Images of time : mind, science, reality /
George Jaroszkiewicz, the University of Nottingham, UK.
- First edition.
- xvi, 305 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-299) and index.
Introduction. Plan of this book -- What is time? -- Paradigms -- Events in time -- Temporal ordering and time labels -- The contextuality of temporal ordering -- Arrows of time -- Arrows versus cycles -- Observers and time. Introduction -- Metaphysics, physics, and validation -- Observers and the physical universe -- The contextuality of scientific truth -- Contextual completeness -- Time and contextuality -- The contextuality of the existential quantifier -- Primary observers -- experiments -- Heisenberg cuts -- Generalized propositions -- Subjective images of time. The Greeks -- The dogmatists -- The sceptics -- The Age of Reason -- The classical mechanists -- The metaphysicists -- The mathematical physicists -- Cultural images of time. Cosmogony and theogony -- Stone Age calendars -- The Mesopotamians -- The Middle East -- The Europeans -- Eastern philosophies -- Australian Aboriginal concepts of time -- The Central Americans -- The Far East -- Literary images of time. Introduction -- Literary varieties -- Objective images of time. Introduction -- Optics -- Other factors -- Time in the laboratory -- Laboratory frames and observer choruses -- Chorus protocol -- Superobservers -- Mathematical images of time. Introduction -- Some reasonable requirements -- Sets -- Temporal ordering and ordered sets -- Functions and the mathematical arrow of time -- Cardinality -- The natural numbers -- Linear continua -- Further concepts -- Illusionary images of time. The Block Universe -- Persistence and transtemporal identity -- The problem of time in cosmology -- Causal images of time. Introduction -- Causality -- Blame and responsibility -- Determinism and known unknowns -- Teleology -- Chaos -- Physics and time. Physics and persistence -- Scales of time -- Biological time. Introduction -- The solar model -- Lifetimes of organisms -- Chronobiology -- Biological time travel -- The dimensions of time. Introduction -- Partial differential equations and the flow of information -- The signature of spacetime -- Empirical studies -- The architecture of time. What is temporal architecture? -- Examples of temporal architectures -- Architectural levels of observation -- Absolute time. Introduction -- Clocks -- The reparametrization of time -- Absolute space -- Aristotelian space-time versus Galilean-Newtonian space-time -- Particle worldlines -- The Newtonian mechanical paradigm -- The Euler-Lagrange mechanical paradigm -- Phase space -- Canonical transformation theory -- Infinitesimal transformations -- The reparametrization of time. Introduction -- Temporal parametrization -- Temporal reparametrization -- Action integrals -- Temporal reparametrization in detail -- Reparametrization form invariance -- The extended equations of motion -- Transformation to phase space -- Reparametrized primary identity -- Origins of relativity. Inertial frames -- The speed of light and Galilean transformations -- The Michelson-Morley experiment -- FitzGerald length contraction -- Derivation of FitzGerald length contraction -- FitzGerald time dilation -- Lorentz transformations -- Special relativity. Lorentz transformations -- Simultaneity in special relativity -- Time dilation -- The clock hypothesis -- The Twin Paradox -- Lightcones -- The Klein-Gordon equation -- The causal propagation of special relativistic fields -- Fock-Kemmer front velocity and the memory field -- Generalized transformations. Introduction -- Constraints -- The Michelson-Morley constraint -- Some standard transformations -- The splitting of causality -- Empirical evidence for a preferred frame -- General relativistic time. Space-time versus spacetime -- Lorentzian signature metrics -- Pseudo-Riemannian manifolds -- The Schwarzschild metric -- Gravitational time dilation -- Black hole geometry -- The spinning disc -- Time travel. Introduction -- Information flow -- Tachyons -- Spreadsheet time travel -- The Gödel metric -- Timelike geodesics -- Imaginary time. Introduction -- Minkowski's imaginary time -- Application to wave mechanics -- Propagators and Green's functions -- Path integrals -- Quantum gravity -- Quantum thermodynamics -- Black hole thermodynamics -- Quantum cosmology -- Conclusions -- Irreversible time. Introduction -- Glauber's correlations -- Probability -- The expansion of the universe -- Poincaré recurrence -- Discrete time. Introduction -- Difference equations -- The action sum -- Caldirola's proper time chronon -- Caldirola's microverse model -- Discrete-time classical electrodynamics -- Time and quanta. Introduction -- Schrödinger versus Heisenberg -- de Broglie waves -- The time-energy uncertainty relation -- The relativistic propagator -- Temporal correlations. Introduction -- Classical bit temporal correlations -- Quantum bit temporal correlations -- The Leggett-Garg correlation -- Understanding the Leggett-Garg prediction -- Time reversal. Introduction -- Classical active time reversal -- Schrödinger wave mechanics -- The time-reversal operator -- The Pauli equation -- The Dirac wave equation -- TCP theorem -- Kaons -- Quantized spacetime. Introduction -- Mach's relationalism -- Einstein's relationalism -- Planck, quanta, photons, and existence -- Snyder's quantized spacetime -- Epilogue. Appendix : Sets -- Groups -- Metric spaces -- Rings and fields -- Vector spaces -- Hilbert space -- Observables -- Antilinear and antiunitary operators -- Affine spaces -- Manifolds -- Signature -- Variational derivation of Einstein's field equations from the Hilbert action -- Doppler shifts. Bibliography -- Index.
Images of Time covers historical, cultural, philosophical, biological, mathematical and physical Images of Time, including classical and quantum mechanics, special and general relativity and cosmology.
9780198718062 0198718063
2015949945
Time--Mathematical models. Metaphysics. Metaphysics. Time--Mathematical models. Naturwissenschaften Philosophie Zeit