The Universe of Fluctuations: The Architecture of Spacetime and the Universe

ISBN-13: 9789048169658 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 194 str.

B. G. Sidharth

Opis

The failure of all attempts to unify gravitation with other fundamental interactions has lead to an abandonment of point particles and differentiable spacetime of General Relativity and Quantum Theory, including Quantum Field Theory. While Quantum Superstrings (or M-Theory) and other Quantum Gravity approaches work with a lattice like structure or extended objects, several unanswered questions remain.

The book describes another approach in which oscillators at the Planck scale from a background Quantum Vacuum are fundamental. We describe how this leads to the formation of the elementary particles, and also a cosmology that correctly predicted an accelerating Universe with a small cosmological constant, apart from other things.

In this context the nature of spacetime and gravitation are reexamined. While it is argued that spacetime has a chaotic underpinning on the one hand, gravitation has a distributional character on the other. It is shown how all these considerations are not only consistent but also explain several, otherwise unanswered features. Finally experimental tests for the near future are also discussed.

Spis treści

1: THE UNIFICATION PARADIGM. PREFACE. 1.1 Introduction. 1.2 Inertial Mass. 1.3 Enter General Relativity. 1.4 Further Considerations. 1.5 Prospect. 2: STANDARD MODELS OF PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY. 2.1 The Strong and Weak Interactions. 2.2 Gauge Fields. 2.3 Standard Cosmology. 3: DIFFERENT APPROACHES: QUANTUM SUPERSTRINGS AND QUANTUM GRAVITY. 3.1 String Theory. 3.2 Loop Quantum Gravity. 4: OTHER APPROACHES. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Quantum General Relativity. 4.3 Scale Relativity. 4.4 Cantorian Spacetime. 5: FUZZY SPACETIME AND THE PLANCK SCALE. 5.1 The Origins of Fuzzy Spacetime. 5.2 Further Considerations. 5.3 Quantum Geometry. 5.4 The Unification of Gravitation and Electromagnetism. 5.5 The Planck Scale. 5.6 The Universe as Planck Oscillators. 5.7 Modelling Fuzzy Spacetime as a Double Wiener Process. 5.8 Other Issues. 6: THE UNIVERSE OF FLUCTUATIONS. 6.1 The 'Old' Cosmology. 6.2 Dark Energy and Fluctuations. 6.3 Issues and Ramifications. 6.4 The Nature of Spacetime. 6.5 Further Considerations. 6.6 A Final Comment. 7: QUANTUM GEOMETRY. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 A Gauge like Formulation. 7.3 Gauge Fields. 7.4 Quantum Geometry. 8: HOW FUNDAMENTAL IS GRAVITATION? 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Interrelationships. 8.3 Comments. 8.4 Gravitation as Weak Electromagnetism. 9: THE ELUSIVE MASS SPECTRUM. 10: EXPERIMENTAL EFFECTS. 10.1 Introduction. 10.2 Modified Dispersion. 10.3 Particle Behaviour. 10.4 A New Short Range Force. 10.5 Gravitational Effects. 10.6 Bosons as Bound States of Fermions. 10.7 Can We Harness the Zero Point Field? 10.8 Retrospect. REFERENCES. INDEX

O autorze

B.G. Sidharth got his B.Sc. (Mathematics Honors), M.Sc. and PhD from Calcutta University. After working for several years in Quantum Scattering, Dr. Sidharth’s work entered on the fundamental problems facing Physics today. His 1997 papers, contrary to the ruling paradigm, predicted a dark energy driven accelerating Universe with a small cosmological constant. Remarkably, this was confirmed in 1998. His work deals with fuzzy spacetime and the unification of interactions and similar problems within this context. Besides a large number of research publications in international journals, Dr. Sidharth also authored and edited a number of books. In addition he has lectured widely in the United States, Canada, Europe and other places.

B.G. Sidharth is the founder-director of the B.M. Birla Science Centre, Hyderabad, India, and its constituent, the International Institute for Applicable Mathematics and Information Sciences, Hyderabad, and Udine, Italy. He was associated with the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, for many years having been a Senior Associate. Dr. Sidharth is on the Editorial / Advisory boards of international journals, institutes and award committees. Last but not least he played host to many Nobel Laureates and other physicists of World importance.