Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T10:44:00.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Simplicity and Observability: When are Particles Elementary?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Kostas Gavroglu
Kostas Gavroglu*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Writing the history of elementary particle physics has all the problems common to writing the history of any other subject “in the making”. There is, however, an additional characteristic, unique to this branch of physics. The development of particle physics, unlike the situation in other branches of physics, reveals a continuously changing picture of what its object of investigation is, of what, in other words, the things we call particles are and how elementary they should be considered. The history of elementary particle physics is, in a way, the history of the continuous reinterpretation of both the ontological and methodological status of the notion of elementarity. Hence, examining the history of elementary particle physics is also an attempt to explicate this changing collective consciousness of the scientific community about the elementarity of particles. In studying, therefore, (practically any aspect of) the history of elementary particle physics, one has to be sensitive about a number of philosophical, and primarily methodological issues which have acquired an added significance due to the relatively recent and mainly theoretical developments.

Type
Part III. Physics
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1988 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1988 , 1988 , pp. 89 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I wish to thank Prof. S.S. Schweber for his extremely helpful comments.

References

Anderson, P.W. (1972). “More is Different.” Science, 177: 393–396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bander, M. (1981). “Theories of Quark Confinement.” Physics Reports 75: 205–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, L.M., Hoddeson, L., eds. (1983). The Birth of Particle Physics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buschor, G. (1976). “Discovery of new Elementary Particles with Unusual Properties.” Universitas 18: 163–186.Google Scholar
Chew, G.F. (1964). “Elementary Particles?” Physics Today 17: 30–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cinquant’ Anni di Fisica delle Interazioni Deboli (1984). Fifty Years of Weak Interaction Physics. A cura di A. Bertin, R.A. Ricci e A. Vitale in occasione del cinquantesimo anniversario della formulazione della teoria di Fermi sul decadimento beta Bologna: Societa Italiana di Fisica.Google Scholar
Close, F.E. (1978). An Introduction to Quarks and Partons. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Conversi, M., ed. (1970). Evolution of Particle Physics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cushing, J.T. (1982). “Models and Methodologies in Current Theoretical High Energy Physics.” Synthese 50: 5–101, 109-123, 544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cushing, J.T. (1986). “The Importance of Heisenberg’s S-matrix Program for the Theoretical High Energy Physics of the 1950’s.” Centaurus 29: 110–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drell, S. (1977). “Elementary Particle Physics.” Dedalus 106: 15–32.Google Scholar
Feinberg, G. (1977). What is the World Made of? New York: Anchor Books-Doubleday.Google Scholar
Fermi, E. and Yang, C.N. (1949). “Are Mesons Elementary Particles?” Physical Review 76: 1739–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavroglu, K. (1985). “Popper’s Tetradic Schema, Progressive Research Programs and The Case of Parity Violation in Elementary Particle Physics 1953-1958.” Zeitung fur allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie XVI: 261-186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glashow, S.L. (1980). “Towards a Unified Theory: Threads in a Tapestry.” Reviews of Modern Physics 52: 539–543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glashow, S.L. (1975). “Quarks with Color and Flavor.” In Particles and Fields. Edited by Kaufmann, W.J. III New York: W.H. Freeman and Co., 71–83.Google Scholar
Greenberg, O.W. and Nelson, C.A. (1977). “Color Models of Hadrons.” Physics Reports 32C: 69–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacking, I. (1983). Representing and Intervening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heisenberg, W. (1949). “The Present Situation in the Theory of Elementary Particles.” In Two Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 9–25.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. (1973). “Development of Concepts in Quantum Theory.” In The Physicist’s Conception of Nature. Edited by Mehra, J.. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. (1976). “The Nature of Elementary Particles.” Physics Today 29 (March), 32–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holton, G. (1973). Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kuznetsov, I.V. and Omelyanovskii, M.E., eds. (1965). Philosophical Problems of Elementary Particle Physics. New York: Daniel Davy Co.Google Scholar
Linde, A.D. (1987). “The Inflationary Universe.” Notes, Loeb Lectures at Harvard University, Fall 1987.Google Scholar
Lipkin, H.J. (1973). “Quarks for Pedestrians.” Physics Reports 8: 173–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mandelstam, J. (1980). “General Introduction to Confinement.” Physics Reports 67: 109–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mannheim, P.D. (1986). “Symmetry and Spontaneously Broken Symmetry in Physics of Elementary Particles.” In Symmetry, Unifying Human Understanding. Edited by Hargittai, I.. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Marciano, W. and Pagels, H. (1978). “Quantum Chromodynamics.” Physics Reports 36C: 137–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, A. (1981). Albert Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity: Emergence (1905) and Early Interpretation_(1905-1911). Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Ne’eman, Y. and Kirsh, Y. (1983). The Particle Hunters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Physics in Perspective, (1972). National Research Council (US), Physics Survey Committee, Washington National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Physics through the 1990’s, (1986). Elementary Particle Physics, National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Redhead, M. (1980). “Some Philosophical Aspects of Particle Physics.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 11: 279–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salam, A. (1980). “Gauge Unification of Fundamental Forces.” Reviews of Modern Physics 52: 525–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrader-Frechette, K. (1977). “Atomism in Crisis: An Analysis of the Current High Energy Paradigm.” Philosophy of Science 44: 409–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrader-Frechette, K. (1979). “High-Energy Models and the Ontological Status of the Quark.” Synthese 42: 173–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrader-Frechette, K. (1982). “Quark Quantum Numbers and the Problem of Microphysical Observation.” Synthese 50: 125–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarz, J. and Green, M., eds. (1986). Superstrings: The First 15 Years of Superstring Theory. Singapore: World Scientific Publishers.Google Scholar
Schweber, S.S. (1986). “Shelter Island, Pocono and Olstone. The Emergence of American Quantum Electrodynamics after World War II.” Osiris 2: 265–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schweber, S.S. (1988). “Some Philosophical Reflections on the History of Quantum Field Theory.” (To appear.)Google Scholar
Schwinger, J. (1930). Particles, Sources and Fields vol. I. London: Addison Wesley Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Wallace, W.A. (1968). “Elementarity and Reality in Particle Physics.” In Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Edited by Cohen, R.S. and Wartofsky, M., vol. III. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Weinberg, S. (1977). “The Search for Unity: Notes for a History of Quantum Field Theory.” Dedalus 107: 17–35.Google Scholar
Weinberg, S. (1985). “The Ultimate Structure of Matter.” In A Passion for Physics: Essays in Honor of Geoffrey Chew. Edited by Carleton De Tar, J. Finkelstein and Tem, Chung-I Singapore: World Scientific Publishers, 114–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberg, S. (1986). “Particle Physics: Past and Future.” International Journal of Modern Physics_A, 1: 135–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberg, S. (1980). “Conceptual Foundations of the Unified Theory of Weak and Electromagnetic Interactions.” Reviews of Modern Physics 52: 515–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingard, R. (1984). “Grand Unified Gauge Theories and the Number of Elementary Particles.” Philosophy of Science 51: 150–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, C.S. and Moszkowski, S.A. (1966). Beta Decay. London: Interscience Publishers.Google Scholar