Covariant Physics: From Classical Mechanics to General Relativity and Beyond endeavours to provide undergraduate students as well as self-learners with training in the fundamentals of the modern theories of spacetime, most notably the general theory of relativity as well as physics in curved spacetime backgrounds in general. This text does so with the barest of mathematical preparation. In fact, very little beyond multivariable calculus and a bit of linear algebra is assumed. Throughout this textbook, the main theme tying the various topics is the so-called principle of covariance - a fundamental symmetry of physics that one rarely encounters in undergraduate texts. The material is introduced very gradually, starting with the simplest of high school mathematics, and moving through the more intense notions of tensor calculus, geometry, and differential forms with ease. Familiar notions from classical mechanics and electrodynamics are used to increase familiarity with the advanced mathematical ideas, and to emphasize the unity of all of physics under the single principle of covariance. The mathematical and physical techniques developed in this book should allow students to perform research in various fields of theoretical physics as early as their sophomore year in college. The language the reader will learn in this book is the foundational mathematical language of many modern branches of physics, and as such should allow them to read and generally understand many modern physics papers.

The classic account of the structure and evolution of the early universe from Nobel Prize-winning physicist P. J. E. Peebles An instant landmark on its publication, The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe remains the essential introduction to this vital area of research. Written by one of the world's most esteemed theoretical cosmologists, it provides an invaluable historical introduction to the subject, and an enduring overview of key methods, statistical measures, and techniques for dealing with cosmic evolution. With characteristic clarity and insight, P. J. E. Peebles focuses on the largest known structures-galaxy clusters-weighing the empirical evidence of the nature of clustering and the theories of how it evolves in an expanding universe. A must-have reference for students and researchers alike, this edition of The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe introduces a new generation of readers to a classic text in modern cosmology.

'Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet' How did it all begin? Is there a God? Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen Hawking expanded our understanding of the universe and unravelled some of its greatest mysteries. In How Did It All Begin? the world famous cosmologist and bestselling author of A Brief History of Time explores the fundamental questions of our existence. 'A brilliant mind' Daily Telegraph Brief Answers, Big Questions: this stunning paperback series offers electrifying essays from one of the greatest minds of our age, taken from the original text of the No. 1 bestselling Brief Answers to the Big Questions.

The study sets out to be both a history of the concept, self-preservation' in the Renaissance and to reconstruct the philosophy of Bernardino Telesio (1509-1588), the first to make this concept the central tenet of early modern nature philosophy and ethics. Telesio's thought is expounded in terms of the way it combines and enlarges on developments in Aristotelian philosophy and the medical thinking of Galen. The author further demonstrates how Telesio's, defensive modernization' became a catalyst for speculative philosophical developments in the late 16th century - Bruno, Patrizi, Stelliola, Campanella. Unlike the Cartesian conservatio sui tradition with its emphasis on 'perpetuation', the Renaissance idea of self-preservation revolves around sensualism, similarity and vibrant vitality.

This book looks at answers to the biggest questions in astronomy - the questions of how the planets, stars, galaxies and the universe were formed. Over the last decade, a revolution in observational astronomy has produced possible answers to three of these questions. This book describes this revolution. The one question for which we still do not have an answer is the question of the origin of the universe. In the final chapter, the author looks at the connection between science and philosophy and shows how new scientific results have laid the groundwork for the first serious scientific studies of the origin of the universe.

"Multiverse" cosmologies imagine our universe as just one of a vast number of others. While this idea has captivated philosophy, religion, and literature for millennia, it is now being considered as a scientific hypothesis-with different models emerging from cosmology, quantum mechanics, and string theory. Beginning with ancient Atomist and Stoic philosophies, Mary-Jane Rubenstein links contemporary models of the multiverse to their forerunners and explores the reasons for their recent appearance. One concerns the so-called fine-tuning of the universe: nature's constants are so delicately calibrated that it seems they have been set just right to allow life to emerge. For some thinkers, these "fine-tunings" are evidence of the existence of God; for others, however, and for most physicists, "God" is an insufficient scientific explanation. Hence the allure of the multiverse: if all possible worlds exist somewhere, then like monkeys hammering out Shakespeare, one universe is bound to be suitable for life. Of course, this hypothesis replaces God with an equally baffling article of faith: the existence of universes beyond, before, or after our own, eternally generated yet forever inaccessible to observation or experiment. In their very efforts to sidestep metaphysics, theoretical physicists propose multiverse scenarios that collide with it and even produce counter-theological narratives. Far from invalidating multiverse hypotheses, Rubenstein argues, this interdisciplinary collision actually secures their scientific viability. We may therefore be witnessing a radical reconfiguration of physics, philosophy, and religion in the modern turn to the multiverse.

What is time? The Janus Point offers a ground-breaking solution to one of the greatest mysteries in physics. For over a century, the greatest minds have sought to understand why time seems to flow in one direction, ever forward. In The Janus Point, Julian Barbour offers a radically new answer: it doesn't. At the heart of this book, Barbour provides a new vision of the Big Bang - the Janus Point - from which time flows in two directions, its currents driven by the expansion of the universe and the growth of order in the galaxies, planets and life itself. What emerges is not just a revolutionary new theory of time, but a hopeful argument about the destiny of our universe. 'Both a work of literature and a masterpiece of scientific thought' Lee Smolin, author of The Trouble with Physics 'Profound...original...accessible to anyone who has pondered the mysteries of space and time' Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal 'Takes on fundamental questions, offering a new perspective on how the Universe started and where it may be headed' Science Magazine

As the structures in our Universe are mapped out on ever larger scales, and with increasing detail, the use of inhomogeneous models is becoming an essential tool for analyzing and understanding them. This book reviews a number of important developments in the application of inhomogeneous solutions of Einstein's field equations to cosmology. It shows how inhomogeneous models can be employed to study the evolution of structures such as galaxy clusters and galaxies with central black holes, and to account for cosmological observations like supernovae dimming, the cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations or the dependence of the Hubble parameter on redshift within classical general relativity. Whatever `dark matter' and `dark energy' turn out to be, inhomogeneities exist on many scales and need to be investigated with all appropriate methods. This book is of great value to all astrophysicists and researchers working in cosmology, from graduate students to academic researchers.

In 2004 a rock star, a TV astronomer and a young research astronomer sat down to write the story of the Universe in the order in which it happened, from its birth at the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, through to its ultimate demise in the infinitely far future. The aim of this book is to explain the Big Bang and everything that followed in a way that made sense, in the strict order in which events occurred, and without using maths, so it would be understandable to everyone, regardless of educational background. The original edition of Bang! was a bestseller, and a go-to for anyone wanting to understand the story of the origins and evolution of our Universe that did not duck the science. Since the first edition, thousands of planets have been discovered, the 'habitable zone' has expanded and a flotilla of new satellites has explored our own solar system, bringing back fresh images and new science. In this book all the latest findings about the evolution of stars and galaxies are included, and the current thinking about our ultimate origins. The latest ideas about Dark Matter and Dark Energy are explained, all illustrated with new images from the world's largest telescopes and space missions. This is the new, updated, popular guide to 'Life, the Universe, and Everything' - The Complete History of the Universe.

The authors continue the book series entitled Contemporary Fundamental Physics. Edited by Professor Doctor V. V. Dvoeglazov from Universidad de Zacatecas, Mexico, this thematic issue Relativity, Gravitation, Cosmology: Beyond Foundations contains chapters related to contemporary problems of modern physics. This book includes an Editorial Introduction and eleven chapters, commentary, and several reprints. This book may also be considered as the continuation of past publications found in the authors own series concerning relativity. This issue includes contributions from M. Land, V. V. Varlamov, E. Kapuscik, I. A. Vernigora and Yu. G. Rudoy, E. M. Ovsiyuk, V. V. Kisel and V. M. Redkov, O. V. Veko, S. I. Kruglov, B. G. Sidharth, A. Gutierrez-Rodriguez, M. A. Hernandez-Ruiz and A. Gonzalez-Sanchez, and V. V. Dvoeglazov. Older research concerns quantum field theory and gravitation theories. Recent research has been presented at the XI Workshop (2015) and the X and XI Schools (2014 and 2016) of the Gravitation Division of the Sociedad Mexicana de Fisica. The book will be useful to researchers, professors, and students of physics and mathematics.

The meaning of "quark matter" is twofold: 1) It refers to compound states known as "subquarks" (the most fundamental constituents of matter), with quarks consisting of nuclear matter or "nucleons" (the constituents of the nucleus), and 2) compound states of quarks that consist of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks, and which may be absolutely stable. Recently, both types of quark matter have become very intriguing subjects in physics and astronomy since the recently discovered Higgs boson, which may be taken as a composite object (possibly, a bound state of subquark-antisubquark pairs). Additionally, many recently observed compact stars have been considered "strange stars" (stars consisting of quark matter). In this book, these subjects in physics and astronomy are discussed without requiring readers to comprehend mathematical details. This book consists of three chapters: Chapter One: "Quark Matter and Strange Stars", Chapter Two: "Composites of Subquarks as Quark Matter", and Chapter Three: "Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and Strange Stars". Their contents include the following: In Chapter One, quark matter and strange stars are discussed in detail. In Chapter Two, the unified subquark model of all fundamental particles (quarks, leptons, and gauge and Higgs bosons) and forces (strong, electromagnetic, weak, and gravitational forces) is discussed in detail. In Chapter Three, pregeometry, in which the general theory of relativity for gravity can be derived as an approximate theory at long distances, is briefly reviewed. Furthermore, special and general theories of "inconstancy" in pregeometry in which fundamental physical constants may vary are introduced. Finally, possible solutions to the most puzzling problem in current cosmology of dark energy and dark matter in the universe are presented. Between Chapters One and Two, pictures of Dr. Abdus Salam added, as Dr. Salam was one of the founders of subquark models. Also, between Chapters Two and Three, pictures of Dr. Andrei Sakharov are added, as Dr. Sakharov was the founder of pregeometry.

'Extraordinary' Leonard Susskind 'A rare event' Sean Carroll _____ When leading theoretical physicist Professor Michael Dine was asked where you could find an accessible and authoritative book that would teach you about the Big Bang, Dark Matter, the Higgs boson and the cutting edge of physics now, he had nothing he could recommend. So he wrote it himself. In This Way to the Universe, Dine takes us on a fascinating tour through the history of modern physics - from Newtonian mechanics to quantum, from particle to nuclear physics - delving into the wonders of our universe at its largest, smallest, and within our daily lives. If you are looking for the one book to help you understand physics, written in language anyone can follow, this is it. _____ 'A tour de force of literally all of fundamental physics' BBC Sky at Night magazine 'Everything you wanted to know about physics but were afraid to ask' Priyamvada Natarajan, author of Mapping the Heavens

The classic introduction to physical cosmology from Nobel Prize-winning physicist P. J. E. Peebles Principles of Physical Cosmology is the essential introduction to this critical area of modern physics, written by a leading pioneer who has shaped the course of the field for decades. P. J. E. Peebles provides an authoritative overview of the field, showing how observation has combined with theory to establish the science of physical cosmology. He presents the elements of physical cosmology, including the history of the discovery of the expanding universe; surveys the cosmological tests that measure the geometry of space-time, with a discussion of general relativity as the basis for these tests; and reviews the origin of galaxies and the large-scale structure of the universe. Now featuring Peebles's 2019 Nobel lecture, Principles of Physical Cosmology remains an indispensable reference for students and researchers alike.

Heart of Darkness describes the incredible saga of humankind's quest to unravel the deepest secrets of the universe. Over the past thirty years, scientists have learned that two little-understood components--dark matter and dark energy--comprise most of the known cosmos, explain the growth of all cosmic structure, and hold the key to the universe's fate. The story of how evidence for the so-called "Lambda-Cold Dark Matter" model of cosmology has been gathered by generations of scientists throughout the world is told here by one of the pioneers of the field, Jeremiah Ostriker, and his coauthor Simon Mitton. From humankind's early attempts to comprehend Earth's place in the solar system, to astronomers' exploration of the Milky Way galaxy and the realm of the nebulae beyond, to the detection of the primordial fluctuations of energy from which all subsequent structure developed, this book explains the physics and the history of how the current model of our universe arose and has passed every test hurled at it by the skeptics. Throughout this rich story, an essential theme is emphasized: how three aspects of rational inquiry--the application of direct measurement and observation, the introduction of mathematical modeling, and the requirement that hypotheses should be testable and verifiable--guide scientific progress and underpin our modern cosmological paradigm. This monumental puzzle is far from complete, however, as scientists confront the mysteries of the ultimate causes of cosmic structure formation and the real nature and origin of dark matter and dark energy.

This book discusses cosmology from both an observational and a strong theoretical perspective. The first part focuses on gravitation, notably the expansion of the universe and determination of cosmological parameters, before moving onto the main emphasis of the book, the physics of the early universe, and the connections between cosmological models and particle physics. The book provides links with particle physics and with investigations of the theories beyond the Standard Model, especially in connection to dark matter and matter-antimatter asymmetry puzzles. Readers will gain a comprehensive account of cosmology and the latest observational results, without requiring prior knowledge of relativistic theories, making the text ideal for students. Features: Provides a self-contained discussion of modern cosmology results without requiring any prior knowledge of relativistic theories, enabling students to learn the first rudiments needed for a rigorous comprehension of cosmological concepts Contains a timely discussion of the latest cosmological results, including those from WMAP and the Planck satellite, and discuss the cosmological applications of the Nobel Prize 2017 awarded discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO interferometer and the very high energy neutrinos discovered by the IceCube detector Includes original figures complementing mathematical derivations and accounting for the most important cosmological observations, in addition to a wide variety of problems with a full set of solutions discussed in detail in an accompanying solutions manual (available upon qualifying course adoption) To view the errata please visit the authors personal webpage.

Here is the essential companion to Welcome to the Universe, a New York Times bestseller that was inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course for non-science majors that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton. This problem book features more than one hundred problems and exercises used in the original course--ideal for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of the original material and to learn to think like an astrophysicist. Whether you're a student or teacher, citizen scientist or science enthusiast, your guided tour of the cosmos just got even more hands-on with Welcome to the Universe: The Problem Book. * The essential companion book to the acclaimed bestseller* Features the problems used in the original introductory astronomy course for non-science majors at Princeton University* Organized according to the structure of Welcome to the Universe, empowering readers to explore real astrophysical problems that are conceptually introduced in each chapter* Problems are designed to stimulate physical insight into the frontier of astrophysics* Problems develop quantitative skills, yet use math no more advanced than high school algebra* Problems are often multipart, building critical thinking and quantitative skills and developing readers' insight into what astrophysicists do* Ideal for course use--either in tandem with Welcome to the Universe or as a supplement to courses using standard astronomy textbooks--or self-study* Tested in the classroom over numerous semesters for more than a decade* Prefaced with a review of relevant concepts and equations* Full solutions and explanations are provided, allowing students and other readers to check their own understanding

#1 "NEW YORK TIMES" BESTSELLER
When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? Is the apparent "grand design" of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion--or does science offer another explanation? In this startling and lavishly illustrated book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about these and other abiding mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by brilliance and simplicity.
According to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence or history. The authors explain that we ourselves are the product of quantum fluctuations in the early universe, and show how quantum theory predicts the "multiverse"--the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. They conclude with a riveting assessment of M-theory, an explanation of the laws governing our universe that is currently the "only" viable candidate for a "theory of everything" the unified theory that Einstein was looking for, which, if confirmed, would represent the ultimate triumph of human reason.

The ideal gift for all amateur and seasoned astronomers. This is the ideal resource for beginners and experienced stargazers in the United States and Canada, and has been updated to include new and practical information covering events occurring in North America's night sky throughout 2024. This practical guide is both an easy introduction to astronomy and a useful reference for seasoned stargazers. Now includes a section on comets and a map of the moon. Designed specifically for North America. Written and illustrated by astronomical experts, Storm Dunlop and Wil Tirion, and approved by the astronomers of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Content includes: Advice on where to start looking. Easy-to-use star maps for each month with descriptions of what to see. Positions of the moon and visible planets. Details of objects and events in 2024. Now in three editions: Britain and Ireland; North America; Southern Hemisphere.