The weak interaction: Its history and impact on physics
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
zbMATH Open document ID: 1026.01015
DOI: 10.1142/S0217751X01005225
published in: International Journal of Modern Physics A
publication date: 2003-12-15T00:00:00Z
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A60
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 81-02
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 81V15
zbMATH DE Number: 1686486
zbMATH Keywords: history of weak interaction
zbMATH Keywords: Lise Meitner
zbMATH Keywords: Enrico Fermi
MaRDI profile type: Publication
cites work: On the Fermi Theory of β -Radioactivity
cites work: The Capture of Negative Mesotrons in Matter
cites work: Charge-Exchange Reaction of the μ -Meson with the Nucleus
cites work: Selection rules imposed by charge conjugation
cites work: Mass Singularities of Feynman Amplitudes
author: T. D. Lee
title: The weak interaction: Its history and impact on physics
review text: This lecture is published also in The Oskar Klein memorial lectures, Vol. 2 (World Scientic, Singapore, 2001). The author is one of the leading researchers in this field; from 46 cited works in the References, 6 are his own publications (many of them with coauthors). The dicussion of the history of weak interaction is combined with interesting personal reminiscences. All this is separated into three periods; Classical Period, 1898-1949 \((\beta\) decay, other weak interactions), Transition Period, 1949-1956 \((\mu\) decay, Fermi and Gamow-Teller couplings, \(\theta- \tau\) puzzle), Modern Period, starting in 1956 (breakthrough -- Rochester meeting, symmetry violations, time reversal, outstanding puzzles: missing symmetries, unseen quarks, physical vacuum).NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEA special fascination offer the author's reminiscences on contacts with Lise Meitner (who was then nearly 90) and with Enrico Fermi in his seminar at the University of Chicago (Fermi was also the author's thesis advisor), on establishing the Universal Fermi Interaction by the author with coauthors, on his wrong tries with the \(\theta-\tau\) puzzle, on the way to the theoretical paper (with Yang) on parity nonconservation etc.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe author concludes that the most challenging problems in present physics are: (1) the symmetry-breaking force, and (2) the structure of the vacuum.
reviewed by: Ülo Lumiste
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1686486