The Physical Basis of The Direction of Time
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Beschreibung
This book has been thoroughly revised to include important new results. At the same time it retains the features that make it a classic text on irreversibility, and one which clearly distinguishes the latter from those time asymmetries which may be compensated for by other asymmetries. The book investigates irreversible phenomena in classical, quantum and cosmological settings. In particular, this fourth edition contains a revised treatment of radiation damping as well as extended sections on dynamical maps, quantum entanglement and decoherence, arrows of time hidden in various interpretations of quantum theory, and the emergence of time in quantum gravity. Both physicists and philosophers of science who reviewed earlier editions considered this book a magnificent survey, a concise, technically sophisticated, up-to-date discussion of the subject, showing showing fine sensitivity to crucial conceptual subtleties.
The fourth edition contains again various revisions and updates throughout the whole book. There are many new comments, formulations and arguments, several new references, and three minor error corrections (regarding page 22, 112 and 146 of the third edition). This time I am grateful to David Atkinson (for a very useful discussion of radiation damping - Sect. 2. 3), to Larry Schulman (for comments on the problem of simultaneous arrows of time - Sect. 3. 1. 2), and to Paul Sheldon (for a discussion of the compatibility of closed time-like curves with quantum theory - Chap. 1). The most efficient help came from John Free, who carefully edited the whole fourth edition (not only for matters of English language). Heidelberg, April 2001 H. D. Zeh Preface to the Third Edition The third (1999) edition of the Direction of Time offered far more revisions and additions than the second one in 1992. During the seven years in between, several fields of research related to the arrow of time had shown remarkable progress. For example, decoherence proved to be the most ubiquitous man ifestation of the quantum arrow, while articles on various interpretations of quantum theory (many of them with inbuilt time-asymmetric dynamical aspects) can and do now regularly appear in reputed physics journals. There fore, most parts of Chap. 4 were completely rewritten and some new sections added, while the second part of Chap.
By now this book has become a classic frequently cited in the literature
The new edition is completely revised and in part now also takes care of the discussions going on in the community of philosophers of science
This book on the striking phenomenon of the asymmetry of natural phenomena with respect to time reversal presents some of the most important classes of physical processes characterizing the arrow of time, and strives to uncover its common cosmological root. In reviews this book has been unanimously praised by both physicists and philosophers of science. This thoroughly revised and enlarged third edition will be welcomed by both students and specialists.
Autor*in
H. Dieter Zeh
Themen in »The Physical Basis of The Direction of Time«
Gravity Interpretation Irreversibility Time Arrow Time Reversal coherence cosmology decoherence quantum gravity quantum theory science
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From the reviews of the fourth edition:
"An unusually clear introduction to the theory of time. It covers philosophy as well as physics, and is most up-to-date, with a thorough discussion of the consistent histories approach. The author covers all areas of physics, beginning with classical physics, relativity, thermodynamics and moving through quantum physics and ending with quantum cosmology. [...] the book is highly recommended." (Mathematical Reviews 2003a)
"This book is a thorough survey of what is known about irreversibility in physics. It investigates this topic in such fields as radiation, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, gravitation and quantum cosmology. … This book is certainly a concise, technically sophisticated and up-to-date discussion on the subject in various physical fields. It is also complete. … I can recommend this book for physicists interested in the subject … ." (Cl. Semay, Physicalia, Vol. 38 (2), 2002)
"This fourth edition of Zeh’s ‘The physical basis of the direction of time’ represents an almost new book. … 12 years after the first edition, the author not only incorporated further new results but totally rewrote several chapters. … Therefore, libraries should keep the older editions and incorporate this new edition." (Hans-Jürgen Schmidt, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 976, 2002)
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