From current algebra to quantum chromodynamics : a case for structural realism / Tian Yu Cao.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cao, Tian Yu, 1941- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Quantum chromodynamics--Mathematical models.

Quantum chromodynamics.

Algebra.

Quantum chromodynamics--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 308 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The advent of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in the early 1970s was one of the most important events in twentieth-century science. This book examines the conceptual steps that were crucial to the rise of QCD, placing them in historical context against the background of debates that were ongoing between the bootstrap approach and composite modeling, and between mathematical and realistic conceptions of quarks. It explains the origins of QCD in current algebra and its development through high-energy experiments, model-building, mathematical analysis and conceptual synthesis. Addressing a range of complex physical, philosophical and historiographical issues in detail, this book will interest graduate students and researchers in physics and in the history and philosophy of science.

Contents:

The rise of current algebra

Sum rules

Saturation and closure

Scaling

Theorizations of scaling

The advent of QCD

Early justifications and explorations

Structural realism and the construction of QCD

Historiographical issues in the CA-QCD narrative.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-511-85073-5

1-107-21191-3

1-282-81796-5

9786612817960

0-511-90151-8

0-511-90072-4

0-511-90230-1

0-511-79915-2

0-511-78175-X

0-511-79775-3

OCLC:

670411042