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Preface | |
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Prologue | |
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Route map | |
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Waves versus particles | |
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Science and experiment | |
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Light and quantum mechanics | |
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The double-slit experiment | |
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Heisenberg and uncertainty | |
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Watching electrons | |
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Heisenberg's uncertainty principle | |
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Uncertainty and photography | |
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Feynman's quantum paths | |
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Fractals: a mathematical curiosity | |
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Schrodinger and matter waves | |
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De Broglie's matter waves | |
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Schrodinger's equation | |
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Electron and neutron optics | |
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Atoms and nuclei | |
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Rutherford's nuclear atom | |
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Quantized energy levels | |
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The hydrogen atom | |
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Wavefunctions and quantum numbers | |
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Atom traps and light | |
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Quantum tunnelling | |
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Barrier penetration | |
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Wave tunnelling | |
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Applications of quantum tunnelling | |
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Nuclear physics and alpha decay | |
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Nuclear reactions and Einstein's mass-energy relation | |
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Radioactivity, nuclear fission and the atom bomb | |
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Pauli and the elements | |
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Electron spin and Pauli's exclusion principle | |
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The elements | |
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Metals, insulators and semiconductors | |
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Transistors and microelectronics | |
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Quantum co-operation and superfluids | |
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Laser light | |
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Bose condensation and superfluid helium | |
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Cold atoms | |
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Superconductivity | |
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The quantum Hall effect | |
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Quantum jumps | |
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Max Born and quantum probabilities | |
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Photons and polarized light | |
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John Bell and the EPR Paradox | |
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Schrodinger's cat | |
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The many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics | |
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Decoherence | |
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Quantum engineering | |
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Richard Feynman and nanotechnology | |
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From Moore's Law to quantum dots | |
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Quantum information | |
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Quantum computers | |
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Quantum teleportation and all that | |
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Death of a star | |
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A failed star | |
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Hydrogen burning | |
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Red giants and white dwarfs | |
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Neutron stars and black holes | |
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Feynman rules | |
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Dirac and antiparticles | |
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Feynman diagrams and virtual particles | |
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Zero-point motion and vacuum fluctuations | |
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Hawking radiation and black holes | |
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Weak photons and strong glue | |
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The double-slit experiment revisited | |
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The birth of particle physics | |
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Weak photons and the Higgs vacuum | |
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Quarks and gluons | |
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Superconductors, magnetic monopoles and quark confinement | |
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Beyond the Standard Model | |
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Afterword--quantum physics and science fiction | |
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Prelude: the atom and the nucleus | |
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Nuclear energy and the 'Golden Age' of science fiction | |
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Jonbar Points, multiple universes and Schrodinger's Cat | |
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Nanotechnology and quantum computers | |
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A final word | |
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Epilogue | |
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The size of things | |
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Solving the Schrodinger equation | |
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Glossary | |
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Quotations and sources | |
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Suggestions for further reading | |
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Photo-credits | |
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Name index | |
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Subject index | |