Information Theory Applied To Space-time Physics

Cover
World Scientific, 31.01.1993 - 320 Seiten
The success of Newton's mechanic, Maxwell's electrodynamic, Einstein's theories of relativity, and quantum mechanics is a strong argument for the space-time continuum. Nevertheless, doubts have been expressed about the use of a continuum in a science squarely based on observation and measurement. An exact science requires that qualitative arguments must be reduced to quantitative statements. The observability of a continuum can be reduced from qualitative arguments to quantitative statements by means of information theory.Information theory was developed during the last decades within electrical communications, but it is almost unknown in physics. The closest approach to information theory in physics is the calculus of propositions, which has been used in books on the frontier of quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity. Principles of information theory are discussed in this book. The ability to think readily in terms of a finite number of discrete samples is developed over many years of using information theory and digital computers, just as the ability to think readily in terms of a continuum is developed by long use of differential calculus.
 

Inhalt

1 Historical Review
1
2 Information Theory Applied to Measurements
18
3 Coordinate Systems
40
4 Time and Motion
85
5 Propagation in Unusual Coordinate Systems
104
6 Distinction of Sinusoidal Functions
163
7 Discrete Topologies and Difference Equations
197
8 Schrödinger and KleinGordon Difference Equations
204
9 Schrödinger Difference Equation with Coulomb Field
218
10 KleinGordon Difference Equation with Coulomb Field
230
11 Dirac Difference Equation with Coulomb Field
254
12 Mathematical Supplements
270
References and Bibliography
297
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