Conceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories [Hardcover]

Tian Yu Cao (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0521431786 | ISBN-13: 978-0521431781

This volume provides a broad synthesis of conceptual developments of twentieth century field theories, from the general theory of relativity to quantum field theory and gauge theory. The book traces the foundations and evolution of these theories within a historio-critical context. Theoretical physicists and students of theoretical physics will find this a valuable account of the foundational problems of their discipline that will help them understand the internal logic and dynamics of theoretical physics. It will also provide professional historians and philosophers of science, particularly philosophers of physics, with a conceptual basis for further historical, cultural and sociological analysis of the theories discussed. Finally, the scientifically qualified general reader will find in this book a deeper analysis of contemporary conceptions of the physical world than can be found in popular accounts of the subject.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a work of remarkable scope that integrates physics with the history and philosophy of science without being superficial in any of these diverse disciplines. It surely stands alone as a unique intellectual undertaking...an informative and rewarding intellectual experience." James T. Cushing, Physics Today

"Tian Yu Cao has written a very unusual book, very informative and yet challenging to some conventional ideas..." Lauri M. Brown, American Journal of Physics

"The book is studded with gems....it ought to be required reading for every student of relativity, certainly for every teacher of the subject." Arthur Fine, Science

"...a deep and masterly overview of the conceptual foundations of field theories." Helge Kragh, Isis

"...built around the tacit premise that there exists one canon of important physics papers, each with its own correct interpretation....Cao stands poised now to right us in our quest." Historical Studies in the Physics and Biological Sciences

Book Description

The purpose of this book is to give a broad synthesis of 20th century field theories, from the general theory of relativity to quantum, field theory and gauge theory. These theories are treated primarily as conceptual schemes, in terms of which our conceptions and integrated picture of the physical world are formed. The aim is to give a cogent historico-critical expostion of the conceptual foundations of the theories to reveal a pattern and direction to the evolution of these conceptions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 451 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521431786
• ISBN-13: 978-0521431781
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,536,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cao's volume on 20th Century Quantum Field Theories, March 28, 2000

By 

Osher Doctorow, Ph.D. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories (Paperback)

If you are not an expert in quantum field theory, or if you are such an expert, you should read this book from cover to cover about a dozen times at least. Cao of Boston University does for quantum theory what investigative reporters do for political or social/behavioral problems. As a renowned philosopher and quantum physicist, he gives the whole picture and nothing but the whole picture. It is even doubtful if many theoretical physicists know the whole story as it is elaborated by Cao. M. Jammer's 1974 volume gave the story of quantum mechanics and its philosophical basis from the beginning until 1974, and Cao continues this from 1974 until 1997. The astonishing changes in quantum theory from the mechanistic to the geometric to the field theory to the gauge field theory to the effective gauge field theory, as largely inspired by and created by Steven Weinberg (the Nobel Laureate), pass before you in these pages, together with the arguments with other physicists and the experimental and theoretical problems, anomalies, and philosophical difficulties. Einstein's field theory is shown to now be incorporated into quantum field theory, and we see Weinberg's final disgust with the problems that plague quantum field theory (even though he invented effective gauge quantum field theory, the latest theory) and his abandonment of field theory for string theory. Weinberg may have overstepped his intuition here, since string theory has difficult philosophical foundations as Cao points out, and in my opinion string theory is at most an approximation to reality. But Weinberg was probably correct in being fed up with quantum field theory and seeking some other direction, as he usually has been correct about everything else. The prolific roles of P. Dirac and P. Jordan, often overlooked, are well documented by Cao (Dirac seems to be at the Weinberg level of creativity and intuition, although he has gone in so many different directions that he even arouses the ire of Cao). The collapse of complementarity is thoroughly documented as well by Cao.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rewarding challenge for the serious layman like myself, August 24, 2001

By 

Autodidact Andy "IndiAndy" (Golden State California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories (Paperback)

Following is a quote from the Preface: "The book is written primarily for students of theoretical physics who are interested in the foundational problems of their discipline and are struggling to grasp the internal logic and dynamics of their subject from a historical perspective. But I have also done my best to make the text accessible to general readers with a basic scientific education who feel that their cultural curiosity concerning the contemporary conception of nature cannot be satisfied by popular writings." I qualify as the "general reader" in the audience he addresses above who, "'cannot be satisfied by popular writings."

If you've been following my collection of physics books which I post at my 'Shared Purchases' and 'Listmania Lists' portion ..., then you can see that I tend to ambitiously bite off more than I can chew in my choice of intellectual reading. As I admitted in my profile, I am a guy with not much more than half a brain and a driving passion to know what the hell is really going on in this Universe. I have been eagerly searching for a book that will challenge me to grow beyond my comfort level of popular yet slightly technical introductory treatments of physics (specifically Quantum Electrodynamics). Well, I FINALLY FOUND IT! This is a special discovery! As I hope you can tell, I am very excited about my latest exposure to Tian Yu Cao's "Conceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories". Cao's wonderful book serves as a didactic bridge across the gapping void we serious laymen come up against when we've finished pussy-footing around with popular-introductory Quantum Physics books and are driven to explore further than our formal education (or lack thereof) will allow when delving deeper into the daunting world of QM. I'm trying to come up to a level where I can get some appreciation and comprehension of the principles in Quantum Field Theories. For example, I ambitiously procured my own copies of "Inward Bound" by Pais, "The Odd Quantum" by Treiman, Schweber's "QED and the Men Who Made it - Dyson, Feynman, Schwinger, and Tomonaga", and Mehera's, "The Beat of a Different Drummer - the life and science of Richard Feynman". I look at these books and think, "QM looks so beautiful! I want to get a comprehensive grip on this stuff'" Hopeless without University level courses in technical mathematics and physics right? I'm not convinced, I suppose I'll find out sooner or later. As it is, I just keep at it. Day after day, I immerse myself in QM literature with a passion driven by my obsessive curiosity of Nature and what we know of her physical reality. Light, Atoms, Electromagnetic Waves, Matter, Particles, and Fields; these are the things I feel compelled to investigate'

Cao's book is another stepping stone in my self-directed journey of intellectual adventure. The pedagogy of the book is at a relatively safe and sane level for the explorer who is moderately courageous and not afraid to be uncertain about his/her competency in the learning curve. As I said, Cao's book bridges the terrible gap between the easy stuff (i.e. non-technical/popular/introductory/historical level) across the abyss towards the tougher stuff (i.e. technical/rigorously mathematical University level Introduction QFT textbooks). This is a very technical book for someone at my level but I believe that if you are somewhat like me (scary thought!) you can benefit from the book's pages when armed with a serious sense curiosity and a sincere desire to grasp deep & fundamental principles of Quantum Field Theory.

There are some scary looking mathematical formulas but if you're courageous you can breeze over them and let the copious qualitative text speak to your understanding. The only subjects in this book that I don't find of particularly immediate interest to me are his sections on General Relativity as I'm not a Gravity (field) enthusiast yet. I've skimmed over those sections and suspect that I'll be back later to visit it with more interest in the future.

Be sure to carefully read the what the other reviewers have to say about their opinions of this book, look at the book description and 'Table of Contents' link above. I suggest looking at some of the following books as a prerequisite to this book if you are anywhere near my level of intellect: "Strange Beauty" by Johnson, "The Force of Symmetry" by Icke, "The Quantum World" by Polkingthorne, "The Second Creation" by Crease & Mann, "The Quantum Universe" by Hey & Walters, "Why Things Are the Way They Are" by Chandrasekhar, "QED (The Strange Theory of Light and Matter)" by Feynman, "The Great Design (Particles, Fields, and Creation)" by Adair, "Paul Dirac (The Man and His Work)" by Pais, Jacob, Olive & Atiyah, "What Makes Nature Tick?" and also "Thinking About Physics" both by Roger Newton

I hope you will forgive my enthusiasm in this review if I seem overly zealous. I'm just a curious cat. ...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, October 25, 2002

By 

Arvan Harvat - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conceptual Developments of 20th Century Field Theories (Paperback)

Excellent (and virtually mathless, save for a few excurses) in-depth analysis of the way our physical thinking evolved. It covers thoroughly all conceptual signposts of the 20th century physics (stemming from distant past)- aether, space, time, space-time, field, gravitation, inertia, quantum concepts like quantization, anomalies and renormalizability. A gift of a bird's (better, eagle's) view for an undergraduate student (that's what you don't understand because you're busy solving the equations); a penetrating analysis for a patient layman (who can grasp circa 70% of the book). Highly recommended.