Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden
Dimensions is a book by Lisa Randall, published in 2005, about particle
physics in general and additional dimensions of space (cf. Kaluza--Klein
theory) in particular. The book has made it to top 50 at amazon.com,
making it the world's first successful book on theoretical physics by a
female author.[citation needed] She herself characterizes the book as
being about physics and the multi-dimensional universe.[1]
She
comments that her motivation for writing this book was her "thinking
that there were people who wanted a more complete and balanced vision of
the current state of physics." She has noticed there is a large
audience that thinks physics is about the bizarre or exotic. She
observes that when people develop an understanding of the science of
particle physics and the experiments that produce the science, people
get excited. "The upcoming experiments at the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) at CERN near Geneva will test many ideas, including some of the
warped extra-dimensional theories I talk about." Another motivation was
that she "gambled that there are people who really want to understand
the physics and how the many ideas connect."[1]
Randall is
currently a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
However, she stays active in the field because she continues to study
both particle physics and cosmology. She stays current through her
research into the nature of matter's most basic elements, and the forces
that govern these most basic elements. Randall's experiences, which
qualify her as an authority on the subject of the book, are her original
"contributions in a wide variety of physics studies, including
cosmological inflation, supersymmetry, grand unified theories, and
aspects of string theory". "As of last autumn, she was the most cited
theoretical physicist in the world during the previous five years." In
addition her most recent work involved extra dimensions.[2]
Her
background research for the book, on the theories and experiments of
extra dimensions and warped geometries, was published in the
peer-reviewed Science magazine in 2002[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warped_P...
Lisa
Randall (born June 18, 1962) is an American theoretical physicist and a
leading expert on particle physics and cosmology. She works on several
of the competing models of string theory. Her best known contribution to
the field is the Randall--Sundrum model, first published in 1999 with
Raman Sundrum.[1] Randall-Sundrum theory predictions are subject to
ongoing tests at the LHC. [2] However, the experimental signature that
would be required to validate the Randall-Sundrum model would be the
discovery of a class of particles called Kaluza-Klein particles. This
would constitute a monumental discovery in physics. It would be the
first physical evidence that superstring theory is on the right track.
Given the magnitude of such a discovery, administration at the Large
Hadron Collider would undoubtedly hold a press conference to announce
such a discovery. Furthermore, the physics literature would thoroughly
address this discovery. Since neither of these events has transpired,
the following can be safely concluded. To date, the L.H.C has yet to
produce any evidence to validate the Randall-Sundrum model at slightly
over half of its energy capability. She was the first tenured woman in
the Princeton University physics department and the first tenured female
theoretical physicist at both MIT and Harvard University. She has also
written two popular science books and the libretto of an opera.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Ran...
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