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ערב אחד מקבל אוּרִי הודעה מרגשת מסוכנות החלל: הוא נבחר להיות טיס החלל הצעיר שיסייר בין כוכבי הלכת, כדי שיוכל לספר לכל הילדים איך הם נראים מקרוב!

אוּרִי מקבל את האתגר ויוצא למסע הרפתקני בחלל, שבו הוא מכיר מקרוב את כל כוכבי הלכת במערכת השמש שלנו.
בעיני הילד הסקרניות שלו הוא מגלה עובדות מרתקות ומסעירות, שוזר אותן בעולמו וחולק אותן עם קוראיו. למשל, הידעתם שעל כוכב נגה אפשר להיות מבוגרים וגם צעירים, שהכתם האדום הגדול על צדק הוא בכלל סערה של רוחות ושעל פלוטו אפשר בקלות לשבור את שיא העולם בקפיצה לגובה?

בסוף הספר תמצאו תחרות בין-כוכבית מיוחדת במינה, בה תלמדו באיזה תחום מנצח כל אחד מהכוכבים.

 

 

 

 


The Standard Model

Yuval Grossman and Yossi Nir
Princeton University Press


The Standard Model is an elegant and extremely successful theory that formulates the laws of fundamental interactions among elementary particles. This incisive textbook introduces students to the physics of the Standard Model while providing an essential overview of modern particle physics, with a unique emphasis on symmetry principles as the starting point for constructing models. The Standard Model equips students with an in-depth understanding of this impressively predictive theory and an appreciation of its beauty, and prepares them to interpret future experimental results.

  • Describes symmetry principles of growing complexity, including Abelian symmetries and their application in QED, the theory of electromagnetic interactions, non-Abelian symmetries and their application in QCD, the theory of strong interactions, and spontaneously broken symmetries and their application in the theory of weak interactions
  • Derives the Lagrangian that implements these symmetry principles and extracts the phenomenology that follows from it, such as elementary particles and accidental symmetries
  • Explains how the Standard Model has been experimentally tested, emphasizing electroweak precision measurements, flavor-changing neutral current processes, neutrino oscillations, and cosmology
  • Demonstrates how to extend the model to address experimental and observational puzzles, such as neutrino masses, dark matter, and the baryon asymmetry of the universe
  • Features a wealth of problems drawing from the latest research
  • Ideal for a one-semester graduate course and an invaluable resource for practitioners
  • Online solutions manual (available only to instructors)

The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter

Helen R. Quinn and Yossi Nir
Princeton University Press


In the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang lingers a question at the heart of our very existence: why does the universe contain matter but almost no antimatter? The laws of physics tell us that equal amounts of matter and antimatter were produced in the early universe--but then, something odd happened. Matter won out over antimatter; had it not, the universe today would be dark and barren.

 

But how and when did this occur? Helen Quinn and Yossi Nir guide readers into the very heart of this mystery-and along the way offer an exhilarating grand tour of cutting-edge physics. They explain both the history of antimatter and recent advances in particle physics and cosmology. And they discuss the enormous, high-precision experiments that particle physicists are undertaking to test the laws of physics at their most fundamental levels-and how their results reveal tantalizing new possibilities for solving this puzzle at the heart of the cosmos.

The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter is at once a history of ideas and an exploration of modern science and the frontiers of human knowledge. This exciting, accessible book reveals how the interplay of theory and experimentation advances our understanding and redefines the questions we ask about our universe.