Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy (Commonwealth Fund Book Program) by Kip S. Thorne (PDF)

Description

Winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics Ever since Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity burst upon the world in 1915 some of the most brilliant minds of our century have sought to decipher the mysteries bequeathed by that theory, a legacy so unthinkable in some respects that even Einstein himself rejected them.Which of these bizarre phenomena, if any, can really exist in our universe? Black holes, down which anything can fall but from which nothing can return; wormholes, short spacewarps connecting regions of the cosmos; singularities, where space and time are so violently warped that time ceases to exist and space becomes a kind of foam; gravitational waves, which carry symphonic accounts of collisions of black holes billions of years ago; and time machines, for traveling backward and forward in time.Kip Thorne, along with fellow theorists Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, a cadre of Russians, and earlier scientists such as Oppenheimer, Wheeler and Chandrasekhar, has been in the thick of the quest to secure answers. In this masterfully written and brilliantly informed work of scientific history and explanation, Dr. Thorne, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics Emeritus at Caltech, leads his readers through an elegant, always human, tapestry of interlocking themes, coming finally to a uniquely informed answer to the great question: what principles control our universe and why do physicists think they know the things they think they know? Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time has been one of the greatest best-sellers in publishing history. Anyone who struggled with that book will find here a more slowly paced but equally mind-stretching experience, with the added fascination of a rich historical and human component.Winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Deeply satisfying…. [An] engrossing blend of theory, history, and anecdote.” ― Wall Street Journal”Among the best of [its] genre to appear in recent years.” ― Malcolm W. Browne, New York Times Book Review”Readers seeking to go beyond today’s headlines will not find a higher authority (or a better storyteller) to discuss the cosmo’s most bizarre features…Masterful and intriguing.” ― Marcia Bartusiak, Washington Post”Superb. It is what many other books about their subject ought to have been and were not…. I think the book itself will be a strong force.” ― Carl Sagan”Black Holes & Time Warps reveals the scientific enterprise as very few books do; it richly overflows with history, modern physics, the excitement of discovery, and rare, firsthand scientific styles and temperaments.” ― Alan Lightman About the Author Kip Thorne, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics Emeritus at Caltech, is the author of the bestselling books Black Holes and Time Warps and The Science of Interstellar. Thorne was an executive producer for the 2014 film Interstellar. For “bridging the worlds of science and the humanities,” Thorne received Rockefeller University’s Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science. He lives in Pasadena, California.Stephen W. Hawking is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. From The Washington Post Readers seeking to go beyond today’s headlines will not find a higher authority (or a better storyteller) to discuss the cosmos’s most bizarre features….Masterful and intriguing. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Kip Stephen Thorne (born 1940) is an American theoretical physicist who (with two colleagues) was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics; he was professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology until 2009, and previously taught at Cornell University and the University of Utah. (He was also a longtime friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan.)He wrote in the Preface to this 1994 book, “For thirty years I have been participating in a great quest: a quest to understand … [Einstein’s] relativity theory and its predictions about the Universe—and to discover where and how relativity fails and what replaces it. This quest has led me through labyrinths of exotic objects: black holes, white dwarfs, neutron stars, singularities, gravitational waves, wormholes, time warps, and time machines… The quest has shown me… why it takes many different types of scientists… to flesh out our understanding of the Universe…. This book is my attempt to share these insights with nonscientists, and with scientists who work in fields other than my own. It is a book of interlocking themes held together by … the history of our struggle to decipher Einstein’s legacy, to discover its seemingly outrageous predictions about black holes, singularities, gravitational waves, wormholes, and time warps.”He provides a useful history and summary of Einstein’s ideas, etc. But to me, by far the most interesting part of the book was his thoughts on time travel, etc.He explains, “New ideas often arrive at the oddest moments… when one is least expecting them… [An] example is a discovery of Roger Penrose that changed our understanding of what I inside a black hole… Penrose’s theorem said roughly this: Suppose a star… implodes so far that its gravity becomes strong enough to form an APPARENT HORIZON, strong enough to pull light rays back inward… After this happens, nothing can prevent the gravity from growing so strong that it creates a singularity. Consequently (since black holes always have apparent horizons) every black hole must have a singularity inside itself.” (Pg. 462-463)He observes, “As best we understand it in 1993 … quantum gravity takes over when the oscillating tidal gravity (space-time curvature) becomes so large that it completely deforms all objects… Quantum gravity then radically changes the character of spacetime: It ruptures the unification of space and time into spacetime. It unglues space and time from each other, and then destroys time as a concept and destroys the definiteness of space. Time ceases to exist; no longer can we say that ‘this thing happens before that one,’ because without time, there is no concept of ‘before’ or ‘after.’ Space, the sole remaining remnant of what was once a unified spacetime, becomes a random, probabilistic froth, like soapsuds… there is no such thing as time inside the singularity. And similarly, because there is no time, it is totally meaningless to ask whether space assumes the form (b) ‘before’ or ‘after’ it assumes the form (c). The only meaningful question one can ask of the singularity is, ‘What are the probabilities that the space of which you are made has the forms (a), (b), and (c)?… To recapitulate, at the center of a black hole, in the spacetime region where the oscillating BKL tidal forces reach their peak, there resided a singularity: a region in which time no longer exists, and space has given way to quantum foam.” (Pg. 476-477)He states, “One task of the laws of quantum gravity is to govern the probabilities for the various curvatures and topologies within a black hole’s singularity. Another, presumably, is to determine the probabilities for the singularity to give birth to ‘new universes,’ that is, to give birth to new, classical (non-quantum) regions of spacetime, in the same sense as the big bang singularity gave birth to our Universe some 15 billion years ago. How probable is it that a black hole’s singularity will give birth to ‘new universes’? We don’t know. It might well never happen, or it might be quite common—or we might be on completely the wrong track in believing that singularities are made of quantum foam. Clear answers might come in the next decade or two from research now being carried out by Stephen Hawking, James Hartle, and others, building on foundations laid by John Wheeler and Bryce DeWitt.” (Pg. 478-479)He recounts how Carl Sagan asked him to review a typescript version of Sagan’s novel ‘Contact’: “The novel was fun, but Carl, indeed, was in trouble. He had his heroine … plunge into a black hole near Earth, travel through hyperspace … and emerge an hour later near the star Vega, 26 light-years away. Carl, not being a relativity expert, was [unaware that] … It is impossible to travel through hyperspace from a black hole’s core to another part of our Universe… any vehicle for hyperspace travel gets destroyed by the explosive ‘rain’ before the trip can be launched. Carl’s novel had to be changed… a glimmer of an idea came to me. Maybe Carl would replace his black hole by a WORMHOLE through hyperspace. A wormhole is a hypothetical shortcut for travel between distant points in the Universe. The wormhole has two entrances called ‘mouths’… The mouths are connected to each other by a tunnel through hyperspace (the wormhole) that might be only a kilometer long… By traveling just one kilometer down the tunnel we reach the other mouth and emerge near Vega, 26 light-years away as measured in the external Universe.” (Pg. 484)He continues, “none of the wormholes that had been found in solutions of Einstein’s equation… was suitable for Carl Sagan’s novel, because none of them could be traversed safely. Each and every one of them was predicted to evolve with time in a very peculiar way… Like most of my physicist colleagues, I have been skeptical of wormholes for decades… as the energized radiation bombards the wormhole’s throat, it triggers the throat to recontract and pinch off far faster than it would otherwise—so fast, in fact, that the wormhole has hardly any life at all. There is another reason for skepticism… there is no … natural way for a WORMHOLE to be created. In fact, there is no reason at all to think that our Universe contains today ANY singularities of the sort that give birth to wormholes… and even in such singularities did exist, it is hard to understand how two of them could find each other in the vast reaches of hyperspace, so as to create a wormhole… When one’s friend needs help, one is willing to turn most anywhere that help might be found. Wormholes—despite my skepticism—seemed to be the only help in sight. Perhaps … there is some way that an infinitely advanced civilization could hold a wormhole open… so that Eleanor Arroway could travel through it from Earth to Vega and back.” (Pg. 486-488)He adds, “Perhaps our prejudice against the existence of exotic material is wrong… Perhaps exotic material CAN exist. This was the only way I could see to help Carl… I wrote Carl a long letter, explaining why his heroine could not use black holes for rapid interstellar travel, and suggesting that she use wormholes instead, and the somebody in the novel discover that exotic material can really exist and can be used to hold the wormholes open. Carl accepted my suggestion with pleasure and incorporated it into the final version of his novel.” (Pg. 490)He summarizes, “our best understanding of wormholes is this: If no wormholes were made in the big bang, then an infinitely advanced civilization might try to construct one by two methods, quantum (pulling it out of the quantum foam) or classical (twisting space-time without tearing it). We do NOT understand the laws of quantum gravity well enough to deduce… whether the quantum construction of wormholes is possible. We DO understand the laws of classical gravity … well enough to know that the classical construction of wormholes is permitted only if the construction machinery, whatever it might be, twists time up so strongly, as seen in all reference frames, that it produces, at least briefly, a time machine… We know that vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field are a promising form of exotic material… However, we do NOT yet know whether they can be exotic inside a wormhole and thereby hold the wormhole open.” (Pg. 497-498)He suggests, “from a single wormhole, an infinitely advanced civilization can make a time machine. There is no need for two wormholes.” (Pg. 502) He goes on, “the wormhole has become a time machine. If I now … climb into the wormhole mouth in the spaceship, I will emerge through the other mouth in our living room… and there I will meet my younger self. Similarly, if my younger self climbs into the mouth … he will emerge from the mouth in the spaceship… Travel through the wormhole in one direction takes me backward 10 years in time; travel in the other direction takes me 10 years forward. Neither I nor anyone else, however, can us the wormhole to … travel to a time earlier than when the wormhole became a time machine.” (Pg. 504)He acknowledges, “If time machines are, in fact, allowed by the laws of physics (and… I doubt that they are), then they are probably much farther beyond the human race’s present technological capabilities than space travel was beyond the capabilities of cavemen.” (Pg. 516) He adds, “[Stephen] Hawking has a firm opinion on time machines He thinks that nature abhors them, and he has embodied that … in a conjecture… which says that ‘the laws of physics do not allow time machines…. Whenever one tries to make a time machine, and no matter what kind of device one uses in one’s attempt (a wormhole… or whatever), just before one’s device becomes a time machine, a beam of vacuum fluctuations will … destroy it.’ … However, we cannot know for sure until physicists have fathomed in depth the laws of quantum gravity.” (Pg. 521)This book will be of great interest to those studying time travel, and similar speculative ideas in physics.

⭐This is a book about exploration – in particular, the exploration of stars, how they can form black holes, and what happens at black holes. It will perhaps be best appreciated by those who have at least some high school (and preferably, undergraduate) background in math and physics (hence my “not for complete dummies” review title).The closest book that comes to mind is “Voyages of Delusion – The Quest for the Northwest Passage” (Glyn Williams, 2002). Both books describe the efforts of explorers to discover new realms, and thus make for fascinating “real-life-is-better-than-fiction” tales of adventure. But “Black Holes and Time Warps” is much more – it is a book about the physical universe that actually exists, but which we are incapable of experiencing on a personal level. It strikes just the right balance of history and science, without becoming just another lame attempt to describe complex physical concepts to laypersons without any background in math or science.This book is also a grand tour of 20th century physics, not unlike a Rick Steves tour of Europe. That is, not an exhaustive guide, but rather presented in a way that someone with a bit of scientific background can easily follow the development of the relevant subject matter. (If one wants an in-depth version of the subject of 20th century physics, then I recommend “The Road to Reality” (Roger Penrose, 2004), but be prepared for quite a bit of math. Start with “Black Holes and Time Warps” – if that gets you hooked, then try Penrose.)This book is exceptionally well written, and the text is accompanied by excellent diagrams which help to explain the subject matter. The author makes frequent cross-references to other parts of the book to ensure that the reader can follow the narrative (and the science) in a seamless manner. If you are interested in this subject, this is an excellent place to start your journey.I only wish that there were a “25th Anniversary Edition” of this book, incorporating some of what has been discovered about black holes (and other related topics) since this book was first published way back in 1994. (As but one example, the discovery in 2015 of gravitational waves by the LIGO detector, in which the author was critically involved – see Ch. 10.) Such an update could easily be accomplished by the addition of a “Recent Discoveries” chapter, without having to fundamentally alter the underlying primary text (other than perhaps an occasional footnote to the effect of, “but see Ch. 15 for recent developments on this subject”).

⭐A quite chatty style and an admittedly personal view, on some more controversial events, but it’s one of these books that you could open anywhere and read on. From one of the most prominent figures in relativistic cosmology as well as a central figure in gravitational wave detection. . Most informative

⭐Although it is almost 25 years old the book gives an account of the development of ideas of quantum physics and the life history of stars in a historical context. It shows how the idea of stellar collapse and black holes was first denied then eventually became accepted as different well-known scientists developed these ideas. Written by a significant physicist who can also write popular science and tell a good story.

⭐A wonderful introductionA wonderful introduction to Cosmology told at least partly through the many physicists and astronomers that are behind current theories. It helps that the author, Mr Thorne, is one of the participants.The book arrived quickly and in good condition. The high quality of this used product and the range of their books makes me feel that they are a company I want to know more about

⭐In depth but very readable – provides an excellent pathway to understanding the theory of black holes with all the elements covered along the way. Probably needs at least a basic grounding in physics to get the most out of but a really great book IMHO.

⭐Bought this years ago, read it and lent it to my father who promptly lost it. Couldn’t buy it recently in paperback (only used through marketplace), so very pleased to find it is available on Kindle. Much easier to understand than Stephen Hawking.

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