"Michael Berry is a theoretical physicist who has contributed to a wide variety of areas in quantum mechanics, optics and related mathematics, linked by the geometrical aspects of waves, especially phase. This collection of his selected published and unpublished papers, reviews, tributes to other scientists, speeches and other works ranges from the technical to the popular. It is organized by the themes of his significant scientific contributions. Detailed introductions emphasize the rich connections between the different themes. An essential read for physicists, mathematicians, students and philosophers of science"--Publisher's website.
Author(s): Michael V. Berry
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
Year: 2018
Language: English
Commentary: Made from the papers at scimag with DOIs 10.1142/9789813221215_XXXX, XXXX=0001, 0002,...0076, others01, others02,...others09.
Pages: 722
City: Singapore
Cover
A Half-Century of Physical Asymptotics and Other Diversions
ISBN 9813221194 ISBN 9789813221208 ISBN 9813221208
Preface
Contents
Chapter 01 - Phases
01 - Dislocations in wave trains
02 - Wavefront dislocations in the Aharonov-Bohm effect and its water wave analogue
03 - Much ado about nothing - optical dislocation lines phase singularities, zeros, vortices
04 - Geometry of phase and polarization singularities, illustrated by edge diffraction and the tides
05 - Knotted and linked phase singularities in monochromatic waves
06 - Quantal phase factors accompanying adiabatic changes
07 - Geometric phase memories
08 - Indistinguishability for quantum particles - spin, statistics and the geometric phase
09 - Quantum Indistinguishability - Spin-statistics with out Relativity or Field Theory
Chapter 02 - Caustics and Related Optics
10 - Cusped rainbows and incoherence effects in the rippling-mirror model for particle scattering from surfaces
11 - Waves and Thoms theorem
12 - Slippery as an eel, Review of the Fire within the Eye by David Park
13 - Deconstructing rainbows, Review of the Rainbow Bridge - Rainbows in Art, Myth and Science
14 - Millennium essay - Making waves in physics. Three wave singularities from the miraculous 1830s
15 - Black plastic sandwiches demonstrating biaxial optical anisotropy
16 - Black polarization sandwiches are square roots of zero
17 - Conical diffraction - Hamiltons diabolical point at the heart of crystal optics
18 - Quantum carpets, carpets of light
19 - Reflections on a Christmas-tree bauble
20 - Oriental magic mirrors and the Laplacian image
21 - Natures optics and our understanding of light
22 - Chasing the Silver Dragon
Chapter 03 - Quantum Chaology
23 - Regular and irregular semiclassical wavefunctions
24 - Semiclassical theory of spectral rigidity
25 - Quantum Chaology the Bakerian Lecture
26 - Riemanns zeta function - a model for quantum chaos
27 - Semiclassical formula for the number variance of the Riemann zeros
28 - The Riemann Zeros and Eigenvalue Asymptotics
Chapter 04 - Asymptotics
29 - Uniform asymptotic smoothing of Stokess discontinuities
30 - Emotional asymptotics
31 - Hyperasymptotics for integrals with saddles
32 - Infinity interpreted
33 - Divergent series - taming the tails
34 - The Riemann-Siegel expansion for the zeta function - high orders and remainders
35 - A new asymptotic representation for pzeta12athplusit and quantum spectral determinants
Chapter 05 - Superoscillations
36 - Faster than Fourier
37 - Typical weak and superweak values
38 - Pointer supershifts and superoscillations in weak measurements
Chapter 06 - Philosophy
39 - Asymptotics, singularities and the reduction of theories
40 - Singular Limits
41 - Foreword to Reductionism, Emergence and Levels of Reality - the Importance of Being Borderline
42 - Review of Reexamining the Quantum-Classical Relation - Beyond Reductionism and Pluralism by Alisa Bokulich
Chapter 07 - Tributes
43 - Review of Journey into Light - Life and Science of C. V. Raman by G. Venkataraman
44 - Pancharatnam, virtuoso of the Poincare sphere - an appreciation
45 - Oration for Yakir Aharonov on receiving a Doctor of Science honoris causa
46 - Funeral eulogy for Sir Charles Frank
47 - Paul Dirac - the purest soul in physics
48 - Benefiting from fractals A tribute to Benoit Mandelbrot
49 - Address on John Ziman Memorial Day
50 - Obituary of Robert Balson Dingle
51 - Address at Balazs Gyoerffy memorial event
52 - Contribution to Tribute to Vladimir Arnold
53 - Martin Gutzwiller and his periodic orbits
54 - A tribute to Frank Olver 1924-2013
55 - Remembering Akira Tonomura
56 - Tribute to Richard Gregory
Chapter 08 - Travels
57 - Heisenbergs Sofa
58 - Visiting Nablus
59 - A week in Beirut
60 - Odessa, little and large
Chapter 09 - Miscellaneous
61 - Curl force dynamics - symmetries, chaos and constants of motion
62 - Of flying frogs and levitrons
63 - Review of Understanding the Present - Science and the Soul of Modern Man by Bryan Appleyard
64 - Review of Copenhagen A play by Michael Frayn
65 - Review of the Beginning of Infinity - Explanations that Transform the World by David Deutsch
66 - Editorial - Papers we reject
67 - Impact and influence - valedictory editorial
68 - Getting a knighthood
69 - Wolf Prize acceptance speech
70 - Convocation address Cornell University
71 - Honorary degree acceptance response Weizmann Institute
72 - My nearly half-century in Bristol
73 - Physics for taxi-drivers
74 - Retirement speech
75 - Night thoughts of a theoretical physicist
76 - The arcane in the mundane
Chapter 10 - Awards, Honorary Degrees, etc.
Chapter 11 Publications
