The Depth and Breadth of John Bell's Physics

Mary Bell, Kurt Gottfried, Martinus J. G. Veltman

The scientific career of John Stewart Bell was distinguished by its breadth and its quality. He made several very important contributions to scientific fields as diverse as accelerator physics, high energy physics and the foundations of quantum mechanics. This book contains a large part of J S Bell's publications, including those that are recognized as his most important achievements, as well as others that are for no good reason less well known. The selection was made by Mary Bell, Martinus Veltman and Kurt Gottfried, all of whom were involved with John Bell both personally and professionally throughout a large part of his life. An introductory chapter has been written to help place the selected papers in a historical context and to review their significance. This book comprises an impressive collection of outstanding scientific work of one of the greatest scientists of the recent past, and it will remain important and influential for a long time to come.

F. Selleri, G. Tarozzi van der Merwe, Gino Tarozzi

Palatyo Del Ridoti'O.

Andrew Whitaker

Quantum theory is the most successful scientific theory of all time. Many of the great names of physics are associated with quantum theory. Heisenberg and Schrödinger established the mathematical form of the theory while Einstein and Bohr analysed many of its important features. However, it was John Bell who investigated quantum theory in the greatest depth and established what the theory can tell us about the fundamental nature of the physical world. Moreover, by stimulating experimental tests of the deepest and most profound aspects of quantum theory, Bell's work led to the possibility of exploring seemingly philosophical questions, such as the nature of reality, directly through experiments.

Jeremy Bernstein

This book of essays in four parts, written over a decade and full of surprises for the breadth and variety of its subject matter. The first part is about the foundations of the quantum theory which reflects the author's many conversations with the late John Bell who persuaded him that there is still no satisfactory interpretation of the theory. The second part deals with nuclear weapons. One of the essays concerns the creation of the modern gas centrifuge which was done by German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. The proliferation of these centrifuges was one of the issues in the spread of nuclear weapons. The third section deals with financial engineering with a profile of Louis Bachelier, the French mathematician who created it at the beginning of the 20th century. The final section deals with the Higgs boson and how it is used for generating mass. It includes a detailed article of how this mechanism works.

Douglas Sweetser