The landscape of theoretical physics : a global view : from point particles to the brane world and beyond in search of a unifying principle /

This book attempts to provide a synthetic view of fundamental theoretical physics. It describes the ingredients which may have to be used in order to build a theory which will unify general relativity, quantum field theory, and the known fundamental interactions. The books written so far have either...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Clasificación:Libro Electrónico
Autor principal: Pavšič, Matej
Formato: Electrónico eBook
Idioma:Inglés
Publicado: Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, ©2001.
Colección:Fundamental theories of physics ; v. 119.
Temas:
Physics.
Mathematical physics.
Physics
Physique.
Physique mathématique.
physics.
SCIENCE > Physics > General.
Mathematical physics
Theoretische Physik
Acceso en línea:Texto completo
Tabla de Contenidos:
  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Part I Point Particles
  • 1. THE SPINLESS POINT PARTICLE
  • 1.1 Point particles versus worldlines
  • 1.2 Classical theory
  • 1.3 First quantization
  • 1.4 Second quantization
  • 2. POINT PARTICLES AND CLIFFORD ALGEBRA
  • 2.1 Introduction to geometric calculus based on Clifford algebra
  • 2.2 Algebra of spacetime
  • 2.3 Physical quantities as polyvectors
  • 2.4 The unconstrained action from the polyvector action
  • 2.5 Quantization of the polyvector action
  • 2.6 On the second quantization of the polyvector action
  • 2.7 Some further important consequences of Clifford algebra
  • 2.8 The polyvector action and De Witt ... Rovelli material reference system
  • 3. HARMONIC OSCILLATOR IN PSEUDO-EUCLIDEAN SPACE
  • 3.1 The 2-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean harmonic oscillator
  • 3.2 Harmonic oscillator in d-dimensional pseudo-Euclidean space
  • 3.3 A system of scalar fields
  • 3.4 Conclusion
  • Part II Extended Objects
  • 4. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MEMBRANE KINEMATICS AND DYNAMICS
  • 4.1 Membrane space M
  • 4.2 Membrane dynamics
  • 4.3 More about the interconnections among various membrane actions
  • 5. MORE ABOUT PHYSICS IN M -SPACE
  • 5.1 Gauge fields in M-space
  • 5.2 Dynamical metric field in M-space
  • 6. EXTENDED OBJECTS AND CLIFFORD ALGEBRA
  • 6.1 Mathematical preliminaries
  • 6.2 Dynamical vector field in M-space
  • 6.3 Full covariance in the space of parameters f A
  • 7 . QUANTIZATION
  • 7.1 The quantum theory of unconstrained membranes
  • 7.2 Clifford algebra and quantization
  • Part III Brane World
  • 8. SPACETIME AS A MEMBRANE IN A HIGHER-DIMENSIONAL SPACE
  • 8.1 The brane in a curved embedding space
  • 8.2 A system of many intersecting branes
  • 8.3 The origin of matter in the brane world
  • 8.4 Comparison with the Randall ... Sundrum model
  • 9. THE EINSTEIN ... HILBERT ACTION ON THE BRANE AS THE EFFECTIVE ACTION
  • 9.1 The classical model
  • 9.2 The quantum model
  • 9.3 Conclusion
  • 10. ON THE RESOLUTION OF TIME PROBLEM IN QUANTUM GRAVITY
  • 10.1 Space as a moving 3-dimensional membrane in V N
  • 10.2 Spacetime as a moving 4-dimensional membrane in VN
  • Part IV Beyond the Horizon
  • 11. THE LANDSCAPE OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS: A GLOBAL VIEW
  • 12. NOBODY REALLY UNDERSTANDS QUANTUM MECHANICS
  • 12.1 The 'I' intuitively understands quantum mechanics
  • 12.2 Decoherence
  • 12.3 On the problem of basis in the Everett interpretation
  • 12.4 Brane world and brain world
  • 12.5 Final discussion on quantum mechanics, and conclusion
  • 13. FINAL DISCUSSION
  • 13.1 What is wrong with tachyons?
  • 13.2 Is the electron indeed an event moving in spacetime?
  • 13.3 Is our world indeed a single huge 4-dimensional membrane?
  • 13.4 How many dimensions are there?
  • 13.5 Will it ever be possible to find solutions to the classical and quantum brane equations of motion and make predictions?
  • 13.6 Have we found a unifying principle?
  • Appendices
  • The dilatationally invariant system of units
  • References.

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