The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality

by Paul Halpern

Overview

The story of the unlikely friendship between the two physicists who fundamentally recast the notion of time and history

In 1939, Richard Feynman, a brilliant graduate of MIT, arrived in John Wheeler's Princeton office to report for duty as his teaching assistant. A lifelong friendship and enormously productive collaboration was born, despite sharp differences in personality. The soft-spoken Wheeler, though conservative in appearance, was a raging nonconformist full of wild ideas about the universe. The boisterous Feynman was a cautious physicist who believed only what could be tested. Yet they were complementary spirits. Their collaboration led to a complete rethinking of the nature of time and reality. It enabled Feynman to show how quantum reality is a combination of alternative, contradictory possibilities, and inspired Wheeler to develop his landmark concept of wormholes, portals to the future and past. Together, Feynman and Wheeler made sure that quantum physics would never be the same again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541672987
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	11/06/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	13.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 2.40(d)

About the Author

Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, and the author of fifteen popular science books, most recently Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Introduction A Revolution in Time 1

Chapter 1 Wheeler's Watch 15

Chapter 2 The Only Particle in the Universe 43

Chapter 3 All the Roads Not to Paradise 81

Chapter 4 The Hidden Paths of Ghosts 113

Chapter 5 The Island and the Mountains: Mapping the Particle Landscape 133

Chapter 6 Life as an Amoeba in the Foamy Sea of Possibilities 167

Chapter 7 Time's Arrow and the Mysterious Mr. X 199

Chapter 8 Minds, Machines, and the Cosmos 229

Conclusion The Way of the Labyrinth 261

Epilogue Encounters with Wheeler 269

Acknowledgments 273

Notes 275

Further Reading 287

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

"Excellent...[Halpern] brings onto the stage two of the key developers of the modern quantum theory."—Nature Physics

"Paul Halpern brings the full story of these men to life in a brilliant way...Feynman's contributions to the development of quantum field theory...are not only covered, they're explained in gloriously in-depth and simultaneously comprehensible fashion...Well-researched, well-written, and highly accessible."—Forbes's "Starts with a Bang!" blog

"Feynman was a doer, Wheeler a dreamer. So Paul Halpern aptly describes them in The Quantum Labyrinth, his book about their lives, work and friendship, and the virtues of their complementary styles...Feynman was one of the greatest intuitive problem-solvers in twentieth-century physics, a world-class doer. But I suspect that many readers will take most pleasure from the account of Wheeler's inspired dreaming."—Nature

"[The Quantum Labyrinth] provides a portrait of a rather neglected era in physics. Following the twin revolutions of quantum theory and relativity in the early 1900s, the 1940s to the late 1960s can appear like a time when already challenging ideas became all but incomprehensible beyond the academy. But Halpern shows that it was every bit as significant as the pre-war period that looks now to be an age almost of gods and legends."—Physics World

"[Halpern] paints an evocative picture of the tension between cooperation and competition felt by researchers at the cutting edge."—Library Journal

"Readers soon see that Feynman achieved his breakthroughs in physics by collaborating with his mentor, John Wheeler...With the same clarity that has attracted readers to Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat (2015) and his other books of popular science, Halpern retraces the way this unlikely pair smashed traditional understandings of time...A compelling reminder that even the most triumphant science comes from vulnerable humans."—Booklist (starred review)

"In this exciting new book, Paul Halpern explores the strange counter-balance between two remarkable scientists. Everyone knows of Richard Feynman as a showman, but Halpern brings out Feynman's true depth as a careful researcher of meticulous integrity and the perfect artisan to carry out John Wheeler's revolutionary ideas. The result is a fascinating story."—Frank Close, author of Half-Life and The Infinity Puzzle

"Go to any physics meeting and ask each person there for their list of the top ten most influential physicists of the 20th century. Lots of different names will appear, but everybody will name Einstein (of course!). Nearly all will mention Feynman and Wheeler, too. After reading Halpern's thought-provoking book, you'll understand why."—Paul J. Nahin, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at University of New Hampshire and author of In Praise of Simple Physics

"The Quantum Labyrinth is the thoughtful and moving story of two great physicists and their entangled lives. Feynman and Wheeler's exuberant creativity allowed them to explore the extremes of reality, finding the cracks and fissures of contemporary physics. Yet at the same time, they were instrumental in setting the foundations of our modern understanding of physical law."—Pedro G. Ferreira, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
Physicists Richard Feynman (1918–88) and John Wheeler (1911–2006) tackled the greatest philosophical questions: How did the universe begin? Will it end? What is time? They also wrestled with weighty moral questions around the Manhattan Project and the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Halpern (Einstein's Dice and Schrodinger's Cat) interweaves these stories with those of Feynman's and Wheeler's personal lives to show who they were and how their minds worked. The practical Feynman sought simply "to find a set of [testable] rules which would agree with the behavior of nature," while the comparatively more speculative Wheeler strove to discover the fundamental components of the cosmos and their organizing principles. Their dynamic led to much progress and recognition, including Feynman's sharing with Wheeler the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics. While readers without a quantum physics background might find parts of the book to be overly technical, Halpern generally paints an evocative picture of the tension between cooperation and competition felt by researchers at the cutting edge. VERDICT For those interested in the histories of physics, astronomy, and/or cosmology.—Ricardo Laskaris, York Univ. Lib., Toronto

Library Journal

Listening to this audiobook, partly biography and partly a popularization of modern physics, is both delightful and frustrating. Brian Troxell is a well-chosen narrator because he knows the abstruse language of quantum physics and because he projects the unabashed enthusiasm of a young disciple of the two great masters. The frustration comes from the subject itself, fundamental phenomena that even the greatest practitioners have trouble understanding. Their mathematics works (mostly) but shows things not experienced or intuited in everyday life. Still, because the ideas are so fundamental, the mind strains to understand them, and Troxell helps things along with great aplomb. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

Listening to this audiobook, partly biography and partly a popularization of modern physics, is both delightful and frustrating. Brian Troxell is a well-chosen narrator because he knows the abstruse language of quantum physics and because he projects the unabashed enthusiasm of a young disciple of the two great masters. The frustration comes from the subject itself, fundamental phenomena that even the greatest practitioners have trouble understanding. Their mathematics works (mostly) but shows things not experienced or intuited in everyday life. Still, because the ideas are so fundamental, the mind strains to understand them, and Troxell helps things along with great aplomb. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile