Stumbling Blocks Against Unification: On Some Persistent Misconceptions In Physics

The history is full of misconceptions that opposed the progress of physics. The book starts with reviewing some historical cases, such as the arguments against the Earth rotation, or the famous problem of ¾ in the theory of electromagnetic mass of electron. After having pointed out that misconceptions have been common in the history of physics, it is argued that they must be present today as well. In fact, it is now commonly being realized that in the last forty years there has been no significant progress in the fundamental theoretical physics. A reason certainly lies in certain stumbling blocks on our way towards the unification of interaction and of gravity with quantum mechanics. The author discusses what he perceives as some persisting misconceptions that have not yet been recognized as such by physics community in general. Contents: PrefaceAcknowledgementAbout Historical Misconceptions in PhysicsHigher Derivative Theories and Negative EnergiesUpon Quantization — Ghosts or Negatives Energies?Transformations of SpinorsQuantum Fields as Basis VectorsBrane Space and Branes as Conglomerates of Quantum FieldsParticle Position in Quantum Field TheoriesMisconceptions and Confusion About TachyonsOrdering Ambiguity of Quantum OperatorsWhat Have We Learned?BibliographyIndex Readership: Researchers and post graduate students in theoretical and high energy physics.Quantum Gravity;Quantum Field Theories;Quantization;Clifford Algebras;Stueckelberg Evolution Time;Relativistic Particle Localization;String Theory;Brane Theory;Braneworld Scenarios;Tachyons;Many-Worlds Interpretation;Causality Paradoxes0 Key Features: This is a unique book on such a subjectThe readers will benefit from learning in what sense the common wisdom about certain topics in fundamental theoretical physics is questionable and has to be revised and howThe book explains in detail how the problematic topics should be formulated afresh, how they are related to each other, and how within such a framework we can remove the stumbling blocks against unification of fundamental interactions