The shape of inner space : string theory and the geometry of the universe's hidden dimensions
String theory says we live in a ten-dimensional universe, but that only four are accessible to our everyday senses. According to theorists, the missing six are curled up in bizarre structures known as Calabi-Yau manifolds. Here, Shing-Tung Yau, the man who mathematically proved that these manifolds exist, argues that not only is geometry fundamental to string theory, it is also fundamental to the very nature of our universe. Time and again, where Yau has gone, physics has followed. Now for the first time, readers will follow Yau's penetrating thinking on where we've been, and where mathematics will take us next. A fascinating exploration of a world we are only just beginning to grasp, The Shape of Inner Space will change the way we consider the universe on both its grandest and smallest scales.--From publisher description
Nonfiction
xvii, 377 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780465020232, 9780465028375, 0465020232, 0465028373
535492236
"Space/time" (poem)
Prelude: The shapes of things to come
A universe in the margins
Geometry in the natural order
A new kind of hammer
Too good to be true
Proving Calabi
The DNA of string theory
Through the looking glass
Kinks in spacetime
Back to the real world
Beyond Calabi-Yau
The universe unravels
The search for extra dimensions
Truth, beauty, and mathematics
The end of geometry?
Epilogue: Another day, another donut
Postlude: Entering the sanctum
"A flash in the middle of a long night" (poem)
Glossary