''The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen'' is a 2011 book by the theoretical

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

s Brian Cox and

Jeff Forshaw Jeffrey Robert Forshaw (born 1968) is a British particle physicist with a special interest in quantum chromodynamics (QCD): the study of the behaviour of subatomic particles, using data from the HERA particle accelerator, Tevatron particle ac ...

Overview

The book aims to provide an explanation of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, q ...

and its impact on the modern world that is accessible to a general reader. The authors say that "our goal in writing this book is to demystify quantum theory". Starting with the concepts of

wave–particle duality Wave–particle duality is the concept in quantum mechanics that every particle or quantum entity may be described as either a particle or a wave. It expresses the inability of the classical concepts "particle" or "wave" to fully describe th ...

and a non-technical description of the

path integral formulation The path integral formulation is a description in quantum mechanics that generalizes the action principle of classical mechanics. It replaces the classical notion of a single, unique classical trajectory for a system with a sum, or functional ...

of quantum mechanics, the book explains the

uncertainty principle In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle (also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which the values for certain pairs of physic ...

, energy levels in atoms, the physics of semi-conductors and transistors, and the

Standard Model The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces ( electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions - excluding gravity) in the universe and classifying all known elementary particles. I ...

of particle physics. A more mathematical Epilogue discusses the role of quantum mechanics in models of stellar evolution, and derives the

Chandrasekhar limit The Chandrasekhar limit () is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The currently accepted value of the Chandrasekhar limit is about (). White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron degeneracy pressure, compar ...

for the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf.

References

*The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen, 2011, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw,
Review by Doug Johnstone
23 October 2011,

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Review by Chrqis Cook
28 October 2011,

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

Review by David Kaiser
16 November 2011,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

Review by Manpit Kumar
24 October 2011,

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

Review by Elmar Bergeler
8 January 2013, Science Niblets 2011 non-fiction books Popular physics books Cosmology books Allen Lane (imprint) books {{physical-cosmology-book-stub

Overview

See also

References