field, 17, 130, 192–3
gravity, 161–2, 209, 239, 262–3
jiggling, 5, 12–14
kitchen, 212–18
probability, 191–2, 211
state, 192, 211–18, 227
tickling, 194, 197
vacuum, 16–17, 192–200, 218
Quantum Universe, The, 211
quarks, 17, 236
qubit, 210–18, 227, 255–61
redshift, 104–5
of fish, 109
reductionism, 20
redundant encoding, 256–9
Reeh–Schlieder theorem, 218
relativity
general, 2, 40–41, 75–83; see also General Theory of Relativity
special, 24, 26–40, 49, 61–2
Rindler horizon, 69, 114, 231
Rindler trajectory, 67
Rindler, Wolfgang, 67
Rosen, Nathan, 114, 125, 245
rulers, 55–63
Ryu, Shinsei 242
Ryu–Takayanagi (RT) conjecture, 242–5, 251–3, 260–61
S2 and ‘S stars’, 6
Sagittarius A*, 1, 6
Hawking temperature, 17
Schrödinger’s cat, 130, 210
Schwarzschild black hole, 88–95, 115–18
Schwarzschild coordinates, 84–90, 93
Schwarzschild radius, 10–16, 83, 89–90
of Sun, 87
Schwarzschild solution, 75–7, 80, 83–95
maximally extended, 115–18, 122–30
metric equation, 83, 87
Schwarzschild, Karl, 10, 75
Second Law of Thermodynamics, 163–4, 168–9
separation
lightlike, 34
spacelike, 33–4
timelike, 33–5
Shannon, Claude, 177–8
signals, 16, 37, 214–15
to an accelerating observer, 69, 114
singularity, 2, 16, 208
Big Bang, 5, 142
disappearing, 204–5
naked, 142–5, 156, 161
Penrose’s theorem, 16, 152–5
ring (Kerr), 131, 136, 139–40, 142
Schwarzschild, 91–5, 116–17
white hole, 117
Sirius B, 12
slices of space, 55–6, 121–6
Small. Far away. 109–11
Snyder, Hartland, 14–15, 151
space
absolute, 23, 25–6
observer dependence, 24–25
space diagram, 84–5, 88, 132
spacelike separation of events, 33–4
spacetime
anti-de Sitter, 236–8
as arena for laws of physics, 20
as collection of all events, 30
as emergent from quantum theory, 20, 244, 261
distortion by matter and energy, 40–41, 51, 46
flat (Minkowski), 49–51, 67, 77, 157–8
Kerr, 131–9, 142–5, 149–51
maximal, 117
maximal Kerr, 138–42
maximal Schwarzschild, 112–18, 122–30
Schwarzschild, 75–7, 80, 83–95
spacetime diagrams, 30–31, 36–9, 89–90, 135, 152; see also Penrose diagrams
spacetime event, 28–40, 51–7
spacetime interval, 27–9, 32–40, 43
as fundamental, 29, 37
as invariant, 28–9, 37–40, 54
in curved spacetimes, 77–8
Schwarzschild, 83–6
three sorts, 33
‘Spacetime tells matter how to move …’ 46
spaghettification, 102–3, 197–201, 206
Special Theory of Relativity, 24, 26–40, 56
speed of light, 5, 25
limit of cause and effect, 31, 37–8, 210, 217
near a black hole, 9–10, 106–9, 132–4
universality, 25–6, 37, 184
spontaneous emission, 194
star
catastrophic collapse, 2–4, 15, 149–61
dark, 9–10
phases of life, 3
States of Matter (Goodstein), 172
statistical nature
of gravity, 185, 187, 190–91
of thermodynamics, 171–5, 177, 185
steam engine, 168, 170
Sully, James, 228
Sun, 3
Schwarzschild radius, 10, 87
spin, 131
thermodynamics, 170
supermassive black hole, 1, 5–7, 93, 156
image, 5–6
surface gravity, 188–90
Susskind, Leonard, 18, 203, 232–3, 245–6
Szekeres, George, 118
Takayanagi, Tadashi, 242
Talwar, Neil, 246
Taylor, Edwin F., 22, 29, 120
temperature, 172–4, 165–76
black hole, 17, 186–90, 195–6
thermodynamics, 17, 22
black hole, 163, 179–91
classical, 163–71, 187–9
statistical, 171–7
Third Law of Thermodynamics, 188–90
’t Hooft, Gerard, 203, 232–3
Thomson, William, 166
Thorne, Kip
bets, 144, 238
on the spacetime interval, 29
work on LIGO, 7
work on wormholes, 130
tidal effects, 71, 101–3, 108–9, 199
time
absolute or universal, 23, 25, 36, 62
as fourth dimension, 41–4
observer dependence, 24
order (before and after), 37–40
time machines, 130, 140–42
timelike separation of events, 33–5
Tolman, Richard, 13
trapped surface, 154–6
Twin Paradox, 64–6, 79
Uncertainty Principle, Heisenberg, 12, 191–2
universe, 1–2
beginning, 2, 5, 155, 177
designer, 20–21, 262
diagram, see Penrose diagram
entropy, 163–4, 170–71, 177
holographic, 247, 263
model of, 234–6, 240
multiple, 97, 117–18, 125–9, 139–42
temperature and age, 202
Unruh, Bill, 198
vacuum
entanglement, 218, 230–31, 244–5
fluctuation, 16–17, 193–200
integrity, 230–31, 245, 254
quantum, 16–17, 192–200, 218
vacuum solutions to Einstein’s equations, 88, 141
van Gogh, Vincent, 263
Van Raamsdonk, Mark, 244–5, 258
Virgo, gravitational wave detector, 7
virtual particles, 17, 193–4; see also vacuum fluctuations
Volkov, George, 13
waves, 104
electromagnetic, 25, 104–5, 180
gravitational, 7, 151, 156
weightlessness, 67, 70, 94, 103
Weiss, Rainer, 7
Westminster Abbey, 196
Wheeler, John Archibald, 15–16
central dogma of general relativity, 46
on black hole hair, 150
on entropy, 163–5, 174–5
on the interval, 29
on the metric, 120, 122
on thermodynamics, 163–5, 174–5
Wheeler’s iceberg, 120
Wheeler’s teacups, 163
white dwarf, 12–14
white hole, 117, 139, 158
Wigner, Eugene, 20
worldline, 29–35
length, 32–3, 64
wormhole
evolution, 126–9
in collapsing star, 155–9
keeping open, 130
Kerr, 139, 145
microscopic, 130, 239–46, 251–3
Schwarzschild, 116, 124–30
Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, 56
Yoshida, Beni, 259
Yurtsever, Ulvi, 130
Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics, 173, 188
Zwicky, Fritz, 13
About the Authors
PROFESSOR BRIAN COX CBE FRS is Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester and the Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science. He has worked on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva, the HERA accelerator at DESY, Hamburg and the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab, Chicago. Cox has written and presented numerous TV series for the BBC, including Wonders of the Solar System, Wonders of the Universe, Wonders of Life, Human Universe, Forces of Nature, The Planets and The Universe. He is also the co-presenter of The Infinite Monkey Cage radio series and podcast. Cox has also written three bestselling science titles with Jeff Forshaw. For many years, he has lectured the introductory Relativity and Quantum Mechanics course at the University of Manchester, with Jeff Forshaw.
PROFESSOR JEFF FORSHAW is a theoretical physicist and Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester. Together with Professor Cox, he has written three bestselling science titles: Why Does E=mc2?, The Quantum Universe and Universal. He has written over 100 scientific research papers and speaks at international science festivals and events for children and adults. He was awarded the 1999 James Clerk Maxwell Medal by the UK’s Institute of Physics to recognise outstanding early career contributions to theoretical physics and the 2013 Kelvin Medal for outstanding and sustained contributions to public engagement.