Book:Roger Penrose/The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe

Subject Matter

 * Physics

Contents

 * Preface
 * Acknowledgements
 * Notation
 * Prologue


 * 1 The roots of science
 * 2 An ancient theorem and a modern question
 * 3 Kinds of number in the physical world
 * 4 Magical complex numbers
 * 5 Geometry of logarithms, powers, and roots
 * 6 Real-number calculus
 * 7 Complex-number calculus
 * 8 Riemann surfaces and complex mappings
 * 9 Fourier decomposition and hyperfunctions
 * 10 Surfaces
 * 11 Hypercomplex numbers
 * 12 Manifolds of $n$ dimensions
 * 13 Symmetry groups
 * 14 Calculus on manifolds
 * 15 Fibre bundles and gauge connections
 * 16 The ladder of infinity
 * 17 Spacetime
 * 18 Minkowskian geometry
 * 19 The classical fields of Maxwell and Einstein
 * 20 Lagrangians and Hamiltonians
 * 21 The quantum particle
 * 22 Quantum algebra, geometry, and spin
 * 23 The entangled quantum world
 * 24 Dirac's electron and antiparticles
 * 25 The standard model of particle physics
 * 26 Quantum field theory
 * 27 The Big Bang and its thermodynamic legacy
 * 28 Speculative theories of the early universe
 * 29 The measurement paradox
 * 30 Gravity's role in quantum state reduction
 * 31 Supersymmetry, supra-dimensionality, and strings
 * 32 Einstein's narrower path; loop variables
 * 33 More radical perspectives; twistor theory
 * 34 Where lies the road to reality?


 * Epilogue
 * Bibliography
 * Index