The Future of Theoretical Physics and Cosmology

Volume to celebrate Stephen Hawking's sixtieth birthday, with contributions from the world's leading theoretical physicists.

Résumé
Based on lectures given in honour of Stephen Hawking's sixtieth birthday, this book contains contributions from some of the world's leading theoretical physicists. It brings to life Hawking's work, and provides a critical evaluation of advanced subjects in modern cosmology and theoretical physics.

Contenu

Preface; List of contributors; 1. Introduction; Part I. Popular Symposium: 2. Our complex cosmos and its future Martin J. Rees; 3. Theories of everything and Hawking's wave function of the Universe James B. Hartle; 4. The problem of space-time singularities: implications for quantum gravity? Roger Penrose; 5. Warping spacetime Kip Thorne; 6. 60 years in a nutshell Stephen W. Hawking; Part II. Spacetime Singularities: 7. Cosmological perturbations and singularities George F. R. Ellis; 8. The quantum physics of chronology protection Matt Visser; 9. Energy dominance and the Hawking-Ellis vacuum conservation theorem Brandon Carter; 10. On the instability of extra space dimensions Roger Penrose; Part III. Black Holes: 11. Black hole uniqueness and the inner horizon stability problem Werner Israel; 12. Black holes in the real universe and their prospects as probes of relativistic gravity Martin J. Rees; 13. Primordial black holes Bernard Carr; 14. Black hole pair creation Simon F. Ross; 15. Black holes as accelerators Steven Giddings; Part IV. Hawking Radiation: 16. Black holes and string theory Malcolm Perry; 17. M theory and black hole quantum mechanics Joe Polchinski; 18. Playing with black strings Gary Horowitz; 19. Twenty years of debate with Stephen Leonard Susskind; Part V. Quantum Gravity: 20. Euclidean quantum gravity: the view from 2002 Gary Gibbons; 21. Zeta functions, anomalies and stable branes Ian Moss; 22. Some reflections on the status of conventional quantum theory when applied to quantum gravity Chris Isham; 23. Quantum geometry and its ramifications Abhay Ashtekar; 24. Topology change in quantum gravity Fay Dowker; Part VI. M Theory and Beyond: 25. The past and future of string theory Edward Witten; 26. String theory David Gross; 27. A brief description of string theory Michael Green; 28. The story of M Paul Townsend; 29. Gauged supergravity and holographic field theory Nick Warner; 30. 57 varieties in a NUTshell Chris Pope; Part VII. de Sitter Space: 31. Adventures in de Sitter space Raphael Bousso; 32. de Sitter space in non-critical string theory Andrew Strominger; 33. Supergravity, M theory and cosmology Renata Kallosh; Part VIII. Quantum Cosmology: 34. The state of the universe James B. Hartle; 35. Quantum cosmology Don Page; 36. Quantum cosmology and eternal inflation A. Vilenkin; 37. Probability in the deterministic theory known as quantum mechanics Bryce de Witt; 38. The interpretation of quantum cosmology and the problem of time J. Halliwell; 39. What local supersymmetry can do for quantum cosmology Peter D'Eath; Part IX. Cosmology: 40. Inflation and cosmological perturbations Alan Guth; 41. The future of cosmology: observational and computational prospects Paul Shellard; 42. The ekpyrotic universe and its cyclic extension Neil Turok; 43. Inflationary theory versus the ekpyrotic/cyclic scenario Andrei Linde; 44. Brane (new) worlds Pierre Binetruy; 45. Publications of Stephen Hawking; Index.