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Gravitation and Cosmology
Description
Steven Weinberg wrote the best book on general relativity in history. A Nobel Laureate, he has pioneered both in relativity and quantum theory. Readers who want to know more about him should read T. Cao's 1997 book (Cao is at Boston University) on quantum field theory, from which Weinberg emerges as probably the greatest quantum theorist in history. Unlike most quantum theorists, even the founders of quantum theory, Weinberg was the first to find errors in his own and others' theories, to modify them rapidly and ingeniously, and to establish the newest trends and ideas in each decade since the early years. He founded the latest quantum field theory school, effective gauge field theory, although he became disgusted with field theory's errors and went over to string theory (which seems to be at most an approximation to the real world). In general relativity, he resembles Sir Arthur Eddington in combining algebraic techniques with general relativity (e.g., those of Weyl) and in emphasizing the underlying principles - equivalence, the tetrad formalism, covariance, and even gravitational waves which are only now being tested by Project Ligo.
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