''The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen'' is a 2011 book by the theoretical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

s Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.

Overview

The book aims to provide an explanation of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

and its impact on the modern world that is accessible to a general reader. The authors say that "our goal in writing this book is to demystify quantum theory". Starting with the concepts of

wave–particle duality Wave–particle duality is the concept in quantum mechanics that every particle or quantum entity may be described as either a particle or a wave. It expresses the inability of the classical concepts "particle" or "wave" to fully describe the ...

and a non-technical description of the

path integral formulation The path integral formulation is a description in quantum mechanics that generalizes the action principle of classical mechanics. It replaces the classical notion of a single, unique classical trajectory for a system with a sum, or functional in ...

of quantum mechanics, the book explains the

uncertainty principle In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle (also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physic ...

, energy levels in atoms, the physics of semi-conductors and transistors, and the

Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions - excluding gravity) in the universe and classifying a ...

of particle physics. A more mathematical Epilogue discusses the role of quantum mechanics in models of stellar evolution, and derives the

Chandrasekhar limit The Chandrasekhar limit () is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The currently accepted value of the Chandrasekhar limit is about (). White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron degeneracy pressure, compared ...

for the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf.

References

*The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen, 2011, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw,
Review by Doug Johnstone
23 October 2011,

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8 January 2013, Science Niblets 2011 non-fiction books Popular physics books Cosmology books Allen Lane (imprint) books {{physical-cosmology-book-stub

Overview

See also

References