Chapter 745 Professor Higgs’ legacy
In early April, something big happened in the world of physics.
On April 8, Peter Higgs, the British scientist who proposed the "God Particle" and Nobel Prize winner in physics, passed away at the age of 94.
In the development process of physics, there are many scholars who can be recorded in history and influence the development of the entire field.
Beginning with Galileo, empirical physics in the history of civilization transformed into classical physics; to Newton, a great figure who cannot be bypassed in the history of the development of physics and even the history of science; to Einstein, Maxwell, Planck, and Bohr. The modern physics system based on the "Standard Model" gradually established by Zeman and others.
It can be said that in these three hundred years, physics has undergone earth-shaking changes, from macro to micro, from low speed to high speed, etc., affecting the entire era and the development of the entire civilization.
In the 'Standard Model', the most difficult to find and extremely important 'God Particle' and the 'Higgs Mechanism' proposed by Professor Peter Higgs are the key to explaining how other particles acquire mass and how the universe Form the core of quality, matter.
It is no exaggeration to say that in the past half century, the most significant achievement in the field of theoretical physics has been the successful detection of the Higgs boson at the Large Strong Particle Collider (LHC).
It completed the Standard Model and laid the foundation for the edifice of modern physics.
And today, this probably the most impressive physicist of the 21st century passed away.
However, compared to most theoretical physicists, Higgs is lucky.
At least he lived to see the day when his theories were confirmed.
This is something that countless other physicists have dreamed of but failed to achieve.
Many stars burn alone and go out, long before their light reaches our eyes.
Higgs was lucky, he saw the light emanating from the star he created with his own hands.
In the office, the joy that the CRHPC, the circular super particle collider, was about to be built was dashed away at this moment.
Both Xu Chuan and Lin Feng stared at the news on their mobile phones in silence.
For the physics community, this is a highly respected senior figure. His groundbreaking work inspired thousands of scientists, and his contributions will continue to inspire generations of others.
With a long sigh, Xu Chuan put down the pen in his hand, stood up and walked out of the office.
It was raining lightly in April in the south of the Yangtze River, probably because God was also sad for the passing of this great scholar.
Looking at the gloomy sky, Xu Chuan thought silently.
The death of Professor Higgs deeply touched him.
If you are talking about luck, then he is probably the luckiest person.
After all, it can be said that the opportunity to come back again with memories is what almost everyone dreams of.
However, Higgs' dream has come true, and he has seen his own star; then where is his star?
Staring at the drizzle outside the hospital, my thoughts drifted into the distance unconsciously.
I don't know how much time passed, but Xu Chuan, who was standing at the door of the courtyard, heard someone calling him.
"Professor."
After coming back to his senses from a trance, he looked at the source of the voice. To his surprise, the person calling him turned out to be Tang Ran, an assistant from Nanda University.
"Why are you here?"
Tang Ran took out a letter from the backpack he carried with him and handed it over: "Professor, this is a letter mailed from the University of Edinburgh in the UK."
As she said that, she glanced at Xu Chuan, was silent for a moment and continued: "It was sent by Peter Higgs."
She had seen the news published on the Internet that Professor Peter Higgs passed away a few hours ago.
At almost the right time, NTU received a letter from Professor Higgs from the University of Edinburgh.
Looking at the letter in Tang Ran's hand, Xu Chuan fell silent.
"I know."
After a while, he said softly, took the letter from Tang Ran, turned around and walked into the office.
Behind him, Tang Ran looked at Xu Chuan's back, opened his mouth and hesitated to speak.
Xu Chuan closed the office door and sat on the sofa, opening the envelope.
Inside the cowhide yellow letter bag is a thick stack of manuscript paper, which is simply clipped together by a black folder.
And the most superficial thing is two or three thin sheets of letter paper, placed on the very surface.
Xu Chuan reached out to pick up the letter and his eyes fell on the not-so-regular handwriting.
[Hello, Professor Xu Chuan, I am Peter Higgs. 】
[I’ve wanted to write you a letter for a long time, but I haven’t been able to spare the time because I’ve been recovering from illness. 】
[Although we are a little regretful that we have never met, but for us scholars, it is not a big deal. 】
[I have read all the papers and results you have done in physics. Although those things take me a long time to read and think about,]
[For a ninety-year-old man, I think this is a very difficult thing. To know the mathematical knowledge you have created and researched, even if I am young, it is difficult to understand. Not to mention the person I am today. 】
[However, I can proudly tell you that whether it is the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem, the proof of the proton radius and the use of mathematical methods to calculate the optimal search decay channel for high-energy particles, or the grand unification of strongly correlated electron systems I read them all completely and understood them. 】
[I am very moved to see a young and great scholar growing vigorously, absorbing and creating a large amount of knowledge in my lifetime. That is the future, and I am looking forward to it, but I probably don’t have much time to witness it.】
[Although I regret not being able to meet you, it is gratifying enough to see successors in the field of physics in my lifetime. 】
[In ancient Chinese words, the waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves in front, and the green is better than the blue. This is probably the most appropriate word. I also sincerely hope that you can go further on this academic path. 】
[By the way, Francois Engler came to visit me some time ago. He said that he was studying dark matter, the unified theory of strong electricity, gravity, and Einstein Rosen Bridge (space hole). 】
[This makes me very emotional. I have to say that the fields you have covered and researched are really too broad. And this is only part of your research in physics. 】
[With such vast knowledge and research directions, in my memory, I am afraid that only Mr. Einstein whom I met when I was young can compare with it. 】
[Getting back to the subject, listen to what that bad old man Engler said. In the fields of unified theory of strong electricity, dark matter, and gravity, you don’t seem to have much direction at the moment. Coincidentally, in my early years when I was young and still had the energy to think and do research, I also thought about these issues. 】
[As for these things, I have asked my servant to sort them out and mail them to you together with this letter. Hope they can help you some. 】【Also, I have a small request. 】
[If you can solve or confirm one of these problems one day in the future, if you can, remember to burn a copy for me in front of my tomb. 】
[Maybe I can see it in heaven, right? 】
【.】
[Oh, by the way, there is one more thing I want to talk to you about. 】
[As for the tit-for-tat issue between CERN and CRHPC, to be honest, perhaps they can indeed promote the prosperity of theoretical physics and high-energy physics to a greater extent in a short period of time. 】
[But if you think about it from a long-term perspective, their tit-for-tat confrontation is very likely to separate the relatively unified academic community. In my opinion, this is not good news. 】
[Because whether it is theoretical physics, mathematics, or other disciplines, as long as it is theoretical research, it must not require the power of a certain country, a certain region, or a certain organization. What it requires is the joint efforts of the entire civilization. 】
[Perhaps I saw something in my last moments of life, so I hope that in the future, if the CRHPC you lead replaces CERN, I hope you can accept physicists from various countries in CERN. 】
[Most of them are innocent and not interested in these fights. The end of civilization, even if it happens in the future, all I can do is pray in the sky, hoping that it will come more slowly.]
【.】
Xu Chuan carefully read the letter word for word.
"We have met, Professor Higgs."
Looking at the letter in his hand, Xu Chuan murmured to himself, and a shadow appeared in front of his eyes.
That was the scholar who wrote him the letter, Peter Higgs.
If Edward Witten was his mentor for two lifetimes, then Professor Peter Higgs had given him a wealth of knowledge in the field of high-energy physics in the past.
Including the exploration of dark matter in his previous life, this deceased old man also brought him some inspiration and theoretical concepts.
It can be said that in his previous life, he was able to perfectly predict and discover dark matter. Professor Higgs made a significant contribution.
"I can't guarantee anything else, but I will definitely remember the dark matter theory."
Staring at the letter, Xu Chuan breathed a long sigh of relief and said silently in his heart.
As long as the construction of the Ring Super Particle Collider CRHPC is completed, dark matter will be a product destined to be put into his pocket.
It's just a pity that Professor Higgs has never been able to see it in person, whether in his previous life or in this life.
Putting down the letter in his hand gently, Xu Chuan picked up the thick stack of manuscript paper on the table and opened the first page.
This is a handwritten theory, a reflection on the unification of the three forces of strong and weak electricity, written by Higgs himself.
Judging from Xu Chuan's understanding of Higgs, he is a very traditional, friendly and approachable person.
It wasn't until the day he was 80 that Higgs got his first computer, but he responded to almost everyone who wrote and emailed him.
In his early days as a professor, he had an email address, but he never sent an email or even browsed the web.
Whenever he receives an email, his secretary will print out the received email, and he will reply one by one with paper letters; then, through his secretary, he will forward the reply to a colleague to handle and reply to the email.
The colleague who handled the emails knew very well that among the letters Higgs responded to, most of them did not actually need to alarm Higgs.
But he still responded seriously to every scholar who asked him serious questions.
In fact, Xu Chuan himself cannot do this.
His mailbox is handled by an assistant agent, and most mail never reaches him.
Starting from the first page, Xu Chuan sat in the office for more than four hours, and it was not until the sun set that he finished reading the dozens of pages of the manuscript.
After standing up and stretching his muscles and turning his head and lumbar spine, he breathed a sigh of relief and sat down again.
The manuscript that Professor Higgs sent him actually contained many theories and opinions, especially thoughts on the field of high-energy physics, which he had already read and understood in his previous life.
However, even if he has already read and thought about the theory, re-reading it can still bring him some new gains.
For example, from the Higgs mechanism to the electroweak interaction.
As we all know, the vector boson describing the weak interaction is W±, and the Z boson obtains its mass from the Higgs mechanism.
For this theory, the current theoretical description starts from the U(1) Higgs mechanism. Through the coupling of the Lagrange quantity as the complex scalar field and the U(1) gauge field, it can be regarded as coupling with the electromagnetic field. Scalar electrodynamics in which electromagnetic gauge symmetries are spontaneously broken.
In other words, it is scalar electrodynamics with spontaneous breaking of the electromagnetic gauge symmetry.
In this manuscript sent by Professor Higgs, he has further thoughts on the Higgs mechanism, electroweak interaction and strong electroweak interaction, and there are some things that he has not seen before.
For example, in thinking about the asymptotic freedom of the strong interaction force (QCD), Higgs reset the ordinary field theory and introduced some theories from the grand unified framework theory of strongly correlated electron systems in condensed matter physics that he had previously studied. .
If correct, this means that the strong coupling constant will decrease as the energy scale increases, tending to 0 at high energies. Therefore, the view that QCD becomes a trivial field theory at the high energy limit will be broken through.
This will bring a new thinking direction to the unification of strong and weak electric mathematical models.
These are valuable things.
With a long sigh of relief, Xu Chuan sorted out the papers on the table and sent a message to Zheng Hai, asking him to pick him up.
"I need to do some research these days. If there's nothing important, don't bother me."
In front of the villa, as soon as Xu Chuan opened the car door, he remembered something, stopped and turned to face Zheng Hai in front of him.
"Okay professor, do you need me to prepare something for you?"
"No need, I have everything I need to prepare at home, and you can't get what I need to prepare."
(End of chapter)