作者简介:史蒂芬·霍金(Stephen Hawking),英国著名物理学家与宇宙学家,被誉为继爱因斯坦后最杰出的理论物理学家之一。英国皇家学会院士(1974年,是当时最年轻的院士),美国科学院外籍院士(1992年),1979年至2009年剑桥大学卢卡斯数学教授,现任剑桥大学理论宇宙学中心研究主任。 霍金撰写了多本阐述自己理论与一般宇宙论的科普著作,最为人熟知的是《时间简史》,该书自出版至今发行量已过千万。
粒子物理学绝对不是一个行将就木的领域,也与它在1980年代的面貌完全不同。从那以后,标准模型看起来基本上已被证实,这给人一种该领域已经完成的印象。然而,这绝不是真实情况。自然界还存在标准模型无法解释的许多现象,其中包括CP破坏,中微子振荡,和暗物质,等等。同时我们还有大量理论上的难题:如何包含引力、量子场论中新近发现的各种对偶、夸克禁闭、暗能量、黑洞、和早期宇宙学。这是一个非同寻常的领域,它对于有志向、有兴趣探索我们的宇宙如何运行的年轻人提出了巨大的挑战。在这方面,中国有成为世界领导者的绝佳机遇 —— 不要错过它!一个很好的范例就是建造巨型对撞机,它将在今后五十年中引领高能物理学。 Particle physics is definitely not a dying field. It is however an entirely different enterprise than it was in 1980. Since then, the standard model looks to be essentially confirmed and this may give the impression that the field is complete. However, that is far from being true. There are phenomena that are just not included in the standard model. Some are CP violation, neutrino oscillations, dark matter. In theory, the problems are immense: how to include gravity, the recently discovered dualities of quantum field theories, quark confinement, dark energy, black holes, early-universe cosmology. It is a different world but one that offers huge challenges to ambitious young people interested in how our Universe works. China has an incredible opportunity to become the world leader here — don’t waste it. A good example is to build the Great Collider that can lead high energy physics for the next fifty years.
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