This book covers recent developments in the covariant formulation of quantum gravity. Developed in the 1960s by Feynman and DeWitt, by the 1980s this approach seemed to lead nowhere due to perturbative non-renormalizability. The possibility of non-perturbative renormalizability or 'asymptotic safety', originally suggested by Weinberg but largely ignored for two decades, was revived towards the end of the century by technical progress in the field of the renormalization group. It is now a v...

This book presents a comprehensive course of quantum mechanics for undergraduate and graduate students. After a brief outline of the innovative ideas that lead up to the quantum theory, the book reviews properties of the Schrödinger equation, the quantization phenomena and the physical meaning of wave functions. The book discusses, in a direct and intelligible style, topics of the standard quantum formalism like the dynamical operators and their expected values, the Heisenberg and matrix r...

This book provides an introduction to Quantum Field Theory (QFT) at an elementary level—with only special relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics as prerequisites. For this fresh approach to teaching QFT, based on numerous lectures and courses given by the authors, a representative sample of topics has been selected containing some of the more innovative, challenging or subtle concepts. They are presented with a minimum of technical details, the discussion of the main ideas bein...

This thesis contains new research in both experimental and theoretical particle physics, making important contributions in each. Two analyses of collision data from the ATLAS experiment at the LHC are presented, as well as two phenomenological studies of heavy coloured resonances that could be produced at the LHC. The first data analysis was the measurement of top quark-antiquark production with a veto on additional jet activity. As the first detector-corrected measurement of jet activity ...

This brief reviews current research on magnetic skyrmions, with emphasis on formation mechanisms, observation techniques, and materials design strategies. The response of skyrmions, both static and dynamical, to various electromagnetic fields is also covered in detail.Recent progress in magnetic imaging techniques has enabled the observation of skyrmions in real space, as well as the analysis of their ordering manner and the details of their internal structure. In metallic systems,...

Nuclear physics is an exciting, broadly faceted field. It spans a wide range of topics, reaching from nuclear structure physics to high-energy physics, astrophysics and medical physics (heavy ion tumor therapy). New developments are presented in this volume and thestatus of research is reviewed. A major focus is put on nuclear structure physics, dealing with superheavy elements and with various forms of exotic nuclei: strange nuclei, very neutron rich nuclei, nuclei of antimatter. A...

This thesis presents the first experimental calibration of the top-quark Monte-Carlo mass. It also provides the top-quark mass-independent and most precise top-quark pair production cross-section measurement to date. The most precise measurements of the top-quark mass obtain the top-quark mass parameter (Monte-Carlo mass) used in simulations, which are partially based on heuristic models. Its interpretation in terms of mass parameters used in theoretical calculations, e.g. a running or a p...

This course-based primer provides an introduction to Lie algebras and some of their applications to the spectroscopy of molecules, atoms, nuclei and hadrons. In the first part, it concisely presents the basic concepts of Lie algebras, their representations and their invariants. The second part includes a description of how Lie algebras are used in practice in the treatment of bosonic and fermionic systems. Physical applications considered include rotations and vibrations of molecules (vibr...

The monumental discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC marked the beginning of a new era in the high energy physics. Although the particle spectrum of the Standard Model is now complete with the Higgs boson, the hierarchy problem and the lack of explanation of the origin of dark matter imply that a new Beyond the Standard Model physics should exist. There is however no clear indication (experimental or otherwise) of the energy scale at which this new physics should appear. Current results ...

This thesis presents the results of indirect dark matter searches in the gamma-ray sky of the near Universe, as seen by the MAGIC Telescopes. The author has proposed and led the 160 hours long observations of the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Segue 1, which is the deepest survey of any such object by any Cherenkov telescope so far. Furthermore, she developed and completely characterized a new method, dubbed “Full Likelihood”, that optimizes the sensitivity of Cherenkov instruments for detection ...

This thesis represents a unique mix of theoretical work discussing the Lorentz theory of gravity and experimental work searching for supersymmetry with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. It begins by reviewing a set of widely-discussed theoretical solutions to the cosmological constant problem, including a natural solution provided by the recently developed Lorentz gauge theory of gravity. The Schwartzschild metric, de Sitter space, and quantum versions of t...

The goal of this book is to describe the most powerful methods for evaluating multiloop Feynman integrals that are currently used in practice. This book supersedes the author’s previous Springer book “Evaluating Feynman Integrals” and its textbook version “Feynman Integral Calculus.” Since the publication of these two books, powerful new methods have arisen and conventional methods have been improved on in essential ways. A further qualitative change is the fact that most of the methods an...