quantum chromodynamics
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A physics story of infinities, goats and colours
When I was writing in August about physicist Sheldon Glashow’s objection to Abdus Salam being awarded a share of the 1979 physics Nobel Prize, I learnt that it was because Salam had derived a theory that Glashow had derived as well, taking a different route, but ultimately the final product was non-renormalisable. A year or so later,… Continue reading
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Chromodynamics: Gluons are just gonzo
One of the more fascinating bits of high-energy physics is the branch of physics called quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Don’t let the big name throw you off: it deals with a bunch of elementary particles that have a property called colour charge. And one of these particles creates a mess of this branch of physics because of its… Continue reading
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Colliders of the future: LHeC and FCC-he
Because powerful accelerators take at least a decade to realise, physicists have started work on two machines to aid physics research of the future. Continue reading
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Assuming this universe…
Accomplished physicists I have met or spoken with in the last four months professed little agreement over which parts of physics were set-in-stone and which parts simply largely-corroborated hypotheses. Here are some of them, with a short description of the dispute. Bosons – Could be an emergent phenomenon arising out of fermion-fermion interaction; current definition… Continue reading
About Me
I’m a science editor and writer in India, interested in high-energy and condensed-matter physics, research misconduct, pseudoscience, science’s relationship with society, epic fantasy, open source/access/knowledge systems, H.R. Giger’s art, Goundamani’s comedy, Factorio, and most things that require a lot of time to get the hang of.