The Nobel Prize-winning physicist and bestselling author of The First Three Minutes describes the grand quest for a unifying theory of nature--one that can explain forces as different as the cohesion inside the atom and the gravitational tug between the sun and Earth. Wirting with dazzling elegance and clarity, he retraces the steps that have led modern scientists from relativity and quantum mechanics to the notion of super-strings and the idea that our universe may coexist with others. But Weinberg asks as many questions as he answers, among them: Why does each explanation of the way nature works point to other, deeper explanations? Why are the best theories not only logical but beautiful? And what implications will a final theory have for our philosophy and religious faith? Intellectually daring, rich in anecdote and aphorism, Dreams of a Final Theory launches us into a new cosmos and helps us make sense of what we find there.

Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg combines exceptional physical insight with his gift for clear exposition, to provide a concise introduction to modern quantum mechanics, in this fully updated second edition of his successful textbook. Now including six brand new sections covering key topics such as the rigid rotator and quantum key distribution, as well as major additions to existing topics throughout, this revised edition is ideally suited to a one-year graduate course or as a reference for researchers. Beginning with a review of the history of quantum mechanics and an account of classic solutions of the Schrödinger equation, before quantum mechanics is developed in a modern Hilbert space approach, Weinberg uses his remarkable expertise to elucidate topics such as Bloch waves and band structure, the Wigner–Eckart theorem, magic numbers, isospin symmetry, and general scattering theory. Problems are included at the ends of chapters, with solutions available for instructors at www.cambridge.org/9781107111660.