Space landscape
Good time!
We have a new book by Leonard Susskind
As physicists penetrate deeper and deeper into the secrets of the universe, they are becoming more and more convinced that we are damn lucky that it is arranged this way and not otherwise. It should be at least an iota to change any of the physical constants, and the existence of life and the emergence of man in this universe will become impossible. Why is this so? Is there no manifestation of the rational plan of the unknown Creator, who specifically created just such a world in which we live? "No," Leonard Susskind argues, "intelligent design is an illusion." The paradigm prevailing in the XVIII – XX centuries, which required science to explain everything, replaced the new concept - the existence of an unimaginable cosmic landscape, a huge number of universes with an innumerable set of properties, and we live in one of them simply because could
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The beginning of the XXI century has become a watershed in modern science, says Susskind, this is the time that will forever change our understanding of the universe. And this fascinating book, which takes the reader to the forefront of the battles in modern physics, is the most vivid confirmation of this.
Without a doubt, we will never know the name of the first cosmologist, who looked into the sky and asked the questions: “What does all this mean? Where did it come from? What is my role in all this? ”We can only assume that it happened in prehistoric times, probably in Africa. The first cosmological models based on myths had nothing to do with today's scientific cosmology, but they were born out of the same human curiosity. It is not surprising that these myths told about the earth, water, sky and living beings. And of course, they appealed to the supernatural creator: how else can we explain the existence of such complex and intricate creatures like humans, not to mention the rain, the sun, edible animals and plants that seem to be created solely for our benefit?
In this book, I have condemned beauty, unambiguity, and elegance as deceptive mirages. The laws of physics are neither unique nor elegant. The world, or at least our part of it, is represented by the giant machine of Ruba Goldberg. But I have to admit that I myself also cannot resist the charm of unambiguity and elegance, like all my colleagues. I also want to believe that the main principle of all principles, which goes beyond the laws of any particular pocket universe, is unequivocal, elegant and surprisingly simple. But the results obtained by applying this principle need not be elegant. Quantum mechanics, dominant in the microscopic world of atoms, is very elegant, which is not the case with its subjects. Simple quantum mechanical laws lead to extremely complex laws of the behavior of molecules that make up liquids, gases and solids, giving rise to both weeds and roses. I think I could find the underlying principles of string theory elegant if I knew what they were.
I often joke that if the best theories are those that contain the minimum number of fundamental equations and postulates, string theory is by far the best of all - no one has yet found a single fundamental equation and has not managed to formulate a single postulate! String theory gives every reason to consider it a very elegant mathematical construction with the highest degree of self-consistency that any other physical theory would envy. But no one knows what its fundamental principles are. No one knows what its main "building blocks" are.
Building blocks are the simplest objects from which everything else is built. For a builder, these are bricks. The relationship between the building blocks and the objects made up of them is asymmetrically: it is possible to build a house of bricks, but only a patient of a psychiatric hospital with a severe perception disorder would decide to build bricks of houses.
Perhaps these are incorrect questions. The methods of string theory are more subtle. If we focus on a particular region of the Landscape, we find that everything here is built from a specific set of building blocks. Some regions of the Landscape may contain open and closed strings, in others all matter consists of D-branes, in the third elementary building objects are similar to ordinary quanta of force fields, gathered into strings, branes, black holes and many other things. In relation to all objects allocated to the class of fundamental, other objects of the theory behave as composite in the same sense in which atoms and molecules consist of electrons, protons and neutrons.
But as we move from one place of the Landscape to another, strange things begin to happen. Building blocks change roles with the objects built from them. Any particular composite object begins to behave simpler and simpler, as if it were an elementary building block. At the same time, an object that was previously a building block begins to exhibit behavior indicating the presence of a complex internal structure. The landscape turns into a fantastic landscape, into which the bricks and houses change roles as we move along it.
Leonard Susskind - American theoretical physicist, one of the founders of string theory, who now teaches at Stanford University.
He graduated from New York City College with a Master of Science degree in Physics in 1962, and received his Ph.D. in 1965 from Cornell University. Since 1979, Susskind is a professor of physics at Stanford University. In 1998, he was awarded the Sakurai Prize for innovative achievements in the field of hadron string models, lattice gauge theories, quantum chromodynamics, and dynamic symmetry breaking. Since 1999, Professor at the Korean Institute for Advanced Study.
Susskind made a significant contribution to the development of modern physics. Among his scientific achievements:
More information about the book can be found on the publisher's website.
Table of contents
Excerpt
A 25% discount is available for the book and the entire New Science series.
Coupon - Cosmic Landscape
We have a new book by Leonard Susskind
As physicists penetrate deeper and deeper into the secrets of the universe, they are becoming more and more convinced that we are damn lucky that it is arranged this way and not otherwise. It should be at least an iota to change any of the physical constants, and the existence of life and the emergence of man in this universe will become impossible. Why is this so? Is there no manifestation of the rational plan of the unknown Creator, who specifically created just such a world in which we live? "No," Leonard Susskind argues, "intelligent design is an illusion." The paradigm prevailing in the XVIII – XX centuries, which required science to explain everything, replaced the new concept - the existence of an unimaginable cosmic landscape, a huge number of universes with an innumerable set of properties, and we live in one of them simply because could
')
The beginning of the XXI century has become a watershed in modern science, says Susskind, this is the time that will forever change our understanding of the universe. And this fascinating book, which takes the reader to the forefront of the battles in modern physics, is the most vivid confirmation of this.
In the United States, jokes about how communist propaganda claimed that everything that was ever invented on earth were invented in Russia became common: radio, television, incandescent light bulbs, aircraft, abstract painting, and even baseball. However, in the field of physics, some of these jokes turned out to be true. Soviet physicists remained in isolation for so long from the rest of the scientific world that many of their extremely important discoveries remained unknown in the West, such as the remarkable hypothesis of the beginning of the expansion of the Universe.
Without a doubt, we will never know the name of the first cosmologist, who looked into the sky and asked the questions: “What does all this mean? Where did it come from? What is my role in all this? ”We can only assume that it happened in prehistoric times, probably in Africa. The first cosmological models based on myths had nothing to do with today's scientific cosmology, but they were born out of the same human curiosity. It is not surprising that these myths told about the earth, water, sky and living beings. And of course, they appealed to the supernatural creator: how else can we explain the existence of such complex and intricate creatures like humans, not to mention the rain, the sun, edible animals and plants that seem to be created solely for our benefit?
In this book, I have condemned beauty, unambiguity, and elegance as deceptive mirages. The laws of physics are neither unique nor elegant. The world, or at least our part of it, is represented by the giant machine of Ruba Goldberg. But I have to admit that I myself also cannot resist the charm of unambiguity and elegance, like all my colleagues. I also want to believe that the main principle of all principles, which goes beyond the laws of any particular pocket universe, is unequivocal, elegant and surprisingly simple. But the results obtained by applying this principle need not be elegant. Quantum mechanics, dominant in the microscopic world of atoms, is very elegant, which is not the case with its subjects. Simple quantum mechanical laws lead to extremely complex laws of the behavior of molecules that make up liquids, gases and solids, giving rise to both weeds and roses. I think I could find the underlying principles of string theory elegant if I knew what they were.
I often joke that if the best theories are those that contain the minimum number of fundamental equations and postulates, string theory is by far the best of all - no one has yet found a single fundamental equation and has not managed to formulate a single postulate! String theory gives every reason to consider it a very elegant mathematical construction with the highest degree of self-consistency that any other physical theory would envy. But no one knows what its fundamental principles are. No one knows what its main "building blocks" are.
Building blocks are the simplest objects from which everything else is built. For a builder, these are bricks. The relationship between the building blocks and the objects made up of them is asymmetrically: it is possible to build a house of bricks, but only a patient of a psychiatric hospital with a severe perception disorder would decide to build bricks of houses.
Today it is believed that ordinary matter consists of quarks and electrons. Both ordinary people and scientists often ask the question: “Do you think that the discovery of more and more elementary bricks will last forever or is there the smallest building block?” Nowadays, this question often takes the form: “Is there anything less than Planck length? ”or:“ Are the strings the most fundamental objects or are they composed of smaller parts? ”.
Perhaps these are incorrect questions. The methods of string theory are more subtle. If we focus on a particular region of the Landscape, we find that everything here is built from a specific set of building blocks. Some regions of the Landscape may contain open and closed strings, in others all matter consists of D-branes, in the third elementary building objects are similar to ordinary quanta of force fields, gathered into strings, branes, black holes and many other things. In relation to all objects allocated to the class of fundamental, other objects of the theory behave as composite in the same sense in which atoms and molecules consist of electrons, protons and neutrons.
But as we move from one place of the Landscape to another, strange things begin to happen. Building blocks change roles with the objects built from them. Any particular composite object begins to behave simpler and simpler, as if it were an elementary building block. At the same time, an object that was previously a building block begins to exhibit behavior indicating the presence of a complex internal structure. The landscape turns into a fantastic landscape, into which the bricks and houses change roles as we move along it.
About the author of the book
Leonard Susskind - American theoretical physicist, one of the founders of string theory, who now teaches at Stanford University.
He graduated from New York City College with a Master of Science degree in Physics in 1962, and received his Ph.D. in 1965 from Cornell University. Since 1979, Susskind is a professor of physics at Stanford University. In 1998, he was awarded the Sakurai Prize for innovative achievements in the field of hadron string models, lattice gauge theories, quantum chromodynamics, and dynamic symmetry breaking. Since 1999, Professor at the Korean Institute for Advanced Study.
Susskind made a significant contribution to the development of modern physics. Among his scientific achievements:
- an introduction to the hadron physics of a one-dimensional fundamental object - a string;
- contribution to the theory of quark confinement;
- development of gauge theory in terms of the Hamiltonian grid;
- contribution to the string description of black hole entropy;
- development of a matrix description of M-theory;
- contribution to the development of the holographic principle.
More information about the book can be found on the publisher's website.
Table of contents
Excerpt
A 25% discount is available for the book and the entire New Science series.
Coupon - Cosmic Landscape
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/254071/
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