Out of this World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild Ideas of Modern PhysicsThis book is an attempt to share some of the fascinating and exciting ideas of modern theoretical physics with a non-mathematical audience. I also hope to give some appreciation of the exceptionally creative people who have generated these ideas. I had no intention of writing a comprehen sive history of these ideas, however; I apologize to those physicists whose important contributions I may have omitted. Several people have contributed directly to the writing of this book, and I would like to take this chance to thank them. Clive Horwood of Praxis Publishing and Paul Farrell of Copernicus Books have both been supportive of the project. Anna Painter has been an exceptionally thorough editor and has provided invaluable advice. Dr John Mason and Lyman Lyons both offered constructive criticism of an early draft. The errors that remai- and errors and misinterpretations are inevitable in any attempt to explain the subtle ideas of theoretical physics without the aid of mathematics - are my sole responsibility. I would like to thank Ron, Ronnie, Peter, Jackie, Emily, and Abigail for their support. And, most importantly, I would like to thank Heike and Jessica for their patience. Stephen Webb Milton Keynes, April 2004 1X FIGURE CREDITS I would like to acknowledge the following sources and copyright holders for granting permission to use their images. Figure 8 is from the Wilson A. Bentley collection. Figure 14 is courtesy ofNASA. |
Contents
Snowflakes | |
The Mathematics of Symmetry | |
The Theory of General Relativity | |
Big Trouble at Little Distances | |
Classifying the Fundamental Particles | |
THE STANDARD MODEL | |
The Weak Interaction | |
The Successes of the Standard Model | |
Supersymmetry | |
HIGHER DIMENSIONS | |
SUPERSTRINGS | |
The First Superstring Revolution | |
THE STORY OF M | |
Other editions - View all
Out of this World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild ... Stephen Webb Limited preview - 2004 |
Out of this World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild ... Stephen Webb No preview available - 2013 |
Out of this World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild ... Stephen Webb No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
11dimensional antiparticle antiquark atomic Big Bang black hole brane calculate chiral Collider compactified cosmic ray coupling constant Dbranes described diagram dilaton dimensional distance duality Einstein electric charge electromagnetic electron electroweak energy entropy equations example existence experimental experiments fermions Feynman FIGURE fivedimensional force fourdimensional fundamental particles gauge symmetry gluons grand unification grand unified theories gravitational field graviton hadrons heterotic string hierarchy problem Higgs highenergy higher dimensions holographic principle idea inthe invariance large extra dimensions lefthanded leptons Lorentz symmetry lowenergy magnetic mass massive massless mathematics measure meters momentum monopoles Mtheory muon neutrino neutron objects observe ofthe particle accelerators particle physics perturbation physicists possess properties proton decay quantum field theory quantum mechanics quantum particle quarks relativistic rotational scenario space spacetime spatial dimensions special relativity spin Standard Model string theory strong interaction supergravity theory superstring theory supersymmetry transformation twodimensional Universe weak interaction Witten