The Universe of Fluctuations, 2005 The Architecture of Spacetime and the Universe Fundamental Theories of Physics Series, Vol. 147

This volume is a path-breaking work which proposes solutions to the impasse and crisis facing fundamental physics and cosmology. It describes a cosmological model based on fuzzy spacetime that has correctly predicted a dark-energy-driven acceleration of our expanding universe - with a small cosmological constant - at a time when the popular belief was quite the contrary. It describes how the Universe is made up of an underpinning of Planck oscillators in a Quantum Vacuum. This leads to, amongst other things, a characterization of gravitation as being distributional over the entire Universe, thereby providing an answer to a puzzle brought to light by Weinberg years ago and since overlooked. There is also a simple formula for the mass spectrum of all known elementary particles, based on QCD dynamics. Many other interesting ramifications and experimental tests for the future are also discussed. This apart, there is a brief survey of some of the existing theories. The book is accessible to junior and senior researchers in High Energy Physics and Cosmology as well as the serious graduate student in Physics.

1: THE UNIFICATION PARADIGM. PREFACE. 1.1 Introduction. 1.2 Inertial Mass. 1.3 Enter General Relativity. 1.4 Further Considerations. 1.5 Prospect. 2: STANDARD MODELS OF PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY. 2.1 The Strong and Weak Interactions. 2.2 Gauge Fields. 2.3 Standard Cosmology. 3: DIFFERENT APPROACHES: QUANTUM SUPERSTRINGS AND QUANTUM GRAVITY. 3.1 String Theory. 3.2 Loop Quantum Gravity. 4: OTHER APPROACHES. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Quantum General Relativity. 4.3 Scale Relativity. 4.4 Cantorian Spacetime. 5: FUZZY SPACETIME AND THE PLANCK SCALE. 5.1 The Origins of Fuzzy Spacetime. 5.2 Further Considerations. 5.3 Quantum Geometry. 5.4 The Unification of Gravitation and Electromagnetism. 5.5 The Planck Scale. 5.6 The Universe as Planck Oscillators. 5.7 Modelling Fuzzy Spacetime as a Double Wiener Process. 5.8 Other Issues. 6: THE UNIVERSE OF FLUCTUATIONS. 6.1 The 'Old' Cosmology. 6.2 Dark Energy and Fluctuations. 6.3 Issues and Ramifications. 6.4 The Nature of Spacetime. 6.5 Further Considerations. 6.6 A Final Comment. 7: QUANTUM GEOMETRY. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 A Gauge like Formulation. 7.3 Gauge Fields. 7.4 Quantum Geometry. 8: HOW FUNDAMENTAL IS GRAVITATION? 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Interrelationships. 8.3 Comments. 8.4 Gravitation as Weak Electromagnetism. 9: THE ELUSIVE MASS SPECTRUM. 10: EXPERIMENTAL EFFECTS. 10.1 Introduction. 10.2 Modified Dispersion. 10.3 Particle Behaviour. 10.4 A New Short Range Force. 10.5 Gravitational Effects. 10.6 Bosons as Bound States of Fermions. 10.7 Can We Harness the Zero Point Field? 10.8 Retrospect. REFERENCES. INDEX