The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
Frank Close, "The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe"
English | ISBN: 0465021441 | 2011 | 448 pages | MOBI | 3 MB
English | ISBN: 0465021441 | 2011 | 448 pages | MOBI | 3 MB
Speculation is rife that by 2012 the elusive Higgs boson will be found at the Large Hadron Collider. If found, the Higgs boson would help explain why everything has mass. But theres more at stake—what were really testing is our capacity to make the universe reasonable. Our best understanding of physics is predicated on something known as quantum field theory. Unfortunately, in its raw form, it doesnt make sense—its outputs are physically impossible infinite percentages when they should be something simpler, like the number 1. The kind of physics that the Higgs boson represents seeks to “renormalize field theory, forcing equations to provide answers that match what we see in the real world. The Infinity Puzzle is the story of a wild idea on the road to acceptance. Only Close can tell it.