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Textbook An Introduction To Geometrical Physics Second Edition Ruben Aldrovandi Ebook All Chapter PDF
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An Introduction to
Geometrical
Physics
Second Edition
World Scientific
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b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads
This book grew out of courses given at the Instituto de Fı́sica Teórica for
many years. As the title announces, it is intended as a first, elementary
approach to “Geometrical Physics” — to be understood as a chapter of
Mathematical Physics. Mathematical Physics is a moving subject, and has
moved faster in recent times. From the study of differential equations and
related special functions, it has migrated to the more qualitative realms
of topology and algebra. The bridge has been the framework of geometry.
The passage supposes an acquaintance with concepts and terms of a new
kind, to which this text is a tentative introduction.
In its technical uses, the word “geometry” has since long lost its metric
etymological meaning. It is the science of space, or better, of spaces. Thus,
the name should be understood as a study of those spaces which are of
interest in Physics. This emphasis on the notion of space has dominated
the choice of topics — they will have in common the use of “spaces”. Some
may seem less geometric than others, but a space is always endowed with
a few basic, irreducible properties enabling some kind of analysis, allowing
a discussion of relations between its different parts.
Up until the sixties, General Relativity was seen as the prototype of ge-
ometrical intrusion in Physics. Gravitation stood apart as the sole example
of geometrization amongst the fundamental interactions. Things changed
a lot with the discovery of the renormalizability of gauge theories, and with
their subsequent coming to age as the theories for all the other fundamental
interactions. At least as a general principle, the gauge principle appears
nowadays as a vast unifying idea. It came as an astonishing surprise that
gauge theories are still more geometrical in character and structure than
vii
viii An Introduction to Geometrical Physics
General Relativity.
Landau’s criterium, so well proven for Physics as for good wines, has
been loosely adopted: results less than ten years old in the field are given
only limited attention. It is true that some acceleration in new develop-
ments is easily felt, but it is always graceful to present some seemingly
objective alibi for the authors’ limitations. Let it be so, and let us, like
those real Bourgogne connoisseurs, leave some recent vintages to rest in
the shadows for some more time.
The text falls into five parts. Parts I, II and III constitute the main
text. Part IV is made up of mathematical topics and Part V of physical
topics. The main text is intended as an introductory, largely descriptive
presentation of the basic notions of geometry from a physicist’s point of
view. Pedagogically, it would provide for a first one-semester course. But it
is also a kind of guide to the topical chapters. It refers to Part IV for further
details, and uses Part V as a source of examples. The main text is divided
into chapters, these in sections and these in paragraphs. For instance,
“§4.2.5” means chapter 4 of the main text, section 2, paragraph 5. Calls
like ”§n” refer to a numbered paragraph of the same section. Paragraphs
with additional examples and complements, which can be skipped in a first
lecture, are printed in smaller characters. The topical chapters are simply
divided in sections. For instance, “Phys.7.5” means section 5 of the topical
chapter Phys.7.
The topical sections oscillate between the “fascicule des résultats” and
application-almost-exercise styles. The mathematical topics should not be
mistaken as anything more than a guide for further study. They are a
physicists’ presentation of mathematical subjects in broad brushstrokes,
intending to illustrate and complement the main text. The physical top-
ics are similarly introductory, always in a physicists’ view, trying never to
say twain for two, and avoiding as long as possible the gobbledygook the-
oreticians became prone to in recent times. It tries to present well known
subjects from a point of view which is more geometrical than the usual
treatments. Some general references are given at the end of each topic, the
footnotes being left for those of more immediate character.
Mathematics is, amongst many other things, the language of Physics.
Repetitions are unavoidable and, as with all language apprenticeship, they
Preface to the First Edition ix
1 Quelle vérité que ces montagnes bornent, qui est mensonge au monde qui se tient
au-delà?, Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book II, Chap.12, p. 241, Éditions du Seuil,
Paris, 1967 (first published in 1580). In a free English translation, it reads: What truth
is it that these mountains bound, and is a lie in the world beyond?
xi
xii An Introduction to Geometrical Physics
It seems clear by now that Special Relativity is unable to cope with the
very high energies of the Planck scale. Since General Relativity is umbili-
cally connected to Special Relativity through the equivalence principle, it
seems equally unable to deal with gravitation at that scale. In the opposite
scale of small energies, the behavior of the universe as we see it today cannot
be explained by our current theories without additional ingredients, either
in the form of new theories or in the form of new universe constituents,
usually labelled dark due to our ignorance about their nature.
We have endeavoured to bring forward some of these recent questions,
adding some new sections and chapters. Besides an introduction to the
present-day Cosmology Standard Model, we have included a chapter on
Teleparallel Gravity, an alternative theory for gravitation that is fully equiv-
alent to General Relativity in what concerns observed results, but exhibits
many conceptual differences with respect to it. One of the most important
is that, in contrast to General Relativity, it has the geometric structure of a
gauge theory. In another chapter, we have introduced the fundamentals of
a de Sitter-invariant special relativity. As widely known, ordinary Special
Relativity can be seen as a generalization of Galilei Relativity for velocities
comparable to the speed of light. Similarly, the de Sitter-invariant special
relativity can be seen as a generalization of Special Relativity for energies
comparable to those turning up at the Planck scale. It is, consequently,
universal in the sense that it is able to describe the spacetime kinemat-
ics at any energy scale. Some implications of this theory for gravitation
and cosmology are also briefly sketched. Of course, these theories are not
intended as a panacea for the current problems of Physics, but rather as
alternatives towards their solutions. It is important to have available for
handle and trial as many geometrical variant possibilities as possible. For
that reason also a brief account is given of the Einstein–Cartan theory. It is
an article of scientific faith that experiment and observation will someday
decide about their importance.
We are very grateful to all those many readers who have taken seriously
our first edition — and have communicated their doubts and criticism,
suggested improvements in content, style and presentation. We thank our
Preface to the Second Edition xiii
colleagues already named in the Preface of the first edition, who have all
kept their comprehensive support. We owe a lot to the financing Brazil-
ian agencies CNPq, FAPESP and CAPES, which have significantly aided
the authors. Of course, also to the many consulted authors, hopefully all
quoted in the reference list. And, last but not least, to the editors of World
Scientific, in special Lim Swee Cheng, Tan Rok Ting and Pan Suqi, for their
meticulous assistance and patience during the completion of the book.
b2530 International Strategic Relations and China’s National Security: World at the Crossroads
Part 1: MANIFOLDS 5
1. General Topology 7
1.1 Introductory remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 Topological spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3 Kinds of texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.4 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1.5 Quotients and groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2. Homology 59
2.1 Introductory remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2.2 Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.2.1 Graphs, first way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2.2.2 Graphs, second way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.3 The first topological invariants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
2.3.1 Simplexes, complexes and all that . . . . . . . . . 69
2.3.2 Topological numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
2.3.3 Final remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3. Homotopy 85
3.1 General homotopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
xv
xvi An Introduction to Geometrical Physics
8. Symmetries 277
8.1 Lie groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
8.2 Transformations on manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
8.3 Lie algebra of a Lie group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
8.4 The adjoint representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
References 773
Index 791
Chapter 1
General Topology
7
8 An Introduction to Geometrical Physics
explicitly endowed with any metric. Are we always using properties coming
from some implicit underlying notion of distance?
It is not possible to define open balls with this pseudo-metric, which allows
vanishing “distances” between distinct points on the light cone, and even
purely imaginary “distances”. If continuity, for example, depends upon the
previous introduction of balls, then when would a function be continuous
on Minkowski space?
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että ne ovat Haematopinus nimisiä — mutta lopputulos on vain
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