Operational Quantum Physics offers a systematic presentation of quantum mechanics which makes exhaustive use of the full probabilistic structure of this theory. Accordingly the notion of an observable as a positive operator valued (POV) measure is explained in great detail, and the ensuing quantum measurement theory is developed and applied both to a resolution of long-standing conceptual and interpretational puzzles in the foundations of quantum mechanics, and to an analysis of various recent fundamental experiments. The book, or different parts of it, may be of interest to advanced students or researchers in quantum physics, to philosophers of physics, and to mathematicians working in operator valued measures.

New ideas on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics, related to the theory of quantum measurement, as well as the emergence of quantum optics, quantum electronics and optical communications have shown that the statistical structure of quantum mechanics deserves special investigation. In the meantime it has become a mature subject. In this book, the author, himself a leading researcher in this field, surveys the basic principles and results of the theory, concentrating on mathematically precise formulations. Special attention is given to the measurement dynamics. The presentation is pragmatic, concentrating on the ideas and their motivation. For detailed proofs, the readers, researchers and graduate students, are referred to the extensively documented literature.

Essential Astrophysics is a book to learn or teach from, as well as a fundamental reference volume for anyone interested in astronomy and astrophysics. It presents astrophysics from basic principles without requiring any previous study of astronomy or astrophysics. It serves as a comprehensive introductory text, which takes the student through the field of astrophysics in lecture-sized chapters of basic physical principles applied to the cosmos. This one-semester overview will be enjoyed by undergraduate students with an interest in the physical sciences, such as astronomy, chemistry, engineering or physics, as well as by any curious student interested in learning about our celestial science. The mathematics required for understanding the text is on the level of simple algebra, for that is all that is needed to describe the fundamental principles. The text is of sufficient breadth and depth to prepare the interested student for more advanced specialised courses in the future. Astronomical examples are provided throughout the text, to reinforce the basic concepts and physics, and to demonstrate the use of the relevant formulae. In this way, the student learns to apply the fundamental equations and principles to cosmic objects and situations. Astronomical and physical constants and units as well as the most fundamental equations can be found in the appendix. Essential Astrophysics goes beyond the typical textbook by including references to the seminal papers in the field, with further reference to recent applications, results, or specialised literature.

The quantum-mechanical few-body problem is of fundamental importance for all branches of microphysics and it has substantially broadened with the advent of modern computers. This book gives a simple, unified recipe to obtain precise solutions to virtually any few-body bound-state problem and presents its application to various problems in atomic, molecular, nuclear, subnuclear and solid state physics. The main ingredients of the methodology are a wave-function expansion in terms of correlated Gaussians and an optimization of the variational trial function by stochastic sampling. The book is written for physicists and, especially, for graduate students interested in quantum few-body physics.

The treatment of time in quantum mechanics is still an important and challenging open question in the foundation of the quantum theory. This multi-authored book, written as an introductory guide for newcomers to the subject, as well as a useful source of information for the expert, covers many of the open questions. The book describes the problems, and the attempts and achievements in defining, formalizing and measuring different time quantities in quantum theory.

Over last decades low-dimensional materials are in focus of physics and chemistry as well as of material and other natural sciences. Like Vitaly Ginzburg has foreseen 30 years ago, low dimensionality offers physical phenomena and properties unseen in three-dimensional world. To see how thin ?lms and monomolecular layers realize such a prediction it suf?ces only to observe intensity of research devoted to recently synthesized graphene. Still, quasi-one-dimensional compounds are over long period established as the origin of the most important and most interesting discoveries of material science and solid state physics. To mention only deoxyribonucleic acid, the most important molecule in nature, and diversity of nanotubes and nanowires, the cornerstones of the present and future nanotechnology. Line groups, describing symmetry of quasi-one-dimensional materials, offer the deepest insight to their characteristic properties. Underlying many of the laws, they are very useful, but far from simple. This book is intended to explain them, their properties, and their most common applications. In particular, it is important to understand that the line groups are much wider class of symmetries than the well-known rod groups. While the latter describe only translationally periodical objects, line groups include symmetries of incommensurate periodical structures.

Using the quantum properties of single photons to exchange binary keys between two partners for subsequent encryption of secret data is an absolutely novel te- nology. Only a few years ago quantum cryptography – or better Quantum Key Distribution – was the domain of basic research laboratories at universities. But during the last few years things changed. Quantum Key Distribution or QKD left the laboratories and was picked up by more practical-oriented teams that worked hard to develop a practically applicable technology out of the astonishing results of basic research. One major milestone toward a QKD technology was a large research and dev- opment project funded by the European Commission that aimed at combining qu- tum physics with complementary technologies that are necessary to create a tech- cal solution: electronics, software, and network components were added within the project SECOQC (Development of a Global Network for Secure Communication based on Quantum Cryptography) that teamed up all expertise on European level to get a technology for future cryptography.