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The case is made that gravity is a necessary condition for a causal universe. The book is unique in the regard that the consequences of this machinery: Riemannian geometry and Penrose diagrams, thermal quantum fields, quantum non-equilibrium and more, are explained conveying the conceptual consequences while avoiding mathematical technicalities.
List of contents
- 1: Prologue
- 2: Gravity as the cradle of cause and effect
- 3: Quantum physics: the tranquillity of the Euclidean time circle
- 4: The measurement postulate: God is playing dice when cause yields effect
- 5: The quantum gravity mainstream versus my problem of time
- 6: Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index
About the author
Jan Zaanen obtained his PhD in physics at Groningen University in the Netherlands, 1986. He was subsequently employed at the Max-Planck-Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, then moved in 1990 to Bell laboratories, Murray Hill, USA as a long-term visitor of the theory group. He returned to Leiden University in the Netherlands in 1993 where he got appointed as full Professor in Theoretical Physics in 2000. He became well known for his various groundbreaking discoveries in this field, honored by a Spinoza ("Dutch Nobel") prize, a fellowship of the Dutch Royal Academy (KNAW) and visiting professorships at Stanford University, the Ecole Normale Superieur in Paris and the Solvay Institute in Brussels.
Summary
The case is made that gravity is a necessary condition for a causal universe. The book is unique in the regard that the consequences of this machinery: Riemannian geometry and Penrose diagrams, thermal quantum fields, quantum non-equilibrium and more, are explained conveying the conceptual consequences while avoiding mathematical technicalities.
Additional text
Zaanen has a wonderfully engaging writing style, and the reader is quickly drawn into his swirling orbit of ideas, intrigued, confused, enthralled, but never bored. … Zaanen's book is at its best presenting numerous topics in current theoretical physics research for a general audience, most of which have never really been presented in this manner before: Feynman path integrals, imaginary time, Riemannian geometry, general relativity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, unitarity, black holes.
