Sleeping Beauties in Theoretical Physics (eBook)

Professor Padmanabhan, theoretical physicist and cosmologist, is currently a Distinguished Professor at IUCAA, Pune, India. A gifted researcher and teacher, he has published nearly 250 technical papers and authored ten books which have made significant impact. His research has won prizes six times in recent years from the Gravity Research Foundation, USA including the First Award in 2008. He is currently (2011-14) the Chairman of the IUPAP Astrophysics Commission and was the President of the IAU Cosmology Commission (2009-12). He has received numerous national and international awards including Padma Shri, the presidential medal of honor in India.

Kepler and His Problem.- Potentials of Potatoes: A Surprise in Newtonian Gravity.- Thomas Precession.- Foucault Meets Thomas.- Isochronous Potentials.- Ambiguities in Fluid Flow.- Lagrange Has (more than) a Point!.- Extreme Physics.- Random Walk Through Random Walks I.- Random Walk Through Random Walks II.- Thermodynamics of Self-Gravitating Particles.- Why Does an Accelerated Charge Radiate?.- Angular Momentum of Electromagnetic Field.- Paraxial Optics and Lenses.- The Logarithms of Physics.- Quantum Mechanics on the Run.- Perturbing Coulomb to Avoid Accidents!.- Wigner's Function and Semi-Classical Limit.- Hubble Expansion for Pedestrians.- Schwarszchild Metric at a Discounted Price.- The Optics of Particles.- The Power of Nothing.- Real Effects from Imaginary Time.- Why are Black Holes Hot?