This book presents a comprehensive review of the subject of gravitational effects in quantum field theory. Although the treatment is general, special emphasis is given to the Hawking black hole evaporation effect, and to particle creation processes in the early universe. The last decade has witnessed a phenomenal growth in this subject. This is the first attempt to collect and unify the vast literature that has contributed to this development. All the major technical results are presented, and the theory is developed carefully from first principles. Here is everything that students or researchers will need to embark upon calculations involving quantum effects of gravity at the so-called one-loop approximation level.

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity leads to two remarkable predictions: first, that the ultimate destiny of many massive stars is to undergo gravitational collapse and to disappear from view, leaving behind a 'black hole' in space; and secondly, that there will exist singularities in space-time itself. These singularities are places where space-time begins or ends, and the presently known laws of physics break down. They will occur inside black holes, and in the past are what might be construed as the beginning of the universe. To show how these predictions arise, the authors discuss the General Theory of Relativity in the large. Starting with a precise formulation of the theory and an account of the necessary background of differential geometry, the significance of space-time curvature is discussed and the global properties of a number of exact solutions of Einstein's field equations are examined. The theory of the causal structure of a general space-time is developed, and is used to study black holes and to prove a number of theorems establishing the inevitability of singualarities under certain conditions. A discussion of the Cauchy problem for General Relativity is also included in this 1973 book.

This book, Structure of Space and the Submicroscopic Deterministic Concept of Physics, completely formalizes fundamental physics by showing that all space, which consists of objects and distances, arises from the same origin: manifold of sets. A continuously organized mathematical lattice of topological balls represents the primary substrate named the tessellattice. All fundamental particles arise as local fractal deformations of the tessellattice. The motion of such particulate balls through the tessellattice causes it to deform neighboring cells, which generates a cloud of a new kind of spatial excitations named ‘inertons’. Thus, so-called "hidden variables" introduced in the past by de Broglie, Bohm and Vigier have acquired a sense of real quasiparticles of space.This theory of space unambiguously answers such challenging issues as: what is mass, what is charge, what is a photon, what is the wave psi-function, what is a neutrino, what are the nuclear forces, and so on. The submicroscopic concept uncovers new peculiar properties of quantum systems, especially the dynamics of particles within a section equal to the particle’s de Broglie wavelength, which are fundamentally impossible for quantum mechanics. This concept, thoroughly discussed in the book, allows one to study complex problems in quantum optics and quantum electrodynamics in detail, to disclose an inner world of particle physics by exposing the structure of quarks and nucleons in real space, and to derive gravity as the transfer of local deformations of space by inertons which in turn completely solves the problems of dark matter and dark energy. Inertons have revealed themselves in a number of experiments carried out in condensed media, plasma, nuclear physics and astrophysics, which are described in this book together with prospects for future studies in both fundamental and applied physics.

Mosley's light-hearted, intriguing book does something seldom encountered in the literature of popular physics - indeed, of any physics - it proposes a new, credible model of the ultimate structure of reality. First off, you'll discover a rather unsettling list of things we don't know - we really don't know, for example, what time is, how gravity does what it does, whether quantum physics and relativity can ever be united, what dark matter and dark energy truly are, how all of creation will end, and where the Universe came from. Mosley then leads you on a tour of theoretical physics from the days of Kepler and Galileo through Einstein's relativity, Planck's impossibly small realm, and the weird Copenhagen interpretations of quantum theory, coming finally to our present struggles and impasse: fifteen profound questions at the heart of physics.In a Toad's mad romp through physical discovery and ideas, Mosley explains not only what folk were (and are) thinking, but how they got to thinking that way. And some of that thinking, partner, was (and is) plenty loopy.Then Mosley goes where few venture; he offers a new proposal based on the Planck-Einstein vacuum energy and harmonics at the smallest measure of space-time. This, says he, creates a simple geometry compatible with both quantum theory and relativity, uniting them. In two chapters entitled "How it all Works (a) and (b)," Mosley explains a mechanism for gravity, for dark matter's mysterious presence, for what time is and where time is, for why the universe simply may not be able to cease, and how - at the deepest level - nothing moves; nothing even exists. Enjoy Sidney Harris' cartoons, wry quips out of nowhere, asides from the Twilight Zone, and sudden plunges into the madness of speculative science where it's logically proven that you'll never die. This surprising book is a vital link between the geek brain and the funny bone. Yes, you'll encounter a counter-universe whale munching the domestic lampshades, but Mosley's "heuristic speculation" is serious. This thing stands a fair chance of being not even wrong. And you will have read it first, right here.

Steven French articulates and defends the bold claim that there are no objects in the world. He draws on metaphysics and philosophy of science to argue for structural realism—the position that we live in a world of structures—and defends a form of eliminativism about objects that sets laws and symmetry principles at the heart of ontology.

Multi-author volume on the history and philosophy of physics.