The Rise and fall of Theoretical Physics

- Ab'as Mitra
#n the first part of this article, # shall briefly
describe the birth and rise of ((#'eoretical
)'ysicsBB, from a somewhat historical perspective.
#t is warned at the outset that this description will
be extremely sketchy and far from comprehensive.
Further, the emphasis here will be on SSheoretical
7hysicsBB rather than SS0athematical 7hysicsBB.
7hysics as a sub*ect concerns observation,
understanding and prediction about the physical
world. #t is different from mere philosophical or
spiritual or religious understanding. #n a sense, it is
an evolved and more analytical form of -atural
%ciences studied in the pre'-ewtonian era. +nd
SSheoretical 7hysicsBB is the basic framework for
understanding and predicting physical
phenomena in terms of well defined premises,
laws in analytical form. hus although SSheoretical
7hysicsBB may involve various mathematical
formulae or tools, it is not mathematics in itself.
!n the contrary, SSheoretical 7hysicsBB originates
from observations and experimentations of
physical phenomena, and it could even be able to
predict unknown physical effects. he success of
SSheoretical 7hysicsBB .7/ lies in the verifiability of
its predictions.
#ndeed the birth of 7 may be related to the
improved facility for observations or technological
developments. #t might be seen that, there was
hardly any 7, say A:: years ago. Following this
vacuum, even without using telescopes, #yc'o
Bra'e .4=A@94@:4/ made accurate observations of
planetary motions and many other astronomical
phenomena like %upernova $xplosion. 1ased on
such observations *o'annes +e,ler .4=>4'4@<:/
published his laws on planetary motion during
4@:;'4;. %uch laws, in con*unction with %alileo
%alileiBs .4=@A'4@A5/ telescope based
observations overthrew the classic philosophy
based +ristotlean world views to herald modern
physics. For instance, +ristotle had argued that
the orbits of heavenly bodies must be circular
because circle has a perfect symmetry. 1ut
observations showed that such orbits in general
are elliptical. o be more precise, Isaac Ne-ton
.4@A594>5>/, guided by ReplerBs laws of planetary
motion, predicted an universal law of gravitation.
De was also influenced by CalileoBs experiments,
and probably, SSheoretical 7hysicsBB as a matured
sub*ect was born on Nuly =, 4@?> when -ewton
published
"0athematical 7rinciples of -atural 7hilosophy",
often referred to simply as the )rinci,ia.
While formulating his physical theories, -ewton
developed and used Calculus. Dowever, one
hardly needs to emphasi"e the fact that calculus
itself is no physics or science. -either any
mathematics nor any geometry by itself is physics
even though they may provide the language for
formulating 7. !nce Calileo
and -ewton formulated the
classical physics, it grew with
inputs from many greats. #n
classical physics, the
important law of elasticity,
that the restoring force is
proportional to displacement,
was given by $obert !oo/e.4@<=94>:</ in 4;@:.
Dowever, while -ewton considered light as a
collection of point particles even at the classical
level, it was 6hristian Duygens .4@5;'4@;=/ who
correctly predicted the wave nature of the same in
4@>?. +lso, it was Duygen who first got the laws of
motion for an oscillating pendulum. Later, William
Howan Damilton .4?:='4?@=/ reformulated
Robert Hooke
classical mechanics in 4?<< by the 7rinciple of
Least +ction, a method known as Lagrangian
0echanics. his was based on +nalytical
0echanics and variational calculus developed
earlier by Noseph Louis Lagrange .4><@' 4?4</. he
concept of SSLagrangianBB and SSDamiltonianBB
proved to be important milestones not only
classical mechanics but also for entire 7 whether
it is quantum physics or relativistic physics. he
variational principle used in the Lagrangian and
Damiltonian formulations were originally due to
)ierre de 0ermat 14@:4 '4@@=/ and 7ierre Louis
0aupertuis .4@;?'4>=;/. #n particular Fermat had
postulated that Flight travels between two given
points along the path of shortest timeG. #t is
interesting to note that the Snell2s La- of
refraction of light rays, obtained by Willebrord
%nellius .4=?:94@5@/, follows from the principle of
least actionKtime.
Amalie Emmy Noet'er .4??5'4;<=/ introduced
by 'er name in 4;<4. he
-oether a theoremBs heorem
explains the fundamental
connection between symmetry
and conservation laws in all
realms of 7. -ote, $mmy is
probably the best known
female theoretical physicist
and mathematician in the
history.
he basic structure of massive self'gravitating
astrophysical ob*ects, such as stars and galaxies, is
described by the so called Lane-Embden
equation which was independently obtained by
*onat'an !omer Lane.4?4; '4??:/ in 4?>: and
*acob $obert Emden.4?@59 4;A:/ in 4;:>. he
-avier9%tokes equations of fluid motion,
important for many areas of physics too, was
developed by Claude-Louis Na3ier.4>?='4?<@/ in
4?55 and Ceorge Cabriel %tokes .4?4;' 4;:</ in
4?=:.
he phenomenon of static magnetism and
electricity have been studied since antiquity. +nd
based on such observations and not from *ust
intellectual speculation, 6harles 6oulomb .4><@'
4?:@/ published the inverse square law of static
electricity, known by his name, in 4>?=. !f course
whether it is -ewtonBs or 6oulmobBs law, they all
have been verified by various observations and
experimentations. Few decades before it, in 4>=5,
Ben4amin 0ran/lin2s .4>:>'4>;:/ observations had
already opened up the sub*ect of electric currents.
here were observations suggesting intimate
connection between of electric and magnetic
phenomena, and the experiments of Dans 6hristian
Trsted.4>>>'4?=4/ and +ndrU'0arie +mpVre
.4>>='4?<@/ gave birth to the sub*ect of
electromagnetism during 4?4;'4?5:. Following
this, 0ichael Faraday .4>;4 '4?@>/ not only
invented the electric motor in 4?54 but also
developed the concept of an electromagnetic field.
he ultimate unification of SSelectricityBB and
SSmagnetismBB as well as the reali"ation that light
was a form of electromagnetic wave can be
ascribed to Names 6lerk 0axwell .4?<4'4?>;/. Dis
laws formally got announced in 4?@=. his was the
culmination of the classical phase of the modern
physics, and much of the fruits of this epoch
making discoveries were put to use for the benefit
of human kind by the researches of the great
technologist Ni/ola #esla .4?=@'4;A</. 0axwellBs
equations were however ignored by many peers for
a long timeQ one of the reasons for this was that
Lord +el3in .4?5A' 4;:>/, one of the most
influential 1ritish physicists of those days, was a
staunch believer in the existence of SSaetherBB and
was rather conservative about new physics and
technologies.
+fter -ewton, *o'ann Carl 0riedric' %auss
.4>>>'4?==/ is the best example of how
mathematicians of the highest order can
contribute to the pioneering development of
Amalie Emmy
Noether
heoretical 7hysics which are testable by
experiments unlike present day mathematical
physics, say in the field of Euantum Cravity, which
rarely make any verifiable prediction. #n 4?<=,
Causs formulated SS%auss5s la-22 relating the
distribution of electric charge to the resulting
electric field. his however got published only in
4?@= as one of the ingredients of the 0axwellBs
$quations of electromagnetism.
+ very important parallel development of classical
physics and 7 had also been in progress.
#'omas Ne-comen .4@@A'4>5;/ had developed
a commercially successful model of %team $ngine
in 4>45. +nd *ames att .4><@ 9 4?4;/ invented
a qualitatively superior version of the same during
4>@5' 4>>=. his and other associated
technological big leaps gave rise to #ndustrial
Hevolution .4>=:'4?=:/ in $urope. +s the
scientists wanted to understand the functioning of
new machines and improve their efficiencies
SShermodynamicsBB got developed as a sub*ect.
he concept of 6arnot 6ycle came in 4?5A
following the experiments by Nicolas L6onard
Sadi Carnot.4>;@ '4?<5/, and then $ud'ol,
Clausius .4?55'4???/ formulated the 4
st
and 5
nd
laws of thermodynamics in 4?=:. +nd it is he who
introduced the concept of entropy in 4?@=.
Further in 4?>:, he found SSLirial heoremBB which
connects the potential and kinetic energies of a
fluid. + crucial aspect of 4
st
law is the concept of
SSmechanical equivalence of heatBB was developed
by *ulius 3on Mayer .4?:4'4?@;/ and *ames
*oules .4?4?'4??;/ during 4?A:'4?A< through a
series of experiments. %uch experiments and the
development of thermodynamics led !ermann
3on !elm'olt7 .4?54'4?;A8 to formulate the
7rinciple of 6onservation of $nergy. #n 4?>4,
Delmholt" also announced that the velocity of the
propagation of electromagnetic induction was
about <4A,::: meters per second2 +s to the <
rd
law of thermodynamics, Lord +el3in first spoke
about an absolute "ero of temperature. 1y armed
with the laws of conservation of energy and
-ewtonian gravitation, Delmholt" and Relvin
independently developed one of the fundamental
aspects of heoretical +strophysics in the
nineteenth century3
+ self'gravitating fluid, during its contraction, not
only becomes hotter but also must radiate out
part of the released gravitational potential energy
.D'R 7rocess/.
he birth of %tatistical 0echanics can be largely
attributed to the physical intuition of Lud-i"
Bolt7man .4?AA'4;:@/. 1y 4;??, he was a very
well known physicist and even became a Fellow of
the %wedish Hoyal +cademy of %ciences. #t is after
this period that he developed atomic theory of
heat. De along with Names 0axwell gave the
0axwell' 1olt"man distribution formula of speeds
of atoms in a gas. Dowever most of his peers
wanted to see SSheatBB only as a form of energy
and were not ready to attribute microscopic
molecular motions to it. his was one of the
reasons which drove 1olt"man to mental
depression, and he leapt to his death into the
+driatic sea at rieste on %ept. :=,4;:@. Dis
tombstone bears the inscription3 S=/ ln 2
#ronically, the spot where he committed suicide is
ad*acent to the #nternational 6entre for
heoretical 7hysics .#67/.
he spectrum of a black body radiation, being
studied experimentally since 4?=:, could not be
explained by a single
theoretical formula. #n 4;::,
Ma9 )lanc/ .4?=?'4;A>/
offered the much needed
theoretical platform by
introducing the revolutionary
concept that radiation can be
seen as sum of discrete quanta
whose energies are
Max Planck
proportional to the frequency of the radiation.
Dowever, historically, 1olt"man had suggested in
4?>> that, in a physical system, energy can appear
in discrete values. Formally the concept of a
SSphotonBB as the quanta of radiation was further
developed by $instein in 4;:= while explaining the
phenomenon of SS7hoto'electricityBB discovered in
7hilipp Lenard 4;:5. Formally, the term "photons",
was however introduced by Cilbert -. Lewis
.4?>='4;=@/ in 4;5@. he old form of Euantum
0echanics .E0/ came into being in 4;4< as Niels
Bo'r .4??='4;@5/ offered a model of atoms where
electrons revolve the central nucleus in orbits
having quanti"ed energies. he 1ohr model was a
quantum improvement of the model of atomic
nucleus offered by $rnest Hutherford .4?>4'4;<>/
*ust two years earlier. 1ohrBs research is a very
important in 7 contribution because it correctly
explained the spectral lines of the hydrogen atom.
+ccordingly, 1ohr won the -obel pri"e for this
successful modelKtheory in 4;5=.
o see the close relationship of 7 with
observations and experimentations, we may recall
the Mic'elson:Morley e9,eriment performed in
4??> by +lbert 0ichelson .4?=5'4;<4/ and $dward
0orley .4?<?'4;5</. #t was designed to detect the
relative speed of $arth with respect to the aether.
he nullKnegative result of this experiment
suggested that the speed of light in the vacuum is
constant and vacuum is actually not filled with any
mythical fluid, aether through which light waves
were supposed to propagate. his result
challenged the Calilean Helativity, and in order to
explain this null result, in 4?;=; !endric/ Loren7
.4?=<'4;5?/ proposed that moving bodies contract
in the direction of motion. %uch a Length
contraction was already postulated by Ceorge
Francis Fit"Cerald .4?=4'4;:4/ in 4??;. +ctually,
0axwellBs equations of electromagnetism obtained
in 4;@= are not invariant under Calilean
ransformation, and thus new laws of coordinate
transformations were already due irrespective of
0ichelson 9 0orley null results. +nd this was
probably first reali"ed by *ules !enri )oincar6
.4?=A 9 4;45/. De elevated the proposal of SSLorent"
9 Fit"erald 6ontractionBB into a revolutionary new
complete coordinateKvelocity transformation law,
i.e., SSLorent" ransformationsBB. +s he showed that
0axwellBs equations are invariant under the new
transformation law, pre'natal phase of %pecial
heory of Helativity .%H/ was born. #ncidentally, it
was called SSspecialBB because the relevant
transformations were thought to be applicable only
for inertial frames. he fact that physical laws must
be invariant under appropriate coordinate
transformations, in other words, the principle of
relativity was laid down by 7oincare. De made such
presentations to the +cademy of %ciences in 7aris
on = Nune 4;:=. #n fact the most famous equation
of physics $&0c
5
first appeared in 7oincareBs
manuscript.
Further Emil %eor" Co'n .4?=A 9 4;AA/ also
published two papers in 4;:A whose title
contained the phrase SSelectrodynamics of moving
bodiesBB, and derived most of %H. Dowever, 6ohn
thought that Lorent" ransformations had validity
only for optical phenomena.
Met, %H, as a fundamental and complete physical
theory, was developed by Albert Einstein. Dis
paper SS!n the $lectrodynamics of 0oving
1odiesBB, submitted on Nune <:, 4;:= and
published on %eptember 5@, 4;:=, is the true
thesis on %H. o $instein, the phenomenon of
constancy of the speed of light was not *ust a
result of 0ichelson 90orley experiment, nor *ust a
consequence of 0axwellBs electromagnetism, but
on the other hand, a fundamental law of the
7hysical World. +ccordingly, he independently
considered SS7rinciple of HelativityBB a fundamental
all encompassing fact of 7hysics. 1y basing on
these two fundamental postulates, he arrived at
the Lorent" ransformation formulae. While the
$&0c
5
formula found by 7oincare was only in the
context of electromagnetic waves, the same for
$instein was a fundamental equivalence of SS0assBB
and SS$nergyBB. $insteinBs paper announcing %H
did not cite a single reference, an act, which would
be castigated by all modern science *ournals2
While 7oincarU too questioned the concept of
universality, but contrary to $instein, he continued
to use the concept of aether in his papers. Dis
contention was that the clocks in the ether show
the "true" time, and moving clocks show the local
time. #n effect, 7oincarU tried to keep the relativity
principle in accordance with classical concepts,
while $instein developed a mathematically
equivalent kinematics based on the new physical
concepts of the relativity of space and time. hus,
$instein was the real founder of %H.
#t became soon clear that -ewtonian gravitation
was inconsistent with %H, and after a long
struggle and several false starts, and also help
from various quarters, in particular from the
mathematician Marcel %rossmann .4?>? '4;<@/,
$instein arrived at the correct form of Ceneral
heory of Helativity .CH/ in 4;4@. his was now
called SSgeneralBB theory because it was applicable
to all frames. he central equation of CH, called,
$instein $quation, proposed that the geometry of
the A'( space'time continuum .tensor/ is directly
generated by 0atter $nergy 0omentum .tensor/.
+s far as the mathematical derivation of $instein
$quation is concerned, the mathematician (avid
Dilbert .4;?5'4;A</ derived it by elegant
variational principle almost simultaneously. #n
other words, gravitation is the manifestation of
space'time structure. %ome of these experimental
verifications of CH have been based on the
solution for the space'time structure around a
neutral SSpoint massBB .massenpunkt/ by +arl
Sc'-ar7sc'ild .4?>< '4;4@/ and <a3id !ilbert
.4?@5'4;A</ which differ by the choice of the
origin of the radial parameter. While modern
relativistic astrophysics correctly use the
geometrically significant SSDilbert solutionBB,
somehow, by some historical mistake, it is referred
to as the SS%chwar"schild %olutionBB2 he
gravitational mass of a star or galaxy, appearing in
this solution must indeed be positive and finite.
Dowever, in 5::;, it was shown .+. 0itra, Nournal
of 0athematical 7hysics, Lolume =:, pp. :A5=:53
http3KKarxiv.orgKabsK:;:A.A>=A/ that, for genuine
point mass .and not for a finite ob*ect/, the
gravitational mass would shrink to "ero due to
loss of mass'energy during prior shrinking of say,
a star. -onetheless, the SSBlac/ !ole )aradi"mBB is
based by ignoring this fact, and instead by
adopting the -ewtonian notion that even a point
particle can have arbitrary high mass. #t is now
widely acknowledged that CH is the most self'
consistent and beautiful physical theory
humankind has ever formed. $sthetics apart, CH
has passed most of the experimental tests carried
out so far to cross'check it, and definitely scores
well above several other relativistic gravity
theories proposed from time to time. %uch
alternative theories often have additionalK ad'hoc
assumptions and lack the beauty and simplicity of
CH. he only ad'hoc element added to CH is the
so'called SS6osmological 6onstantBB introduced in
4;4>. Dowever, SS6osmological 6onstantBB is badly
needed only by the presently popular .4;;?'
5:45/, SS6oncordance 6osmologyBB which could
very well be incorrect. +nd it is well known that, in
his later years, $instein himself wanted to do away
with this ad'hoc constant.
alking about 7oincarU, it must be mentioned that
he was also the first scientist to discover a
chaotic deterministic system and which would be
the foundations of modern chaos theory,
applicable for most of the physical systems having
multiple degrees of freedom and in particular for
complex systems. hough this article is about 7, #
cannot resist here telling the fact that 7oincare is
the founder of the mathematical sub*ect
SSopologyBB, and that proposer of the SS7oincare
6on*ectureBB of mathematics.
he concept of quantum mechanics took a new
and interesting turn in 4;5A with the postulation
of wave'particle duality by Louis de 1roglie in his
7h.(. thesisQ and in the same year, the phrase
"quantum mechanics"was first used by 0ax 1orn
.4??5'4;>:/ in his paper"Wur Euantenmechanik".
0odern E0 however was born, so to say, in 4;5=
when Werner Deisenberg .4;:4'4;>@/, 0ax 1orn
and 7ascual Nordan.4;:5 '4;?:/ presented its
0atrix Formulation. #n the following year, $rwin
%chrodinger .4??>'4;@4/ revolutioni"ed physics by
publishing the wave equation for a quantum
system. #n the same year, $nrico Fermi .4;:4
'4;=A/ and 7aul (irac .4;:5'4;?A/ independently
gave SSFermi9(irac statisticsBB applicable for
identical particles with half'odd'integer spin in a
system in thermal equilibrium. !n the other hand,
in 4;5A, Satyendra Nat' Bose .4?;A'4;>A/, in
collaboration with $instein gave 1ose9$instein
statistics, applicable for integer spin particles. +nd
this discovery paved the way for the theory of the
1ose9$instein condensate. 1y 4;5=, Wolfgang
7auli .4;:: '4;=?/ suggested the $xclusion
7rinciple, known by his name, by which two
Fermions are prohibited
to occupy an exactly
same quantum state. +
natural consequence of
the wave particle duality
was perhaps fu""iness for
the precise location of a
particle. +nd this was highlighted by the
SS8ncertainty 7rincipleBB by Deisenberg in 4;5>.
+ truly path breaking application of the 7auli
exclusion principle was made in 4;5@, when Halph
D. Fowler .4;?;'4;AA/ showed that the compact
'ite <-arf stars could be supported by
degenerate Fermi'(irac electron gas. +lso Arnold
Sommerfeld .4?@? ';=4/ was one of the pioneers
of atomic physics by using the Fermi'(irac
statistics and gave the concept of a Fine %tructure
6onstant.
Helativistic Euantum Field heory, the theory that
unified %H and E0, got developed with the
publication of theory of electrons .spin half
particles/ by 7aul (irac in 4;5?. his theory also
first gave the idea of anti'matterKpositrons.
#mmediately before this, in the same year, 7auli
had introduced the 5 X 5 7auli matrices as a basis
of spin operators, thus solving the non'relativistic
theory of spins. #n contrast (iracBs theory involved
AYA matrices. 1efore this, in 4;5@ Os/ar +lein
.4?;A'4;>>/ and alter %ordon .4?;<'4;<;/ had
.unsuccessfully/ purported to offer a relativistic
theory of electrons. Rlein Cordon equation was
however the correct relativistic form of
%chrodinger equation and describes the motion of
a quantum scalar or psedo scalar field, a field
whose quanta are spin'less particles.
7auli also postulated the existence of neutrinos
by studying beta'decay in 4;<:. he idea of
neutrinos got consolidated with the discovery of
neutrons by Names 6hadwick .4?;4 '4;>A/ in
4;<5.
#n 4;<A, Me"'nad Sa'a.4?;< ' 4;=@/ presented
the ioni"ation equation known by his name. his
equation was crucial for the interpretation of
stellar spectra.
#n 4;<= !ide/i =u/a-a .4;:>'4;?4/ published his
theory of mesons, which explained the interaction
between protons and neutrons.
(uring ;<='4;<?, !ans Albrec't Bet'e .4;:@'
5::=/ developed the theory of nucleo'synthesis, in
particular, carbon'oxygen'nitrogen cycle , in the
core of %un like stars. he traditional D'R process
is not sufficient to generate luminosities for main'
sequence'stars for so long.
R.H. Fowler
he development of Euantum $lectrodynamics
.E$(/ was completed by $ic'ard 0eynman
.4;4?' 4;??/, Nulian Seymour Sc'-in"er .4;4?
'4;;A/, 0reeman <yson .4;5</ and Sin-Itiro
#omona"a .4;:@ '4;>;/ in the 4;A:s. E$( is a
successful theory not because of any
mathematical novelty but because it was
successful in giving correct values of Lamb shift, a
small difference in energy between two energy
levels and of hydrogen atom, and
magnetic moment of the electron. he E$(
calculations for the Lamb %hift were carried out by
>ictor 0rederic/ eiss/o,f .4;:? '5::5/.
+s was noted earlier, self'gravitating ob*ects like
stars during their contraction must emit radiation.
+fter the formulation of CH in 4;4@, )ra'alad
C'unnilal >aidya .4;4? 9 5:4:/, first gave the
expression for space'time structure around a
radiating and contracting star in 4;=4. 7hysical
applicability of his work was straight forward and
transparent unlike many other exact solutions of
CH.
#n 4;=@, S'i3arama/ris'nan
)anc'aratnam.4;<A94;@;/ discovered a type of
geometric phase sometimes known for polari"ed
beams of particles passing through crystals. 0uch
later, this was rediscovered by 0ichael 1erry
.4;A4/ in 4;?A.
#n a landmark paper published in Heviews of
0odern 7hysics in 4;=> .B
?
0! ,a,er/, 0argaret
1urbidge .4;4;/ , Ceoffrey 1urbidge .4;5='5:4:/,
William Fowler .4;44'4;;=/ and Fred Doyle .4;4='
5::4/, gave the complete theory of synthesis of
various elements at the core of massive stars by
extending the initial work of 1ethe.
#n 4;=A, 6hen Mang.4;55/ and Hobert 0ills .4;5>
'4;;;/ formulated the first Euantum Field heory
for %trong #nteraction by invoking %8.</ .%pecial
8nitary Croup of Hank <, referring to some
geometrical symmetry of the interaction/
symmetry group. his Mang'0ills theory laid the
foundation for the Euantum 6hromodynamics
.E6(/. he so'called Diggs 0echanism by which
elementary particles are supposed to acquire their
mass was first proposed by 7hilip Warren
+nderson .4;5</ in 4;@5. #ts relativistic version got
developed in 4;@A by many including )eter !i""s
.4;5;/. #n 4;@4, *effrey %oldstone .4;<</
considered the possibility of spontaneously
broken continuous symmetry of interaction of
quantum fields and attendant spontaneous
generation of bosons.
1uilding on the pioneering work by %chwinger,
Diggs and Coldstone, %heldon Clashow .4;<5/,
%teven Weinberg .4;<</ and +bdus %alam .4;5@
'4;;@/ independently showed how the weak
nuclear force and quantum electrodynamics could
be merged into a single electroweak force. +nd
they *ointly won the 4;>; -obel 7ri"e in 7hysics.
Dowever as far as pure weak interaction is
concerned , its theory was first proposed by
Ceorge %udarshan .4;<?/ Z $obert Mars'a/
.4;4@ '4;;5/ in a conference paper in 4;=>. his
theory of was in terms of SSLector minus +xial
LectorBB .L'+/ Lagrangian and crucial for the
theory of weak interactions. %ix months later,
Feynman and 0urray Cell'0ann .4;<;/ published
similar idea in a *ournal. +s claimed by %udarshan,
Cell'0ann got this idea from him. #n fact Feynman
admitted in 4;@< that "he L'+ theory that was
discovered by %udarshan and 0arshak, publici"ed
by Feynman and Cell'0annBB. Dowever both
0arshak and %udarshanBs contributions were
ignored while awarding the 4;>; -obel 7ri"e in
7hysics.
#n 4;@<, %udarshan also developed the of way of
writing down the state of any type of light using
the coherent states as a basis. +fterwards, in the
same year, $oy *. %labauer .4;5=/ presented
almost the same theory and won the -obel in
physics in 5::=, while %urdarshan was again
denied due recognition2
he idea that hadrons .heavy particles/ like
neutrons and protons are made of Euarks were
independently proposed by physicists 0urray
Cell'0ann .4;5;/ and Ceorge Wweig.4;<>/ in
4;@A. he concept of asym,totic freedom; i.e.,
the bonds between quarks become
asymptotically weaker as energy increases and
distances decrease was predicted by 4;>:s by
(avid 7olit"er .4;A;/, by Frank Wilc"ek.4;=4/ and
(avid Cross .4;A4/. %erard 5t !ooft .4;A;/ had
also independently found asymptotic freedom
even earlier .but did not publish/.
E6( is a successful theory because the )ositron-
Electron #andem $in" Accelerator found
evidences for gluons and 4;>;. Later, perturbative
E6( also got verified up to a certain degree in
Lar"e Electron:)ositron Collider at 6$H-.
-ot only classical theories, but quantum field
theories too suffered from the problem of
occurrences of infinities as interaction distances
would tend to "ero. #n classical electron theory,
renormali"ation, an ansat" for removing such
unphysical infinities, were introduced by Lorent"
and 0ax +braham .4?>= '4;55/. #n the context of
E$(, +ennet' %eddes ilson.4;<@/ suggested
methods of renormali"ation in 4;>:s. #n the
context of E6(, one of the most popular
renormali"ation ansat" is due to Dooft and
0artinus N.C.Leltman .4;<4/. Henormali"ation
schemes would often be motivated by condensed
matter theories where the discrete structure of
atoms provide natural short distance scales. !n
the other hand, for quantum field theories, in
contrast, 7lank Length .[4:
'<<
cm/, should provide
such spatial cut off. #ndeed, all such
renormali"ation schemes have ad'hoc aspects and
many leading physicists such as (yson, (irac and
Feynman were critical about such attempts.
he task of physics is to explain not only
microscopic phenomena and fundamental
interactions but also all macroscopic phenomena
too. #n the world at large, physical entities like
clouds, leaves, mountains, coastlines do not have
well defined geometrical shapes. -either can one
endeavour to understand climate, rainfall, storm,
in terms of conventional basic physics. #n other
words, when large number of degrees of
freedoms are at play, there are complex systems
which require new broad physics. $ven a nucleus
with many nucleons may behave as complex
systems. hough natural philosophers have been
studying such complexities from antiquity, such
studies got a big leap as Beno@t B. Mandelbrot
.4;5A95:4:/ coined the term Fractal in 4;>= and
gave the modern framework for studying complex
systems.
CONCLU<IN% $EMA$+S3
# feel that, as of now, theoretical physics may have
peaked with the formulation of the FStandard
ModelG encompassing electromagnetic, weak and
strong .nuclear/ interactions in the 4;>:s. his is
so even though it is far from a fully self'constant
and complete theory. #n fact, the evidence for a
tiny yet finite neutrino mass creeping up since
5::5, is in contradiction with the predictions of
%0. Met, # think that, as of now, %0 was the best
bet, because .i/ #t does not invoke fictitious extra
spatial dimensions, .ii/ #t does not require ad'hoc
and unverified additional baggage like SS%uper
%ymmetryBB and most importantly. +nd most
importantly many of the important predictions of
the %0 have been verified3 e.g., , .i/ the neutral
weak currents caused by W boson exchange in
4;><, .ii/ 1ottom quark discovered in 4;>> .iii/ W
and W bosons discovered in 4;?4, .iv/ op quark
discovered in 4;;=, and .v/ au neutrino