Asymptotic Realms of Physics: Essays in Honor of Francis E. Low

9780262070898

0262070898

The first few months of the universe, the MIT bag model, and grand unified theories are among the chief concerns of these essays and articles honoring MIT theoretical physicist Francis Low. The book opens with a cluster of dedicatory pieces by Murray Gell-Mann, Marvin L. Goldberger, Jeremy Bernstein, and Val L. Fitch. The remainder of the book consists of twenty technical essays by a small galaxy of distinguished scientists: Steven Weinberg; Kenneth A. Johnson; Sidney Drell; Geoffrey F. Chew; Mitchell J. Feigenbaum; Victor F. Weisskopf; Herman Feshbach; Carleton DeTar; John F. Donoghue; D. Danckaert, P. DeCausmaecker, R. Gastmans, W. Troost, and Tai Tsun Wu, writing jointly; Roman Jackiw; William I. Weisberger; Adrian Patrascioiu; Gino Segregrave;; So-Young Pi; Asim Yildiz; Jogesh C. Pati, Abdus Salam, and J. Strathdee, in another collaborative contribution; and the three editors. Among the other topics are "Why the Renormalization Group Is a Good Thing" - the physics of asymptotic freedom - the topological bootstrap "The Fixed Point of Classical Dynamical Evolution and Chaos" - compound bags and hadron-hadron interactions - "Gauge Invariance and Mass" - Gribov ambiguities - "The Simple Facts about the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe" - preons and supersymmetry - some speculations on the origin of the matter, energy, and entropy of the universe - the Chew-Low theory and the quark model - "From Gell-Mann-Low to Unification." The editors are all affiliated with the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT.