Fabric Of The Cosmos Epub Download Nook
The Big Bang theory—widely regarded as the leading explanation for the origin of the universe—posits that space and time sprang into being about 14 billion years ago in a hot, expanding fireball of nearly infinite density. Over the last three decades the theory has been repeatedly revised to address such issues as how galaxies and stars first formed and why the expansion of the universe is speeding up today. Furthermore, an explanation has yet to be found for what caused the Big Bang in the first place.
In Endless Universe, Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok, both distinguished theoretical physicists, present a bold new cosmology. Steinhardt and Turok “contend that what we think of as the moment of creation was simply part of an infinite cycle of titanic collisions between our universe and a parallel world” (Discover). They recount the remarkable developments in astronomy, particle physics, and superstring theory that form the basis for their groundbreaking “Cyclic Universe” theory. According to this theory, the Big Bang was not the beginning of time but the bridge to a past filled with endlessly repeating cycles of evolution, each accompanied by the creation of new matter and the formation of new galaxies, stars, and planets.
Endless Universe provides answers to longstanding problems with the Big Bang model, while offering a provocative new view of both the past and the future of the cosmos. It is a “theory that could solve the cosmic mystery” (USA Today).
- Crown/Archetype; May 2007
- ISBN: 9780385523110
- Read online, or download in secure ePub format
- Title: Endless Universe
- Author: Paul J. Steinhardt; Neil Turok
- Imprint: Broadway Books
Subject categories
As I was writing it, I almost had to keep space and time in check, as they so easily could have taken over. In The Fabric of the Cosmos, I let them have free reign-and space and time, with little effort, assumed the starring roles. Q: You make some mind-boggling statements about the nature of time.
- Religion and science agree on one thing: Beyond our perception lies a world very different from our own. This book, says Brian Greene, is about 'the men and women of science, who have peeled back layer after layer of the cosmic onion, enigma by enigma, and revealed a universe that is at once surprising, unfamiliar, exciting, elegant, and thoroughly unlike what anyone ever expected.'
- FABRIC OF COSMOS BOOK EPUB - PDF Collection Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain. A: Well, I wouldn't say that The Fabric of the Cosmos is a book on cosmology.
- Science > Astronomy
- Space Sciences > General > Astronomy; Periodicals
- Science > Astrophysics & Space Science
- Science > Cosmology
- Space Sciences > Cosmogony. Cosmology > Cyclic universe theory (Cosmology)
ISBNs
- 0385523114
- 9780385509640
- 9780385523110
In The Press
“Two brilliant theorists offer a true-to-life account of their quest to solve one of the deepest mysteries of the cosmos.”
—Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and President of the Royal Society, author of Before the Beginning
“Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok, two architects of modern cosmology, have written an accessible and engaging account of their exciting new theory of cosmic origins. Should their approach someday be confirmed, it would result in a major upheaval to our understanding of how everything—space, time, and matter—came to be.” —Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos
'For the past twenty years, the combination of the big bang theory plus inflation has offered cosmologists an unbeatable one-two knockout punch . . . But the standard model finally has a worthy challenger.'
—Robert Naeye, Mercury
“Perhaps you don’t believe in strings, or extra spatial dimensions, or D-branes, or that the universe’s accelerated expansion may someday reverse. But I urge you to suspend such views and read Steinhardt and Turok’s dramatic and very readable account of their cyclic model of the universe. It may well be closer to truth than you think!”
—Sir Roger Penrose, Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematical Physics at Oxford University, author of The Emperor’s New Mind and The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe
About The Author
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PAUL J. STEINHARDT is the Albert Einstein Professor in science and on the faculty of the departments of physics and astrophysical sciences at Princeton University.
NEIL TUROK holds the Chair of Mathematical Physics in the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics at Cambridge University.
Author:Brian Greene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science
ISBN: 9780307428530
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-17T23:00:00+00:00
Inflation and the Flatness Problem
A second problem addressed by inflationary cosmology has to do with the shape of space. In Chapter 8, we imposed the criterion of uniform spatial symmetry and found three ways in which the fabric of space can curve. Resorting to our two-dimensional visualizations, the possibilities are positive curvature (shaped like the surface of a ball), negative curvature (saddle-shaped), and zero curvature (shaped like an infinite flat tabletop or like a finite-sized video game screen). Since the early days of general relativity, physicists have realized that the total matter and energy in each volume of space—the matter/energy density—determine the curvature of space. If the matter/energy density is high, space will pull back on itself in the shape of a sphere; that is, there will be positive curvature. If the matter/energy density is low, space will flare outward like a saddle; that is, there will be negative curvature. Or, as mentioned in the last chapter, for a very special amount of matter/energy density—the critical density, equal to the mass of about five hydrogen atoms (about 10−23 grams) in each cubic meter—space will lie just between these two extremes, and will be perfectly flat: that is, there will be no curvature.
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Now for the puzzle.
The equations of general relativity, which underlie the standard big bang model, show that if the matter/energy density early on was exactly equal to the critical density, then it would stay equal to the critical density as space expanded.17 But if the matter/energy density was even slightly more or slightly less than the critical density, subsequent expansion would drive it enormously far from the critical density. Just to get a feel for the numbers, if at one second ATB, the universe was just shy of criticality, having 99.99 percent of the critical density, calculations show that by today its density would have been driven all the way down to .00000000001 of the critical density. It’s kind of like the situation faced by a mountain climber who is walking across a razor-thin ledge with a steep drop off on either side. If her step is right on the mark, she’ll make it across. But even a tiny misstep that’s just a little too far left or right will be amplified into a significantly different outcome. (And, at the risk of having one too many analogies, this feature of the standard big bang model also reminds me of the shower years ago in my college dorm: if you managed to set the knob perfectly, you could get a comfortable water temperature. But if you were off by the slightest bit, one way or the other, the water would be either scalding or freezing. Some students just stopped showering altogether.)
For decades, physicists have been attempting to measure the matter/ energy density in the universe. By the 1980s, although the measurements were far from complete, one thing was certain: the matter/energy density of the universe is not thousands and thousands of times smaller or larger than the critical density; equivalently, space is not substantially curved, either positively or negatively.
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