Comments on: The J/Psi particle original papers

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:27:25 +0000

Here is a review of the three papers and mass boson history.

http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.3466

By: Larry

Larry — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:15:01 +0000

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2009/06/26/a-higgs-boson-without-the-mess

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:25:06 +0000

The above are good points but there are differences in these papers that largely go without notice by today’s students. Back in 1964 however these were more significant and the Nobel Committee must be considering.

Both PH and EB worked in the Lorentz (i.e., manifestly covariant) gauge. Thus the Goldstone theorem would be fully expected to apply. However, PH is also done purely classically (i.e., without quantum theory), which means that the Goldstone theorem (a result from QUANTUM field theory) really has no obvious application. What PH does is to show that with a broken symmetry condition the classical field equations can be juggled into the form of the equations of a MASSIVE vector boson. Namely, the broken symmetry condition gives mass. That is a good thing, but what of the radiation gauge avoidance of the Goldstone theorem which PH had touted in his earlier paper? Is it not strange that that avoidance mechanism is not mentioned in the PH paper?

EB do some calculations in quantum field theory in which they impose a broken symmetry condition. Given the fact that a broken symmetry condition introduces a mass parameter into the theory it is not surprising that they also find a MASSIVE vector boson. But what of the zero mass particle which they must have according to the Goldstone theorem. They need to show that there is a decoupling of that particle from the physical sectors of the theory. In other words, it needs to show the zero mass particle is purely a so-called gauge excitation. That is in fact the case, but is not shown in EB.

GHK uses the radiation gauge and shows that a massive vector particle emerges from a broken symmetry condition. Thus GHK achieves the goal of lending mass to the vector particle, but is not plagued by the encumbrance of the Goldstone theorem. Moreover, GHK shows explicitly the precise way in which the Goldstone theorem fails in the context of their model.

One can thus sum up by saying that in a sense PH and EB solved half of the problem – namely massifying the gauge particle. GHK really solved an entire problem – massifying and also showing how the deadening hand of the Goldstone theorem is avoided.

By: Manny

Manny — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:04:08 +0000

Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble (GHK) did their work entirely independently and without knowledge of BEH. They understood the whole phenomena in the spring of 1964

Above should say “spring of 1963″

By: Interesting Look into the Guts of the LHC « The First Excited State

Interesting Look into the Guts of the LHC « The First Excited State — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:15:13 +0000

[...] talking about the excitement that was found in physics departments across the world in 1976 as the J/Psi particle was being discovered, confirming the existence of the charmed quark. I’m sure that [...]

By: Manny

Manny — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:56:22 +0000

The Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble deserves as much, if not more, credit as Higgs and Brout-Englert. Not sure why the international physics community just let that happen. But in the end only three can get the Nobel Prize and an experimentalist probably gets some credit also. Hagen, Kibble, and Guralnik probably have had better overall physics careers than Higgs, Brout, and Englert.

By: symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » The tau lepton original paper

symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » The tau lepton original paper — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:22:54 +0000

[...] up the APS milestone about the 1974 papers that heralded the discovery of the J/Ψ, the paper chosen to represent 1975 was for work also done on the SPEAR storage ring at Stanford [...]

By: David Harris

David Harris — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:09:46 +0000

Thanks to the folks at APS for establishing permalinks so we can direct people straight to these papers. The post has been modified to include that link.

By: David Harris

David Harris — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:24:12 +0000

Thanks for pointing that out, Gene. I have corrected the post to point to the milestone page and hope that there will be a direct link to the J/Psi section at some point to make it easy for people to find when you have a longer list of milestones. We certainly appreciate you making these papers available to everybody.

By: Gene Sprouse

Gene Sprouse — Mon, 19 May 2008 00:49:23 +0000

Our intention is to have the “milestone letters” free if you come at them from the PRL50 Web site. I just checked, and they seem to be working, but if you have problems, please send email to “help@aps.org”, and we will fix it.
Gene D. Sprouse, Editor in Chief, APS