Realism, Reduction, and the Renormalization Group in Quantum Field Theory
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The Physical Tourist Physics and New York City
Phys. perspect. 5 (2003) 87–121 © Birkha¨user Verlag, Basel, 2003 1422–6944/05/010087–35 The Physical Tourist Physics and New York City Benjamin Bederson* I discuss the contributions of physicists who have lived and worked in New York City within the context of the high schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions with which they were and are associated. I close with a walking tour of major sites of interest in Manhattan. Key words: Thomas A. Edison; Nikola Tesla; Michael I. Pupin; Hall of Fame for GreatAmericans;AlbertEinstein;OttoStern;HenryGoldman;J.RobertOppenheimer; Richard P. Feynman; Julian Schwinger; Isidor I. Rabi; Bronx High School of Science; StuyvesantHighSchool;TownsendHarrisHighSchool;NewYorkAcademyofSciences; Andrei Sakharov; Fordham University; Victor F. Hess; Cooper Union; Peter Cooper; City University of New York; City College; Brooklyn College; Melba Phillips; Hunter College; Rosalyn Yalow; Queens College; Lehman College; New York University; Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences; Samuel F.B. Morse; John W. Draper; Columbia University; Polytechnic University; Manhattan Project; American Museum of Natural History; Rockefeller University; New York Public Library. Introduction When I was approached by the editors of Physics in Perspecti6e to prepare an article on New York City for The Physical Tourist section, I was happy to do so. I have been a New Yorker all my life, except for short-term stays elsewhere on sabbatical leaves and other visits. My professional life developed in New York, and I married and raised my family in New York and its environs. Accordingly, writing such an article seemed a natural thing to do. About halfway through its preparation, however, the attack on the World Trade Center took place. -
SHELDON LEE GLASHOW Lyman Laboratory of Physics Harvard University Cambridge, Mass., USA
TOWARDS A UNIFIED THEORY - THREADS IN A TAPESTRY Nobel Lecture, 8 December, 1979 by SHELDON LEE GLASHOW Lyman Laboratory of Physics Harvard University Cambridge, Mass., USA INTRODUCTION In 1956, when I began doing theoretical physics, the study of elementary particles was like a patchwork quilt. Electrodynamics, weak interactions, and strong interactions were clearly separate disciplines, separately taught and separately studied. There was no coherent theory that described them all. Developments such as the observation of parity violation, the successes of quantum electrodynamics, the discovery of hadron resonances and the appearance of strangeness were well-defined parts of the picture, but they could not be easily fitted together. Things have changed. Today we have what has been called a “standard theory” of elementary particle physics in which strong, weak, and electro- magnetic interactions all arise from a local symmetry principle. It is, in a sense, a complete and apparently correct theory, offering a qualitative description of all particle phenomena and precise quantitative predictions in many instances. There is no experimental data that contradicts the theory. In principle, if not yet in practice, all experimental data can be expressed in terms of a small number of “fundamental” masses and cou- pling constants. The theory we now have is an integral work of art: the patchwork quilt has become a tapestry. Tapestries are made by many artisans working together. The contribu- tions of separate workers cannot be discerned in the completed work, and the loose and false threads have been covered over. So it is in our picture of particle physics. Part of the picture is the unification of weak and electromagnetic interactions and the prediction of neutral currents, now being celebrated by the award of the Nobel Prize. -
Advances in Theoretical & Computational Physics
ISSN: 2639-0108 Research Article Advances in Theoretical & Computational Physics Supreme Theory of Everything Ulaanbaatar Tarzad *Corresponding author Ulaanbaatar Tarzad, Department of Physics, School of Applied Sciences, Department of Physics, School of Applied Sciences, Mongolian Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, University of Science and Technology E-mail: [email protected] Submitted: 27 Mar 2019; Accepted: 24 Apr 2019; Published: 06 June 2019 Abstract Not only universe, but everything has general characters as eternal, infinite, cyclic and wave-particle duality. Everything from elementary particles to celestial bodies, from electromagnetic wave to gravity is in eternal motions, which dissects only to circle. Since everything is described only by trigonometry. Without trigonometry and mathematical circle, the science cannot indicate all the beauty of harmonic universe. Other method may be very good, but it is not perfect. Some part is very nice, another part is problematic. General Theory of Relativity holds that gravity is geometric. Quantum Mechanics describes all particles by wave function of trigonometry. In this paper using trigonometry, particularly mathematics circle, a possible version of the unification of partial theories, evolution history and structure of expanding universe, and the parallel universes are shown. Keywords: HRD, Trigonometry, Projection of Circle, Singularity, The reality of universe describes by geometry, because of that not Celestial Body, Black Hole and Parallel Universes. only gravity is geometrical, but everything is it and nothing is linear. One of the important branches of geometry is trigonometry dealing Introduction with circle and triangle. For this reason, it is easier to describe nature Today scientists describe the universe in terms of two basic partial of universe by mathematics circle. -
Scientific and Related Works of Chen Ning Yang
Scientific and Related Works of Chen Ning Yang [42a] C. N. Yang. Group Theory and the Vibration of Polyatomic Molecules. B.Sc. thesis, National Southwest Associated University (1942). [44a] C. N. Yang. On the Uniqueness of Young's Differentials. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 50, 373 (1944). [44b] C. N. Yang. Variation of Interaction Energy with Change of Lattice Constants and Change of Degree of Order. Chinese J. of Phys. 5, 138 (1944). [44c] C. N. Yang. Investigations in the Statistical Theory of Superlattices. M.Sc. thesis, National Tsing Hua University (1944). [45a] C. N. Yang. A Generalization of the Quasi-Chemical Method in the Statistical Theory of Superlattices. J. Chem. Phys. 13, 66 (1945). [45b] C. N. Yang. The Critical Temperature and Discontinuity of Specific Heat of a Superlattice. Chinese J. Phys. 6, 59 (1945). [46a] James Alexander, Geoffrey Chew, Walter Salove, Chen Yang. Translation of the 1933 Pauli article in Handbuch der Physik, volume 14, Part II; Chapter 2, Section B. [47a] C. N. Yang. On Quantized Space-Time. Phys. Rev. 72, 874 (1947). [47b] C. N. Yang and Y. Y. Li. General Theory of the Quasi-Chemical Method in the Statistical Theory of Superlattices. Chinese J. Phys. 7, 59 (1947). [48a] C. N. Yang. On the Angular Distribution in Nuclear Reactions and Coincidence Measurements. Phys. Rev. 74, 764 (1948). 2 [48b] S. K. Allison, H. V. Argo, W. R. Arnold, L. del Rosario, H. A. Wilcox and C. N. Yang. Measurement of Short Range Nuclear Recoils from Disintegrations of the Light Elements. Phys. Rev. 74, 1233 (1948). [48c] C. -
Julian Seymour Schwinger Papers, 1920-1994
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf5870062x No online items Finding Aid for the Julian Seymour Schwinger Papers, 1920-1994 Processed by Russell Johnson and Charlotte B. Brown; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Manuscripts Division Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library Box 951575 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/ © 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Finding Aid for the Julian 371 1 Seymour Schwinger Papers, 1920-1994 Finding Aid for the Julian Seymour Schwinger Papers, 1920-1994 Collection number: 371 UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Manuscripts Division Los Angeles, CA Contact Information Manuscripts Division UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library Box 951575 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575 Telephone: 310/825-4988 (10:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Pacific Time) Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/ Processed by: Charlotte B. Brown, 13 October 1995 and Russell A. Johnson, 12 February 1997 Encoded by: Caroline Cubé Online finding aid edited by: Josh Fiala, November 2002 © 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Julian Seymour Schwinger Papers, Date (inclusive): 1920-1994 Collection number: 371 Creator: Schwinger, Julian Seymour, 1918- Extent: 28 cartons (28 linear ft.) 1 oversize box Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections. Los Angeles, California 90095-1575 Abstract: Julian Seymour Schwinger (1918-1994) worked with J. -
Joaquin M. Luttinger 1923–1997
Joaquin M. Luttinger 1923–1997 A Biographical Memoir by Walter Kohn ©2014 National Academy of Sciences. Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. JOAQUIN MAZDAK LUTTINGER December 2, 1923–April 6, 1997 Elected to the NAS, 1976 The brilliant mathematical and theoretical physicist Joaquin M. Luttinger died at the age of 73 years in the city of his birth, New York, which he deeply loved throughout his life. He had been in good spirits a few days earlier when he said to Walter Kohn (WK), his longtime collaborator and friend, that he was dying a happy man thanks to the loving care during his last illness by his former wife, Abigail Thomas, and by his stepdaughter, Jennifer Waddell. Luttinger’s work was marked by his exceptional ability to illuminate physical properties and phenomena through Visual Archives. Emilio Segrè Photograph courtesy the use of appropriate and beautiful mathematics. His writings and lectures were widely appreciated for their clarity and fine literary quality. With Luttinger’s death, an By Walter Kohn influential voice that helped shape the scientific discourse of his time, especially in condensed-matter physics, was stilled, but many of his ideas live on. For example, his famous 1963 paper on condensed one-dimensional fermion systems, now known as Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids,1, 2 or simply Luttinger liquids, continues to have a strong influence on research on 1-D electronic dynamics. In the 1950s and ’60s, Luttinger also was one of the great figures who helped construct the present canon of classic many-body theory while at the same time laying founda- tions for present-day revisions. -
The Discovery of Asymptotic Freedom
The Discovery of Asymptotic Freedom The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to David Gross, Frank Wilczek, and David Politzer, recognizes the key discovery that explained how quarks, the elementary constituents of the atomic nucleus, are bound together to form protons and neutrons. In 1973, Gross and Wilczek, working at Princeton, and Politzer, working independently at Harvard, showed that the attraction between quarks grows weaker as the quarks approach one another more closely, and correspondingly that the attraction grows stronger as the quarks are separated. This discovery, known as “asymptotic freedom,” established quantum chromodynamics (QCD) as the correct theory of the strong nuclear force, one of the four fundamental forces in Nature. At the time of the discovery, Wilczek was a 21-year-old graduate student working under Gross’s supervision at Princeton, while Politzer was a 23-year-old graduate student at Harvard. Currently Gross is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Wilczek is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT. Politzer is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech; he joined the Caltech faculty in 1976. Of the four fundamental forces --- the others besides the strong nuclear force are electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force (responsible for the decay of radioactive nuclei), and gravitation --- the strong force was by far the most poorly understood in the early 1970s. It had been suggested in 1964 by Caltech physicist Murray Gell-Mann that protons and neutrons contain more elementary objects, which he called quarks. Yet isolated quarks are never seen, indicating that the quarks are permanently bound together by powerful nuclear forces. -
Arxiv:1711.04534V4 [Hep-Ph]
UCI-HEP-TR-2017-15 Millicharged Scalar Fields, Massive Photons and the Breaking of SU(3)C U(1)EM × Jennifer Rittenhouse West∗ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94309, USA (Dated: April 10, 2019) Under the assumption that the current epoch of the Universe is not special, i.e. is not the final state of a long history of processes in particle physics, the cosmological fate of SU(3)C × U(1)EM is investigated. Spontaneous symmetry breaking of U(1)EM at the temperature of the Universe today is carried out. The charged scalar field φEM which breaks the symmetry is found to be ruled out for the charge of the electron, q = e. − Scalar fields with millicharges are viable and limits on their masses and charges are found to be q . 10 3e and −5 mφEM . 10 eV. Furthermore, it is possible that U(1)EM has already been broken at temperatures higher −18 than T = 2.7K given the nonzero limits on the mass of the photon. A photon mass of mγ = 10 eV, the ∼ −13 current upper limit, is found to require a spontaneous symmetry breaking scalar mass of mφEM 10 eV with charge q = 10−6e, well within the allowed parameter space of the model. Finally, the cosmological fate of the strong interaction is studied. SU(3)C is tested for complementarity in which the confinement phase of QCD + colored scalars is equivalent to a spontaneously broken SU(3) gauge theory. -
Standard Model of Particle Physics, Or Beyond?
Standard Model of Particle Physics, or Beyond? Mariano Quir´os High Energy Phys. Inst., BCN (Spain) ICTP-SAIFR, November 13th, 2019 Outline The outline of this colloquium is I Standard Model: reminder I Electroweak interactions I Strong interactions I The Higgs sector I Experimental successes I Theoretical and observational drawbacks I Beyond the Standard Model I Supersymmetry I Large extra dimensions I Warped extra dimensions/composite Higgs I Concluding remarks Disclaimer: I will not discuss any technical details. With my apologies to my theorist (and experimental) colleagues The Standard Model: reminder I The knowledge of the Standard Model of strong and electroweak interactions requires (as any other physical theory) the knowledge of I The elementary particles or fields (the characters of the play) I How particles interact (their behavior) The characters of the play I Quarks: spin-1/2 fermions I Leptons: spin-1/2 fermions I Higgs boson: spin-0 boson I Carriers of the interactions: spin-1 (gauge) bosons I All these particles have already been discovered and their mass, spin, and charge measured \More in detail the characters of the play" - Everybody knows the Periodic Table of the Elements - Compare elementary particles with some (of course composite) very heavy nuclei What are the interactions between the elementary building blocks of the Standard Model? I Interactions are governed by a symmetry principle I The more symmetric the theory the more couplings are related (the less of them they are) and the more predictive it is Strong interactions: -
Dark Matter, Symmetries and Cosmology
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Symmetries, Dark Matter and Minicharged Particles DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Physics by Jennifer Rittenhouse West Dissertation Committee: Professor Tim Tait, Chair Professor Herbert Hamber Professor Yuri Shirman 2019 © 2019 Jennifer Rittenhouse West DEDICATION To my wonderful nieces & nephews, Vivian Violet, Sylvie Blue, Sage William, Micah James & Michelle Francesca with all my love and so much freedom for your beautiful souls To my siblings, Marlys Mitchell West, Jonathan Hopkins West, Matthew Blake Evans Tied together by the thread in Marlys’s poem, I love you so much and I see your light To my mother, Carolyn Blake Evans, formerly Margaret Carolyn Blake, also Dickie Blake, Chickie-Dickie, Chickie D, Mimikins, Mumsie For never giving up, for seeing me through to the absolute end, for trying to catch your siblings in your dreams. I love you forever. To my father, Hugh Hopkins West, Papa-san, with all my love. To my step-pop, Robert Joseph Evans, my step-mum, Ann Wilkinson West, for loving me and loving Dickie and Papa-san. In memory of Jane. My kingdom for you to still be here. My kingdom for you to have stayed so lionhearted and sane. I carry on. Piggy is with me. In memory of Giovanni, with love and sorrow. Io sono qui. Finally, to Physics, the study of Nature, which is so deeply in my bones that it cannot be removed. I am so grateful to be able to try to understand. "You see I am absorbed in painting with all my strength; I am absorbed in color - until now I have restrained myself, and I am not sorry for it. -
The Quantum Structure of Space and Time
QcEntwn Structure &pace and Time This page intentionally left blank Proceedings of the 23rd Solvay Conference on Physics Brussels, Belgium 1 - 3 December 2005 The Quantum Structure of Space and Time EDITORS DAVID GROSS Kavli Institute. University of California. Santa Barbara. USA MARC HENNEAUX Universite Libre de Bruxelles & International Solvay Institutes. Belgium ALEXANDER SEVRIN Vrije Universiteit Brussel & International Solvay Institutes. Belgium \b World Scientific NEW JERSEY LONOON * SINGAPORE BElJlNG * SHANGHAI HONG KONG TAIPEI * CHENNAI Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Re. Ltd. 5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224 USA ofJice: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 UK ofice; 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE British Library Cataloguing-in-PublicationData A catalogue record for this hook is available from the British Library. THE QUANTUM STRUCTURE OF SPACE AND TIME Proceedings of the 23rd Solvay Conference on Physics Copyright 0 2007 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereoi may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 981-256-952-9 ISBN 981-256-953-7 (phk) Printed in Singapore by World Scientific Printers (S) Pte Ltd The International Solvay Institutes Board of Directors Members Mr. -
Gauge Theory
Preprint typeset in JHEP style - HYPER VERSION 2018 Gauge Theory David Tong Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 OBA, UK http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/gaugetheory.html [email protected] Contents 0. Introduction 1 1. Topics in Electromagnetism 3 1.1 Magnetic Monopoles 3 1.1.1 Dirac Quantisation 4 1.1.2 A Patchwork of Gauge Fields 6 1.1.3 Monopoles and Angular Momentum 8 1.2 The Theta Term 10 1.2.1 The Topological Insulator 11 1.2.2 A Mirage Monopole 14 1.2.3 The Witten Effect 16 1.2.4 Why θ is Periodic 18 1.2.5 Parity, Time-Reversal and θ = π 21 1.3 Further Reading 22 2. Yang-Mills Theory 26 2.1 Introducing Yang-Mills 26 2.1.1 The Action 29 2.1.2 Gauge Symmetry 31 2.1.3 Wilson Lines and Wilson Loops 33 2.2 The Theta Term 38 2.2.1 Canonical Quantisation of Yang-Mills 40 2.2.2 The Wavefunction and the Chern-Simons Functional 42 2.2.3 Analogies From Quantum Mechanics 47 2.3 Instantons 51 2.3.1 The Self-Dual Yang-Mills Equations 52 2.3.2 Tunnelling: Another Quantum Mechanics Analogy 56 2.3.3 Instanton Contributions to the Path Integral 58 2.4 The Flow to Strong Coupling 61 2.4.1 Anti-Screening and Paramagnetism 65 2.4.2 Computing the Beta Function 67 2.5 Electric Probes 74 2.5.1 Coulomb vs Confining 74 2.5.2 An Analogy: Flux Lines in a Superconductor 78 { 1 { 2.5.3 Wilson Loops Revisited 85 2.6 Magnetic Probes 88 2.6.1 't Hooft Lines 89 2.6.2 SU(N) vs SU(N)=ZN 92 2.6.3 What is the Gauge Group of the Standard Model? 97 2.7 Dynamical Matter 99 2.7.1 The Beta Function Revisited 100 2.7.2 The Infra-Red Phases of QCD-like Theories 102 2.7.3 The Higgs vs Confining Phase 105 2.8 't Hooft-Polyakov Monopoles 109 2.8.1 Monopole Solutions 112 2.8.2 The Witten Effect Again 114 2.9 Further Reading 115 3.