The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics

The Royal swedish Academy of Sciences ^ | October 5, 2004 | Press release

[AdmSmith]

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2004 "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction" jointly to

David J. Gross Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA,

H. David Politzer California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA, and

Frank Wilczek Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA.

A 'colourful' discovery in the world of quarks

What are the smallest building blocks in Nature? How do these particles build up everything we see around us? What forces act in Nature and how do they actually function?

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics deals with these fundamental questions, problems that occupied physicists throughout the 20th century and still challenge both theoreticians and experimentalists working at the major particle accelerators.

David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek have made an important theoretical discovery concerning the strong force, or the 'colour force' as it is also called. The strong force is the one that is dominant in the atomic nucleus, acting between the quarks inside the proton and the neutron. What this year's Laureates discovered was something that, at first sight, seemed completely contradictory. The interpretation of their mathematical result was that the closer the quarks are to each other, the weaker is the 'colour charge'. When the quarks are really close to each other, the force is so weak that they behave almost as free particles. This phenomenon is called ”asymptotic freedom”. The converse is true when the quarks move apart: the force becomes stronger when the distance increases. This property may be compared to a rubber band. The more the band is stretched, the stronger the force.

This discovery was expressed in 1973 in an elegant mathematical framework that led to a completely new theory, Quantum ChromoDynamics, QCD. This theory was an important contribution to the Standard Model, the theory that describes all physics connected with the electromagnetic force (which acts between charged particles), the weak force (which is important for the sun's energy production) and the strong force (which acts between quarks). With the aid of QCD physicists can at last explain why quarks only behave as free particles at extremely high energies. In the proton and the neutron they always occur in triplets.

Thanks to their discovery, David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek have brought physics one step closer to fulfilling a grand dream, to formulate a unified theory comprising gravity as well – a theory for everything.

[Our man in washington]

I have to admit I'm disappointed. I was hoping John Wheeler would finally get honored. Wheeler is one of the giants of American Physics in the 20th century. He's also 93 years old, and rules state that the Nobel prize must be given within the recipients' lifetime. Here's a link explaining what he's done:

http://www.usd.edu/phys/courses/phys300/gallery/clark/wheeler.html

Some have suggested that Wheeler and Stephen Hawking should share the Nobel prize for their work on black holes. At the risk of being morbid, both could be near the end of their lifetimes.

[Our man in washington]

I have to admit I'm disappointed. I was hoping John Wheeler would finally get honored. Wheeler is one of the giants of American Physics in the 20th century. He's also 93 years old, and rules state that the Nobel prize must be given within the recipients' lifetime. Here's a link explaining what he's done:

http://www.usd.edu/phys/courses/phys300/gallery/clark/wheeler.html

Some have suggested that Wheeler and Stephen Hawking should share the Nobel prize for their work on black holes. At the risk of being morbid, both could be near the end of their lifetimes.

[Our man in washington]

Sorry about the double post. I guess you can see why I'm not up for a Nobel prize in anything.

[RightWingAtheist]

Wheeler has always been problematic for the Nobel comittee. Nobel laureates have traditionally been "hedgehogs" who have made one major contribution, but it is so enormous to science that it merits the prize. Wheeler, on the other hand, is a fox amongst scientists, who has made myriad contributions to various areas of physics, and although none of them have been "earth-shattering", he has prehaps the most impressive ciruculum vitae in the field, and the sum total of his contributions is great indeed.

[LibWhacker]

American researchers also took the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Looks like another American sweep is in the offing (at least for those disciplines that matter).

Yet Americans are renowned to be the most stupid people on the face of the Earth. At least that's what the media would have us think others believe about us. All the while foreigners are trying like crazy to get their stupid, racist kids into our universities.

Way to go, France, Germany, China, Arabia!!! Another year goes by and you've contributed NOTHING to humanity.

</pro-American rant>

[Truth666]

Gravitational interactions are not asymptotically free.
I'm not a physicist, but there are still countries where physicists can pose basic question wihout fearing to loose their job : http://www.turpion.org/php/paper.phtml?journal_id=pu&paper_id=46

[P.O.E.]

As a rank layman fascinated by this, all I can say is "cool".

[RadioAstronomer]

LOL! :-)

[AdmSmith]

Here is an article by David Gross that describes the history of Asymptotic Freedom (not so many equations)
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9809060