The Landscape of Theoretical Physics: A Global View

From Point Particles to the Brane World and Beyond,
in Search of a Unifying Principle

NEW:  Full text of the book available   Pdf    Ps     gr-qc/0610061

Department of Theoretical Physics, J. Stefan Institute,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
 

FUNDAMENTAL THEORIES OF PHYSICS

This book attempts at providing a synthetic view of fundamental theoretical physics. It describes the ingredients which all will possibly have to be used in order to build a theory which will unify general relativity, quantum field theory and the known fundamental interactions. The books written so far have either considered a specialized topic in much detail, or they were too superficial and general. This book unites both approaches: it provides enough detail to start with, but it does not go too far in developing a particular special field. Instead it turns to another special field, and then shows how different fields are interrelated in a fascinating way. Many surprising new findings are revealed.

This is a book for anybody who would like to learn something about  various hot topics of contemporary theoretical physics. It discusses special and general relativity, quantum field theory, the elegant Fock-Schwinger-Stueckelberg proper time formalism, the powerful description of geometry by means of Clifford algebra, the fascinating tool the latter offers in formulating the existing physical theories and generalizing them in a natural and obvious way. Much stress is given to the theory of branes, and how a brane might represent our space-time. An elegant geometric description is provided in which a brane is considered as a point in an infinite dimensional space with metric.
 

Audience: This book will interest those who would like to fill their reservoirs of ideas and explore how the ``Theory of Everything'' could possibly be formulated. It will be of interest to researchers and students. The background in general relativity and quantum mechanics is recommended. The introductory sections, and especially Part IV:  Beyond the Horizon, need no such background knowledge;  they are intended to the readers who are interested in the conceptual and even ``philosophical'' questions.

NEW:  Full text of the book available   Pdf    Ps 

Table of Contents    Html

Preface   Html  Pdf Ps

Introduction  Html Pdf  Ps