I am a statistical physicist, i.e. a physicist who uses the framework of
Statistical Physics to study the macroscopic properties of microscopic particles obeying to Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac,
Bose-Einstein, or the more specific anyonic statistics holding only in a two dimensional world.
I accomplish this bottom-up process either through analytical perturbative and non-perturbative tools and through
Monte-Carlo simulations which are able to determine the exact numerical solution for the many-body equations underlying
the microscopic physical system under study. I do this in the endless process of comparing theoretical results and predictions
with Laboratory observations.
Of particular interest to me is the concept of fluid, a particular
realization of a microscopic many-body system, allowing for the gas, the liquid, and the solid phases. Fluids can either be
found spontaneously in Nature or can be engineered in a Laboratory. I recently wrote a short book on one particular fluid
recently engineered in the Laboratory: "The Janus Fluid: A Theoretical Perspective". The anisotropic
interaction between two particles of this fluid allows for the formation of unconventional self-assembly where the stable clusters:
the micelles and the vesicles, are weakly interacting among themselves. And this is responsible for the stability of the vapor
phase at higher densities at low temperatures.
In the scientific method usually we observe two kinds of processes going in opposite
directions. The process where starting from the observation of nature one develops the
mathematical model of the given phenomenon, which often stimulated the development of
mathematics itself. And the opposite feedback process where starting from the mathematical
constraints, evolution or solution of a given model one develops the experiment necessary to
observe in a laboratory or in nature the predicted phenomenon, which often stimulated the
development of new technologies. Most often this second kind of process have had simply the
scope of an imitation of nature in a laboratory, that is the reproduction of natural
phenomena using the techniques at our disposal. More rarely it allowed to uncover,
``discover'', new phenomena not previously observed in a laboratory or in nature. In this
book we collect some examples of the successful realization of this kind of discoveries
occurred in the history of physics. We give 7 notorious examples which can be read one each
day. So that the first part of the book can be read in one week. The book is intended both
for the lay reader and for the more educated one. We couldn't avoid to use some equations and
give for granted some basic knowledge in mathematics and physics. Even if we tried to extract
only the strictly necessary equations to understand the mathematical constraints leading to
the discovery, we found nevertheless necessary to show them because of their beauty and
profound scientific meaning. The book is written so that it can be fully understood by
a good graduate student in physics. But the less educated reader should not be scared by the
equations and should try to grasp the meaning from the various descriptive and historical
information surrounding them.
The second part of the book, the last two chapters, deals with the complex relationship
between mathematics, the arts and philosophy and about some ontological and theological
problems, like the anthropic principle, raised by the existence of mathematics as an exact
science and physics as a basic, fundamental, hard, and empirical science. Is the beauty of
mathematics a fruit of God or just of the human beings? This part of the book has a more
popularization character and unlike the first part contains very few equations.
Updates:
(20/12)
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01/04/2015 Added notes on spin-statistics theorem under research section
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