Signatures of the artist : the vital imperfections that make our universe habitable / Steven E. Vigdor
- Author:
- Vigdor, Steven E.
- Published:
- Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2018.
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource : illustrations (black and white, and colour)
Access Online
- Oxford scholarship online: ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: 1.Thank Heaven for Little Flaws -- 2.Where's the Antimatter Gone, Long Time Passing? -- 2.1.Conservation breakdowns -- 2.2.Strange new world -- 2.3.Of quantum minotaurs and other beasts -- 2.4.Searching for the bottom line -- 2.5.Reversing the arrow of time -- 2.6.Does neutrality hide internal divisions? -- 2.7.Raising the bar on measuring zero -- 2.8.Curiouser and curiouser -- 3.Trinity -- 3.1.Quarks mix -- 3.2.Adding the spice of a threesome -- 3.3.Room for more? -- 3.4.Neutrinos mix too -- 3.5.Going underground to see how the sun shines -- 3.6.Neutrinos from the atmosphere -- 3.7.Pinning down neutrino properties -- 3.8.Who's the lightweight? -- 3.9.The unbearable lightness of neutrinos -- 3.10.No neutrinos are better than two -- 3.11.Do neutrinos and antineutrinos mix differently? -- 3.12.Room for more neutrinos? -- 3.13.Symmetry where one least expects it -- 4.Water, Water, Here and There -- 4.1.Protons must die -- 4.2.Grand unified theories in the infant universe -- 4.3.Long live the proton -- 4.4.Random-walk roulette -- 4.5.Rigging the game -- 4.6.The tooth fairy alternative -- 4.7.Charting an early universe phase transition in microcosm -- 4.8.How did neutrons draw the short straw? -- 4.9.Weighing inseparable quarks -- 4.10.Generating the energy and the elements for life -- 5.Expansion Everlasting -- 5.1.Galaxies far, far away are getting further, further away -- 5.2.The cosmic stretch -- 5.3.Cosmic opera -- 5.4.The earliest elements -- 5.5.The telltale background glow -- 5.6.Mapping the early universe with microwaves -- 5.7.The cosmic stretch speeds up -- 5.8.The cosmic roller coaster -- 5.9.The energy budget of the universe, now and then -- 5.10.The Flat Cosmos Society -- 6.The Dark Side -- 6.1.Believing without seeing -- 6.2.In search of WIMPs -- 6.3."Dark Matter Lite"? -- 6.4.Einstein's biggest blunder? -- 6.5.Deeper, wider, faster -- 6.6.In the beginning -- 6.7.Modeling inflation -- 6.8.Ripples in the fabric of space-time -- 6.9.Fingerprinting inflation -- 6.10.Backgrounds, foregrounds, and philosophical dilemmas -- 7.Randomness and Complexity -- 7.1.Playing dice -- 7.2.Testing the paradox -- 7.3.Life by chance -- 7.4.Reaching biology -- 7.5.Iterative trial and error -- 7.6.Evidence for natural selection -- 7.7.Random sampling toward survival -- 7.8.Parallels -- 8.The Edge of the Abyss -- 8.1.Meta-stability -- 8.2.Big digs for Higgs -- 8.3.Unlikely doomsdays -- 8.4.Metaphysics -- 9.Lucky or Special? -- 9.1.The anthropic principle -- 9.2.The naked multiverse -- 9.3.Poppering the question.
- Summary:
- The quest to understand our universe, how it may have originated and evolved, and especially the conditions that allow it to support the existence of life forms, has been a central theme in religion for millennia and in science for centuries. In the past half-century, in particular, enormous progress in particle and nuclear physics and cosmology has clarified the essential role of imperfections - deviations from perfect symmetry or homogeneity or predictability - in establishing conditions that allow for structure in the universe that can support the development of life. The goal of this work is to review the recent and ongoing scientific research exploring these imperfections, in a broad-ranging, non-mathematical approach with an emphasis on the intricate tapestry of elegant experiments that bear on the conditions for habitability in our universe.
- Subject(s):
- ISBN:
- 9780191852954 (ebook)
- Audience Notes:
- Specialized.
- Note:
- This edition previously issued in print: 2018.
- Bibliography Note:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 28938099