The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.39 (766 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B007PIMVSO |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 173 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-04-28 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The Infinity Puzzle charts the birth and life of the idea, and the scientists, both household names and unsung heroes, who realized it. Even if the Higgs boson is never found, renormalization - the pursuit of an orderly universe - has led to one of the richest and most productive intellectual periods in human history. Many mysteries of the atom came unraveled, but one remained intractable: what Frank Close calls the "Infinity Puzzle". Based on numerous firsthand interviews and extensive research, the book captures an era of great mystery and greater discovery. The stakes were high, the questions were big, and there were Nobel Prizes and everlasting glory to be won. The second half of the 20th century witnessed a scientific gold rush as physicists raced to chart the inner workings of the atom. It has been a powerful approach, conquering three of the four fundamental forces of nature, and giving rise to the concept of the Higgs boson, the now much-sought particle that may be what gives structure to the universe. Although clearly very powerful, quantum field theory - the great achievement of the 1930s - was making one utterly ridiculous prediction: that certain events had an infinite probability of occurring. The problem was simple to describe. The solution is known as renormalization, which enables theory to match what we see in the real world. With a physicist's expertise and a historian's care, Close describes the personalities and the competition, the dead ends
The hunting of the infinities Ashutosh S. Jogalekar The theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) which describes the interaction of light and matter is the most accurate theory in all of science, providing almost unbelievably accurate agreement with experiment. Yet in the middle of the twentieth century the theory was in a deep crisis. Calculations of. The Nobel Puzzle I'm not a scientist so my comments are those of a layman. I found Dr. Close's book to be well-written and worth reading.The book takes as its focus the development of quantum mechanics into quantum electrodynamics, quantum chromodynamics and, what I hadn't encountered before, quantum flavordynamics.. Educational and Enjoyable Illuminatus Regardless of what one might like to conclude from the enthusiastic reviews quoted on the dust cover, the layman will learn nothing useful about quantum field theory from this book since that is quite impossible. What one will find is a complete and engagingly told tale of some of the most important