Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem - Dwight E. Neuenschwander

Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem

By: Dwight E. Neuenschwander

Paperback | 14 June 2017 | Edition Number 2

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $69.99

$61.50

12%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $15.38 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 5 to 10 business days

One of the most important--and beautiful--mathematical solutions ever devised, Noether's theorem touches on every aspect of physics.

"In the judgment of the most competent living mathematicians, Fr ulein Noether was the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began."--Albert Einstein

The year was 1915, and the young mathematician Emmy Noether had just settled into G ttingen University when Albert Einstein visited to lecture on his nearly finished general theory of relativity. Two leading mathematicians of the day, David Hilbert and Felix Klein, dug into the new theory with gusto, but had difficulty reconciling it with what was known about the conservation of energy. Knowing of her expertise in invariance theory, they requested Noether's help. To solve the problem, she developed a novel theorem, applicable across all of physics, which relates conservation laws to continuous symmetries--one of the most important pieces of mathematical reasoning ever developed.

Noether's "first" and "second" theorem was published in 1918. The first theorem relates symmetries under global spacetime transformations to the conservation of energy and momentum, and symmetry under global gauge transformations to charge conservation. In continuum mechanics and field theories, these conservation laws are expressed as equations of continuity. The second theorem, an extension of the first, allows transformations with local gauge invariance, and the equations of continuity acquire the covariant derivative characteristic of coupled matter-field systems. General relativity, it turns out, exhibits local gauge invariance. Noether's theorem also laid the foundation for later generations to apply local gauge invariance to theories of elementary particle interactions.

In Dwight E. Neuenschwander's new edition of Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem, readers will encounter an updated explanation of Noether's "first" theorem. The discussion of local gauge invariance has been expanded into a detailed presentation of the motivation, proof, and applications of the "second" theorem, including Noether's resolution of concerns about general relativity. Other refinements in the new edition include an enlarged biography of Emmy Noether's life and work, parallels drawn between the present approach and Noether's original 1918 paper, and a summary of the logic behind Noether's theorem.

Industry Reviews

""Technical and yet ultimately poetic book on Emmy Neother's wonderful theorems... Neuenschwander's work is recommended for anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the physics and mathematics behind Emmy Noether's work, as well as the particular challenges she faced in her life.""

More in Physics

Black Holes : The key to understanding the universe - Professor Brian Cox
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry - Neil deGrasse Tyson

RRP $31.95

$29.35

Dr Karl's Little Book of Climate Change Science - Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki
A Brief History Of Time : From Big Bang to Black Holes - Stephen Hawking
The Invisible Rainbow : A History of Electricity and Life - Arthur Firstenberg
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Carlo Rovelli

RRP $22.99

$21.90

General Quantum Variational Calculus - Svetlin G. Georgiev
General Quantum Variational Calculus - Svetlin G. Georgiev