This book focuses on one mechanism in black hole physics which has proven to be universal, multifaceted and with a rich phenomenology: rotational superradiance. This is an energy extraction process, whereby black holes can deposit their rotational energy in their surroundings, leading to Penrose processes, black-hole bombs, and even Hawking radiation. Black holes are key players in star formation mechanisms and as engines to some of the most violent events in our universe. Their simplicity and compactness make them perfect laboratories, ideally suited to probe new fields or modifications to the theory of gravity. Thus, black holes can also be used to probe some of the most important open problems in physics, including the nature of dark matter or the strong CP problem in particle physics. This monograph is directed to researchers and graduate students and provides a unified view of the subject, covering the theoretical machinery, experimental efforts in the laboratory, and astrophysics searches. It is focused on recent developments and works out a number of novel examples and applications, ranging from fundamental physics to astrophysics. Non-specialists with a scientific background should also find this text a valuable resource for understanding the critical issues of contemporary research in black-hole physics. This second edition stresses the role of ergoregions in superradiance, and completes its catalogue of energy-extraction processes. It presents a unified description of instabilities of spinning black holes in the presence of massive fields. Finally, it covers the first experimental observation of superradiance, and reviews the state-of-the-art in the searches for new light fields in the universe using superradiance as a mechanism.

This volume is a compilation of lectures delivered at the TASI 2015 summer school, 'New Frontiers in Fields and Strings', held at the University of Colorado Boulder in June 2015. The school focused on topics in theoretical physics of interest to contemporary researchers in quantum field theory and string theory. The lectures are accessible to graduate students in the initial stages of their research careers.

Recent scientific and technical advances have made it possible to create matter in the laboratory under conditions relevant to astrophysical systems such as supernovae and black holes. These advances will also benefit inertial confinement fusion research and the nation's nuclear weapon's program. The report describes the major research facilities on which such high energy density conditions can be achieved and lists a number of key scientific questions about high energy density physics that can be addressed by this research. Several recommendations are presented that would facilitate the development of a comprehensive strategy for realizing these research opportunities.

This highly-regarded text provides a comprehensive introduction to modern particle physics. Extensively rewritten and updated, this 4th edition includes developments in elementary particle physics, as well as its connections with cosmology and astrophysics. As in previous editions, the balance between experiment and theory is continually emphasised. The stress is on the phenomenological approach and basic theoretical concepts rather than rigorous mathematical detail. Short descriptions are given of some of the key experiments in the field, and how they have influenced our thinking. Although most of the material is presented in the context of the Standard Model of quarks and leptons, the shortcomings of this model and new physics beyond its compass (such as supersymmetry, neutrino mass and oscillations, GUTs and superstrings) are also discussed. The text includes many problems and a detailed and annotated further reading list.

Joanna S. Ploeger examines the communicative practices of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in suburban Chicago to show how the rhetoric of science functions as an indicator of the intellectual and political interests of scientific institutions. She delineates the rhetorical strategies by which Fermilab's founders, especially Robert R. Wilson, sought the consent, cooperation, and goodwill of its neighbors. Wilson's rhetoric was an attempt to distinguish Fermilab from other laboratories in the national network by emphasizing that Fermilab was not a nuclear-weapons laboratory and that its sole purpose was to advance theoretical physics for the sake of knowledge. To dissociate itself from weapons research, Fermilab incorporated the aesthetic of sublimity, emblematic of the laboratory's focus on high-energy physics, into the design of its buildings, grounds, public art, and outreach materials. Ploeger tests the success of Wilson's rhetoric through extensive interviews with researchers, administrators, and visitors at Fermilab. Wilson's visual rhetoric strategies were unable to counteract the persistent belief that Fermilab was involved in nuclear-weapons research. In later years the end of the cold war diminished the urgency of physics research. This change in the national climate induced Fermilab's subsequent directors to stress the many potential uses of experimental physics, thereby opening Fermilab to a variety of projects at the cost of the aesthetic Wilson had tried to project. In tracking the evolution of the lab's representation of itself to its public, Ploeger's work combines rhetorical criticism, visual rhetorics, and qualitative analysis of interview data in studying a salient example that comes into focus only when all three methods are deployed collectively.

The main focus of this year's Proceedings of the 53rd Course of the International School of Subnuclear Physics is the future of physics, including the new frontiers in other fields.