The Infinity Puzzle : Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe
(2011)

Nonfiction

eBook

Provider: hoopla

Details

PUBLISHED
[United States] : Basic Books, 2011
Made available through hoopla
DESCRIPTION

1 online resource (464 pages)

ISBN/ISSN
9780465028030 MWT17472954, 0465028039 17472954
LANGUAGE
English
NOTES

Speculation is rife that by 2012 the elusive Higgs boson will be found at the Large Hadron Collider. If found, the Higgs boson would help explain why everything has mass. But there's more at stake, what we're really testing is our capacity to make the universe reasonable. Our best understanding of physics is predicated on something known as quantum field theory. Unfortunately, in its raw form, it doesn't make sense, its outputs are physically impossible infinite percentages when they should be something simpler, like the number 1. The kind of physics that the Higgs boson represents seeks to "renormalize" field theory, forcing equations to provide answers that match what we see in the real world. "The Infinity Puzzle" is the story of a wild idea on the road to acceptance. Only Close can tell it

Mode of access: World Wide Web

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