Astronomy   View all facts   Glossary   Help
abstraction > hypothesis > theory > unified theory > Gauge theory
Next unified theorygrand unified theory    Upunified theory    Previous unified theorytheory of everything   

Gauge theory
(Yang-Mills theories)
subjectfact 
Gauge theoryhas author Chen Ning Yang and Robert Mills (1954)has source: Guth, A.H. 1997 The Inflationary Universe, Addison-Wesley, 2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
has name origin the term "gauge theory" is an archaic one, coming from earlier theories which were based on invariance under transformation of scale (i.e. gauge)has source: Coughlan, G.D., Dodd, J.E. 1999 The Ideas of Particle Physics, Cambridge University Press, 2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
has synonym Yang-Mills theorieshas source: Guth, A.H. 1997 The Inflationary Universe, Addison-Wesley, 2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
has definition A theory whose dynamics originate from a symmetry. That is, the formulae describing the theory (in particular, the Lagrangian) are unchanged under certain symmetry transformations, called "gauge" transformations. For example, the equations of classical electrodynamics are invariant under local redefinitions of the electrostatic potential. This symmetry is ultimately responsible for the conservation of electric charge. However, in quantum electrodynamics this gauge symmetry is reinterpreted as invariance under local redefinitions of the phase of the electron wave function.has source: Coughlan, G.D., Dodd, J.E. 1999 The Ideas of Particle Physics, Cambridge University Press, 2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
has definition Account of forces that views them as arising from broken symmetries.has source: Ferris, T. 1988 Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Morrow, 2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
has definition A theory that treats force in a geometrical way in terms of global and local symmetries.has source: Peat, D. 1988 Superstrings and the Search for a Theory of Everything, Contemporary Books, 2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
has definition In 1973 David Gross, Frank Wilczek, and David Politzer showed that these theories possess a property called asymptotic freedom, just what was needed for a theory of how quarks bind to form protons and neutrons. The new theory, dubbed quantum chromodynamics or QCD, proposed that the color of the quarks acts as the charge of the Yang-Mills interactions.has source: Guth, A.H. 1997 The Inflationary Universe, Addison-Wesley, 2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
is a kind of unified theory2001-09-27 09:33:58.0
theoryhas validity correct or incorrect with caveats2001-09-27 09:33:53.0
has domain a field of research2001-09-27 09:33:53.0
has date or a range of dates for which the theory was active2001-09-27 09:33:53.0