by Yablon » Mon Mar 28, 2022 10:52 am
jreed wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 7:23 am
I have many books on general relativity. I also have a copy of Wheeler's book Geometrodynamics from 1962 which goes into his work on non-quantized Geometrodynamics. In it he tried to build a neutrino using only geometrodynamics. He could not do it. The problem he ran into was trying to build a particle with spin 1/2. He stated in one of these papers in this book that unless this problem could be solved, geometrodynamics was not going to be useful for elementary particles. In his later book on general relativity, "Gravitation" by Misner, Thorne and Wheeler, no mention is made of geometrodynamics, and only one short reference to geons, which are short lived structures built from the space-time structure. Has the problem of spin been solved?
Also, take a look at
https://physics.mcmaster.ca/phys3mm3/no ... isspin.pdf by Ohanian, from 1984. I audited Ohanian's course in special and general relativity at RPI in 1981 (five years after I graduated from the MIT undergraduate program), and also met with him privately on a number of occasions. On one such occasion, he handed me a slip of paper with two references printed on it: Wheeler's 1957 paper, and his 1962 book that you mention above, and told me that I should study those thoroughly, which I did. They became a sort of physics "bible" for me. Because I had deliberately taken it upon myself to study SR and GR and geometrodynamics
before studying particle physics and quantum theory (the reverse order of how almost everyone else studies physics), I came to see the SR and GR as the "gold standard" of physics and could never be satisfied (and still am not satisfied) until I can understand particle physics and GR as simply and cleanly as I can understand SR and GR. While I was not formally enrolled in the physics department at RPI (again, I was an "audit" student), I regard Ohanian as my "thesis advisor," and Ohanian in turn, was one of many students who did their graduate work under Wheeler.
It is also a very good idea to take a look at Wald's book on General Relativity. Published in 1984, it was one of the first very serious studies of GR in view of Bekenstein / Hawking thermodynamics, which at the time was still new. The goal of my present work, starting with geometrodynamics and black hole thermodynamics, is to carry through and consummate the GR and QM unification that Wald envisioned.
[quote=jreed post_id=792 time=1648477391 user_id=72]
I have many books on general relativity. I also have a copy of Wheeler's book Geometrodynamics from 1962 which goes into his work on non-quantized Geometrodynamics. In it he tried to build a neutrino using only geometrodynamics. He could not do it. The problem he ran into was trying to build a particle with spin 1/2. He stated in one of these papers in this book that unless this problem could be solved, geometrodynamics was not going to be useful for elementary particles. In his later book on general relativity, "Gravitation" by Misner, Thorne and Wheeler, no mention is made of geometrodynamics, and only one short reference to geons, which are short lived structures built from the space-time structure. Has the problem of spin been solved?
[/quote]
Also, take a look at https://physics.mcmaster.ca/phys3mm3/notes/whatisspin.pdf by Ohanian, from 1984. I audited Ohanian's course in special and general relativity at RPI in 1981 (five years after I graduated from the MIT undergraduate program), and also met with him privately on a number of occasions. On one such occasion, he handed me a slip of paper with two references printed on it: Wheeler's 1957 paper, and his 1962 book that you mention above, and told me that I should study those thoroughly, which I did. They became a sort of physics "bible" for me. Because I had deliberately taken it upon myself to study SR and GR and geometrodynamics [i]before[/i] studying particle physics and quantum theory (the reverse order of how almost everyone else studies physics), I came to see the SR and GR as the "gold standard" of physics and could never be satisfied (and still am not satisfied) until I can understand particle physics and GR as simply and cleanly as I can understand SR and GR. While I was not formally enrolled in the physics department at RPI (again, I was an "audit" student), I regard Ohanian as my "thesis advisor," and Ohanian in turn, was one of many students who did their graduate work under Wheeler.
It is also a very good idea to take a look at Wald's book on General Relativity. Published in 1984, it was one of the first very serious studies of GR in view of Bekenstein / Hawking thermodynamics, which at the time was still new. The goal of my present work, starting with geometrodynamics and black hole thermodynamics, is to carry through and consummate the GR and QM unification that Wald envisioned.
