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If you've read Lightness of Being, which just came out, then you may see that the core ideas of the book are presented in Chapter 8. I'd be interested to read comment on the main ideas from other people who have read the book.
The book aims to communicate a new intuitive idea of what the world is made of---what the entity we call empty space consists of. A key notion is condensate.
For general reference see Physicsworld
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/22275
The revolution that has not stopped
also see wikipedia on various condensates, chiral symmetry-breaking cond. or more simply chiral cond.
Wilczek explains the idea of what he calls QQ condensate, quark-antiquark (I write underline Q for Q-bar which I can't write easily)
He imagines a composite of condensates, thinking of the vacuum as figuratively consisting of layers and he lists various layers each one a condensate, the QQ one, ..the Higgs one,.. a possible gravity one.
He says what he wants to get from the LHC (which many are not as definite about) and where there is a range of possibilities he indicates the range. He says how what he expects to come out of LHC fits into his paradigm of what the world is made of. What the vacuum is made of (matter fields are just excitations of the vacuum, or as he calls it the Grid.)
So far I haven't told you anything about what he actually says or how he describes these things. I'd like to get your reactions to the book, from people who have read it, and especially enlightening comment on Chapter 8
The book aims to communicate a new intuitive idea of what the world is made of---what the entity we call empty space consists of. A key notion is condensate.
For general reference see Physicsworld
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/22275
The revolution that has not stopped
also see wikipedia on various condensates, chiral symmetry-breaking cond. or more simply chiral cond.
Wilczek explains the idea of what he calls QQ condensate, quark-antiquark (I write underline Q for Q-bar which I can't write easily)
He imagines a composite of condensates, thinking of the vacuum as figuratively consisting of layers and he lists various layers each one a condensate, the QQ one, ..the Higgs one,.. a possible gravity one.
He says what he wants to get from the LHC (which many are not as definite about) and where there is a range of possibilities he indicates the range. He says how what he expects to come out of LHC fits into his paradigm of what the world is made of. What the vacuum is made of (matter fields are just excitations of the vacuum, or as he calls it the Grid.)
So far I haven't told you anything about what he actually says or how he describes these things. I'd like to get your reactions to the book, from people who have read it, and especially enlightening comment on Chapter 8
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