Symmetry is the key to everything
Peter Rowlands
Honorary Teaching Fellow
Department of Physics,
Liverpool University
Peter said that his interest in the history of science leads him to believe the conventional teaching of physics is not the source of the deepest creativity in physics and that this is part of the reason why there has been no really new ideas at the fundamental level since the appearance of the Standard Model over 40 years ago. Whilst it continues to be widely accepted, with numerous experiments since then verifying it, there has been no progress in explaining this theory. Many efforts to do so have involved ‘string theory’ despite the fact that such an ‘explanation’ is more complicated than what it seeks to explain.
When Peter did his Phd, he designed and built his own apparatus for carrying out his research project, and computers had little relevance - he recalled they were so primitive he could work out his calculations easier by hand.
In contrast, the Phd student in high energy physics today has little contact with setting up the apparatus - that is done by large design teams and specialist engineers working to specifications prepared by lead scientists. A student will often spend a year working in shifts at a laboratory such as CERN monitoring the experiment from a control room. They have access to huge stores of data on which they perform endless computer analyses. Before any results are published they are subject to significant internal scrutiny.
Peter doesn’t work like this. He doesn’t use computers and ‘work’ for him involves thinking, writing and discussing. ‘I don’t work away at the same problem, I wait until something creates link in my brain’. He is interested in the big questions & in using a more philosophical approach than is normal for physicists.
Climb the Mountain or Cross the Valley?
Lee Smolin, an American physicist, suggested there are two types of scientist. Most scientists are ‘mountain climbers’ who work in a particular area of their science throughout their career and gradually attain a summit of perfection. Much less in number, ‘valley crossers’ look for connections between different areas. Peter is a ‘valley crosser’ and, he believes, the really major breakthroughs nearly always involve ‘valley crossing’.
For example, Isaac Newton stands out from other physicists of the past in that he described the seemingly intangible world of the falling apple in totally abstract ways. In so doing, he defined mass on the same basis as time and space. He thought outside the paradigm (or the conventional thinking), but not contradictory to it.
Peter recalled that at the age of 12, rather than playing with Meccano, he played around with mathematical equations, such as those from Einstein’s Special Relativity theory. He noticed that if he kept increasing the speed of light, mass became imaginary - his first ‘discovery’. This was an early example of his desire to find out what happens if you theoretically push things to extremes.
Whilst Peter’s first interest was in using maths to get to the most fundamental laws, he realised that physics was the setting where he could do this. From an early stage he thought that symmetry was the key to making breakthroughs and his talk was about the results of a very long term personal and unique project in this area. Currently his proposals are seen as ’interesting’ by other physicists but they could become an alternative to the Standard Model if confidence in it fades, e.g. due to results from the Large Hadron Collider not supporting it.
Example of Symmetry in Particle Physics
Symmetry is everywhere in physics, especially in particle physics. For example, being negative the electronic charge has the characteristics of an imaginary mass. Similarly, in relativity, time behaves as though it is an imaginary dimension of space - there is some kind of symmetry there and it must be there for a reason! Peter proceeded to present his theories but as this involved complex mathematics, this is far enough for now! As commented by one of those present, ‘I found his mathematics and matrices a bit beyond my immediate comprehension although I could see how it had resulted in a mathematically beautiful result. Whether this symmetry analysis is a true representation of nature remains to be seen, but I am tempted to hope so.’
Bob Roach
roach36@talktalk.net
23rd September 2015
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