1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910156238703321

Autore

Rovelli Carlo

Titolo

Reality Is Not What It Seems : The Journey to Quantum Gravity

Pubbl/distr/stampa

2017

East Rutherford : , : Penguin Publishing Group, , 2017

©2017

ISBN

9780735213944

0735213941

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (252 pages)

Classificazione

SCI033000SCI055000SCI057000

Altri autori (Persone)

CarnellSimon

SegreErica

Disciplina

530.14/3

Soggetti

Quantum gravity

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Grains ; Is there a limit to divisibility? ; The nature of things -- The classics ; Isaac and the little moon ; Michael: fields and light -- Albert ; The extended present ; The most beautiful of theories ; Mathematics or physics? ; The cosmos -- Quanta ; Albert again ; Niels, Werner, and Paul ; Fields and particles are the same thing ; Quanta 1: Information is finite ; Quanta 2: Indeterminacy ; Quanta 3: Reality is relation ; But do we really understand? -- Spacetime is quantum ; Matvei ; John ; The loop's first steps -- Quanta of space ; Spectra of volume and area ; Atoms of space ; Spin networks -- Time does not exist ; Time is not what we think it is ; The candle chandelier and the pulse ; Spacetime sushi  spinfoam ; What is the world made of? -- Beyond the big bang ; The master ; Quantum cosmology -- Empirical confirmations? ; Signals from nature ; A window onto quantum gravity -- Quantum black holes -- The end of infinity -- Information ; Thermal time ; Reality and information -- Mystery.

Sommario/riassunto

“The man who makes physics sexy . . . the scientist they’re calling the next Stephen Hawking.”  —  The Times Magazine  From the  New York Times –bestselling author of  Seven Brief Lessons on Physics ,  The Order of Time ,  Helgoland , and  Anaximander , a closer look at the mind-bending nature of the universe.  What are the elementary



ingredients of the world? Do time and space exist? And what exactly is reality? Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions. He tells us how our understanding of reality has changed over the centuries and how physicists think about the structure of the universe today.  In elegant and accessible prose, Rovelli takes us on a wondrous journey from Democritus to Albert Einstein, from Michael Faraday to gravitational waves, and from classical physics to his own work in quantum gravity. As he shows us how the idea of reality has evolved over time, Rovelli offers deeper explanations of the theories he introduced so concisely in  Seven Brief Lessons on Physics .  This book culminates in a lucid overview of quantum gravity, the field of research that explores the quantum nature of space and time, seeking to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. Rovelli invites us to imagine a marvelous world where space breaks up into tiny grains, time disappears at the smallest scales, and black holes are waiting to explode—a vast universe still largely undiscovered.