Acknowledgements |
Preface |
Are fashion, faith, or fantasy relevant to fundamental science? |
Fashion / 1: |
Mathematical elegance as a driving force / 1.1: |
Some fashionable physics of the past / 1.2: |
Particle-physics background to string theory / 1.3: |
The superposition principle in QFT / 1.4: |
The power of Feynman diagrams / 1.5: |
The original key ideas of string theory / 1.6: |
Time in Einstein's general relativity / 1.7: |
Weyl's gauge theory of electromagnetism / 1.8: |
Functional freedom in Kaluza-Klein and string models / 1.9: |
Quantum obstructions to functional freedom? / 1.10: |
Classical instability of higher-dimensional string theory / 1.11: |
The fashionable status of string theory / 1.12: |
M-theory / 1.13: |
Supersymmetry / 1.14: |
AdS/CFT / 1.15: |
Brane-worlds and the landscape / 1.16: |
Faith / 2: |
The quantum revelation / 2.1: |
Max Planck's E = hv / 2.2: |
The wave-particle paradox / 2.3: |
Quantum and classical levels: C, U, and R / 2.4: |
Wave function of a point-like particle / 2.5: |
Wave function of a photon / 2.6: |
Quantum linearity / 2.7: |
Quantum measurement / 2.8: |
The geometry of quantum spin / 2.9: |
Quantum entanglement and EPR effects / 2.10: |
Quantum functional freedom / 2.11: |
Quantum reality / 2.12: |
Objective quantum state reduction: a limit to the quantum faith? / 2.13: |
Fantasy / 3: |
The Big Bang and FLRW cosmologies / 3.1: |
Black holes and local irregularities / 3.2: |
The second law of thermodynamics / 3.3: |
The Big Bang paradox / 3.4: |
Horizons, comoving volumes, and conformal diagrams / 3.5: |
The phenomenal precision in the Big Bang / 3.6: |
Cosmological entropy? / 3.7: |
Vacuum energy / 3.8: |
Inflationary cosmology / 3.9: |
The anthropic principle / 3.10: |
Some more fantastical cosmologies / 3.11: |
A New Physics for the Universe? / 4: |
Twistor theory: an alternative to strings? / 4.1: |
Whither quantum foundations? / 4.2: |
Conformal crazy cosmology? / 4.3: |
A personal coda / 4.4: |
Mathematical Appendix / Appendix A: |
Iterated exponents / A.1: |
Functional freedom of fields / A.2: |
Vector spaces / A.3: |
Vector bases, coordinates, and duals / A.4: |
Mathematics of manifolds / A.5: |
Manifolds in physics / A.6: |
Bundles / A.7: |
Functional freedom via bundles / A.8: |
Complex numbers / A.9: |
Complex geometry / A.10: |
Harmonic analysis / A.11: |
References |
Index |
Acknowledgements |
Preface |
Are fashion, faith, or fantasy relevant to fundamental science? |