Not even wrong The failure of string theory and the continuing challenge to unify the laws of physics

Peter Woit

ISBN 10: 0224076051 / ISBN 13: 9780224076050

Published by Jonathan Cape, Regno Unito, 2006

About this Item

INGLESE Prima edizione. Rilegato editoriale in tutta tela, copertina rigida nera con titoli in bianco al solo dorso, perfettamente preservata da sovraccoperta patinata con alette illustrata a colori a tutta pagina su entrambi i piatti, con titoli su piatto e dorso ed impercettibili segni di usura. Tagli come nuovi, con velature di polvere al superiore. Legatura ben salda. Pagine come mai sfogliate, pulite e prive di segni particolari. Numero di pagine 290.

Seller Inventory # NCJ0280

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Not even wrong The failure of string theory and the continuing challenge to unify the laws of physics
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape, Regno Unito
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224076051
• ISBN 13: 9780224076050
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: I ED.
• Condition: OTTIMO USATO
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • NARRATIVA E SAGGISTICA

About this title

Synopsis

"Not Even Wrong" tells a fascinating and complex story about human beings and their attempts to come to grips with perhaps the most intellectually demanding puzzle there is: how does the world work at the most fundamental level and what is the role of mathematics in its description? The author's perspective on this story is unusual since he has worked in both leading physics and mathematics departments and holds very skeptical views about 'string theory', the subject that has dominated research in this field for the past twenty years. The book begins with an historical survey of the experimental and theoretical developments that led to the creation of the phenomenally successful so-called 'Standard Model' of particle physics around 1975. Despite its successes, the Standard Model does not answer all questions that one would expect it to address, and for the last thirty years physicists have been trying to come up with a better theory. What the remaining questions are is explained in detail, together with the history of attempts to answer them, including the spectacular new mathematics that has arisen from these efforts. Lacking guidance from new experimental results, physicists have followed the principle that one should be looking for more 'beautiful' theories, and here, Peter Woit considers what the role of beauty may be in mathematics and physics. In recent years string theorists have found that the theory seems to lead to an unimaginably large number of possibilities and may be inherently unable to make predictions. The author explains what physicist's hopes have been, why they haven't worked out, and what may be more promising directions for investigation. "Not Even Wrong" puts the reader in a position to follow this increasingly controversial story as it continues to develop in the years to come.

About the Author

Peter Woit is a physicist and mathematician who is currently a Lecturer in the Mathematics Department at Columbia University. He graduated in 1979 from Harvard University with bachelor's and master's degrees in physics, then went on to get a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Princeton University. He has been a postdoc at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook and at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley. Since 1989 he has been teaching at Columbia where in recent years he has taught graduate courses in quantum field theory, representation theory and differential geometry.