Toward a unified theory: threads in a tapestry. (English) Zbl 1225.81002

Glashow, Sheldon Lee

Science 210, No. 4476, 1319-1323 (1980).

From the text: Tapestries are made by many artisans working together. The contributions of separate workers cannot be discerned in the completed work, and the loose and false threads have been covered over. So it is in our picture of particle physics. In this talk, I shall not attempt to describe the tapestry as a whole, nor even that portion which is the electroweak synthesis and its empirical triumph. Rather, I shall describe several old threads, mostly overwoven, which are closely related to my own researches. My purpose is not so much to explain who did what when, but to approach the more difficult question of why things went as they did. We also follow several new threads which may suggest the future development of the tapestry.

MSC:

81-03

History of quantum theory