M Shifman Knihy

Set against the backdrop of the early quantum era in 1920s Europe, the narrative explores the friendship between genius physicist Wolfgang Pauli and his less celebrated counterpart, Charlotte Houtermans. Their relationship unfolds in Germany, where they interact with key figures in the burgeoning field of quantum physics. As a student at Göttingen, Charlotte's experiences and insights provide a unique perspective on the scientific community and the challenges faced by women in physics during this transformative period.

The narrative explores the tumultuous life of Friedrich Houtermans, a brilliant physicist who fled to the Soviet Union to escape the Gestapo. His groundbreaking work on thermonuclear fusion and contributions to geochemistry are overshadowed by his harrowing experiences during the Great Purge, where he was arrested and tortured by the NKVD. Fearing for his wife Charlotte's safety, he falsely confessed to being a spy, only to be handed over to the Gestapo later. The book intertwines themes of scientific brilliance and the perilous intersection of politics and personal survival.

In the last decade methods and techniques based on supersymmetry have provided deep insights in quantum chromodynamics and other non-supersymmetric gauge theories at strong coupling. This book summarizes major advances in critical solitons in supersymmetric theories, and their implications for understanding basic dynamical regularities of non-supersymmetric theories. After an extended introduction on the theory of critical solitons, including a historical introduction, the authors focus on three topics: non-Abelian strings and confined monopoles; reducing the level of supersymmetry; and domain walls as D-brane prototypes. They also provide a thorough review of issues at the cutting edge, such as non-Abelian flux tubes. The book presents an extensive summary of the current literature so researchers in this field can understand the background and related issues. First published in 2009, this title has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.