Feynman Lectures On Gravitation (Frontiers in Physics) [Hardcover]

Richard P. Feynman (Author), Fernando B. Morinigo (Author), William G. Wagner (Author), David Pines (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201627345 | ISBN-13: 978-0201627343 | Publication Date: August 13, 1995 | Edition: 1st

The Feynman Lectures on Gravitation are based on notes prepared during a course on gravitational physics that Richard Feynman taught at Caltech during the 1962-63 academic year. For several years prior to these lectures, Feynman thought long and hard about the fundamental problems in gravitational physics, yet he published very little. These lectures represent a useful record of his viewpoints and some of his insights into gravity and its application to cosmology, superstars, wormholes, and gravitational waves at that particular time. The lectures also contain a number of fascinating digressions and asides on the foundations of physics and other issues.Characteristically, Feynman took and untraditional non-geometric approach to gravitation and general relativity based on the underlying quantum aspects of gravity. Hence, these lectures contain a unique pedagogical account of the development of Einstein’s general relativity as the inevitable result of the demand for a self-consistent theory of a massless spin-2 field (the graviton) coupled to the energy-momentum tensor of matter. This approach also demonstrates the intimate and fundamental connection between gauge invariance and the Principle of Equivalence.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Pines is research professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has made pioneering contributions to an understanding of many-body problems in condensed matter and nuclear physics, and to theoretical astrophysics. Editor of Perseus’ Frontiers in Physics series and former editor of American Physical Society’s Reviews of Modern Physics, Dr. Pines is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Pines has received a number of awards, including the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for Contributions to Many-Body Theory; the P.A.M. Dirac Silver Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics; and the Friemann Prize in Condensed Matter Physics. David Pines is research professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has made pioneering contributions to an understanding of many-body problems in condensed matter and nuclear physics, and to theoretical astrophysics. Editor of Perseus’ Frontiers in Physics series and former editor of American Physical Society’s Reviews of Modern Physics, Dr. Pines is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Pines has received a number of awards, including the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for Contributions to Many-Body Theory; the P.A.M. Dirac Silver Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics; and the Friemann Prize in Condensed Matter Physics. David Pines is research professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has made pioneering contributions to an understanding of many-body problems in condensed matter and nuclear physics, and to theoretical astrophysics. Editor of Perseus’ Frontiers in Physics series and former editor of American Physical Society’s Reviews of Modern Physics, Dr. Pines is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Pines has received a number of awards, including the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal for Contributions to Many-Body Theory; the P.A.M. Dirac Silver Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics; and the Friemann Prize in Condensed Matter Physics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; 1st edition (August 13, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201627345
• ISBN-13: 978-0201627343
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #63 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Relativity

More About the Author

Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 and grew up in Far Rockaway, New York. At the age of seventeen he entered MIT and in 1939 went to Princeton, then to Los Alamos, where he joined in the effort to build the atomic bomb. Following World War II he joined the physics faculty at Cornell, then went on to Caltech in 1951, where he taught until his death in 1988. He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, and served with distinction on the Shuttle Commission in 1986. A commemorative stamp in his name was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars General relativity as a quantum gauge field theory., February 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Feynman Lectures On Gravitation (Frontiers in Physics) (Hardcover)

Feynman gave a series of lectures on gravitation at a graduate seminar at Caltech in 1962. The lectures were recorded and transcribed by Morinigo and Wagner. A very readable introduction on quantum gravity was added by the editor, Brian Hatfield (whose book on quantum field theory and strings, I also recommend.) This is the only book I've seen which develops GR from a quantum field theory point of view. Feynman's lectures show that the GR field equations result from the requirement of gauge invariance under Lorentz transformations for a massless spin-2 field (i.e graviton). This is a more fundamental approach than the usual differential geometric framework and shows what the equivalence principle really means in terms of fundamental symmetries. Highly recommended for a modern field theory viewpoint of GR.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, April 14, 2000

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"physics-r-us" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feynman Lectures On Gravitation (Frontiers in Physics) (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book which shows how a classical field theory like General Relativity can be derived from a quantum field theory. It also points out the extreme difficulty of accomplishing this in the case of gravity and ending up with a consistent, anomaly free theory.

Readers of this book will benefit from familiarity with both quantum field theory and relativity as well as a certain amount of mathematical sophistication. Don't be fooled by the similarity of title to other "Feynman Lectures on..." because this book is based on an upper level graduate physics course and assumes the background of a typical PhD student in physics.

Deep, complex and difficult going but well worth the effort to see the elegance of the connection between General Relativity and QFT.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brief review, June 12, 2008

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Giuseppe Genovese "Giuseppe" (Naples, Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feynman Lectures On Gravitation (Frontiers in Physics) (Paperback)

The original Feynman's point of view about world is always matter of greatest interest. He deeply investigate, as ever he did, the principles of gravitation theory and beyond.