Fine-Tuning in the Physical Universe

Description

Is the universe fine-tuned for complexity, life, or something else? This comprehensive overview of fine-tuning arguments in physics, with contributions from leading researchers in their fields, sheds light on this often used but seldom understood topic. Each chapter reviews a specific subject in modern physics, such as dark energy, inflation, or solar system formation, and discusses whether any parameters in our current theories appear to be fine-tuned and, if so, to what degree. Connections and differences between these fine-tuning arguments are made clear, and detailed mathematical derivations of various fine-tuned parameters are given. This accessible yet precise introduction to fine-tuning in physics will aid students and researchers across astrophysics, atomic and particle physics and cosmology, as well as all those working at the intersections of physics and philosophy.

David Sloan is a Lecturer in Physics at Lancaster University. Following his PhD at Penn State, he has held positions at Utrecht, Oxford and Cambridge universities. Rafael Alves Batista is a research fellow at Radboud University. He obtained his PhD from the University of Hamburg. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Universities of Sao Paulo and Oxford. Michael Townsen Hicks is a researcher in the philosophy of science and philosophy of physics at the University of Birmingham. He completed his PhD at Rutgers University and has held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Oxford and Cologne. Roger Davies is the Philip Wetton Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. He is former Head of the Physics Department at Oxford, a past President of the Royal Astronomical Society and current President of the European Astronomical Society.

'... the questions posed here are of strong interest to many ... Recommended' C. Palma, Choice