Some college-level writings

In 1987 I was invited by the editor of the Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, Academic Press, to write an short article on the topic of Dense Matter Physics. The article is intended for college-level students with interest in science and technology, but not neccessarily science majors, and the article is limited to within 20 pages, and must be completed within a short period of time. Never having the chance to write for the general public, I thought it would be interesting for me to start doing so, and consequently I agreed to write an article on Dense Matter Physics. Please read it, and see if it is written in such a way as to be beneficial to you. In 1990 when the editors of the Encyclopedia chose selected articles for publication in topical issues, my article was chosen for the Encyclopedia of Modern Phyiscs, Academic Press. It was chosen for the reason of "readability." I was rather happy about that. I was rewarded with a copy of that particular volume.

The reason I was invited to write such an article on Dense Matter Physics for the Encyclopedia was because I had written a book entitled Physics of Dense Matter, Science Press, Beijing, China (1984). No monographs on such a field had ever appeared in print up to that time. The term "dense matter" was a novelty. In the 1980s, neutron stars were hot topics of discussion. After investigating into the structure of neutron stars for many years, and when I was approached by the Science Press to write a monograph on neutron stars I agreed to do so. Instead of concentrating on just the neutron-star matter, with density around one trillion grams per cubic centimeter, I thought I would go through the entire range of densities up to the neutron-star density, and beyond. In doing so, it provided a survey of the entire field of modern physics. This prospect entreated me dearly, and I labored diligently for two years to bring it to completion. Knowing that Chinese publishers were not good at typesetting Western-language books, I actually typed up the entire manuscript, with its many equations, on an IBM Selectric typewriter. The manuscript was completed in 1983, and the Preface was dated May 4, 1983. May 4 is a very significant date in the modern history of China, in association with the May Fourth Movement, a cultural Rennaisance marking the entrance of China into the family of nations. My choice of date was a vague association with this monumental event. The manuscript was delivered to the Science Press in June 1983, but the Science Press was not capable of publishing it (not to mention about applying for copyright which was a totally new idea to the Chinese). It was turned over to the World Scientific Press in Singapore for publication, and was copyrighted in 1985.

A review of this book by Prof. John W. Negele, Center for Theoretical Physics, MIT, appears in the Physics Today, September, p. 86 (1987). Not knowing how hard it was to have a Western-language book published in China at the time, Prof. Negele found it strange that no references to research after 1982 were referred to in the book. In fact the book was finished in 1982, being typed in 1983, and then lied in limbo until 1985 when it was copyrighted, and saw circulation in 1987.

Not only can the physics of dense matter be applied to the study of the structure of neutron stars and supernova processes, but also to the composition of the universe, since we now believe that the heavy elements in the universe are formed during supernova events. Wouldn't you want to find out the reason for the abundance of elements in the universe? In the coming years, more and more space explorations of our solar system will be conducted, and the abundance of elements in the solar system will be more and more accurately known. It should be a worthwhile task to take up a study of this topic at this time. An understanding of the nature of dense matter will help.

After teaching quantum mechanics for many years, never quite satisfied with the presentation given in text books, I searched for different ways of presenting quantum mechanics to students. I found a nice way to do it, which is being presented here. The first part of it, entitled "Understanding quantum theory (I)" aimed mainly at undergraduates, has been published in the Journal of Beijing Normal University (Natural Science), 29, 276 (1993). "Understanding quantum theory (II)" is not published. It looks into the possibility of a purely geometric formulation of quantum theory.

Much that I liked to work out the abundance of elements in the universe, I realized that my working span was limited, and I must return to my childhood dream of solving China's Yellow River problem, known as China's Sorrow. When I was a high school student studying in Shanghai, some of my classmates were refugees as a result of floods. Floods had an initmate impact on me. My study of the Yellow River is outlined in this website.