Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005 A Festschrift and Conference on THE GOLDEN AGE OF PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ITS LEGACY Boston University In honour of Lawrence Sulak From Physics Graduate Student in the '70s to Observing Supernovae Today Charling Tao Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille IN2P3/CNRS and U. Méditerranée ITA NAOC Beijing
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From Physics Graduate Student in the '70s to Observing Supernovae Today
A Festschrift and Conference on THE GOLDEN AGE OF PARTICLE PHYSICS AND ITS LEGACY Boston University In honour of Lawrence Sulak. From Physics Graduate Student in the '70s to Observing Supernovae Today. Charling Tao Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille IN2P3/CNRS and U. Méditerranée - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
A Festschrift and Conference onTHE GOLDEN AGE OF PARTICLE
PHYSICS AND ITS LEGACY Boston University
In honour of Lawrence Sulak
From Physics Graduate Student in the '70s to Observing Supernovae
Today
Charling TaoCentre de Physique des Particules de Marseille
IN2P3/CNRS and U. MéditerranéeITA NAOC Beijing
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
ForewordWe would particularly be interested in hearing your
thoughts on
``The life of a physics graduate student in the '70's".
OK! The title of your talk is:
From Physics Graduate Student in the '70s to Observing Supernovae Today
Aie !!Yaie!!! I am not a sociologist!!!!
wish I had Tom Wolfe’ s talent for a « I am Charlotte Simmons » speech!
Perhaps I could talk about my present work
on SN and Dark Energy. Would be easier for me…
:-*
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
My graduate years: 1975-1979
My Thesis (R. Wilson) :
The Structure and Formation of Hadrons: An Experiment with a Muon Beam of 219 GeV on a Hydrogen Target.
Harvard U.
Test of QCD:logarithmic breaking of scale invariance
Frontiers of physics at the time
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
My Harvard graduate school environment
Adviser: Richard Wilson, (+ A.L. Sessoms + T. Loomis)
Teachers: Sidney Coleman : QFT (John Lo Secco)
Shelly Glashow: Group Theory
Alvaro de Rujula: Weak Interactions
Steven Weinberg: General Relativity and Cosmology
Carlo Rubbia: Particle Physics
Howard Georgi,…Lots of other people around at the time: N. Ramsey, P. Martin, F.Pipkin, K. Strauch, Ed Witten, D. Politzer, G. t’Hooft, P. MacIntyre, W. Skocpol, Tinkham, ….
Students at the time present today ; Witold Kozanecki, Jim Strait, Michael Levi, Bruce Cortez, Ian Affleck, Dave Hannah, Wesley Smith, …
:-)
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Harvard PhD 1979, 10/20 in particle physics
•AFFLECK, IAN KEITH,. Some Results on Vacuum Decay. (Coleman)
•ALVAREZ, ORLANDO, Conformal Invariance in Quantum Field Theory. (Weinberg)•DAVIS, SAMUEL, Predictions and Limitations of Perturbative QCD. (Georgi)•DE LUCCIA, FRANK JOSEPH, The Fate of the False Vacuum: Induced Decay and Gravitational Effects on Spontaneous Decay. (Coleman)•RICH, JAMES ARNOLD, Trimuon Production by High Energy Neutrinos. (Rubbia)•ROCEK, MARTIN,. Aspects of Spontaneous Symmetry Breakdown of Supersymmetry. (Wu)•SHEIMAN, JOHATHAN LEWIS, Topics in the Theory of Leptoproduction. (Georgi)•SMOLIN, LEE, Studies in Quantum Gravity. (Coleman)•SOBELMAN, GERALD EDWARD, Asymptotic Estimates and Borel Resummation for a Doubly Anharmonic Oscillator. (Coleman)•TAO, CHARLING SUN, The Structure and Formation of Hadrons: An Experiment with a Muon Beam of 219 GeV on a Hydrogen Target. (Wilson)
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
1975 class: 32 graduate students
1 female and only 1 other 6 years before!
:-*
Year after : 2 female graduate students
Since then, at least 1 graduating /year
Not great! But not 0
Thank you Larry
(and Beth)
for the conscious effort to bring more women in science
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
What did I learn from Graduate school in the 70’s?
The Feynman Problem Solving Algorithm: 1) Write down the problem. 2) Think very hard. 3) Write down the solution.
:-)
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
What did I learn from Graduate school in the 70’s?
- A lot of physics, and detector building, of course,- need to work hardBut more important is the Scientific Method When faced with any problem: Don’t be afraid, ask questions
And do not forget to be socially conscious and active
Example of Larry : an ever young, enthusiastic and
curious mind
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Physics is an art, the art of unveiling
the invisible
What is Physics?
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
What is Physics?
Physics is a language, a « universal » human language that
translates the « real » world into something « understandable »
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
What did I learn from Graduate school in the 70’s?
There are many ways to do physics
and understand NatureReductionnist / Emergent
Theoretical / experimental/ phenomenology
Different fieldsChoose one path in graduate
school and learn the techniques
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Why did I do a thesis on tests of QCD in Deep Inelastic Muon Scattering in 1975 ?
And why SNIa search today?
The Larry Sulak/Harvard Spirit
Frontiers of Physics
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
(
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
1970’s frontiers of physics?
e
u
d
e
c
s
t
b
leptons
quarks
3 fermion families
‘H0’
interactions
Z0 , W,W
g
‘G’
Vector bosons of interactions
electromagnetic
strong
weak
gravitation
Fundamental particles
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
1970’s frontiers of physics?
Completing our knowledge of Fundamental Particle constituents of matter
and Fundamental interactions
e
u
d
e
c
s
t
b
leptons
quarks
3 fermion families
‘H0’
interactions
Z0 , W,W
g
‘G’
Vector bosons of interactions
electromagnetic
strong
weak
gravitation
Fundamental particles
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
The Golden Age of particle physics
In 1950-s : advent of particle accelerators
beams of electrons or protons with high kinetic energy.
the 4.5-inch model cyclotron built by Lawrence and Livingston.
Oct. 20, 1955: discovery of the antiproton
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
High energy physics
many new particles
new classification: leptons, mesons, baryons
« the eightfold way » Gell-man & Neeman
Nobel Prize in Physics 1969
Leptons and quarks
Can plan the experiments and repeat them! Particle physics second name
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
1970’s frontiers of physics?
Towards the Standard Model of the Fundamental interactions SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1)
Speculations or reality?Future experiments to show
Experimental To Do list (A. Nelson)
Document and consider environment of neutrino path in neutrino oscillation experiments
Consider 13 measurements in reactor experiments with pathlength in air and in rock
Consider environment of neutrinos in direct mass search and 0 measurements
Short baseline experiments to search for heavier sterile neutrinos with small mixing angles; consider varying density of material in neutrino path
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
The Golden age of Neutrino Physics!
CP Violation in the lepton Sector
Dark Energy
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
The life of a graduate student in the 70’s?
• Harvard sigma 7 computer – 1966: Scientific Data Systems (SDS)– Computing with cards– One night for a 800 bpi tape and risk of crash VERY high! More thinking before using computers
• Beginning of internet : arpanet use limited• Talks: No Powerpoint• Papers : no archiv, Phys. Rev.
Not flooded with papers sending reprints to requests and libraries
• Largest experiment : CHIO DIS muon ~35 physicistsYou could understand and control all aspects of experimentsMore scientists and less full time managers
• No FPGA (screwdriver and soldering iron electronics)
• Very few women in graduate school: still very few women
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
How is the life of an experimental particle graduate student in 2005?
• Difficulty in carrying « independent » research in large experimental particle physics groups– Graduate school in particle physics teaches how to be a
good team player
• Long delays between experimental designs and results
• Strong specialization in big teams and pixellisation of responsibility
threat of extinction
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
And … Physics is exciting!
BUT most graduate students are happy!
So what do we worry about?
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Evolving UniverseEvolving PhysicsEvolving People
How to Anticipate Next Golden age ?
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Hypothesis: Frontiers of physics evolves
Look at people evolution?
Look at PhD.Thesis topics?
How can that be tested?
Data Not conclusive !
• Low statistics
• Large bias!
• Hidden variables???
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Sorry for the bias!
Source: Harvard U. http://www.physics.harvard.edu/academics/phds.html
Did not find online WEB data from BUor any other University
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Harvard PhD 1979, 10/20 in particle physics
•AFFLECK, IAN KEITH,. Some Results on Vacuum Decay. (Coleman)
•ALVAREZ, ORLANDO, Conformal Invariance in Quantum Field Theory. (Weinberg)•DAVIS, SAMUEL, Predictions and Limitations of Perturbative QCD. (Georgi)•DE LUCCIA, FRANK JOSEPH, The Fate of the False Vacuum: Induced Decay and Gravitational Effects on Spontaneous Decay. (Coleman)•RICH, JAMES ARNOLD, Trimuon Production by High Energy Neutrinos. (Rubbia)•ROCEK, MARTIN,. Aspects of Spontaneous Symmetry Breakdown of Supersymmetry. (Wu)•SHEIMAN, JOHATHAN LEWIS, Topics in the Theory of Leptoproduction. (Georgi)•SMOLIN, LEE, Studies in Quantum Gravity. (Coleman)•SOBELMAN, GERALD EDWARD, Asymptotic Estimates and Borel Resummation for a Doubly Anharmonic Oscillator. (Coleman)•TAO, CHARLING SUN, The Structure and Formation of Hadrons: An Experiment with a Muon Beam of 219 GeV on a Hydrogen Target. (Wilson)
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Harvard PhD 2004 7/21 related particle physics and cosmology
• ABRAHAM, MATHEW CHEERAN, Hot Electron Transpoort and Current Sensing. (Westervelt)
• BOWDEN, NATHANIEL SEAN, Production of Cold Antihydrogen During the Positron Cooling of Antiprotons. (Gabrielse)
• CHANG, SPENCER, Topics in Little Higgs Physics (Georgi)• MOODY, AREEZ MINOO, Thermodynamics of ultracold
singly charged particles. (Heller)• ODOM, BRIAN CARL, Measurement of the Electron g-
Factor in a Sub-Kelvin Cylindrical Cavity. (Gabrielse)• OXLEY, PAUL KEVIN, Production of Slow Antihydrogen
from Cold Antimatter Plasmas. (Gabrielse)• SON, JOHN SANG WON,. Superstring Theory in AdS_3 and
Plane Waves (Minwalla)
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Agreement with A. Rosowsky’s proposal!
For graduate students:
better small experiments – atomic physics?
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Conclusions
• It was great to be a graduate student in the ’70s– Hope it is still true for today’s students– Certainly is different
• Small experiments are better training grounds to learn independence and experience a full experimental cycle
Is there a future for particle physics?
Pioneering frontiers physics exist and is part of the future
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Thank you !
Charling Tao, Sulak Festschrift, Oct 21-22,2005
Harvard University PhD 2005 3/11 related to particle physics and
cosmology
NEITZKE, ANDREW M., Toward a Nonperturbative Topological String. (Vafa)SPECK, ANDREW J., Two Techniques Produce Slow Antihydrogen (Gabrielse) THOMPSON, DAVID MATTOON, Holography and Related Topics in String Theory (Strominger)