AN INTRODUCTION TO BLACK HOLES, INFORMATION AND THE STRING THEORY REVOLUTION

Leonard Susskind is Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University. He is the Recipient of the J J Sakurai Prize, the Pregel Prize, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also Distinguished Professor of Physics at the Korean Institute for Advanced Study and Extraordinary Professor of Physics at the University of Stellenbosch.

James Lindesay is Professor of Physics at Howard University.

Over the last decade the physics of black holes has been revolutionized by developments that grew out of Jacob Bekenstein's realization that black holes have entropy. Stephen Hawking raised profound issues concerning the loss of information in black hole evaporation and the consistency of quantum mechanics in a world with gravity. For two decades these questions puzzled theoretical physicists and eventually led to a revolution in the way we think about space, time, matter and information. This revolution has culminated in a remarkable principle called “The Holographic Principle”, which is now a major focus of attention in gravitational research, quantum field theory and elementary particle physics. Leonard Susskind, one of the co-inventors of the Holographic Principle as well as one of the founders of String theory, develops and explains these concepts.

Contents:
Black Holes and Quantum Mechanics:The Schwarzschild Black Hole
Scalar Wave Equation in a Schwarzschild Background
Quantum Fields in Rindler Space
Entropy of the Free Quantum Field in Rindler Space
Thermodynamics of Black Holes
Charged Black Holes
The Stretched Horizon
The Laws of Nature
The Puzzle of Information Conservation in Black Hole Environments
Horizons and the UV/IR Connection
Entropy Bounds and Holography:
Entropy Bounds
The Holographic Principle and Anti de Sitter Space
Black Holes in a Box
Black Holes and Strings:
Strings
Entropy of Strings and Black Holes

Readership: Graduate students, researchers and theoretical physicists. 

“A remarkable feature of this book is that relatively little specialized knowledge is required from the reader; a cursory acquaintance with quantum mechanics and relativity is sufficient. This is impressive, given that the authors cover some of the hottest topics in current research … conceptually the book is truly challenging. It makes us think about many ideas we take for granted and shakes the foundations of our understanding of basic physics. It provides a rollercoaster ride into the treacherous and largely uncharted land of quantum gravity. This book is highly recommended for those interested in these fascinating topics.”
CERN Courier