The Flight of a Relativistic Charge in Matter: Insights, Calculations and Practical Applications of Classical Electromagnetism

by Wade Allison

Overview

This book is about the energy loss and the coherent radiation emitted by a relativistic charge in matter. These phenomena – locally deposited energy, Cherenkov radiation and transition radiation – are the basis of any charged particle detector able to discriminate charges by their velocity. This book describes these phenomena and how they are related. The fundamental field equations and first principles are used to derive the spectrum of energy-loss signals and thence the velocity resolution that can be achieved. Two specific applications are then followed: the first shows that this resolution has been achieved in practice with a multi-particle detector in the course of an experiment at CERN, and the second shows how, by including scattering, the technique of ionisation cooling of accelerator beams may be reliably simulated. The book is based on a series of lectures given at the University of Oxford to graduate students in experimental particle physics. Some knowledge of mathematical physics at an undergraduate level is assumed, specifically Maxwell’s equations and classical optics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031234460
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	03/02/2023
Series:	Lecture Notes in Physics , #1014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Wade Allison is Professor Emeritus in the Physics Department and a Fellow of Keble College, at the University of Oxford. He studied physics and mathematics at Cambridge and took his DPhil in experimental particle physics at Oxford in 1967. He was elected a Research Lecturer a Christchurch Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. From 1968 to 1970 he held a post-doctoral post at Argonne National Lab., USA. Returning to Oxford, he broadened his experimental work to electronic detectors and their theoretical basis in Electromagnetism. From 1976 to 2008 he held a University Lecturership in Physics at Oxford with a Tutorial Fellowship at Keble College. In 1995 he was Visiting Professor in Physics at University of Minnesota. He also has a deep interest in medical physics and the biological effects of radiation on which he has published three books: “Fundamental physics for Probing and Imaging” (OUP 2006), “Radiation and Reason” (2009) and “Nuclear is for Life” (2015). He writes on the popular understanding of energy and the prospect of the end of widespread fossil fuel combustion.

Table of Contents

Part I: Building on Simple Ideas
Chapter 1 Waves and Sources
Part II Calculations in Classical Electromagnetism
Chapter 2 The Influence of a Passing Charge
Chapter 3 The Field of a Moving Charge
Chapter 4 Radiation by the Apparent Angular Acceleration of Charge
Chapter 5 The Dispersion and Absorption of Electromagnetic Waves 
Chapter 6 Energy Loss of a Charge Moving in a Medium
Chapter 7 Scattering of a Charge Moving in a Medium
Part III Two Practical Applications
Chapter 8 Relativistic Particle Identification
Chapter 9 Ionisation Beam Cooling
List of Symbols
Bibliography
Index