For many years Maxwell's equations were mute testimony to the Lorentz coordinate transformations of special relativity, but the significance of this transformation was not fully understood until relativity itself had been discovered. The author of this book claims that an oversight has once again occurred in fundamental physics. A direct link between Quantum Mechanics and Gravity - perhaps the biggest scientific enigma of all time - has been overlooked. In an entirely novel approach to Quantum-Gravity, this book suggests that Gravity is the manifestation of a very weak non-linearity in Quantum Mechanics; a non-linearity only apparent in the presence of large quantities of matter or very condensed wave functions. The reader will discover how this non-linearity is a natural consequence of a particular interpretation of the Quantum Equations. This book however, does not share the same genre of totalising theories that emphatically and triumphantly declare a new dawn. Instead its thesis can only present itself as a fascinating hypothesis submitted for consideration. Should the theory presented here prove its mettle, then it would provide the key to opening up new vistas of theoretical and experimental research, thus helping to clear the conceptual log jam in which contemporary fundamental physics finds itself.

This thesis is devoted to the systematic study of non-local theories that respect Lorentz invariance and are devoid of new, unphysical degrees of freedom. Such theories are attractive for phenomenological applications since they are mostly unconstrained by current experiments. Non-locality has played an increasingly important role in the physics of the last decades, appearing in effective actions in quantum field theory, and arising naturally in string theory and non-commutative geometry. It may even be a necessary ingredient for quantum theories of gravity. It is a feature of quantum entanglement, and may even solve the long-standing black hole information loss problem. “Non-locality” is a broad concept with many promising and fruitful applications in theoretical and mathematical physics. After a historical and pedagogical introduction into the concept of non-locality the author develops the notion of non-local Green functions to study various non-local weak-field problems in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, gravity, and quantum field theory in curved spacetime. This thesis fills a gap in the literature by providing a self-contained exploration of weak-field effects in non-local theories, thereby establishing a “non-local intuition” which may serve as a stepping stone for studies of the full, non-linear problem of non-locality.

This book describes a paradigm change in modern physics from the philosophy and mathematical expression of the quantum theory to those of general relativity. The approach applies to all domains - from elementary particles to cosmology. The change is from the positivistic views in which atomism, nondeterminism and measurement are fundamental, to a holistic view in realism, wherein matter - electrons, galaxies, - are correlated modes of a single continuum, the universe. A field that unifies electromagnetism, gravity and inertia is demonstrated explicitly, with new predictions, in terms of quaternion and spinor field equations in a curved spacetime. Quantum mechanics emerges as a linear, flatspace approximation for the equations of inertia in general relativity.

Complex Nonlinearity: Chaos, Phase Transitions, Topology Change and Path Integrals is a book about prediction & control of general nonlinear and chaotic dynamics of high-dimensional complex systems of various physical and non-physical nature and their underpinning geometro-topological change. The book starts with a textbook-like expose on nonlinear dynamics, attractors and chaos, both temporal and spatio-temporal, including modern techniques of chaos–control. Chapter 2 turns to the edge of chaos, in the form of phase transitions (equilibrium and non-equilibrium, oscillatory, fractal and noise-induced), as well as the related field of synergetics. While the natural stage for linear dynamics comprises of flat, Euclidean geometry (with the corresponding calculation tools from linear algebra and analysis), the natural stage for nonlinear dynamics is curved, Riemannian geometry (with the corresponding tools from nonlinear, tensor algebra and analysis). The extreme nonlinearity – chaos – corresponds to the topology change of this curved geometrical stage, usually called configuration manifold. Chapter 3 elaborates on geometry and topology change in relation with complex nonlinearity and chaos. Chapter 4 develops general nonlinear dynamics, continuous and discrete, deterministic and stochastic, in the unique form of path integrals and their action-amplitude formalism. This most natural framework for representing both phase transitions and topology change starts with Feynman’s sum over histories, to be quickly generalized into the sum over geometries and topologies. The last Chapter puts all the previously developed techniques together and presents the unified form of complex nonlinearity. Here we have chaos, phase transitions, geometrical dynamics and topology change, all working together in the form of path integrals. The objective of this book is to provide a serious reader with a serious scientific tool that will enable them to actually perform a competitive research in modern complex nonlinearity. It includes a comprehensive bibliography on the subject and a detailed index. Target readership includes all researchers and students of complex nonlinear systems (in physics, mathematics, engineering, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, economics, medicine, etc.), working both in industry/clinics and academia.

This is the first comprehensive presentation of the quantum non-linear sigma-models. The original papers consider in detail geometrical properties and renormalization of a generic non-linear sigma-model, illustrated by explicit multi-loop calculations in perturbation theory.

Over the past years the author has developed a quantum language going beyond the concepts used by Bohr and Heisenberg. The simple formal algebraic language is designed to be consistent with quantum theory. It differs from natural languages in its epistemology, modal structure, logical connections, and copulatives. Starting from ideas of John von Neumann and in part also as a response to his fundamental work, the author bases his approach on what one really observes when studying quantum processes. This way the new language can be seen as a clue to a deeper understanding of the concepts of quantum physics, at the same time avoiding those paradoxes which arise when using natural languages. The work is organized didactically: The reader learns in fairly concrete form about the language and its structure as well as about its use for physics.

The first comprehensive survey of (2+1)-dimensional quantum gravity - for graduate students and researchers.