Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1The Photon: History of a Misrepresentation

Chapter 2The Concept of a Particle

Chapter 3Reinterpreting the Wavefunction

How Wavefunctions Combine in an Interaction

Wavefunctions in Atoms

Wavefunctions in the Early Universe

Chapter 4Matter and Its Motion

Spacetime and Quantum Mechanics

Quantum Mechanical Motion

Force, Fields, and Motion

Quantum Electrostatics

Recapitulation

Appendix ASpacetime

Time and the Expansion of the Universe

The Asymmetry of Time

Thermodynamic Time

Time Asymmetry in Quantum Mechanics

Some Metaphysical Thoughts

Appendix BCurved Spacetime: Illusory Particles?

Vacuum Fluctuations

The Unruh Effect

Hawking Radiation

The Underlying Physics of Hawking Radiation

Charge, Spacetime Geometry, and Effective Mass

Curvature in the Reissner–Nordström Solution

The Electric Field

Summary

Appendix CThe Vacuum and the Cosmological Constant Problem

Introduction

Vacuum Instability and Negative Energy States

QFT and Gauge Invariance

Solomon’s Redefinition of the Vacuum

Origin of the Inconsistencies in QFT and Summary