MTL - Into Unscientific-Chapter 429 The two highest peaks in contemporary physics!

  Chapter 429 The two highest peaks in the contemporary physics world!

   That's right.

  The boss who appeared at this time was none other than Old Yang.

  So far, the Chinese physics community has

   Highest peak.

  Mr. Yang was born in 1922 and is just a hundred years old now. He has made great achievements.

   And at the same time.

  He is also the most controversial scholar in the Chinese physics field so far, and there is no such thing as one of them.

  People who like Mr. Yang can't wait to love Mr. Yang shoulder to shoulder, and Bordillac can only kneel down to shine Mr. Yang's shoes.

  What about the people who hate Elder Yang?

  I can't wait to call him a rare classmate who can't even count F=ma.

  How high is the actual achievement of Mr. Yang?

  When introducing Hawking before, he once refuted the so-called [Yang Lao ranked 18th among the greatest scientists selected by "Nature" magazine], but did not introduce Yang Lao's specific achievements (see Chapter 211)

   Actually.

   There are many achievements of Mr. Yang, but there are only two most important points:

   Parity non-conservation and Yang-Mills fields.

  Mr. Yang won the Nobel Prize by virtue of the former, and became great by virtue of the latter.

  Students who were Einstein in their previous life should know.

  After the problem of universal gravitation is solved.

  Old love heard the last words of Captain Olga before he died, so he didn't stop him.

  He sees a big new problem facing physics, which is

  Unification of gravitational force and electromagnetic interaction force.

  So in his later years, Lao Ai devoted a lot of energy to the work of unifying gravitation and electromagnetic interaction.

   But unfortunately.

  Lao Ai failed to unify the two until his death.

   And the scientific community is still inside the nucleus, and found two other kinds of interactions—weak interaction and strong interaction.

   At that time, scientists did not even know how to describe the strong and weak interactions.

   At this time, Mr. Yang appeared.

  1954.

  Old Yang published his Yang-Mills gauge field theory.

   Next, several outstanding scientists such as Gell-Mann and Weinberg used this theory as a framework to give the quantum chromodynamics describing the strong interaction and the unified theory of weak electricity.

   That is, the unity of weak interaction and electromagnetic interaction.

   So far.

   Among the four kinds of interactions, the electromagnetic interaction, weak interaction and strong interaction are all completed under the framework of Mr. Yang's gauge field theory.

  The basic particle model mentioned before is the result of the development of the gauge field theory, which almost dominated the physics research after the 1950s.

  This is why it is said that Mr. Yang has made great contributions to the physics community.

   Therefore, this theory did not help Mr. Yang win the award, but it is the core of his current influence.

Of course.

   needs explanation.

  At the beginning of Yang Lao’s theory, he did not directly give how to describe the interaction, but he proposed a general framework.

   That is to lay a foundation, and then everyone will add bricks and tiles to build the building.

  For example, Te Hooft, who arrived one step earlier.

  Before Te Hooft, when people were doing electroweak theoretical calculations, they could only do brute force truncation, and the results obtained were far from the experiments.

Therefore.

  The electroweak theory before 70 years ago was not widely accepted by people.

   It is precisely because of Te Hooft's work that the electroweak theory has really become "useful".

  Therefore, there has been a saying in the academic world:

  Although Tehuft is younger than Mr. Yang, he has made Mr. Yang and Weinberg a success.

   Nowadays, many people have a tendency.

  Because the Yang-Mills field is located at the bottom of the theory, the entire Standard Model and even the entire quantum field theory are attributed to Yang Lao.

   This is also not objective.

  If the situation of Mr. Yang is to be benchmarked, it is probably a bit similar to the "Journey to Floating Miao" in the online article.

   It belongs to the originator of the so-called "Xianxia" novel category. Almost all subsequent Xianxia novels have its shadow, and it must be mentioned when talking about Xianxia novels.

   But you say it completely defines the pattern of Xianxia novels?

   This is obviously a bit extreme.

   Readers of "Star Change", "Immortal Rebellion" and "Mortal" are definitely not happy.

   So follow the previous statement.

  Old Yang belongs to the type of 'founder', but strictly speaking, he cannot be regarded as a 'pathbreaker'.

  For example, Mr. Yang had Edward Mills Purcell before him, that is, Mills in the Yang-Mills gauge field theory.

  Before Mills, there was Schrödinger.

  Trace back and forth, and finally return to the early days of physics more than a hundred years ago.

  So some of Yang Lao’s statements about being among the top ten in the history of physics and sitting around looking at five are actually trying to recruit him.

   It's not that the strength is not enough, but that the time is wrong.

  Mr. Yang’s age is destined to make it impossible for him to open up a big road, or to open up a big road independently.

   Objectively speaking.

  Mr. Yang's overall ranking in the physics field is probably around 35.

   and Stephen Weinberg probably front and back feet, in the 1.2 gear of Landau's ranking.

Whether it is "traitors, trash, traitors, old and young love shameless", or "the top five in history, even comparable to Einstein, better than Weinberg, Witten, Feynman, Dirac, Heisenberg, etc., between Hawking and Yang Lao There are still 100 Feynmans short." These are fallacies with strong personal emotions or misunderstandings.

   And among living physicists.

  National color is not considered.

  Old Yang can probably be ranked in the top five or top three—especially after the death of Gell-Mann in 19 and Stephen Weinberg in 21, Old Yang is firmly in the top three from any angle.

Of course.

  With a little personal feeling, it doesn’t hurt to say that Mr. Yang is number one.

   But one thing that needs to be corrected here is.

   It is wrong to say that Mr. Yang is also considered the first person in physics abroad.

  For example, many institutions in Europe believe that Mr. Yang and Weinberg are in the same class, while Europe and the United States believe that Glashow’s achievements are higher than that of Mr. Yang, but the gap is very, very small.

  The above-mentioned big guys are slightly inferior to another person at the same time.

  another.

   There is even a debate about whether he is a physicist for a 'physicist'.

  Compared to Higgs who arrived earlier, Mr. Yang's state is much more sluggish, only slightly better than Mr. Wang's spirit.

   So fast.

   After a brief chat with Hou Xingyuan, Mr. Yang was transported away by a team of security personnel.

but

  After seeing off Mr. Yang, Hou Xingyuan still did not leave the airport.

   It is not difficult to see another meaning from this move:

   It seems that there is still a giant that has not yet appeared.

   At this time, Weinberg and Gell-Mann had already passed away, and it was obviously impossible for Glashow to escape from the ICU to Chengdu.

  Higgs had already arrived before Elder Yang.

  See this scenario.

   Xu Yun suddenly had a guess in his mind.

   Murphy

It's him?

   I was called to the scene to pick up the plane from the morning, and more than 15 hours have passed.

  So even young people like Xu Yun and Lu Chaoyang couldn't hold on at this moment, and their eyelids were shaking like a jumping egg.

   Fortunately, Xu Yun stuffed a few Snickers bars in addition to the nut sticks in his clothes this time. Although these things are boring to death, they are still very good at fighting hunger.

   "Professor Lu."

   I glanced at the banner of [Warmly welcome well-known physicists from all over the world to Chengdu] which was still held up high.

  Xu Yun handed the Snickers bar to Lu Chaoyang, and asked:

   "How long do you think it will take for today's pick-up?"

  Lu Chaoyang took the Snickers bar, gently rubbed the corners of his eyes with his fingers, and thought:

   "It should be soon. Seeing Dean Hou's non-rest posture, he is obviously ready to pick up the next person and leave—or he will sit up and down for a while."

  Xu Yun nodded in agreement.

  It seems that Lu Chaoyang agrees with him, and Hou Xingyuan's physical fitness is estimated to be almost at the upper limit.

  Therefore, there is a high probability that there is only one boss who has not yet arrived.

   About twenty minutes passed.

  When the time came to about forty in the morning.

  The atmosphere at the airport pick-up port became solemn again visible to the naked eye.

  Xu Yun noticed.

   Even several physicists who had arrived earlier but had not left by bus with the other big shots stood up one after another.

   Among them, there are even Nobel Prize winners like George Parisi.

   Another thing worth mentioning is that .

  The majors of these big guys are basically related to topological quantum field theory and supersymmetric gauge field theory.

  See this scenario.

  Xu Yun's guess became more certain.

five minutes later.

  With the sound of a suitcase roller sounding.

  At the end of the special passage, there appeared a young foreigner with an oval face, an energetic, tall man, and a straight nose.

  This person is about sixty or seventy years old, wearing a gray woolen sweater, with the collar standing up, dragging the suitcase alone, without anyone accompanying him.

  Judging from his demeanor and attire, he looks like a foreigner visiting Chengdu.

  See this scenario.

   Even some media reporters who don’t know much about the physics circle can’t help but have a question in their hearts:

  What's the situation?

   Could it be a passerby who strayed into this occasion?

  After all, whether it is ostentation, age or appearance, he really doesn't match the posture that Hou Xingyuan prepared in advance.

   But soon.

  The doubts of the reporters were completely dispelled by the same deafening applause as when Mr. Yang appeared on the stage.

  Xu Yun also clapped his hands, feeling relieved that he had guessed the answer:

   Sure enough, it was him!

   Well known.

  There are only two top scientists in human history, Maverick and Lao Ai.

But if someone tells you one day that there is a person in the scientific world who is only at the 1-1.5 level of Landau, but once his theory is verified successfully, then he will immediately be promoted to the level of peer-to-peer love, you think is it possible?

  The answer is yes.

   There really is such a person.

he is the one.

  Edward Witten.

  A man of God who is as good as Mr. Yang in terms of existing achievements, a physicist who has been debated whether he is a physicist until now.

   If you don't know the name well

  Have you watched the American drama "The Big Bang Theory"?

   Sheldon said that he is studying M theory, and he is very disgusted that others say that he is studying string theory.

  The founder of this M theory is Edward Witten.

  Edward Witten was born in 1951 and is only 72 years old now. He is a topical existence that is not inferior to Yang Lao.

  In college, his first major was history—yes, he was a liberal arts student.

  Major in History and minor in Linguistics.

   Due to his keen interest in linguistics, Witten also had ambitions in politics.

After graduation.

  He also participated in George McGovern's presidential campaign.

  Early 1973.

   Witten entered Princeton University and studied applied mathematics.

   Then received a Ph.D. in Physics in 1976 under the supervision of theoretical physicist and 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics David Gross.

   Completed the thesis entitled "Several Issues in Short-range Analysis of Gauge Theory".

  Yes, it took three years to go from the first year of undergraduate to the Ph.D.

  In the years before and after Witten's graduation, string theory was very popular.

   Physicists at the time were looking for ways to incorporate fermions into the spectrum of string theory, which led to the proposal of supersymmetry, a mathematical model transformed from bosons and fermions.

   But the road to developing this new theory was not as easy as it seemed.

   By the middle of the 20th century.

  Theoretical and mathematical physicists have developed five different versions of string theory, and no one can figure out which one is the real string theory.

   These five different versions of the theory are called Type I, Type IIA, Type IIB, and two types of hybrid string theory (SO(32) and E8xE8.

  The big question at the time was to determine which theory was the actual theory of everything, and which theory had a low-energy limit consistent with the physics observed today.

   Results in the spring of 1995.

   Speaking at a string theory conference at the University of California, Witten came up with a surprising insight into the solution that would later start the second superstring revolution in physics:

  He believes that these five theories are not actually distinct, but different limits of a theory.

   He then unified all five theories into a new master theory, called M-theory.

   That is.

  Superstring theory.

till now.

  Superstring theory is still considered by the modern scientific community to be the most promising candidate for a theory of everything, that is, the theory that unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Notice.

  Superstring theory and string theory are two different things.

but!

  It must be mentioned that

  Superstring theory is a theory based on supersymmetry, and no such supersymmetric particles have been discovered so far—at the press conference of the Kamiokande detector, Suzuki Atsuto played a word game.

  The lack of experimental evidence is thus a severe limitation of M-theory.

   Although it is theoretically accurate and mathematically very consistent.

   Make an analogy.

  Other physical theories generally have physical inferences first, and then look for mathematical tools.

  For example, for the general theory of relativity, Einstein learned Riemannian geometry for a year.

  Another example is Mavericks, in order to study gravitation, came up with flow number technique, which is calculus.

  But the most unacceptable thing about M theory is that

  It is a physical explanation based on pure mathematics.

  So the current situation of M theory is very delicate:

  Not only can you not prove it to be true, but you also cannot prove it to be false.

  So in the scientific world, Edward Witten's situation is also very special:

   First of all, he is extremely well-known in mathematics circles.

  The Fields Medal in 1990 was awarded to Edward Witten, who was also the first physicist to be awarded the medal by the International Mathematical Union.

   But in physics

   You can refer to Yang Lao in China, which is constantly controversial.

He has won almost all scientific awards except the Nobel Prize, and was named the sixth most influential person after World War II by the American "Life" magazine, and he is also the one with the highest H index among contemporary physicists—Tian Liangwei's H index It was 77 and Edward Witten was 287.

  How outrageous is he?

  In 2018.

  Edward Witten wrote two lecture notes for summer school, which he then posted on RMP.

  The impact factor tmd of this thing is as high as 44+

  At the same time, in addition to M theory, Witten has many outstanding contributions.

  For example, some work on topological field theory, the most important of which are the Donaldson-Witten, Gromov-Witten, Seiberg-Witten theories, and the non-Abelian Chern-Simons field theory.

   In addition, he will explain the Jones polynomial and its derivatives as the object of quantum field theory, which is also a very important work.

   There is another proof of his positive energy theorem, and a physical proof of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem, etc.

   These theories may not be able to beat Yang Mills one-on-one, but when combined, Witten's current achievements are actually not inferior to Yang's old man.

  Just because the professional barriers are too high, Witten’s reputation outside the industry is not that big—basically, the characters who don’t appear in elementary and middle school textbooks are like this.

   Say something very objective.

   From a domestic perspective or a perspective with a tendency towards the same nationality, Mr. Yang may be regarded as the number one person in the physics world today.

  But from an international perspective, the ranking distribution is generally like this:

   Before 19 years.

   About 1.50% think Mr. Yang is number one, 1.50% think Glashow is number one, and 1.50% think Weinberg is number one—these three are considered to be in the same echelon.

   Then Gell-Mann, Higgs, and Te Hooft each accounted for 10%, and Witten accounted for 20%—sometimes Te Hooft would replace Yang Lao or Glashow's positions.

  The remaining 0.50% are other people.

   However, with the death of Gell-Mann and Weinberg, the relative mainstream ratio has also changed:

  Elder Yang and Glashow 20% each.

  Higgs, Te Hooft 1.50% each.

  Wei Teng 2.5 percent.

  The remaining 0.50% is from other people.

Of course.

  The reason why Weiteng can rank first is that the M theory has no fixed number now.

  Whether it is Lao Yang or Siegstehooft, their theories are all complete, equivalent to a novel that has been written, and everything has already been determined.

   And Witten?

  He is like a work that is as famous as those complete novels after one-third of the serialization. Maybe it will be the next Lord of the Mysteries if it is written down.

  Nowadays, the reason why many people oppose Witten is not a question of ability, but that he is a mathematician and should not participate in the selection of physicists.

   Like a calf.

   Is his calculus great?

   Of course great.

   This is a tool that can be a **** in the history of mathematics.

   But if you say that Maverick is a physicist with calculus alone, it must be very controversial.

   Another example is wheat.

  Are Maxwell's equations beautiful? strong?

   Of course beautiful, of course strong.

   But if Hertz hadn't discovered electromagnetic waves a decade after Wheat's death, no one would have known that Wheat's model was correct.

  Witten is such a situation.

  Although many people now murmur that string theory is dead, this actually refers to its employment enthusiasm, just like the four tiankengs of biochemical ring materials.

   Actually.

  At present, there are at least 15 Nobel Prize winners engaged in research in this area.

  After the discovery of the Higgs particle.

  Domestic Shuimu University also organized a symposium, and Edward Witten was invited, the seat was the first one—for details, you can search for the symposium on the topic of "After the Higgs Particle Discovery: Where is Fundamental Physics Going" at Shuimu University.

   Even Wei Teng at the dinner table after the meeting was arranged at the top.

   Indeed.

  In the eyes of many people, M theory may be the wrong model.

   But at least as of now.

  In the process of unifying the two pillars of modern physics, quantum mechanics and general relativity, and unifying the four basic interactions in nature, the most successful is the superstring theory.

all in all.

   Although Edward Witten is currently under constant controversy, his position is indeed quite stable.

  Compared to Higgs and Yang Lao, Edward Witten, who is only in his early 70s, looks very energetic, shaking hands and chatting with everyone.

   Then under the guidance of the staff.

  Edward Witten left the scene with other bigwigs.

   And to this step.

   Xu Yun and Lu Chaoyang, two tool people, were finally liberated.

  Then the two of them and the reception group took the bus back to downtown Chengdu and returned to the Niccolo Hotel where they stayed.

  After washing up, I went to bed early to rest.

  In the next few days.

  Xu Yun and Lu Chaoyang were occasionally called to act as welcome mascots, and sometimes they were helping to proofread reports.

that's it.

  Time passed slowly day by day.

   finally came to

  The opening day of the report meeting.

  (end of this chapter)