The Evolution of Quantum Field Theory: From QED to Grand Unification

DOI10.1142/9789814733519_0001MaRDI QIDQ2979728zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Gerard 't Hooft

Publication date 26 April 2017

Published in Advanced Series on Directions in High Energy Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05007

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of quantum theory (81-03) Model quantum field theories (81T10) Supersymmetric field theories in quantum mechanics (81T60) Electromagnetic interaction; quantum electrodynamics (81V10) Gravitational interaction in quantum theory (81V17) Unified quantum theories (81V22) Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45)

Abstract: In the early 1970s, after a slow start, and lots of hurdles, Quantum Field Theory emerged as the superior doctrine for understanding the interactions between relativistic sub-atomic particles. After the conditions for a relativistic field theoretical model to be renormalizable were established, there were two other developments that quickly accelerated acceptance of this approach: first the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism, and then asymptotic freedom. Together, these gave us a complete understanding of the perturbative sector of the theory, enough to give us a detailed picture of what is now usually called the Standard Model. Crucial for this understanding were the strong indications and encouragements provided by numerous experimental findings. Subsequently, non-perturbative features of the quantum field theories were addressed, and the first proposals for completely unified quantum field theories were launched. Since the use of continuous symmetries of all sorts, together with other topics of advanced mathematics, were recognised to be of crucial importance, many new predictions were pointed out, such as the Higgs particle, supersymmetry and baryon number violation. There are still many challenges ahead.

Recommendations

• Introduction to quantum field theory
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7084760
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3315133
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3126399
• Quantum field theory. From basics to modern topics
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3948214
• Introduction to Quantum Field Theory
• Quantum field theories and the standard model of particle physics. An introduction
• A prelude to quantum field theory
• Introduction: Conceptual issues in quantum field theory

Cited in

(1)

• Strict renormalizability as a paradigm for fundamental physics

This page was built for publication: The Evolution of Quantum Field Theory: From QED to Grand Unification

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2979728)