Synchrotron Light: A Physics Journey from Laboratory to Cosmos

This textbook provides the first comprehensive overview of synchrotron physics at an introductory level, covering the fundamental underpinning physics, and combining rigorous treatment of the main concepts with a fresh outlook, rich in images and graphics.

Aimed at students and practitioners alike, this book describes all topics in a way that requires only undergraduate knowledge in physics and mathematics, and, with only a few exceptions, all results are derived from first principles. The book also emphasizes the relevance of the synchrotron-light concept throughout the broader fabric of physics, covering areas such as special relativity, classical electrodynamics, quantum theory, astrophysics, optical physics, classical mechanics, and computational physics.

As well as basic concepts related to the generation of synchrotron light by charged particles in accelerators and their special relativity and classical electrodynamics underpinning, this textbook also covers quantum mechanical and quantum optics descriptions of synchrotron light emission, the key role played by synchrotron light emission in the cosmos, and the generalisation of the concept of synchrotron emission to interactions other than the electromagnetic interaction.

Taking the reader on a journey across the landscape of physics, this book aims to unite a number of often-disconnected communities of learners and practitioners through the connecting thread of synchrotron light.

Daniele Pelliccia, Entrepreneur and Founder, Instruments & Data Tools Pty Ltd, David M. Paganin, Adjunct Researcher, School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University

Daniele Pelliccia is an experimental physicist and entrepreneur. He graduated with a master’s degree in quantum optics and quantum information, and undertook his PhD research in x-ray optics and imaging. Daniele has been a staff scientist at synchrotron beamlines in Germany and Australia. During his academic career Daniele has secured a DECRA fellowship (Australia) for the development of novel x-ray microscopy techniques. Since 2017, Daniele has been a full-time entrepreneur, founding the company Instruments & Data Tools providing modelling and analytics services for industry. In 2018 Daniele founded Rubens Technologies, commercialising portable spectroscopy sensors for fruit quality assessment.

David M. Paganin is a theoretical physicist with a range of research interests in optical physics. He graduated with a PhD in 1999. David has been affiliated with Monash University since 2002, first as a lecturer and more recently as an adjunct researcher with the School of Physics and Astronomy. He is the author of Coherent X-ray Optics (OUP 2006) and co-invented several techniques in coherent imaging that are currently widely employed in the fields of x-ray synchrotron science, visible-light microscopy, and electron microscopy.