It is often claimed that Einstein's magnum opus---his 1915 theory of General Relativity---is distinguished from other theories of space and time in virtue of its background independence. It's also often claimed that background independence is an essential feature of any quantum theory of gravity. But are these claims true? This book aspires to offer definitive answers to both of these questions, by (a) charting the space of possible definitions of background independence, and (b) applying ...

The New York Times bestselling author of Darwin’s Doubt, Stephen Meyer,presents groundbreaking scientific evidence of the existence of God, based on breakthroughs in physics, cosmology, and biology.Beginning in the late 19th century, many intellectuals influenced by scientific materialism began to insist that scientific knowledge conflicts with traditional theistic belief—that science and belief in God are "at war." Philosopher of science Stephen ...

How can we determine what truly exists?Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the purpose of consciousness?If you've wrestled with life's deepest questions and found traditional answers wanting, The Objectivist's Guide to the Galaxy by Zoltan Cendes provides truth and clarity to the queries that have puzzled man for centuries.Inspired by Douglas Adams's whimsical The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this book...

During the past three decades, the development of nonlinear analysis, dynamical systems and their applications to science and engineering has stimulated renewed enthusiasm for the theory of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE).This useful book, which is based on the lecture notes of a well-received graduate course, emphasizes both theory and applications, taking numerous examples from physics and biology to illustrate the application of ODE theory and techniques.Written in a straightforwa...

Following a long-term international collaboration between leaders in cosmology and the philosophy of science, this volume addresses foundational questions at the limit of science across these disciplines, questions raised by observational and theoretical progress in modern cosmology. Space missions have mapped the Universe up to its early instants, opening up questions on what came before the Big Bang, the nature of space and time, and the quantum origin of the Universe. As the foundationa...

ESSAYS CollectionThe singularities from the general relativity resulting by solving Einstein's equations were and still are the subject of many scientific debates: Are there singularities in spacetime, or not? Big Bang was an initial singularity? If singularities exist, what is their ontology? Is the general theory of relativity a theory that has shown its limits in this case?In this essay I argue that there are singularities, and the general theory of relativity, as any oth...

Time decays form the basis of a multitude of important and interesting phenomena in quantum physics that range from spectral properties, resonances, return and approach to equilibrium, to quantum mixing, dynamical stability properties and irreversibility and the “arrow of time”.This monograph is devoted to a clear and precise, yet pedagogical account of the associated concepts and methods.

This book provides an introduction to noncommutative geometry and presents a number of its recent applications to particle physics. In the first part, we introduce the main concepts and techniques by studying finite noncommutative spaces, providing a “light” approach to noncommutative geometry. We then proceed with the general framework by defining and analyzing noncommutative spin manifolds and deriving some main results on them, such as the local index formula. In the second part, we sho...

The book introduces the basic notions in Symplectic and Contact Geometry at the level of the second year graduate student. It also contains many exercises, some of which are solved only in the last chapter.We begin with the linear theory, then give the definition of symplectic manifolds and some basic examples, review advanced calculus, discuss Hamiltonian systems, tour rapidly group and the basics of contact geometry, and solve problems in chapter 8. The material just described can be use...

This open access book offers a comprehensive introduction to spectral networks from a unified viewpoint that bridges geometry with the physics of supersymmetric gauge theories. It provides the foundational background needed to approach the frontiers of this rapidly evolving field, treating geometric and physical aspects in parallel. After surveying fundamental topics in algebra and geometry, a detailed introduction to higher-rank Teichmüller theory is developed, including Fock–Goncharov th...

Theoretical physics and foundations of physics have not made much progress in the last few decades. Whether we are talking about unifying general relativity and quantum field theory (quantum gravity), explaining so-called dark energy and dark matter (cosmology), or the interpretation and implications of quantum mechanics and relativity, there is no consensus in sight. In addition, both enterprises are deeply puzzled about various facets of time including above all, time as experienced. The...

There is a large gap between the engineering course in tensor algebra on the one hand and the treatment of linear transformations within classical linear algebra on the other hand. The aim of this modern textbook is to bridge this gap by means of the consequent and fundamental exposition. The book primarily addresses engineering students with some initial knowledge of matrix algebra. Thereby the mathematical formalism is applied as far as it is absolutely necessary. Numerous exercises are ...