Fractal Space-Time and Microphysics: Towards a Theory of Scale Relativity

This is the first detailed account of a new approach to microphysics based on two leading ideas: (i) the explicit dependence of physical laws on scale encountered in quantum physics, is the manifestation of a fundamental principle of nature, scale relativity. This generalizes Einstein's principle of (motion) relativity to scale transformations; (ii) the mathematical achievement of this principle needs the introduction of a nondifferentiable space-time varying with resolution, i.e. characterized by its fractal properties. The author discusses in detail reactualization of the principle of relativity and its application to scale transformations, physical laws which are explicitly scale dependent, and fractals as a new geometric description of space-time.