O'Raifeartaigh, L.

The dawning of gauge theory / Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh. - Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1997. - 1 online resource (ix, 249 p.) - Princeton series in physics . - Princeton series in physics. .

Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-246) and index.

Gauge Transformations in Classical Electromagnetism. Gravitation and Electricity / Aftermath of Einstein's Gravitational Theory -- Generalizations of Einstein's Theory. On the Unification Problem of Physics (1921) / Quantum Theory and Five-Dimensional Relativity (1926) / On the Invariant Form of the Wave and Motion Equations for a Charged Point-Mass (1927) / The Renaissance of Weyl's Idea: EM Gauge Theory. On a Remarkable Property of the Quantum-Orbits of a Single Electron (1922) / Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem (1926) / Quantum-Mechanical Interpretation of Weyl's Theory (1927) / Weyl's Classic, 1929. Electron and Gravitation (1929) / H. Weyl -- Th. Kaluza. O. Klein. V. Fock -- E. Schrodinger. E. Schrodinger. F. London -- H. Weyl. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

During the course of this century, gauge invariance has slowly emerged from being an incidental symmetry of electromagnetism to being a fundamental geometrical principle underlying the four known fundamental physical interactions. The development has been in two stages. In the first stage (1916-1956) the geometrical significance of gauge-invariance gradually came to be appreciated and the original abelian gauge-invariance of electromagnetism was generalized to non-abelian gauge invariance. In the second stage (1960-1975) it was found that, contrary to first appearances, the non-abelian gauge-theories provided exactly the framework that was needed to describe the nuclear interactions (both weak and strong) and thus provided a universal framework for describing all known fundamental interactions. In this work, Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh describes the former phase. O'Raifeartaigh first illustrates how gravitational theory and quantum mechanics played crucial roles in the reassessment of gauge theory as a geometric principle and as a framework for describing both electromagnetism and gravitation. He then describes how the abelian electromagnetic gauge-theory was generalized to its present non-abelian form. The development is illustrated by including a selection of relevant articles, many of them appearing here for the first time in English, notably by Weyl, Schrodinger, Klein, and London in the pre-war years, and by Pauli, Shaw, Yang-Mills, and Utiyama after the war. The articles illustrate that the reassessment of gauge-theory, due in a large measure to Weyl, constituted a major philosophical as well as technical advance.

9780691215112 0691215111

10.1515/9780691215112 doi

22573/ctv10wzh3p JSTOR 9452679 IEEE

2021698791


Quantum field theory.
Gauge invariance.
Gravitation.
Electromagnetism.
Nuclear reactions.
Gravitation
Th�eorie quantique des champs.
Invariance de jauge.
Gravitation.
�Electromagn�etisme.
R�eactions nucl�eaires.
electromagnetism.
nuclear reaction.
33.23 quantum physics.
SCIENCE--Physics--General.
Electromagnetism.
Gauge invariance.
Gravitation.
Nuclear reactions.
Quantum field theory.
Eichtheorie
Geschichte
Quantenfeldtheorie
Quelle
Kwantumveldentheorie.
Invarianten.
Champs, Th�eorie quantique des.
Invariance de jauge.
Th�eorie �electromagn�etique.
R�eactions nucl�eaires.

Angular momentum. Balmer spectrum. Cartan gravitation. Charge conjugation. Diffeomorphisms. Eulerian derivative. Fermi statistics. General Theory. General relativity. Hamiltonian. Instantons. Jacobi identity. Kazimierz conference. Lagrangian. Lorentz transformation. Magnetic dipoles. Maxwell equations. Meson-Nucleon Interaction. Neutron. Pauli's theory. Renormalization. Rigid group. Topology. Virial theorem. Yang-Mills theory. Zeeman effect. action-density. conservation of isotopic. constants. divergence. factor. integral. quanta.


Electronic books.
Electronic books.

QC174.45

530.1/435