Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that physics—the basis for all other science—has lost its way. The problem is string theory, an ambitious attempt to formulate "a theory of everything" that explains all the forces and particles of nature and how the universe came to be. With its exotic new particles and parallel universes, string theory has captured the public"s imagination and seduced many physicists. But as Smolin reveals, there"s a deep flaw in the theory: no part of it has been proven, and no one knows how to prove it. As a scientific theory, it has been a colossal failure. And because it has soaked up the lion's share of funding, attracted some of the best minds, and penalized young physicists for pursuing other avenues, it is dragging the rest of physics down with it. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin charts the rise and fall of string theory and takes a fascinating look at what will replace it. A group of young theorists has begun to develop exciting new ideas that are, unlike string theory, testable. Smolin tells us who and what to watch for in the coming years and how we can find the next Einstein. This is a wake-up call, and Lee Smolin—a former string theorist himself— is the perfect person to deliver it.
Customer Reviews:
Scientific progress is never cut and dried.......2007-10-08
Lee Smolin presents a harsh critique of the last 30 years in theoretical physics, written by one of its practitioners. He makes the excellent point that science is a human activity like anything else. Progress is always hard to predict; scientists can and do get caught up in dead ends. Smolin thinks string theory is one such dead end, and makes a good case for it.
I think that, if anything, Smolin is a little too gentle on the field. The development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs left a tremendous impression that big money put into physics would bring big results. In recent years that hasn't happened. There are so many unanswered questions out there in science, so many important fields where solutions are desperately needed. When I consider the construction and operation of particle accelerators and other high-tech equipment, I can't help but think of the huge cost. The same amount of cash invested elsewhere might have brought much more in the way of useful results.
I am the mother of a 10-year-old boy attending public school. His instruction sometimes seems to me like a mishmash of well-meaning educational reforms that have been implemented with little or no testing to see if they worked or not. I am frankly disgusted by the quality of most research in the area of education--sample sizes too small, no proper controls, subjects followed for too short a time, etc. The cost of operating a single particle accelerator for six weeks probably exceeds all the funding for educational research around the world for the entire year. Yet which has the most potential for making major progress? Maybe it's time to back off on funding big physics projects for a while.
I would also like to point out that the building and use of instrumentation for high-energy physics is highly dependent on cheap fossil fuels. The future supply of such fuels is by no means guaranteed. The peak oil problem appears to be largely ignored by high-energy physicists today, but has the potential to significantly affect their ability to conduct experiments.
I really enjoyed Smolin's chapters on looking for seers rather than technicians in science. I especially liked his description of how unconventional scientists have built a career without a university job. Smolin points out that a typical professor spends a majority of his week on teaching, grant proposals, administrative tasks, and the like, leaving a surprisingly small amount of time available for actual research. Having a day job outside the field is not as big a hurdle as it might seem.
I tend to agree with Smolin that the big advances of the future are likely to come from completely unexpected directions. I can't wait to see what they are.
physics from many angles.......2007-10-05
This book provided several discussions pf physics and quantum theory. its good because the author speaks of the history the the originators of physics theory and the current champions of thought.
A mixed bag.......2007-10-04
At the moment, string theory appears to have many (possibly an infinite number) of "metastable vacua", each of which would allow for a universe with its own laws of physics. (For a brief, comic, yet essentially correct summary of the history of this idea, see Peter Shor's review here. For those who don't know, Shor is a celebrated quantum-information theorist.) According to the (far from established) inflationary model of cosmology, there is a vast collection of universes (the "multiverse") with diverse laws of physics. Which universe we find ourselves in is a matter of random selection, but of course we must be in a "biofriendly" universe, one whose laws of physics allow for the appearance of intelligent life.
The core argument of this book is presented on page 164-165 (US hardcover edition), where Smolin writes, "when it comes to the biofriendliness of our universe, we have at least three possibilities:
"1. Ours is one of a vast collection of universes with random laws.
"2. There was an intelligent designer.
"3. There is a so-far-unknown mechanism that will both explain the biofriendliness of our universe and make testable predictions by which it can be confirmed or falsified.
"Given that the first two possibilities are untestable in principle, it is most rational to hold out for the third possibility. Indeed, that is the only possibility we should consider as scientists, because accepting either of the first two would mean the end of our field."
I find this to be an astonishing argument. First of all, I don't know what "most rational" is supposed to mean. More importantly, to reject a scientific hypothesis for purely personal reasons (it "would mean the end of our field") is at best novel, and at worst absurd.
Very few string theorists are happy that #1 seems, at this point, to be the most likely outcome of string theory, and many hope that #3 will somehow eventually emerge. But to throw out the whole framework, simply because we don't like the result, cannot be said to be a scientific attitude.
One thing you won't learn in this book (unless you read it very carefully, and between the lines) is that the other approaches to quantum gravity advocated by Smolin have not come any closer to predicting specific experimental results than string theory has. Smolin talks about possible violations of special relativity, but these are not (as he admits on page 237) a definite prediction of loop quantum gravity. He has said (on Peter Woit's blog) that any quantum field theory in any number of dimensions is compatible with loop quantum gravity. If true, this would make loop quantum gravity even less capable than string theory of picking out our particular laws of physics.
Smolin also discusses issues of sociology in physics. On page 335-336, he asserts that the all the truly negative characterizations of job candidates that he has ever heard have had a component of racism and/or sexism. I am on the faculty of the physics department of a research university, and I can only say that my experience has been entirely different. I have simply never heard a racist or sexist denigration of one scientist by another, nor have I ever felt that anyone was being evaluated by criteria other than merit. I think that there are definitely issues of culture and how we can construct scientific communities that have broader appeal, and that there are physicists who are not as sensitive to these issues as they might be, but I cannot accept Smolin's claim that the relatively small percentage of women and blacks in physics is due to "blatant prejudice".
Finally, Smolin discusses the issues of "seers" vs "craftspeople" in science, and argues that we should be supporting more "seers". Among the existing seers, he lists some (such as Roger Penrose and Gerard 't Hooft) who made their reputations primarily as craftspeople ('t Hooft received the Nobel Prize for his work on the renormalization of gauge theories, and Penrose did celebrated work on the singularity theorems of general relativity). Their record as seers has been less successful; none of their recent ideas on modifications of quantum mechanics have panned out as yet. Smolin laments the fact that more attention is not paid to these forays into alternatives to quantum mechanics. But 't Hooft and Penrose do not agree on what modifications are needed. Other seers identified by Smolin propose violations of special relativity, rather than (or in addition to) violations of quantum mechanics. Perhaps this is all deep thought, but there is little to decide, at this point, which if any of these avenues should be pursued. Most physicists have therefore sensibly adopted a "wait and see" attitude.
Even if we accept Smolin's argument that we need new seers, how are we to find them? Smolin writes (page 353) that in order to discover "the visionaries who ignore the mainstream and follow their own ambitious programs", we should "find at least one accomplished person in the candidate's field who is deeply excited about what the candidate is trying to do". So, the candidate's program had better not be *too* far off the mainstream; there has to be at least one "accomplished person" who is "deeply excited" about it. But if one deeply excited professional is good, wouldn't more be better? Wouldn't that up the odds that the program was, indeed, worthwhile? Oh wait, that would be just what we have now ... a system where there is constant debate, emergent consensus on the most promising approaches, and distribution of research funds primarily (but by no means exclusively!) to those approaches that appear, in the consensus view, to be most promising. To paraphrase Winston Churchill on democracy, this system for distributing funds for science may be the worst ever devised, except for all the others.
So, should you buy the book? I feel that it gives a distorted picture, by emphasizing the weak points of string theory while ignoring the (many more, in my view) weak points of the alternatives. It seems to me that the essence of the book's argument against string theory is captured by the excerpts above, and by Shor's review. Then there is a lot of discussion of groupthink in scientific culture. For me, it doesn't add up to an appealing package, but your mileage may vary.
The Endless Quest Continues .......2007-10-04
I like Lee Smolin and this is a good exposition of the current quandary in Physics. When the mathematicians "hijacked" physics in the 1920's, they created ever-so elegant formulas and abstraction upon abstraction upon abstraction. "Just give me a formula!" was their mantra, and what it all really "means" was not their concern. This is the essence of Bohr's position (no pun intended), and Einstein was not able to answer, even though he knew something was missing.
String theory has many intriguing ideas, and it's supporters should not be easily dismissed. Again and again, we come back to the basic question...particle or wave? Wavicle? Partiwave? String?
Outstanding piece of writing, A must-read for any science enthusiast........2007-09-22
I found this book to be superbly written and full of fascinating insights. I really loved reading it. Many of the longer reviews here do a great job of reviewing the content of the book, so I'll stick to offering my opinion.
I will no doubt read this book again in the future as much of the content was way over my head. However, as with any great book on any subject, this did not prevent me from thoroughly enjoying it and learning a lot. What makes it so great is that each time I read it I will learn more.
I want to thank Lee Smolin for putting the current state of his field in some perspective. I highly, highly recommend this book!
Amazon.com
There is an ill-concealed skeleton in the closet of physics: "As they are currently formulated, general relativity and quantum mechanics cannot both be right." Each is exceedingly accurate in its field: general relativity explains the behavior of the universe at large scales, while quantum mechanics describes the behavior of subatomic particles. Yet the theories collide horribly under extreme conditions such as black holes or times close to the big bang. Brian Greene, a specialist in quantum field theory, believes that the two pillars of physics can be reconciled in superstring theory, a theory of everything.
Superstring theory has been called "a part of 21st-century physics that fell by chance into the 20th century." In other words, it isn't all worked out yet. Despite the uncertainties--"string theorists work to find approximate solutions to approximate equations"--Greene gives a tour of string theory solid enough to satisfy the scientifically literate.
Though Ed Witten of the Institute for Advanced Study is in many ways the human hero of The Elegant Universe, it is not a human-side-of-physics story. Greene's focus throughout is the science, and he gives the nonspecialist at least an illusion of understanding--or the sense of knowing what it is that you don't know. And that is traditionally the first step on the road to knowledge. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Book Description
"[Greene] develops one fresh new insight after another...In the great tradition of physicists writing for the masses,
The Elegant Universe sets a standard that will be hard to beat." --George Johnson, The New York Times Book Review
In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.
Green uses everything from an amusement park ride to ants on a garden hose to illustrate the beautiful yet bizarre realities that modern physics is unveiling. Dazzling in its brilliance, unprecedented in its ability to both illuminate and entertain,
The Elegant Universe is a tour de force of science writing-a delightful, lucid voyage through modern physics that brings us closer than ever to understanding how the universe works.
Customer Reviews:
Anyone who is curious about the horizons of theoretical physics will enjoy this book.......2007-08-30
In this brilliantty articulated and refreshingly clear book, Greene, a leading string theorist, relates the scientific story and the human struggle behind the search for the ultimate theory. String theory, as the author vividly and easily describes, reveals a vision of the universe that is sending shock waves through the world of physics. Thrilling and revolutionary ideas such as new dimensions hidden within the fabric of space, black holes transmuting into elementary particles, rips and puncutures in the space time continuum, gigantic universes interchangealbe with minusclule ones, and a wealth of others are playing a pivotal role as physicists use string theory to grapple with some of the deepest questions of the ages.
Almost 5 Stars.......2007-07-19
Although I felt this book was excellent and covered all the bases there were a few areas that lacked for me and I couldn't quite give it 5 stars. The book started out phenomenally and the section on quantum mechanics was the best that I've read. The analogies that Mr. Greene used made the concepts clear and comprehendable but there were a few chapters in the middle where he used no analogies and I found myself completely lost even after re-reading the chapters. I might be too much of a layman for this book and that would certainly not be Mr. Greene's fault. There were additional parts of the book where I found myself easily destracted and those chapters were almost a chore to finish. Over all I think parts of this book are great for readers who are just begining to study this subject but other whole chapters are definately not.
First half zipped along with insight after insight........2007-07-19
First half zipped along with insight after insight. Second half got a bit heavy and bogged down. Overall I'm glad I made it through.
science or science fiction? .......2007-07-08
"Theoretical physicist is the one whose experiments don't work".
So says my friend, an engineer by profession, and The Elegant Universe fully confirms this view - more, since we learn that the theories of modern physics are beyond our technological ability to test them experimentally.
The theories themselves are indeed very elegant, composed with great care for estetics and symmetry, and well illustrated by pictures. Nonetheless, we are left with an impression that most of it is the stuff of phantasy, and just as one calculation will "prove" some idea, another set of equations will "disprove" it with identical claim to "scientific truth". I've put all this terms in quotes because the maybe factor of all proofs is too strong to take the presented theories seriously. The author admits that all the calculations are based on approximations and numerous assumptions, raising from still more approximations and probabilities. And when the result is absurd, the theorists quickly solve the problem by inventing one more spatial dimention, not accessible to our perceptions because it never expanded from its initial state.
Actually, the whole string theory deals with aspects of reality not accessible to our perceptions, and not provable by any experiments. Is it still reality or already a fiction? We don't know, and chances are will never know.
With all this, it is indeed an extremely elegant text, beautifully written and holding our attention all the way to the end. I just wish the author did not say all of the time that string theory had been "discovered", since for all we know theories are not material reality, such as a continent of America or a rare species of a butterfly, and so they cannot be discovered, theories can only be conceived, invented, or created. This lexical misuse is eye-catching due to the prevalence of hypotheses over the facts so stronly visible in string theory.
Crackling and sizzling ! - This one requires some attention and tenacity though........2007-06-27
A good book which covers the below topics
1) Requirement of single physical law which brings together all the four fundamental forces: Electromagnetic, Strong nuclear, weak nuclear and gravity.
2) Disparity between theory of relatively (the world of the big) with quantum mechanics (world of the very small)
2) The need of a higher theory to explain the standard model (Explanation for the disparate mass and charges of the subatomic particles)
3) The concept of 11 dimensional space; Mass and charge of the numerous particles found in atom smashers being a result of frequency of vibrations of strings (closed or open) in different dimensions. Meaning a string vibrating with a certain frequency along one of the hidden 7 pinched up spatial dimensions (also termed calabi Yau spaces) will represent a subatomic particle
4) Membrane theory (2 branes, 3 branes etc)
5) M theory unifying the 5 known strings theories (by the addition of another spatial dimension)
6) Thus everything in this universe including the keyboard you are right now typing on is made up of tiny vibrating strings and below this level there is nothing. A string would be the last divisible entity beyond which it is not possible to divide anymore.
Basically everthing stripped down to strings. This is a book for the reader who doesn't know anything about string theory but wants to learn something. As a general reader, you are not in a position to take a stand for or against string theory, because the person picking up this book will be layman and hence rightly there are no equations, so you have to accept things at face value. If you were more deeply interested you would be a physicist doing his PHD and hence will read more dense and technical books as college courses.
But as a layman, you will also appreciate the paucity of physical evidence to support string theory. Particle physicists consider it the right theory because of its mathematical elegance in it's equations. As a layman, you and I are not able to see this elgance as we dont read equations. So I cant form a real opinion about this but I can say that this book will provide the uninitiated a quick cursory primer on string theory with the help of analogies. But this book wont make you believe or disbelieve string theory but you will become more aquainted with what this hype is all about.
regards, Vikram
Book Description
String theory is one of the most exciting and challenging areas of modern theoretical physics. This book guides the reader from the basics of string theory to recent developments. It introduces the basics of perturbative string theory, world-sheet supersymmetry, space-time supersymmetry, conformal field theory and the heterotic string, before describing modern developments, including D-branes, string dualities and M-theory. It then covers string geometry and flux compactifications, applications to cosmology and particle physics, black holes in string theory and M-theory, and the microscopic origin of black-hole entropy. It concludes with Matrix theory, the AdS/CFT duality and its generalizations. This book is ideal for graduate students and researchers in modern string theory, and will make an excellent textbook for a one-year course on string theory. It contains over 120 exercises with solutions, and over 200 homework problems with solutions available on a password protected website for lecturers at www.cambridge.org/9780521860697.
Customer Reviews:
A good general introduction.......2007-04-22
String theory has been criticized since it was first invented but not to the degree that it has now, this criticism mostly focusing on its failure to connect with observation. The criticism has increased dramatically in recent years however, and some of this has been too vituperative to be useful to those curious about string theory as a viable physical theory. But criticism, however harsh, can be healthy, since it motivates the proponents of a theory to more carefully elucidate its foundations and content. This is usually not the case when a theory is popular, as researchers are in a competitive spirit and are hesitant to share the knowledge to possible competitors. At this stage in the game however, string theorists it seems are now on the defensive, and have thus taken the time to discuss in-depth what this reviewer still believes is the most complex and beautiful theory ever constructed in mathematical physics. String theory still has a long way to go before it gains status as being a physical theory, but hopefully by the end of the next few decades one will see the appearance of charts, graphs, and numerical calculations in books on string theory, much like one finds in the most successful of all physical theories to date: relativistic quantum field theory.
Some highlights in the book that are particularly insightful include:
1. The observation that Dirichlet boundary conditions (for the open string) break Poincare invariance, but that this leads to the introduction of Dp-branes as positions of the endpoints of the open string. Poincare invariance is recovered as long as Dp-brane is space filling, i.e. has a dimension one less than the background spacetime.
2. The view that the BRST quantization of the path integral is really a conformal field theory. This is interesting in that BRST analysis is typically thought of as a procedure for quantizing constrained systems (gauge theories being predominant examples).
3. The `Myers effect'. Sometimes referred to as the `D-brane dielectric effect', it is part of an attempt to understand the physics of non-Abelian D-branes for strong fields. One of the challenges in this understanding involves the validity of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action in these kinds of circumstances, which as the authors remark is designed for situations where the background fields and world-volume gauge fields do not vary appreciably over the distances on the order of the string scale.
4. The origin of the (classical) Virasoro algebra as the freedom of choice of gauge in the reparametrization symmetry. And along these same lines, the quantization of the Virasoro algebra is defined to the normal ordering of the Virasoro generators, and their commutators give an expression consisting of the ordinary classical term plus a "quantum" correction, the famous central extension. Thus the quantum Virasoro algebra can be viewed as a "quantum deformation" of the classical Virasoro algebra, with the central parameter as being the deformation parameter. This philosophy of deformation has found generalization in what are now called `quantum groups' (even though strictly speaking they are much more complicated objects than ordinary groups).
5. The connection of the dilaton to the Euler characteristic.
6. The role of the GSO projection in insuring consistency in the state spectrum.
7. The use of (vector bundle) K-theory to classify D-brane charges. This use arises when it is realized that the conserved R-R charges cannot be identified with cohomology classes of gauge field configurations. Instead, the D-branes are classified by K-theory classes.
8. The discussion on `primitive cohomology' and its relation to de Rham cohomology and Hodge theory.
9. The role of the Born-Infeld structure in ensuring Lorentz invariance of the T-dual description. The Born-Infeld action was once viewed as a mere historical curiosity, namely as a nonlinear generalization of the Maxwell theory, with no experimental backing. That it finds such a natural place in string theory is very interesting (but still of course lacking in experimental support).
10. The derivation of a lower bound for Newton's constant from heterotic M-theory, which is close to the observed value.
11. The argument, beautifully elucidated in this book, that type IIA supergravity may be obtained from 11-dimensional supergravity by dimensional reduction.
12. The discussion on warped space-times and the gauge hierarchy. The authors cleverly motivate this subject by asking why Newtonian gravity follows an inverse-square law rather than an inverse-cube law.
13. An entire chapter is devoted to "stringy" geometry, which is a fascinating subject given that it touches so many areas of modern mathematics.
14. The discussion of the `hidden sector' and its conjectured relation to dark matter and supersymmetry breaking.
15. The author's treatment of the AdS/CFT conjecture is superb and is by far the most interesting part of the book. The dualities shown to exists between gauge theory and string theory are a possible route to a full understanding of nonperturbative quantum chromodynamics, which to this date has defied resolution.
Some major omissions or discussions that need more elaboration include:
1. The difficulties that are actually involved in quantizing the Nambu-Goto action. The authors remark that this is due to the presence of the square root, but it would have been interesting if they would have indicated just where the trouble rises explicitly when a quantization procedure is attempted with the Nambu-Goto action. In ordinary quantum field theory, the presence of the square root is interpreted as a "nonlocal" problem, but even there this issue is not usually dealt with in a manner that is very transparent.
2. A more detailed treatment of string field theory for those readers who want to compare it to what is done in second quantization in ordinary quantum field theory.
3. The role of the Beltrami differentials in the attaining of a measure for moduli space that is invariant under reparametrizations of the moduli space.
4. No in-depth discussion of characteristic classes over and above the algebra involved in their manipulation (i.e. the wedge products). An understanding of characteristic classes is crucial to understanding superstring and brane theory, but the pages of this book mislead the unsuspecting reader that there is nothing to characteristic classes except algebraic manipulation of the differential forms. But characteristic classes have a deep geometrical meaning, and obtaining insight into this meaning has been proven to be difficult for students of string theory. This book does not provide any of this insight, nor do any of the other books currently in print on string theory.
5. Is supersymmetry absolutely necessary for the incorporation of fermions into string theory? The authors seem to argue that it is, but an explicit proof is lacking.
6. The proof that `threshold bound states' are stable is omitted, disappointing the more mathematically sophisticated reader. As the authors remark, the proof involves a special type of index theory involving non-Fredholm operators, and where one must deal with a continuous spectrum. The usual index theory breaks down since one is only dealing with elliptic operators, and contributions to the index from bosons and fermions do not necessarily have to be integers.
7. The authors should have included more discussion on mirror symmetry, beautiful subject that it is.
8. Dp-branes are asserted to be useful in incorporating non-Abelian gauge symmetries in string theory, in that they appear "naturally" as confined to world volumes of multiply-coincident Dp-branes. But is this the best way to introduce these symmetries? Is there a method, other than this one and `compactification', that is just as "natural" and does not have the contrived element that the introduction of Dp-branes sometimes has?
9. The authors need to elaborate in more detail on the definition of "stable" and "unstable" D-brane.
10. The omitting of the proof that string theories are ultraviolet finite theories of quantum gravity. This is by far the most serious omission in the book. This reviewer does not know of a reference that proves this assertion, and many in the physics community have pointed to this omission as being a sign that the string theory research community has been misled by false assertions of proof.
Excellent Book.......2007-03-11
I think this is a great book that provides not only a great introduction to string theory (there is no assumed prior knowledge of string theory), but also provides coverage of many more advanced topics as well. I think it's likely that the vast majority of students specializing in string theory will want to read it at some point in their studies.
The coverage of topics in the first few chapters is in some ways fairly standard. The first two chapters consists of a high level overview of string theory, bosonic string, the Nambu-Goto action the Polyakov action, the Virasoro algebra, the critical dimension, light code gauge and the spectra of open/closed strings. After this there is a chapter on conformal field theory, naturally emphasizing the parts relevant to string theory (including a bit of string field theory). This is followed by discussions of worldsheet supersymmetry, spacetime supersymmetry, anomalies, T-duality and heterotic strings. The writing is very clear and considering the nature of the material, fairly straight forward. There are two things that I considered exceptional strengths. One is that the discussions incorporate D-branes, M-theory and the (unexpected) symmetries of string theory early on. The other is that there are numerous worked examples, as there are throughout the book.
At a very high level the rest of the book contains more extensive discussions of M-theory, compactification (including a substantial amount besides the standard approach of the compact dimensions being a Calabi-Yau space), mirror symmetry, S-duality, possible cosmological consequences of string theory, black holes and other solutions with horizons, matrix theory, AdS/CFT correspondence (a proposed equivalence between closed string solutions on the product of a sphere and anti-deSitter space and Yang-Mills theories) and the holographic principle (or as some would say conjecture).
The things I appreciated the most about this material was that is was a very interesting mix of topics. The discussion of black holes and cosmology was fairly extensive (for cosmology it was the most extensive I've seen in a text book). As was the coverage of the AdS/CFT correspondence. There were also some topics that I don't recall seeing in other string theory books, such as warped geometries in compactification and S-branes (these are like D-branes but they satisfy Dirichlet boundary conditions in timelike directions).
Needless to say it's a fairly advanced book. There is some coverage of things like complex spaces, topology, general relativity and cosmology. However this material is more along the lines of a review, not something intended to teach from first principles (some of the other string theory books cover this kind material in more detail).
All-in-all I believe this book not only provides a great introduction, it also provides an excellent treatment of some of the more advanced topics in string theory.
Best of All Worlds.......2007-03-09
This new textbook on string theory might be considered a modern pimped up version of Zwiebach's introductory course. The book is - as an introduction - better than the 2-volume set by Schwarz (Green, Schwarz, Witten), which is partly outdated, and on the same footing as Polchinski's version, but certainly not as thorough and elaborate. There is some overlap between all books (e.g. the CFT bits from Polchinski are quite similar to those in this new text, the introduction of the bosonic string via the relativistic point particle looks like the ones by Polchinski and Zwiebach, but Becker & Schwarz immediately generalise the concept to p-branes, SCFTs are discussed in a similar manner as in Polchinski, and so on), but there are additional features that really add to the value of the book: all exercises within the text have solutions directly under them, so one can either try to solve them or read them through, and some parts are explained more clearly. The concepts of "(gauge) symmetries" are discussed slightly better than by Polchsinki or GSW, but for those who want mathematical proofs instead of hand-waving arguments, and more background material on supersymmetry, I can only say that I have found no books on string theory that really do that. Both are subjects of study on their own and would go "beyond the scope" of these books... Nevertheless, a very good introduction and most of all: up to date!
For mid-undergraduates, I think, the perfect sequence for string theory would be (provided one acquires knowledge of QFT and Lie algebras for the more advanced texts):
Zwiebach>Becker/Schwarz>Polchinski (supplemented by GSW's first volume)
But if you want to learn string theory more quickly or if you don't have problems with the very basics, then leave out Zwiebach and go for this one immediately. For graduates, Polchinski should be the start, but one can take Backer/Schwarz always as a references and supplement on some topics (connection to black holes and gauge theories).
A Modern Fairytale.......2007-01-30
This is a fabulous excursion into a world inhabited by all sorts of mythical creatures: Calabi-Yau 3-folds, D-branes, orbifolds, ten and eleven-dimensional backgrounds, supersymmetric partners, covariant fermionic vertex operators and many others that only the wildest imaginations can conceive of. The wizards and magicians who have conjured these beasts have also cast a powerful spell on their easily-beguiled followers who see streets of gold and emerald trees as they walk through the morass of E8*E8 gauge fields, compactifications and dualities. This tome will be a welcome addition to your bookshelf right between Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland. I gladly recommend each of you to take a brief stroll into this enchanted land to be followed by the volumes of Landau and Lifchitz, so that you will be able to find your way back to reality again. Some have called strings "a theory of anything". Indeed, it is a wonderful place where you can make all your wishes come true. But do not stay too long in the kingdom of string theory lest you end up like so many others who are lost, searching endlessly for the legendary realms of M-theory or wandering aimlessly in the infinite labyrinth of the Landscape, wasting the remaining years of their life on naught but a fable.
Most up-to-date string theory tome published this year........2007-01-24
This volume was authored by one of the most respected researchers in the field, as well as the Becker sisters. It is beautifully illustrated, and is well timed for upcomming experimental tests of superstring theory at the Large Hadron collider. I did not give if five starts because it only devoted four pages to the Landscape, which professor Susskind, the father of string theory, has declared the most significant advance in physics in the past century.
Book Description
Takes you from the fundamentals of fingerpicking to five authentic blues tunes. With graded exercises, illustrated tips, plus standard notation and tablature.
Customer Reviews:
Not my favorite style of blues.......2007-09-15
There are many styles of acoustic blues. If you are going to invest the time needed to learn to play, you must find the style that most touches your soul. For me, this set of book and cd isn't the one.
Try Happy Traum's 2 dvd set "Easy Steps to Acoustic Blues Guitar", way better in my opinion, and more soulful blues. The 2nd dvd by Traum in this set is a masterfull teaching of fingerpicking, whereas the first is more on strumming patterns and learning the basic form. I recommend both, but if it is only fingerpicking you want, get #2 by itself.
Happy Traum is a great teacher...the best I've encountered for home study.
Also try his dvd "The Blues Bag" for 11 blues songs in varied styles.
Relatively user friendly: better than most!.......2007-01-28
I have tried MANY self-teach finger picking books - this one is amongst the best. Clear explanations, deliberately staged lessons, a useful CD and, perhaps most important of all, a tone of respect for the old flat picker who wants to learn how to use his fingers. In a couple of hours, I was on my way to being able play the way I have wanted to for many years.
Good practice book.......2006-11-07
Helpful book for widening your repetoire, for beginner-intermediate level. CD is helpful for hearing more advanced songs.
A great start for a Blues Fan!.......2006-10-15
I just got this one a few weeks ago and I have to say that I like it! If you are just starting out, know your basic open position and C & F barre chords, and would like to learn some Fingerstyle Blues, this is the book. It takes you from the absolute beginning up thru 5 tunes that represent various Blues styles.
I would place this book just a little below the Mark Hanson books only because it is focusing on one style, Blues, and it only uses a few patterns. BUT, it uses these patterns to great effect, so don't let that throw you off. As for the quality of the lessons, I would place them up with Mark's. They are easy to follow and are paced well. I feel that anyone that has a desire to learn this style, and practice, will be playing the Blues in no time!
You will learn some great exercises in the keys of A, E, and G, along with technics like Hammer-Ons and Pull-Offs, Brushstrokes, Vamps, Heel Damping, how to practice a steady Alternating Bass, tips on how to Sing the blues, and more. The TAB is clear and easy to read. I have the 8 1/2"x11 book, and have seen the A4 size one, and both have clear and easy to read print. The 5 tunes you will be able to play at the end of the book, "M&O Blues", "Beekman Blues", "Big Road Blues", "32-20 Blues", and "Black Rat Swing" are, besides fun to play, great tunes to add to your list of songs.
Some other reviews state that Mark, the teacher, rambles on and on, and as a matter of fact he does. But to me it sounds like what you would hear if you sat down with a friend, or someone who was explaining things from the ground up, and that is what this book is about. So it don't really bother me that much.
What does bother me are the following. First not every exercise it on the CD, and what is on the CD is at performance speed. There is no slow & fast demos of the exercises. Second, Mark goes off on his own "improvising" that stray from the TAB in someplaces. Not real bad, I am talking about adding a note here and there, not changing a whole passage. But still for a beginner, which is what this book is aimed at, it would throw them off. And third, his guitar is out of tune on about 1/4 of the demonstrations, and that is kind of distracting.
But even with that, I will recommend this book to those who are just starting out learning Fingerstyle guitar, especially if they like the Blues. Find it with the CD or Tape, and get the Blues! But the Mark Hanson book "The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking" would still be my first choice for people who want a more rounded approach to Fingerstyle playing
Great Materials for Learning Fingerstyle Blues.......2006-08-11
The title 'Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar' does not mean the materials in the book are all elementary, or the materials are targeted for the absolute beginner. In fact, the tunes at the end are not at all 'beginner's tunes'. An experienced flatpicker will find this book a good place to start for learning fingerstyle blues guitar. Such a guitarist, with patience, should be able to start from the middle of the book, for a quick taste of the joy of playing this relatively simple and yet extremely expressive blues guitar style. Highly recommended.
Book Description
This book describes how understanding the structure of reality leads to the Theory of Everything Equation. The equation unifies the forces of nature and enables the merging of relativity with quantum theory. The book explains the big bang theory and everything else.
Customer Reviews:
The Real Deal.......2006-09-25
Although Mr. Wheatley is a little verbose in sections, his documentation of Zen Buddhistic Principles found throughout the disciplines of Mathematics, Physics, Theology, etc. forms a nice reference guide for anyone tuned into that wavelength. In particular, his explanation of how Godel's Theorem and Cantor's "Confusion" shed great light on the difference between GOD's Logic and Man's Logic should be a revelation to any undergraduate level math students who encounter these ideas for the first time. Curiously, Mr. Wheatley makes many misstatements about both Zen Buddhism Principles and the Bible, however. For example, by accepting the false biblical teaching of Original Sin, he misses the point that eating the proverbial apple gave Adam and Eve the ability to make Moral Discernments in fulfillment of GOD'S PERFECT PLAN. As proof, read Genesis 1 which states that Man and Woman were made in GOD's Image. Genesis 4 shows that Adam and Eve weren't the first humans on Earth at all, there were plenty of others by then. The allegorical meaning of the story of Eden, then, isn't that Adam and Eve were the first humans on Earth, but they were the first humans with the ability to make Moral Discernments (in GOD's Image). In fact, Moral Discernment is God's Unique Gift to Man, which is the basis of consciousness, not some Math Formula. But because the wages of the resulting, unavoidable sin are Death, many people foolishly try to return to Eden by: (1) living a sinless Life (2) by removing choice altogether by passing and enforcing strict Laws (3) by attempting to do away with Moral Discernment and the resulting consequences for our actions altogether by trying to remove Shame from Shameful actions. GOD is not some ethereal Man-In-Space, but is simply the Totality of all Real Things, The Set of All Real Sets. GOD's Love manifests itself from the amazing sub-atomic relationships that underly this magic Life all the way to the grandest of Macroscopic Scales, the Interconnected Totality itself. The Zen Buddhism connection can be found by simply superimposing the 0 symbol and the symbol for infinity (8 on its side) in Mr. Wheatley's supposedly "new" formulation that 1 = 0 x infinity. Superimposing them gives you the yin-yang symbol. A potential disadvantage of artificially separating the infinity from the zero, however, is that Mr. Wheatley is able to equate the entire expression to be equal to 1. This potentially might obscure the fact that the deepest meaning of the yin-yang symbol is that it is both 2 and 1 AT THE SAME TIME. His overall equation does preserve that important meaning by utilizing a single element on one side of the equation and two elements on the other side of his final TOE equation. This may be hard to see for some at first, however, which could potentially obscure the richest meaning of this beautiful symbol/equation. A much more GODLY TOE, in my opinion, comes from Euler, who discovered that e ^ (i * pi) - 1 = 0. When someone can explain that relationship, then they can say they know GOD.
A life changing experience??.......2005-06-13
This book is an easy read and does succeed in being somewhat thought-provoking. However, I am a little surprised at the awesome, "life changing" experience it apparently was for many of the readers. Wheatley's conclusions were interesting but nothing really new. All of his material should have passed through the mind of any thinking person without the aid of this book.
The reason I gave this book three stars is because he uses unneccessarily wordy ways of describing simple things. Also, the author and many other reviewers insist that Wheatley makes only one assumption. Wrong-his whole theory is one big assumption.
Overall though it was a very interesting and worthy book.
Should be Required Reading for everyone.......2004-06-26
This book will change your life. You will never think the same way you did before reading it.
I have a degree in chemistry and I think this book should be read by everyone in the sciences. Without a doubt, the best book I've ever read. Why and what are two of our best friends
A Very Important Book.......2004-01-26
I must preface my review by stating that I have never been so excited and moved by a book that I have wanted to contact the author. That is what I found myself doing upon reading this book. This book is just what its title says. The author does not "miss a beat" describing in great detail using practically every aspect of scientific knowledge from atomic structure through logic to quantum theory---we are even given a valuable explanation of Love. This text may be challenging to read for those unfamiliar with scientific terminology. And it can also be difficult for those with a science background, such as myself. However, for me it is well worth the work necessary to strive to understand the unfamiliar terminology. (I am continually learning from this book. I am presently on my third reread).
One of the author's main messages is "not" to believe anything without first verifying it with reality, as we know it. He calls it the "Personal Explanation Principle". He indicates that religions are just such belief systems that we as people "fall" victims of; because we do not verify the beliefs with the facts, as we know them, of reality. He gives a very detailed explanation of how the New Testament can be explored using his methodology.
The author methodically and meticulously walks us through his thought processes, which took 30 years to assimilate, of delineating the structure of reality and the nature of consciousness. Included in the "walk" are many of reality's phenomena made revelatory. An example of that, for me, would be the dual nature of light. It's particle/wave duality, which is explained as "functions". Also, when the author took me on the mental journey of "Setness" an exhilaration of the magnificence of life swelled up in me.
To me this is a very important book that should be read by all that are seekers of truth. It is for all those wanting to gain an understanding of the purpose for their existence, wanting to know where life is headed towards, and wanting to know who God is.
This book will enlighten and develop one's mind substantially. You will discover that this is our objective.
And yes, I contacted the author and he responded openly.
Illuminating!!!.......2002-12-30
This is a really great book. It combines philosophy and science in order to tackle a multitude of existential problems. The author's style of writing is fresh and alive, I recommend ths book to anyone interested in expanding the fronteirs of their understanding. Books I also liked are a Universe in an Nutshell by Steven Hawkings and Descent into Illusions by Paul Omeziri.
Book Description
This book is the essential new introduction to modern string theory, by one of the world's authorities on the subject. Concise, clearly presented, and up-to-date, String Theory in a Nutshell brings together the best understood and most important aspects of a theory that has been evolving since the early 1980s. A core model of physics that substitutes one-dimensional extended "strings" for zero-dimensional point-like particles (as in quantum field theory), string theory has been the leading candidate for a theory that would successfully unify all fundamental forces of nature, including gravity.
Starting with the basic definitions of the theory, Elias Kiritsis guides readers through classic and modern topics. In particular, he treats perturbative string theory and its Conformal Field Theory (CFT) tools in detail while also developing nonperturbative aspects and exploring the unity of string interactions. He presents recent topics including black holes, their microscopic entropy, and the AdS/CFT correspondence. He also describes matrix model tools for string theory. In all, the book contains nearly five hundred exercises for the graduate-level student, and works as a self-contained and detailed guide to the literature.
String Theory in a Nutshell is the staple one-volume reference on the subject not only for students and researchers of theoretical high-energy physics, but also for mathematicians and physicists specializing in theoretical cosmology and QCD.
Customer Reviews:
easy to use.......2007-04-04
So i have to admit one thing: i was lucky enough to go to kiritsis's lectures at ENS where he handed out some prepublication versions of this book but i havent read the final version.
That said, his lectures were infinitely more clear to me than my attempts at digesting polchinski which i always found took time enough to try my patience. I found the calculations here detailed enough to follow, and i find that research papers suddenly made sense after reading his stuff. The level is similar to that of D-branes by johnson.
Book Description
Has physics gone off in the wrong direction? Peter Woit presents the other side of the growing debate on string theory--arguing that it's not even science
At what point does theory depart the realm of testable hypothesis and come to resemble something like aesthetic speculation, or even theology? The legendary physicist Wolfgang Pauli had a phrase for such ideas: He would describe them as "not even wrong," meaning that they were so incomplete that they could not even be used to make predictions to compare with observations to see whether they were wrong or not.
In Peter Woit's view, superstring theory is just such an idea. In Not Even Wrong, he shows that what many physicists call superstring "theory" is not a theory at all. It makes no predictions, even wrong ones, and this very lack of falsifiability is what has allowed the subject to survive and flourish.
Not Even Wrong explains why the mathematical conditions for progress in physics are entirely absent from superstring theory today and shows that judgments about scientific statements, which should be based on the logical consistency of argument and experimental evidence, are instead based on the eminence of those claiming to know the truth.
In the face of many books from enthusiasts for string theory, this book presents the other side of the story.
Customer Reviews:
The Fall of Strings.......2007-10-06
String theorists have so far been unable to use their results to predict new experimental findings. This book and Smolin's 'The Trouble with Physics' both attempt to document this failure of string theory. Smolin's book is better, but a tougher read. But this book is not bad, and you may want to read them both.
Woit dissects "the only game in town".......2007-10-02
"The fundamental problem with string theory is that, as far as its central goal of unifying physics goes, over the last nearly 25 years it has not only not made any progress toward explaining anything about particle physics, but, quite the opposite. Everything that has been learned about string theory makes it more and more clear that the original hopes for getting unification this way were just misguided and can't work. The derivative here is the wrong sign." Peter Woit, posted on his weblog September 13, 2007.
Some readers may think that this book gets off to a painfully slow start, given the author's long telling of the history of particle physics, particularly as regards work done with particle accelerators/ colliders. But stay with it [it's worth it!]. Woit holds degrees from Harvard and Princeton (PhD, theoretical physics) and has taught both mathematics and physics at Columbia. He happily describes himself as a mathematician, in large part because that is indeed the career he has chosen but also in large part because he is obviously disgusted with the current state of theoretical physics--in so far as the superstring/ M-theory disciples of Witten have abandoned anything resembling orthodox science. Woit shows no hesitation in acknowledging Witten's great genius, but unlike most theorists of recent decades he is not interested in worshiping at Witten's feet, no matter what the cost. And Woit isn't just some disgruntled nay-saying spoilsport (I can't strictly judge the psychological state of someone I don't personally know, but he doesn't strike me in this way at all). His concern is that there are other prospects for a unified theory that have been summarily brushed aside by the popular mantra that "string theory is the only game in town." [Federal] research funding, positions of influence notably including department chairs, academic and research hirings, increasingly all have played what we are told (by string/brane theorists themselves) is "the only game in town." But after three decades of glowing hype, this "game"--superstrings/'M-theory'/'brane-world'--has failed to move forward. It has essentially demonstrated that it cannot move forward in any scientific sense.
"Superstring theory is to a large degree thought of by mainstream physicists as mathematics and by mainstream mathematicians as physics, with each group convinced that it makes no sense within their frame of reference but presumably does within someone else's." pg 204
Like so many other armchair theorists, I've read and enjoyed books like Greene's `Elegant Universe' and Hawking's glossy `Universe in a Nutshell'. But any astute reader has to notice that no real connection is made between what we are told are compellingly "beautiful mathematics" and the physical world we can examine, and, given a sound theory, even interrogate, to any degree at all. It is particularly instructive to consider strings/ brane-world from the critical perspective of pure mathematics, i.e., Woit's perspective in this volume. It seems that the abstract equations ARE strangely "beautiful" UNTIL the math must be patched to conform to a universe with precisely three large spatial dimensions; as soon as we are forced to manipulate the additional dimensions, the beauty of the mathematics begins to fade. That `beauty' has been fading for 20 years at this writing. Woit finds the equations of strings/branes to be growing uglier at every turn. After decades of contortion, strings/branes are ever becoming less beautiful than advertised. And, as Woit briefly explains with stark, non-glossy frankness, strings/branes are NOT the only game in town, or at least they shouldn't be.
Many mathematicians would cautiously agree that strings/branes make for interesting mathematics--if they can be divorced from physics. There may be sufficient cause to suggest, as some have, that strings/branes make for interesting theology as well. But are strings/branes SCIENCE? At this late date it seems that the answer is probably `no'.
"If someone could come up with a legitimate, distinctive, testable prediction of string theory that gave even the correct order of magnitude for some experimental result, that would be a huge breakthrough."
As I have suggested to anyone willing to listen, read Peter Woit's thought-provoking book, especially if you've read Greene, Hawking, and/or Susskind.
Right on the button.......2007-08-30
What can I say? Like Peter Woit, I am a recovering mathematician, and this book has given me hope. "Not Even Wrong" carries my highest recommendation, especially for those empirically-inclined investigators who have become demotivated by the crisis in science. One proviso, though - don't read it in isolation. Essential companions are Lee Smolin's "The Trouble with Physics", and my own impassioned plea "The Virtue of Heresy - Confessions of a Dissident Astronomer". The Virtue of Heresy: Confessions of a Dissident Astronomer
Hilton Ratcliffe
Astrophysicist
contains interesting information on physics as well as criticism of String Theory.......2007-07-11
As most people know Not Even Wrong is critical of String Theory. What I did not realize going into the book was the detail it delves into in describing events leading up to String Theory, especially events having to do with the Standard Model. I think the book is worth reading just for this information which spans half of the book. I don't know whether String Theory is right or not as I am not a physicist but I do believe that criticism is a healthy thing and that the author is clear in his criticism of String Theory. I would have wished for more information on other Unified Theories but he devotes only one chapter to this. I guess, as the author points out, there is only one game in town and it is String Theory.
A Good Proposal for Using Government Funds More Effectively.......2007-06-23
Woit's book will be very helpful to technical people who do not work daily in the field of physics but want to remain up to date on the progress of this field. Woit's conclusions and recommendations will be widely accepted. Interestingly, in my book review of Leonard Susskind's book on The Cosmic Landscape in December 2005, I said, "I hold hopes for physicists but not much for strings." I made this statement because the length of a string is divisible and cannot be modeled by a zero-point. So, string theory was completely wrong on day one.
Woit gave me a clear view of the histories of particle physics, strings, and the standard model. In Ch. 6, my mind became glued to the Yang-Mills theory and the new behavior named `asymptotic freedom.' This new behavior is consistent with other theories: (1) the infinite gap that separates a creator God from the universe; (2) the Riemann hypothesis on prime numbers; (3) the true atoms (Leibniz's monads); (4) Cantor's transfinite number; (5) and the origin of inertia of Bernard Haisch (see `The God Theory). So, Woit is right. It is time for physicists to return to basics and The Standard Model. But, they might also consider the reality of an active God.
Book Description
An accessible introduction to string theory, this book provides a detailed and self-contained demonstration of the main concepts involved. The first part deals with basic ideas, reviewing special relativity and electromagnetism while introducing the concept of extra dimensions. D-branes and the classical dynamics of relativistic strings are discussed next, and the quantization of open and closed bosonic strings in the light-cone gauge, along with a brief introduction to superstrings. The second part begins with a detailed study of D-branes followed by string thermodynamics. It discusses possible physical applications, and covers T-duality of open and closed strings, electromagnetic fields on D-branes, Born/Infeld electrodynamics, covariant string quantization and string interactions. Primarily aimed as a textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses, it will also be ideal for a wide range of scientists and mathematicians who are curious about string theory.
Customer Reviews:
An undergraduate's textbook.......2007-03-09
For any advanced undergraduate student in physics who is interested in string theory, this book is ideal. It starts off very easily, reviewing concepts of free point particle actions in special relativity and then gradually introduces classical strings, which are then quantised in the light-cone gauge. It doesn' get too technical, but it provides one with a good foundation in string theory's concepts. The topics are discussed very clearly, both in words and in formulae. At the end of the book, black holes are discussed very briefly (in connection with the Hagedoorn temperature) in an easy way, covariant quantisation (as an "improvement" on the light-cone gauge, which does not preserve Lorentz invariance all the way through), and D-branes.
This book is intended for advanced undergraduates, but for those who find beginning graduate courses in string theory too complicated at the outset, buy this one, read it and you'll probably understand more of the classics by Polchinski or Green/Schwarz/Witten. Those who have a solid knowledge of QFT might go passed this book, but it might be a good back-up for what more standard textbooks might call "trivial calculations".
The long way to learning string theory.......2007-03-08
Until chapter 10, the book is a pleasure to read. It is very systematic, everything is explained in great detail, and the different concepts are very clear and well exposed. The author succeeds in turning a rather obscure scientific topic into an exciting adventure. If I should judge the book only for this first part, I would give it 5 stars. In fact the book is misleading since when you start reading, you get the illusion string theory can be made accessible even for beginners with an average background.
However, this illusion is in vain since the panorama changes dramatically in chapter 10, where the author enters directly into quantum field theory, without any further preparation. An this is the real problem, because the author who developed from the ground up the classical approach to strings mechanics, takes for granted the reader is highly knowledged in quantum mechanics. In spite of his efforts to introduce the subject in successive approximations, all is in vain because the subject is too intricate. The book is not any more systematic for readers lacking adequate quantum theory background.
Certainly this is not a book for beginners. The book requires previous deep understanding of quantum mechanics. Beginners can still learn some interesting concepts from the first part of the book, but a complete reading would require deep study of less advanced quantum mechanics bibliography. That said, I must also point out if the level of the book is maintained in its second part, it may become a top ten for more advanced readers.
Hopelessly dated.......2007-01-27
In spite of being published only two years ago, this book does not make any mention of Professor Susskind's Landscape theory, the single most important advancement in string theory since anomaly cancellation was discovered. The book does a disservice to the students it is intended for, letting them think they understand string theory while depriving them of key mathematical and physical concepts, such as the Lanscape or Calabi Yau manifolds.
Satisfy curiosity but not envision advancement.......2006-11-10
I still think advanced physics needs advanced mathematics to explain and explore. With limited depth of mathematics in this book, even though lots of ideas can be expressed, the process is tedious. This introductory book can satisfy my curiosity but not enough to envision the potential study advancement.
Emanuel Degni.......2006-11-10
Top quality and well revised.
To emit my opinion I will have to complete the readings, but before that I am studying Quantum mechanics and Relativity
Book Description
The past decade has witnessed dramatic developments in the field of theoretical physics. This book is a comprehensive introduction to these recent developments. It contains a review of the Standard Model, covering non-perturbative topics, and a discussion of grand unified theories and magnetic monopoles. It introduces the basics of supersymmetry and its phenomenology, and includes dynamics, dynamical supersymmetry breaking, and electric-magnetic duality. The book then covers general relativity and the big bang theory, and the basic issues in inflationary cosmologies before discussing the spectra of known string theories and the features of their interactions. The book also includes brief introductions to technicolor, large extra dimensions, and the Randall-Sundrum theory of warped spaces. This will be of great interest to graduates and researchers in the fields of particle theory, string theory, astrophysics and cosmology. The book contains several problems, and password protected solutions will be available to lecturers at www.cambridge.org/9780521858410.
Customer Reviews:
Not a place to learn subject for first time.......2007-07-22
The book by Dine attempts to cover a huge assortment of topics. As a result, the detail needed to learn the subject is sorely lacking. If you don't know it already, it will be extremely difficult to learn the subject here for the first time.
In a lot of sections, the author writes down the relevant equations, but it would take a page or two of detail to explain how they arise, and that sort of detail is lacking, so you pretty much have to accept things on faith.
Further, the author switches metric half way through the book,
so the first half is not consistent with the second half. And as to the cover, there is no explanation of what that is in the text, except in the most remote terms. He mentions LHC in the first paragraph of Preface, and then the first paragraph of the epilogue, so to my mind the cover is mis-leading. He should have probably used some sort of string diagram.
Clear.......2007-06-30
Dine is that kind of guy who can explain complicated thing super clear.
If you are not a physicist, this book also has something for you: the introduction covers history not familiar with everyone, and I am sure some detail you can find nowhere in other textbook.
A wonderful book, beautiful stoies.
Fills a much needed gap in the literature........2007-01-23
This volume will serve as a Rosetta Stone for future historians trying to make sense of the pre-LHC era of speculative physics literature. The author has accomplished a heroic task, preserving these elegant yet soon to be forgotten theories for future generations.
Book Description
In his first book ever, the father of string theory reinvents our concept of the known universe and mans unique place within it. The beginning of the 21st century is a watershed in modern science, a time that will forever change our understanding of the universe, Leonard Susskind contends. Several decades ago, Susskind introduced the revolutionary concept of string theory to the world of physical science. In doing so, he inspired a generation of physicists who believed that the theory would uniquely predict the properties of our universe. Now, in his first book ever, Susskind argues that the very idea of such an elegant theory no longer suits our understanding of the universe, and that our narrow 20th-century view of a unique universe will have to give way to the much broader concept of a gigantic cosmic landscapea megaverse, pregnant with new possibilities. His other contributions to physics are too numerous to mention, but his recent victory in an argument with Stephen Hawking over the nature of black holes made headlines everywhere.
Customer Reviews:
The Problem With Math.......2007-09-26
Susskind, along with many other, such as Randall Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions makes a serious mistake in leaping to the conclusion that reality corresponds to his mathematical models. Along with other string theorists, they assume that if the math they use to build their models contains some number of additional dimensions, then the real world must contain those dimensions. I see this in much of the literature, including, for example Woit Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory And the Search for Unity in Physical Law who debunks string theory, but nevertheless seems to accept the idea that if the math contains extra dimensions, reality must also contain those extra dimensions. Susskind really goes off the deep end with this.
A mathematical model is just that - a model. It is the best math we can construct at this point in time to describe the reality we are trying to model. It is not the reality itself. If the string theorists are successful in constructing a model that includes six or seven tiny dimensions, that does not mean that those dimensions actually exist. All it means is that the best model we can currently construct has to include those dimensions in the math. We must remember that much more math will come along. Someday, we may have a math that describes the same reality without the additional dimensions.
That said, if the string theorists can make a prediction that absolutely, positively depends upon those extra dimensions and if that prediction is confirmed by experimental results, then they may have a case. So far, the string theorists have failed utterly to make such a prediction. Even here, a different math may come along. The night is young.
As good as it gets!.......2007-08-27
TCL is popular science writing of the first order: a fascinating, informative, and highly entertaining tour of what rate as some of the most abstruse theories ever conceived. In Susskind's own words (p. 348):
"My main purpose in wiriting this book is not primarily to convince the reader of my own point of view; scientific arguments are best fought on the pages of technical journals and the blackboards of seminar rooms. My purpose is to explain the struggle of ideas that is about to take front-and-center place in the mainstream of science so that ordinary readers can follow the ideas as they unfold and experience the drama and excitement that I feel."
I can heap no greater praise on Susskind than to say that TCL brilliantly achieves his purpose. It is one of the finest pieces of popular science writing that I have ever read. Somewhere in this book Susskind alludes to another book he hopes to write one day. Here's very much hoping he directs that (and other) future efforts to a non-specialist readership. It is very much to the benefit of science and the public when scientists translate their work for the edification of non-scientists. Kudos to Susskind for joining the ranks of the most able popularizers!
Plain English, finally!.......2007-05-07
Choice book, great theorist writes in plain English..I have read 3 times, always something new!
Why is there Something rather than Nothing?.......2007-01-30
Very illuminative book in understanding the present state of the relevant physics and cosmology.
Really, we have no need of intelligent design theory if progress in science goes on.
Although the book is full of analogies and slogans instead of formulas, it provides a good overview of physics and cosmology.
The book is written in a lively way and thought provoking with challenging concepts.
Not Convincing .......2007-01-21
I'm not a physicist, but I could say that my interest in science stemmed from my background as an Engineer in electronics. And no need to go over the scientific aspects mentioned in the book since others have done a good job. Yet, I was surprised at a scientist, or rather the father of the String Theory, and quite knowledgeable in Quantum Mechanics, would treat man as a separate being from the universe. When we say that the universe is fine tuned to suite us, who is "us"? Aren't we a part of this universe in quantum physics perspective? And although I liked his scientific analogy a great deal and I learned a lot, not to say that I completely understood it, but his Anthropic views and conclusions threw me off balance. I'm sure that he has much more explaining to do before he could come to this conclusion. But generally speaking; if you are interested in science of quantum physics, it is a page-turner and the writer's ability to bring the complexities of this field to a layman's lever was amazing. And one more thing; the title was misleading when the writer used the word "illusion" in juxtaposition with"intelligent de
20th Century
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory And the Search for Unity in Physical Law
The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design
Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes
