Enjoy Our Universe

Description

Enjoy Our Universe is a guide for an enjoyable visit to the Universe. The "Universe" refers to all "observable things," ranging in size from the entire cosmos to elementary particles. This small tome on fundamental physics, cosmology, Higgs bosons, time travel and all that, is unlike any other analogous book. Its scientific statements are correct or, at least, they coincide with the opinions held by the vast majority of experts. It establishes clear distinctions between things we know for sure — in the sense of having strong observational support for them — and things that we know that we do not know, or we do not understand. In this sense, it is scientifically honest.

In descriptions of our Universe and of the way it functions, beauty is a recurring word. In an attempt to portray its beauty from the eyes of the beholder, the book is profusely illustrated. Its offbeat, tongue-in-cheek illustrations greatly enhance its readability, particularly in those chapters whose understanding, admittedly, requires a little extra effort. This book's idiosyncracies remind us of our own smallness and eccentricities even as we read about the logic, function and magnificence of the Universe.

About the author

Alvaro De Rújula was born in Madrid, where he studied physics and obtained his PhD. He has worked in Italy (International Institute of Theoretical Physics, Trieste), France (Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques), the USA (Harvard and Boston Universities) and CERN (in various positions, from Summer Student to leader of the Theory Division). He also is currently at the Instituto de Física Teórica of the Autonomous University of Madrid (IFT/UAM/CSIC). In the 1970's he contributed to the consolidation of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, mainly QCD and its charmed quarks. He has also worked on neutrinos (mass measurements and Earth tomography), the absence of antimatter in the Universe, how to discover the Higgs...

Table of contents

1:Preface
2:Physics as an art form
3:Science as a sport
4:The bothersome question of units
5:The scientific method
6:The three relativities
7:A first fast visit to the universe
8:More on the fundamental forces and their 'carriers'
9:Everything, so far
10:A parenthesis on quantum mechanics
11:Understanding relativity and quantum mechanics
12:Spin, statistics, supernovae, neutron stars and black holes
13:Parallel realms
14:A parenthesis on relativistic R2QFTs
15:The unification of forces
16:A parenthesis: Is basic science useful?
17:Back to twins
18:Some instruments of macro-physics
19:The discovery of gravitational wave emission
20:The direct detection of gravitational waves
21:Some instruments of micro-physics
22:The LHC and its detectors
23:The 'Higgs' boson, and its field in the 'vacuum'
24:Today's Standard Models of particles and gravity
25:The expansion of the Universe
26:Finding cosmic fossils
27:Where is the Cosmic Antimatter?
28:More on the Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR)
29:Problems with the 'old' Big Bang Cosmology
30:Inflation
31:Limitations and peculiarities of the fundamental interactions
32:The discreet symmetries of the fundamental interactions
33:Dark Matter
34:The origin of structures
35:The fate of the Universe
36:Back to the ether?
37:The crash
38:In spite of our admitted ignorance