis, 153
matrix, 190, 217 of a photon, 241

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516 INDEX

Relativistic, 204, 239, 244, 342, Orbitals, 429, 431–433, 436–439, 454,
447 455, 457, 461, 462
with magnetic potential, 348 Order of operations, 11
Muons, 207, 502, 504 Orders of magnitude, 486
Orthonormal basis, 8, 143, 290, 355
Neutrinos, 207, 502–504 Angular momentum in an, 151,
Neutron stars, 366 152
Neutrons, 457, 507, 509
Newton’s first law, 169 Parallel transport, 155, 269
for a photon, 243 Particle decay, 206, 466
Relativistic, 206 Path element, 34, 141
Newton’s law of gravity, 78 Generalized, 34, 488
Newton’s method, 483 Perfect fluids, 291
Newton’s second law, 48, 51, 130, 303, Periodic table, 457, 461
308, 344, 446 Rules for the, 462
Relativistic, 205, 206, 303 Phase velocity, 342
Newton’s third law, 206 Photon sphere, 324
Normalization, 33 Photons, 172, 239, 241–243, 246, 255,
Quantum, 352, 355, 359, 369, 378, 312, 318–323, 327, 342, 466,
382, 412, 417, 420, 473 475, 476, 479, 502, 504, 506,
509
Ohm’s law, 115 around a black hole, 325, 326
Operators, 11 Emission, 339
Calculus, 19 Emission of, 336, 344, 401, 415,
Chain rule, 19 453
Cross product, 14 orbiting a black hole, 324
Del, see Del operator Spin of, 439
Dot Product, 13 Pions, 206, 466, 506, 507
Fundamental theorem of calculus, Poisson’s equation, 125, 128
19 for gravity, 270, 272, 281
Product rule, 20 Polar coordinates, 4
Quantum, see Quantum operators Pole-in-barn problem, 252
Quotient rule, 20 Positrons, 466, 467, 509
Scalar, 12 Potential energy, see Energy
Variation, 275 Potentials, 123, 127
Vector, 12 Electric, 115, 116, 123, 124, 126,
Orbital diagrams, 455, 458–460 128, 129, 212, 348
Orbital Plots, 465 Four-, see Four-potential

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INDEX 517

Magnetic, 101, 115, 116, 123, 126, Angular momentum, 430, 441
128, 129, 212, 348 Angular momentum squared, 430,
Power, 235 441
Relativistic, 206 Commutators, 360, 438, 440
Power series solutions, 402 Compatible, 363
for the harmonic oscillator, 404, Full angular momentum, 440, 441,
406 448
Poynting vector, 122 Full angular momentum squared,
Principle of stationary action, see Sta- 440
tionary action Hamiltonian, see Hamiltonian
Probability, 351–353, 356, 378, 382, Hermitian, 354, 355
443, 463, 466, 473, 478, 479 Incompatible, 364
amplitude, see Wave functions Momentum, 346
Conservation of, 352 Momentum squared, 346
current, 351, 352 Spin, 438, 439
density, 351, 352, 354, 356, 431, Spin squared, 438
435 Quarks, 502–504
inside a finite square well, 391 Quotient rule, 20
of quark states, 506
outside a finite square well, 391 Rectilinear coordinates, 2
plots, 465 Reduced mass, 446
Product rule, 20 Relativistic sign convention, 191, 273
Proper acceleration, 202, 203 Relativistic units, 191, 194, 212, 282
Proper length, 179, 183, 249, 252 Rest mass, see Mass
for a photon, 242 Ricci curvatures, 269, 277
Proper mass, see Mass for spherical symmetry, 289, 296
Proper time, 179, 180, 182, 196, 197, in a vacuum, 296
200, 201, 302–306 Riemann curvatures, 268, 269, 289,
for a photon, 242, 312 316
Protons, 228, 237, 338, 431, 447, 457, for spherical symmetry, 288
506, 507, 509 Runge-Kutta method, 481
Spin of, 439, 448
Scalar product, 161, 195, 197, 201,
Quantum decoherence, 479 204, 217, 229, 231, 241, 342
Quantum observables, see Quantum Scale Factor, see Cosmology
operators Schrödinger’s cat, 478
Quantum operators, 346, 353–355, 359–Schrödinger’s equation, 347, 356, 365,
363, 365, 392, 468, 477 445, 468

c Nick Lucid
518 INDEX

Generalized, 347 Spherical harmonics, 431, 436, 441

Solving, 417 Spherical symmetry, 285, 497
Time-independent, 358, 359, 417 Spin, 353, 438, 439, 501
with electric and magnetic poten- Spinors, 439
tial, 348 Spin-orbit coupling, 447
with electric potential, 348 Spin-spin coupling, 448
Schwarzchild radius, 315 Stationary action, 273, 274, 302
for the Sun, 318 Stationary states, 358, 365, 418, 445,
Schwarzchild solution, 296, 314, 319, 468, 469
320, 494 Stress-energy tensor, 137, 270, 276,
along radial lines, 318 280–283
inside a star, 299 for a perfect fluid, 291, 330
Kretschmann invariant for, 317 for a perfect static fluid, 292
outside a star, 296
Tauons, 502, 504
Single-electron atoms, 418
Tensors, 131
Eigenstates for, 429–431, 440, 441,
Calculus with, 154
465
Contraction of, 277, 289, 316
Energy for, 428, 430, 445
Electromagnetic field, see Electro-
Potential energy for, 419
magnetic field tensor
Schrödinger’s equation for, 420
in equations, 150
Stationary states for, 429, 445
Index notation, 131, 143
Spacetime invariant, 170, 181, 195,
Kronecker delta, see Kronecker delta
201, 202, 204, 210–212, 217,
tensor
242, 316
Matrix notation, 136
equations, 205
Metric, see Metric tensor
Speed of light, 119, 167, 169, 170, Ricci, see Ricci curvatures
175, 242, 258, 282, 314
Riemann, see Riemann curvatures
Spherical coordinates, 5, 491 Stress-energy, see Stress-energy ten-
Curl, 33 sor
Divergence, 33 Time dilation, 180–182, 196, 199, 242,
Gradient, 33 257
Laplacian, 33 Gravitational, 302
Line element (3D), 141 Time-evolution factor, 357, 418
Line element (4D), 171 Torque, 16, 50, 70, 145, 148
Metric tensor (3D), 142, 143 Twin’s paradox, 256
Metric tensor (4D), 173
Volume element, 35 Uncertainty principle, 359, 399, 468,

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INDEX 519

477
Canonical, 364
Generalized, 363

Vector calculus, 20, 24, 33, 488

Del operator, see Del operator
Fundamental theorem of vector cal-
culus, 35, 488
Volume element, 35
Cartesian, 35
Cylindrical, 35
Generalized, 37, 488
Spherical, 35
Voodoo math, 29, 31, 50, 84, 229,
231, 278, 350, 405, 411, 413

Warring spaceships, 249

Wave equations, 119
Electromagnetic, 119, 129
Wave function collapse, 476, 479
Wave functions, 121, 341
Eigenstates, see Eigenstates
Quantum, 345–347, 352, 353, 357,
359, 417, 464, 465, 468, 473,
474
Stationary states, see Stationary
states
Wave-particle duality, 340, 469
Weak-field approximation, 272, 281
Weighted average, 353
White dwarfs, 366
Work, 15, 46, 136

c Nick Lucid