Authors:
- A unifying perspective on physics based on symmetry considerations
- An insightful reading on fundamental physics
- Written by the author of the book “Constrained Dynamics” which became a reference in the field
- With interesting remarks on the history of the subject
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Fundamental Theories of Physics (FTPH, volume 176)
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Over the course of the last century it has become clear that both elementary particle physics and relativity theories are based on the notion of symmetries. These symmetries become manifest in that the "laws of nature" are invariant under spacetime transformations and/or gauge transformations. The consequences of these symmetries were analyzed as early as in 1918 by Emmy Noether on the level of action functionals. Her work did not receive due recognition for nearly half a century, but can today be understood as a recurring theme in classical mechanics, electrodynamics and special relativity, Yang-Mills type quantum field theories, and in general relativity. As a matter of fact, as shown in this monograph, many aspects of physics can be derived solely from symmetry considerations. This substantiates the statement of E.P.Wigner "... if we knew all the laws of nature, or the ultimate Law of nature, the invariance properties of these laws would not furnish us new information." Thanks to Wigner we now also understand the implications of quantum physics and symmetry considerations: Poincare invariance dictates both the characteristic properties of particles (mass, spin, ...) and the wave equations of spin 0, 1/2, 1, ... objects. Further, the work of C.N.Yang and R.Mills reveals the consequences of internal symmetries as exemplified in the symmetry group of elementary particle physics. Given this pivotal role of symmetries it is thus not surprising that current research in fundamental physics is to a great degree motivated and inspired by considerations of symmetry.
The treatment of symmetries in this monograph ranges from classical physics to now well-established theories of fundamental interactions, to the latest research on unified theories and quantum gravity.
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Physics, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, Berlin, Germany
Kurt Sundermeyer
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Symmetries in Fundamental Physics
Authors: Kurt Sundermeyer
Series Title: Fundamental Theories of Physics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7642-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2014
Series ISSN: 0168-1222
Series E-ISSN: 2365-6425
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXVIII, 763
Number of Illustrations: 29 b/w illustrations
Topics: Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics, Elementary Particles, Quantum Field Theory, Phase Transitions and Multiphase Systems, Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory, Mathematical Physics