Reality is not what it seems : the journey to quantum gravity

Author

Carlo Rovelli

Call Number

• 530.143 R873 (CEN)

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Edition

First American edition.

Publication Information

New York : Riverhead Books, 2017.

Physical Description

280 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Summary

Traces how the human image of the world has changed throughout history, demonstrating the evolution of the idea of reality while touching on subjects ranging from the Higgs boson to quantum gravity.

Notes

Originally published in Italian under the title: La Realtà non è come ci appare.

English translation published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK.

Contents

• 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.