rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: More than nothing
    sub title: a history of the vacuum in theoretical physics, 1925-1980
  name:
    name part: Wright, Aaron S.
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  genre: Electronic books.
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: enk
    date issued: 2024
    copyright date: 2024
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: remote
    extent: 1 online resource (425 pages)
  abstract: "This book is a history of how it came to be that our best physical theories of particles, gravity, and spacetime are theories of the vacuum, of empty space. Today, physicists calculate "vacuum expectation values," predict the influence of "vacuum fluctuations," and describe universes and black holes composed of dynamic, yet empty, spacetime. More than this, vacuum physics seems paradoxical. Physicists depict the vacuum as by turns placid and roiling; as a rippling sheet and a crashing sea. More than Nothing provides new interpretations of seminal advances in the history of relativistic quantum theory, including Paul Dirac's positron theory and Richard Feynman's and Julian Schwinger's Quantum Electrodynamics. It provides sustained analysis of understudied figures, including John Wheeler's geometrodynamics, Roger Penrose's diagrammatic methods, and Sidney Coleman's false vacuum. These studies analyze physicists' diverse interests. This reveals surprising connections between positron theory and mathematical beauty; between fluctuations and Marxian philosophy; between the psychology of "impossible objects" and drawings of black holes; and between symmetry breaking and science fiction. The development of the physics of the vacuum was inseparable from the development of aesthetics, art, psychology, fiction--from culture. By analyzing scientific practice--as documented in notes, correspondence, drawings, laboratory notebooks, and published material--this book shows that physicists chose to center the vacuum because of its utility. Over and again, theorists found the vacuum useful"--Publisher's description.
  table of contents: The Vacuum in Practice -- Paul Dirac's Seas and Bubbles -- Nascent Pairs and Virtual Possibilities -- Weisskopf, Schwinger, Feynman: Vacuum Loops and Fluctuations -- John Archibald Wheeler: Everything from Nothing -- Roger Penrose's Impossible Diagrams -- Sidney Coleman's False Vacuum -- Epilogue -- The Void.
  note: Aaron Sidney Wright.
  note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
  subject:
    topic: Vacuum
    topic: History
  subject:
    topic: Physics
    topic: Experiments
    topic: History
  subject:
    topic: Vide (Physique)
    topic: Histoire
  subject:
    topic: Physique
    topic: Expériences
    topic: Histoire
  subject:
    topic: Physics
  subject:
    topic: Science
  classification: QC166 .W75 2024
  classification: 533/.509
  classification: 533.5
  related item:
    title info:
      title: More than nothing
    name:
      name part: Wright, Aaron S.
    origin info:
      publisher: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2024]
    identifier: (OCoLC)1393301826
  identifier: 9780190062811
  identifier: 0190062819
  identifier: 9780190062835
  identifier: 0190062835
  identifier: 9780190062804
  identifier: http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login
  record info:
    record content source: EBLCP
    record creation date: 240224
    record change date: 20260319204535.1
    record identifier: in00005726878
    language of cataloging:
      language term: eng