The Universe of Fluctuations: The Architecture of Spacetime and the Universe

1: THE UNIFICATION PARADIGM. PREFACE. 1.1 Introduction. 1.2 Inertial Mass. 1.3 Enter General Relativity. 1.4 Further Considerations. 1.5 Prospect. 2: STANDARD MODELS OF PHYSICS AND COSMOLOGY. 2.1 The Strong and Weak Interactions. 2.2 Gauge Fields. 2.3 Standard Cosmology. 3: DIFFERENT APPROACHES: QUANTUM SUPERSTRINGS AND QUANTUM GRAVITY. 3.1 String Theory. 3.2 Loop Quantum Gravity. 4: OTHER APPROACHES. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Quantum General Relativity. 4.3 Scale Relativity. 4.4 Cantorian Spacetime. 5: FUZZY SPACETIME AND THE PLANCK SCALE. 5.1 The Origins of Fuzzy Spacetime. 5.2 Further Considerations. 5.3 Quantum Geometry. 5.4 The Unification of Gravitation and Electromagnetism. 5.5 The Planck Scale. 5.6 The Universe as Planck Oscillators. 5.7 Modelling Fuzzy Spacetime as a Double Wiener Process. 5.8 Other Issues. 6: THE UNIVERSE OF FLUCTUATIONS. 6.1 The 'Old' Cosmology. 6.2 Dark Energy and Fluctuations. 6.3 Issues and Ramifications. 6.4 The Nature of Spacetime. 6.5 Further Considerations. 6.6 A Final Comment. 7: QUANTUM GEOMETRY. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 A Gauge like Formulation. 7.3 Gauge Fields. 7.4 Quantum Geometry. 8: HOW FUNDAMENTAL IS GRAVITATION? 8.1 Introduction. 8.2 Interrelationships. 8.3 Comments. 8.4 Gravitation as Weak Electromagnetism. 9: THE ELUSIVE MASS SPECTRUM. 10: EXPERIMENTAL EFFECTS. 10.1 Introduction. 10.2 Modified Dispersion. 10.3 Particle Behaviour. 10.4 A New Short Range Force. 10.5 Gravitational Effects. 10.6 Bosons as Bound States of Fermions. 10.7 Can We Harness the Zero Point Field? 10.8 Retrospect. REFERENCES. INDEX