The Shape of Inner Space: String Theory and the Geometry of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions - Hardcover

Yau, Shing-Tung; Nadis, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465020232 ISBN 13: 9780465020232

Publisher: Basic Books, 2010

Synopsis

String theory says we live in a ten-dimensional universe, but that only four are accessible to our everyday senses. According to theorists, the missing six are curled up in bizarre structures known as Calabi-Yau manifolds. In The Shape of Inner Space, Shing-Tung Yau, the man who mathematically proved that these manifolds exist, argues that not only is geometry fundamental to string theory, it is also fundamental to the very nature of our universe.Time and again, where Yau has gone, physics has followed. Now for the first time, readers will follow Yau’s penetrating thinking on where we’ve been, and where mathematics will take us next. A fascinating exploration of a world we are only just beginning to grasp, The Shape of Inner Space will change the way we consider the universe on both its grandest and smallest scales.

About this title

About the Author

Shing-Tung Yau has won many awards, including the Fields Medal. He is a professor of mathematics at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Steve Nadis is a Contributing Editor to Astronomy Magazine. He has published articles in Nature, Science, Scientific American, New Scientist, Sky&Telescope, The Atlantic Monthly, and other journals. He has written or contributed to more than two dozen books. A former staff researcher for the Union of Concerned Scientists, Nadis has also been a research fellow at MIT and a consultant to the World Resources Institute, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and WGBH/NOVA. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Review

American Journal of Physics
“The Shape of Inner Space is a portrait of a beautiful branch of geometric analysis as seen through the eyes of one of its pioneers, Fields medal winner Shing-Tung Yau... After describing the sequence of events that led him to the United States and to his enamoration with geometry, Yau explains as only a master could the conjecture by Calabi and the subsequent discovery of Calabi-Yau manifolds that are the centerpiece of this book. The reader is thrown into a world of complex manifolds, geometric analysis, and differential equations, yet the book is written so that the persistent layperson could follow all of the main ideas.”

Notes of the Canadian Mathematical Society
“In the fascinating book, The Shape of Inner Space... Shing-Tung Yau, along with coauthor Steve Nadis, describes the exciting development of the theory of what are now called Calabi-Yau manifolds and their relationship to the structure of the universe.”

Philippine Daily Inquirer
“A journey into the mind of a brilliant mathematician, The Shape of Inner Space will delight readers who are not afraid to use their minds.”

College Mathematics Journal“A worthy successor to The Elegant Universe.” 

BLURBS
Brian Greene, Professor of Mathematics & Physics, Columbia University; author of The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe
“The Shape of Inner Space provides a vibrant tour through the strange and wondrous possibility that the three spatial dimensions we see may not be the only ones that exist. Told by one of the masters of the subject, the book gives an in-depth account of one of the most exciting and controversial developments in modern theoretical physics.”

Joe Polchinski, Professor of Physics, University of California - Santa Barbara; author of String Theory, Vols. 1 & 2
“Einstein’s vision of physical laws emerging from the shape of space has been expanded by the higher dimensions of string theory. This vision has transformed not only modern physics, but also modern mathematics. Shing-Tung Yau has been at the center of these developments. In this ambitious book, written

Newsletter of the European Mathematical Society

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0465020232
• ISBN 13: 9780465020232
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400