Description |
xxviii, 1099 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Contents |
The roots of science -- An ancient theorem and a modern question -- Kinds of number in the physical world -- Magical complex numbers -- Geometry of logarithms, powers, and roots -- Real-number calculus -- Complex-number calculus -- Riemann surfaces and complex mappings -- Fourier decomposition and hyperfunctions -- Surfaces -- Hypercomplex numbers -- Manifolds of n dimensions -- Symmetry groups -- Calculus on manifolds -- Fibre bundles and gauge connections -- The ladder of infinity -- Spacetime -- Minkowskian geometry -- The classical fields of Maxwell and Einstein -- Lagrangians and Hamiltonians -- The quantum particle -- Quantum algebra, geometry, and spin -- The entangled quantum world -- Dirac's electron and antiparticles -- The standard model of particle physics -- Quantum field theory -- The Big Bang and its thermodynamic legacy -- Speculative theories of the early universe -- The measurement paradox -- Gravity's role in quantum state reduction -- Supersymmetry, supra-dimensionality, and strings -- Einstein's narrower path; loop variables -- More radical perspectives; twistor theory -- Where lies the road to reality? |
Summary |
Roger Penrose, one of the most accomplished scientists of our time, presents the only comprehensive and comprehensible account of the physics of the universe. From the very first attempts by the Greeks to grapple with the complexities of our known world to the latest application of infinity in physics, The Road to Reality carefully explores the movement of the smallest atomic particles and reaches into the vastness of intergalactic space. Here, Penrose examines the mathematical foundations of the physical universe, exposing the underlying beauty of physics and giving us one the most important works in modern science writing |
Notes |
Originally published: New York : Knopf, 2005 |
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"January 2007"--Title page verso |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 1050-1085) and index |
Subject |
Mathematical physics
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Physical laws
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SCIENCE -- Physics -- Mathematical & Computational.
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Mathematical physics.
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Physical laws.
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LC no. |
2008274126 |
ISBN |
9780679776314 |
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0679776311 |
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