Reflections on a Revolution John Iliopoulos, Reply by Sheldon Lee Glashow
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Arthur S. Eddington the Nature of the Physical World
Arthur S. Eddington The Nature of the Physical World Arthur S. Eddington The Nature of the Physical World Gifford Lectures of 1927: An Annotated Edition Annotated and Introduced By H. G. Callaway Arthur S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World: Gifford Lectures of 1927: An Annotated Edition, by H. G. Callaway This book first published 2014 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2014 by H. G. Callaway All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-6386-6, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-6386-5 CONTENTS Note to the Text ............................................................................... vii Eddington’s Preface ......................................................................... ix A. S. Eddington, Physics and Philosophy .......................................xiii Eddington’s Introduction ................................................................... 1 Chapter I .......................................................................................... 11 The Downfall of Classical Physics Chapter II ......................................................................................... 31 Relativity Chapter III -
Einstein's Mistakes
Einstein’s Mistakes Einstein was the greatest genius of the Twentieth Century, but his discoveries were blighted with mistakes. The Human Failing of Genius. 1 PART 1 An evaluation of the man Here, Einstein grows up, his thinking evolves, and many quotations from him are listed. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein at 14 Einstein at 26 Einstein at 42 3 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein at age 61 (1940) 4 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Born in Ulm, Swabian region of Southern Germany. From a Jewish merchant family. Had a sister Maja. Family rejected Jewish customs. Did not inherit any mathematical talent. Inherited stubbornness, Inherited a roguish sense of humor, An inclination to mysticism, And a habit of grüblen or protracted, agonizing “brooding” over whatever was on its mind. Leading to the thought experiment. 5 Portrait in 1947 – age 68, and his habit of agonizing brooding over whatever was on its mind. He was in Princeton, NJ, USA. 6 Einstein the mystic •“Everyone who is seriously involved in pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man..” •“When I assess a theory, I ask myself, if I was God, would I have arranged the universe that way?” •His roguish sense of humor was always there. •When asked what will be his reactions to observational evidence against the bending of light predicted by his general theory of relativity, he said: •”Then I would feel sorry for the Good Lord. The theory is correct anyway.” 7 Einstein: Mathematics •More quotations from Einstein: •“How it is possible that mathematics, a product of human thought that is independent of experience, fits so excellently the objects of physical reality?” •Questions asked by many people and Einstein: •“Is God a mathematician?” •His conclusion: •“ The Lord is cunning, but not malicious.” 8 Einstein the Stubborn Mystic “What interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world” Some broadcasters expunged the comment from the soundtrack because they thought it was blasphemous. -
The Growth of Scientific Communities in Japan^
The Growth of Scientific Communities in Japan^ Mitsutomo Yuasa** 1. Introdution The first university in Japan on the European system was Tokyo Imperial University, established in 1877. Twenty years later, Kyoto Imperial University was founded in 1897. Among the graduates from the latter university can be found two post World War II Nobel Prize winners in physics, namely, Hideki Yukawa (in 1949), and Shinichiro Tomonaga (in 1965). We may say that Japan attained her scientific maturity nearly a century after the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1853 for the purpose of opening her ports. Incidentally, two scientists in the U.S.A. were awarded the Nobel Prize before 1920, namely, A. A. Michelson (physics in 1907), and T. W. Richard (chemistry in 1914). On this point, Japan lagged about fifty years behind the U.S.A. Japanese scientists began to achieve international recognition in the 1890's. This period conincides with the dates of the establishment of the Cabinet System, the promulgation of the Constitution of the Japanese Empire and the opening of the Imperial Diet, 1885, 1889, and 1890 respectively. Shibasaburo Kitazato (1852-1931), discovered the serum treatment for tetanus in 1890, Jiro ICitao (1853- 1907), made public his theories on the movement of atomospheric currents and typhoons in 1887, and Hantaro Nagaoka (1865-1950), published his research on the distortion of magnetism in 1889, and his idea on the structure of the atom in 1903. These three representative scientists were all closely related to Tokyo Imperial University, as graduates and latter, as professors. But we cannot forget to men tion that the main studies of Kitazato and Kitao were made, not in Japan, but in Germany, under the guidance of great scientists of that country, R. -
A Singing, Dancing Universe Jon Butterworth Enjoys a Celebration of Mathematics-Led Theoretical Physics
SPRING BOOKS COMMENT under physicist and Nobel laureate William to the intensely scrutinized narrative on the discovery “may turn out to be the greatest Henry Bragg, studying small mol ecules such double helix itself, he clarifies key issues. He development in the field of molecular genet- as tartaric acid. Moving to the University points out that the infamous conflict between ics in recent years”. And, on occasion, the of Leeds, UK, in 1928, Astbury probed the Wilkins and chemist Rosalind Franklin arose scope is too broad. The tragic figure of Nikolai structure of biological fibres such as hair. His from actions of John Randall, head of the Vavilov, the great Soviet plant geneticist of the colleague Florence Bell took the first X-ray biophysics unit at King’s College London. He early twentieth century who perished in the diffraction photographs of DNA, leading to implied to Franklin that she would take over Gulag, features prominently, but I am not sure the “pile of pennies” model (W. T. Astbury Wilkins’ work on DNA, yet gave Wilkins the how relevant his research is here. Yet pulling and F. O. Bell Nature 141, 747–748; 1938). impression she would be his assistant. Wilkins such figures into the limelight is partly what Her photos, plagued by technical limitations, conceded the DNA work to Franklin, and distinguishes Williams’s book from others. were fuzzy. But in 1951, Astbury’s lab pro- PhD student Raymond Gosling became her What of those others? Franklin Portugal duced a gem, by the rarely mentioned Elwyn assistant. It was Gosling who, under Franklin’s and Jack Cohen covered much the same Beighton. -
The Making of the Standard Theory
August 11, 2016 9:28 The Standard Theory of Particle Physics - 9.61in x 6.69in b2471-ch02 page 29 Chapter 2 The Making of the Standard Theory John Iliopoulos Laboratoire de Physique Th´eorique, Ecole´ Normale Sup´erieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France 1. Introduction The construction of the Standard Model, which became gradually the Standard Theory of elementary particle physics, is, probably, the most remarkable achieve- ment of modern theoretical physics. In this Chapter we shall deal mostly with the weak interactions. It may sound strange that a revolution in particle physics was initiated by the study of the weakest among them (the effects of the gravitational interactions are not measurable in high energy physics), but we shall see that the weak interactions triggered many such revolutions and we shall have the occasion to meditate on the fundamental significance of “tiny” effects. We shall outline the various steps, from the early days of the Fermi theory to the recent experimental discoveries, which confirmed all the fundamental predictions of the Theory. We shall follow a phenomenological approach, in which the introduction of every new concept is motivated by the search of a consistent theory which agrees with experiment. As we shall explain, this is only part of the story, the other part being the requirement of mathematical consistency. Both went in parallel and the real history requires the understanding of both. In fact, as we intend to show, the initial motivation was not really phenomenological. It is one of these rare cases in which a revolution in physics came from theorists trying to go beyond a simple phenomenological model, The Standard Theory of Particle Physics Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com not from an experimental result which forced them to do so. -
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The Second Lepton Family Klaus Winter, CERN The Nobel Prize for Physics for 1988 was awarded to L. Lederman, M. Schwartz and J. Steinberger for work on neutrinos in the early 1960s. In a letter [1] addressed to the "dear radioactive ladies and gentlemen", writ ten in December 1930, Wolfgang Pauli proposed, as a "desperate remedy" to save the principle of conservation of energy in beta-decay, the idea of the neutrino, a neutral particle of spin 1/2 and with a mass not larger than 0.01 proton mass. "The continuous beta-spectrum [2] would then become understandable by the assumption that in beta-decay a neutrino is emitted together with the electron, in such a way that the sum of the energies of the neutrino and electron is constant." Pauli did not specify at that time Fig. 1 — A recent photograph taken at CERN of Leon Lederman (left), whether the neutrino was to be ejected Jack Steinberger (centre) and Melvin Schwartz. or created. In his famous paper "An attempt of a theory of beta-decay" [3] the muon not decay into e + at the rate ween 1 and 2 GeV should be achievable. E. Fermi used the neutrino concept of predicted if such a non-locality exis Would these synchrotrons though, deli Pauli together with the concept of the ted ? ". On this view the muon would vir ver enough neutrinos? According to nucleon of Heisenberg. He assumed tually dissociate into W + v, the charged their specifications they should accele that in beta-decay a pair comprising an W would radiate a and W + v would rate 1011 protons per second, an unpre electron and a neutrino is created, analo recombine to an electron. -
The Twenty-First Century Paradigm and the Role of Information Technology
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Springer - Publisher Connector Chapter 2 The Twenty-First Century Paradigm and the Role of Information Technology In Chap. 1 , we considered demand by roughly classifying it into two types: “diffusive demand” and “creative demand.” The “paradigm of the twentieth century and before” was characterized by diffu- sive demand. The paradigm was constituted by a material desire to satisfy needs for food, clothing, and shelter, as well as transportation, and social mobility. Many of the industries that came into being in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were intended to satisfy such desires. I describe those material desires as diffusive demand leading to a “saturation of man-made objects .” It follows that new demand in the twenty-fi rst century will be generated by a new paradigm. Thus, in this chapter fi rst describes what the paradigms of the twenty-fi rst century are and then refl ects on the role played by the knowledge explosion, one of those paradigms, and the role played by information technology, which looks as if it came into being to solve problems created by the knowledge explosion. Exploding Knowledge, Limited Earth, and Aging Society What are the paradigms of the twenty-fi rst century? I believe there are three, which I classify as “exploding knowledge ,” “limited earth,” and “aging society” (Fig. 2.1 ). These three paradigms do not represent anything that is either good or bad for humanity. Each constitutes a basic framework containing both light and shadow. For instance, there has been an explosive increase in knowledge . -
Particle Detectors Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes Heidelberg, Summer Term 2011 The Physics of Particle Detectors Hans-Christian Schultz-Coulon Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik Introduction Historical Developments Historical Development γ-rays First 1896 Detection of α-, β- and γ-rays 1896 β-rays Image of Becquerel's photographic plate which has been An x-ray picture taken by Wilhelm Röntgen of Albert von fogged by exposure to radiation from a uranium salt. Kölliker's hand at a public lecture on 23 January 1896. Historical Development Rutherford's scattering experiment Microscope + Scintillating ZnS screen Schematic view of Rutherford experiment 1911 Rutherford's original experimental setup Historical Development Detection of cosmic rays [Hess 1912; Nobel prize 1936] ! "# Electrometer Cylinder from Wulf [2 cm diameter] Mirror Strings Microscope Natrium ! !""#$%&'()*+,-)./0)1&$23456/)78096$/'9::9098)1912 $%&!'()*+,-.%!/0&1.)%21331&10!,0%))0!%42%!56784210462!1(,!9624,10462,:177%&!(2;! '()*+,-.%2!<=%4*1;%2%)%:0&67%0%&!;1&>!Victor F. Hess before his 1912 balloon flight in Austria during which he discovered cosmic rays. ?40! @4)*%! ;%&! /0%)),-.&1(8%! A! )1,,%2! ,4-.!;4%!BC;%2!;%,!D)%:0&67%0%&,!(7!;4%! EC2F,1-.,%!;%,!/0&1.)%21331&10,!;&%.%2G!(7!%42%!*H&!;4%!A8)%,(2F!FH2,04F%!I6,40462! %42,0%))%2! J(! :K22%2>! L10&4(7! =4&;! M%&=%2;%0G! (7! ;4%! E(*0! 47! 922%&%2! ;%,! 9624,10462,M6)(7%2!M62!B%(-.04F:%40!*&%4!J(!.1)0%2>! $%&!422%&%G!:)%42%&%!<N)42;%&!;4%20!;%&!O8%&3&H*(2F!;%&!9,6)10462!;%,!P%&C0%,>!'4&;!%&! H8%&! ;4%! BC;%2! F%,%2:0G! ,6! M%&&42F%&0! ,4-.!;1,!1:04M%!9624,10462,M6)(7%2!1(*!;%2! -
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. -
Appendix E Nobel Prizes in Nuclear Science
Nuclear Science—A Guide to the Nuclear Science Wall Chart ©2018 Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP) Appendix E Nobel Prizes in Nuclear Science Many Nobel Prizes have been awarded for nuclear research and instrumentation. The field has spun off: particle physics, nuclear astrophysics, nuclear power reactors, nuclear medicine, and nuclear weapons. Understanding how the nucleus works and applying that knowledge to technology has been one of the most significant accomplishments of twentieth century scientific research. Each prize was awarded for physics unless otherwise noted. Name(s) Discovery Year Henri Becquerel, Pierre Discovered spontaneous radioactivity 1903 Curie, and Marie Curie Ernest Rutherford Work on the disintegration of the elements and 1908 chemistry of radioactive elements (chem) Marie Curie Discovery of radium and polonium 1911 (chem) Frederick Soddy Work on chemistry of radioactive substances 1921 including the origin and nature of radioactive (chem) isotopes Francis Aston Discovery of isotopes in many non-radioactive 1922 elements, also enunciated the whole-number rule of (chem) atomic masses Charles Wilson Development of the cloud chamber for detecting 1927 charged particles Harold Urey Discovery of heavy hydrogen (deuterium) 1934 (chem) Frederic Joliot and Synthesis of several new radioactive elements 1935 Irene Joliot-Curie (chem) James Chadwick Discovery of the neutron 1935 Carl David Anderson Discovery of the positron 1936 Enrico Fermi New radioactive elements produced by neutron 1938 irradiation Ernest Lawrence -
Roman Jackiw: a Beacon in a Golden Period of Theoretical Physics
Roman Jackiw: A Beacon in a Golden Period of Theoretical Physics Luc Vinet Centre de Recherches Math´ematiques, Universit´ede Montr´eal, Montr´eal, QC, Canada [email protected] April 29, 2020 Abstract This text offers reminiscences of my personal interactions with Roman Jackiw as a way of looking back at the very fertile period in theoretical physics in the last quarter of the 20th century. To Roman: a bouquet of recollections as an expression of friendship. 1 Introduction I owe much to Roman Jackiw: my postdoctoral fellowship at MIT under his supervision has shaped my scientific life and becoming friend with him and So Young Pi has been a privilege. Looking back at the last decades of the past century gives a sense without undue nostalgia, I think, that those were wonderful years for Theoretical Physics, years that have witnessed the preeminence of gauge field theories, deep interactions with modern geometry and topology, the overwhelming revival of string theory and remarkably fruitful interactions between particle and condensed matter physics as well as cosmology. Roman was a main actor in these developments and to be at his side and benefit from his guidance and insights at that time was most fortunate. Owing to his leadership and immense scholarship, also because he is a great mentor, Roman has always been surrounded by many and has thus arXiv:2004.13191v1 [physics.hist-ph] 27 Apr 2020 generated a splendid network of friends and colleagues. Sometimes, with my own students, I reminisce about how it was in those days; I believe it is useful to keep a memory of the way some important ideas shaped up and were relayed. -
Geometric Approaches to Quantum Field Theory
GEOMETRIC APPROACHES TO QUANTUM FIELD THEORY A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Science and Engineering 2020 Kieran T. O. Finn School of Physics and Astronomy Supervised by Professor Apostolos Pilaftsis BLANK PAGE 2 Contents Abstract 7 Declaration 9 Copyright 11 Acknowledgements 13 Publications by the Author 15 1 Introduction 19 1.1 Unit Independence . 20 1.2 Reparametrisation Invariance in Quantum Field Theories . 24 1.3 Example: Complex Scalar Field . 25 1.4 Outline . 31 1.5 Conventions . 34 2 Field Space Covariance 35 2.1 Riemannian Geometry . 35 2.1.1 Manifolds . 35 2.1.2 Tensors . 36 2.1.3 Connections and the Covariant Derivative . 37 2.1.4 Distances on the Manifold . 38 2.1.5 Curvature of a Manifold . 39 2.1.6 Local Normal Coordinates and the Vielbein Formalism 41 2.1.7 Submanifolds and Induced Metrics . 42 2.1.8 The Geodesic Equation . 42 2.1.9 Isometries . 43 2.2 The Field Space . 44 2.2.1 Interpretation of the Field Space . 48 3 2.3 The Configuration Space . 50 2.4 Parametrisation Dependence of Standard Approaches to Quan- tum Field Theory . 52 2.4.1 Feynman Diagrams . 53 2.4.2 The Effective Action . 56 2.5 Covariant Approaches to Quantum Field Theory . 59 2.5.1 Covariant Feynman Diagrams . 59 2.5.2 The Vilkovisky–DeWitt Effective Action . 62 2.6 Example: Complex Scalar Field . 66 3 Frame Covariance in Quantum Gravity 69 3.1 The Cosmological Frame Problem .