Böcker av India) Mallik

Ions are atoms or molecules stripped of their electrons, so they can be accelerated by electric fields. They can be made to hit each other with low energy, intermediate energy, high energy, or very high energy; each energy range seeks to investigate different aspects of hadronic physics. Intermediate-energy heavy ion collisions explore the nuclei far from stability valley, the incompressibility of nuclear matter, the liquid-gas phase transition in nuclear environment, the symmetry energy far from the normal density, and other phenomena. This has been an active field of research for last four decades.This is a book for entrants in the field. It is suitable as a companion book in a graduate course. For practitioners in the field it will be useful as a reference.

This book is more than a mathematics textbook. It discusses various kinds of numbers and curious interconnections between them. Without getting into hardcore and difficult mathematical technicalities, the book lucidly introduces all kinds of numbers that mathematicians have created. Interesting anecdotes involving great mathematicians and their marvelous creations are included. The reader will get a glimpse of the thought process behind the invention of new mathematics. Starting from natural numbers, the book discusses integers, real numbers, imaginary and complex numbers and some special numbers like quaternions, dual numbers and p-adic numbers.Real numbers include rational, irrational and transcendental numbers. Iterations on real numbers are shown to throw up some unexpected behavior, which has given rise to the new science of "Chaos". Special numbers like e, pi, golden ratio, Euler's constant, Gauss's constant, amongst others, are discussed in great detail.The origin of imaginary numbers and the use of complex numbers constitute the next topic. It is shown why modern mathematics cannot even be imagined without imaginary numbers. Iterations on complex numbers are shown to generate a new mathematical object called 'Fractal', which is ubiquitous in nature. Finally, some very special numbers, not mentioned in the usual textbooks, and their applications, are introduced at an elementary level.The level of mathematics discussed in this book is easily accessible to young adults interested in mathematics, high school students, and adults having some interest in basic mathematics. The book concentrates more on the story than on rigorous mathematics.