• Volume 73, Issue 1

July 2009,   pages  1-214

• Guest Editorial

• Developments in high energy theory

This non-technical review article is aimed at readers with some physics back-ground, including beginning research students. It provides a panoramic view of the main theoretical developments in high energy physics since its inception more than half a century ago, a period in which experiments have spanned an enormous range of energies, theories have been developed leading up to the Standard Model, and proposals – including the radical paradigm of String Theory – have been made to go beyond the Standard Model. The list of references provided here is not intended to properly credit all original work but rather to supply the reader with a few pointers to the literature, specifically highlighting work done by Indian authors.

• Five-fold way to new high $T_{c}$ superconductors

Discovery of high $T_{c}$ superconductivity in La$_{2−x}$Ba$_{x}$CuO4 by Bednorz and Muller in 1986 was a breakthrough in the 75-year long search for new superconductors. Since then new high $T_{c}$ superconductors, not involving copper, have also been discovered. Superconductivity in cuprates also inspired resonating valence bond (RVB) mechanism of superconductivity. In turn, RVB theory provided a new hope for finding new super-conductors through a novel electronic mechanism. This article first reviews an electron correlation-based RVB mechanism and our own application of these ideas to some new noncuprate superconducting families. In the process we abstract, using available phenomenology and RVB theory, that there are five directions to search for new high $T_{c}$ superconductors. We call them five-fold way. As the paths are reasonably exclusive and well-defined, they provide more guided opportunities, than before, for discovering new superconductors. The five-fold ways are (i) copper route, (ii) pressure route, (iii) diamond route, (iv) graphene route and (v) double RVB route. Copper route is the doped spin- $\dfrac{1}{2}$ Mott insulator route. In this route one synthesizes new spin-$\dfrac{1}{2}$ Mott insulators and dopes them chemically. In pressure route, doping is not external, but internal, a (chemical or external) pressure-induced self-doping suggested by organic ET-salts. In the diamond route we are inspired by superconductivity in boron-doped diamond and our theory. Here one creates impurity band Mott insulators in a band insulator template that enables super-conductivity. Graphene route follows from our recent suggestion of superconductivity in doped graphene, a two-dimensional broadband metal with moderate electron correlations, compared to cuprates. Double RVB route follows from our recent theory of doped spin-1 Mott insulator for superconductivity in iron pnictide family.

• Intense, ultrashort light and dense, hot matter

This article presents an overview of the physics and applications of the interaction of high intensity laser light with matter. It traces the crucial advances that have occurred over the past few decades in laser technology and nonlinear optics and then discusses physical phenomena that occur in intense laser fields and their modeling. After a description of the basic phenomena like multiphoton and tunneling ionization, the physics of plasma formed in dense matter is presented. Specific phenomena are chosen for illustration of the scientific and technological possibilities – simulation of astrophysical phenomena, relativistic nonlinear optics, laser wakefield acceleration, laser fusion, ultrafast real time X-ray diffraction, application of the particle beams produced from the plasma for medical therapies etc. A survey of the Indian activities in this research area appears at the end.

• Statistical properties of turbulence: An overview

We present an introductory overview of several challenging problems in the statistical characterization of turbulence. We provide examples from fluid turbulence in three and two dimensions, from the turbulent advection of passive scalars, turbulence in the one-dimensional Burgers equation, and fluid turbulence in the presence of polymer additives.

• The gravitational dynamics of galaxies

The broad area of galactic dynamics is presented for a physics audience, with the requisite astronomy background in outline, and focusing on gravitational effects. The basic underlying model is a large number of particles (which could be stars or dark matter) moving in their self-consistent gravitational potential. The effects of two-particle correlations/scattering, although weak, can be cumulative and hence important for a class of systems such as star clusters which are hence termed collisional. On the larger scale of galaxies, we have collisionless behaviour which is different and in some ways richer. The basic ideas and applications in both these regimes are described, and some issues highlighted in conclusion.

• # Pramana – Journal of Physics

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November 2019

• # Editorial Note on Continuous Article Publication

Posted on July 25, 2019