This book looks at the existence of many inter-relationships, both physical and mathematical, between the branches of theoretical physics which are traditionally treated as autonomous. These range from equilibrium statistical mechanics to unified theories of the fundamental interactions.

Table of Contents

The ways of nature; geometry classical physics in Galilean and Minkowski spacetimes; general relativity and gravitation; quantum theory; second quantization and quantum field theory; relativistic wave equations and field theories; forces, connections and gauge fields; interacting relativistic field theories; equilibrium statistical mechanics; phase transitions; unified theories of the fundamental interactions; the early universe; a conducted grand tour of the fundamental theories which shape our modern understanding of the physical world; this book covers the central themes of spacetime geometry and the general-relativistic account of gravity; quantum mechanics and quantum field theory; gauge theories and the fundamental forces of nature, statistical mechanics and the theory of phase traditions.