Division algebras : octonions, quaternions, complex numbers, and the algebraic design of physics

Bibliographic Information

Division algebras : octonions, quaternions, complex numbers, and the algebraic design of physics

by Geoffrey M. Dixon

(Mathematics and its applications, v. 290)

Kluwer Academic Publishers, c1994

Available at  / 34 libraries

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Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

I don't know who Gigerenzer is, but he wrote something very clever that I saw quoted in a popular glossy magazine: "Evolution has tuned the way we think to frequencies of co-occurances, as with the hunter who remembers the area where he has had the most success killing game." This sanguine thought explains my obsession with the division algebras. Every effort I have ever made to connect them to physics - to the design of reality - has succeeded, with my expectations often surpassed. Doubtless this strong statement is colored by a selective memory, but the kind of game I sought, and still seek, seems to frowst about this particular watering hole in droves. I settled down there some years ago and have never feIt like Ieaving. This book is about the beasts I selected for attention (if you will, to ren der this metaphor politically correct, let's say I was a nature photographer), and the kind of tools I had to develop to get the kind of shots Iwanted (the tools that I found there were for my taste overly abstract and theoretical). Half of thisbook is about these tools, and some applications thereof that should demonstrate their power. The rest is devoted to a demonstration of the intimate connection between the mathematics of the division algebras and the Standard Model of quarks and leptons with U(l) x SU(2) x SU(3) gauge fields, and the connection of this model to lO-dimensional spacetime implied by the mathematics.

Table of Contents

I. Underpinnings. II. Division Algebra Alone. III. Tensor Algebras. IV. Connecting to Physics. V. Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking. VI. 10 Dimensions. VII. Doorways. VIII. Corridors. Appendices. Bibliography. Index.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Related Books: 1-1 of 1

Details

  • NCID
    BA23049716
  • ISBN
    • 0792328906
  • LCCN
    94013948
  • Country Code
    ne
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Dordrecht ; Boston
  • Pages/Volumes
    x, 236 p.
  • Size
    25 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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