An Introduction To Black Holes, Information And The String Theory Revolution: The Holographic Universe [Paperback]

Leonard Susskind (Author), James Lindesay (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9812561315 | ISBN-13: 978-9812561312 | Publication Date: December 23, 2004

Over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of Jacob Bekenstein s realization that black holes have entropy. Stephen Hawking raised profound issues concerning the loss of information in black hole evaporation and the consistency of quantum mechanics in a world with gravity. For two decades these questions puzzled theoretical physicists and eventually led to a revolution in the way we think about space, time, matter and information. This revolution has culminated in a remarkable principle called The Holographic Principle , which is now a major focus of attention in gravitational research, quantum field theory and elementary particle physics. Leonard Susskind, one of the co-inventors of the Holographic Principle as well as one of the founders of String theory, develops and explains these concepts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The authors, both established researchers, present a review of black hole physics in one of the simplest and most efficient ways ]] The book will be useful for students of physics and for everyone interested in understanding ways in which knowledge is generated theoretically. -- Mathematical Reviews "Mathematical Reviews"

About the Author

Leonard Susskind is Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University. He is the Recipient of the J J Sakurai Prize, the Pregel Prize, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Korean Institute for Advanced Study and Extraordinary Professor of Physics at the University of Stellenbosch. James Lindesay is Professor of Physics at Howard University. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company (December 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9812561315
• ISBN-13: 978-9812561312
• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 6 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Nuclear Physics > Atomic & Nuclear Physics
  • #44 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Mathematical Physics
  • #73 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Quantum Theory

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to understand - very simple, no-nonsense style., July 6, 2005

By 

Anonymous Coward (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Introduction To Black Holes, Information And The String Theory Revolution: The Holographic Universe (Paperback)

The title of the book reminds me of the classic physics question: yes, this equation can be expanded for small values of the parameter. But before you whip out that expansion, first tell me what "small" means in this context?

I would venture to say that the title of the book is a misnomer on some level. This is a technical book, there's no question about that. If you are not a physicist, you will not understand a single page. When I say "technical", what I specifically mean is you should have:

* A course on general relativity. The first page dumps the Schwarzschild metric on you. You should be familiar with, say, the Faraday tensor (which any decent GR or even SR course should cover).

* A course on quantum field theory. The book very quickly goes into the massless free Klein-Gordon equation in a Schwarzschild background. You should know the basics of string theory. After all, that's what the book is partially about!

* A course on thermo/statistical mechanics. The book delves into black hole entropy. Be prepared to blow the dust off your partition functions.

In that sense, this book is not an introduction, and is CERTAINLY not for the layperson. Now that I've disparaged this book enough, I'll tell you why this is a phenomenal book that deserves a place on your bookshelf (again, for certain values of "you").

This book is a gentle introduction to the classical and quantum mechanical principles of blackholes. It was beautifully written. It may very well be one of my favorite books. When I say "beautiful", I don't mean beautiful like Wald's classic but impenetrable book on GR. Imagine David Griffiths or Matt Visser writing a book for mid-level grad students going into high energy physics. They go deeply into the different coordinates used for blackhole spacetimes and Penrose diagrams, but in a hand-holding way that emphasizes knowing-by-visualization rather than knowing-by-calculation. Yes, the calculations are all there, but the authors are not content with that. They go into the nitty-gritty type of understanding that seems to be absent in most books on this subject.

Which brings me to the next point: diagrams. This book may contain more diagrams than any other comprable book I've seen (except for the behemoth called "Gravitation", but with the case of the telephone book, half the diagrams are wasteful; do we REALLY need to see a picture of firecracker's world line or yet another picture of Newton?). The diagrams are numerous and effective. Kudos. I wish more authors paid as much attention to visualization.

The authors took a very difficult subject and wrote an extremely accessible and well written book on it. If you are a student of high energy physics, or simply want to see someone masterfully write on the subject, this book deserves a place on your bookshelf. Again, for certain values of "you".

I'm still in the process of reading this book, but one fault I can find is that I wish the index was a bit more extensive. However, that's small-fry compared to what makes this book great.

55 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Define "Introduction", May 5, 2005

By 

B. Dwan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Introduction To Black Holes, Information And The String Theory Revolution: The Holographic Universe (Paperback)

If you're into reading about physics but don't have the maths to back it up, this isn't the book for you. This "introduction" is probably aimed at university physics students. I am without a university physics education and am finding the book almost as hard as reading a Japanese newspaper. As with reading a Japanese newspaper, the pictures help a lot. I don't feel I'm getting enough to "rate" the book, but I can warn others as innumerate as myself.

Update: I've made it ~halfway through. There's a great deal of uncertainty as to what I'm actually understanding as opposed to what I'm just filling-in with intuitive fictions. But I can live with that (as we all must at some point).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you want this book: buy the paperback, February 2, 2009

By 

J. Koelman (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Introduction to Black Holes, Information And The String Theory Revolution: The Holographic Universe (Hardcover)

If you are interested in black holes, but don't have a rock-solid math/physics background, this is NOT your book. Buy Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (Commonwealth Fund Book Program) instead.

If you are a physics student familiar with relativity theory and quantum mechanics, and interested in knowing more about the Bekenstein bound and the intriguing holographic principle, this is YOUR BOOK. However, save yourself some money and buy the paperback edition: An Introduction To Black Holes, Information And The String Theory Revolution: The Holographic Universe (I bought the hardcopy edition, but see below).

There is no other introductory text that goes as deep into holographic theories and entropy bounds as this one. Furthermore the book is well-written, contains clear illustrations, and appeals to the reader's intuition. Would be close to 5 stars, would my copy not have deintegrated (the binding quality is so poor that after some reading the hardcover gets detached from the pages). Hence the above advise to buy this book in paperback edition for well less than half the price.