UT, Enschede, 05/06/'98 Symmetries in Nature, Bob van Eijk 1

Bob van Eijk

and

5 June 1998

Symmetries in Nature

‘Science as Culture’

UT, Enschede, 05/06/'98 Symmetries in Nature, Bob van Eijk 2

‘Some selected History’~ 580 - 500 B.C. Pythagoras postulates the earth is round, while searching for a

‘mathematical’ description of the universe

~ 484 - 424 B.C. Empodokles postulates four ‘elementary particles’: earth,water, fire and air

~ 460 - 370 B.C. Demokritos postulates ‘the atom’

~ 310 - 230 B.C. Aristarchus describes a cosmology in analogy to Copernicus2000 years after !

~ 1473 - 1543 Copernicus: direct attack on Aristoteles’ philosophy

~ 1546 - 1642 Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei confirmCopernicus’ ideas

~ 1642 - 1829 Isaac Newton and Thomas Young

~ 1791 - 1867 Michael Faraday: electricity magnetism

~ 1872 - 1873 James Clerk Maxwell: ‘Unification of Electromagnetism’

~ 1896 Bequerel discovers ‘radioactivity’

~ 1900 - Max Planck, Albert Einstein: ‘The Quantum Era’

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‘The Quest for Symmetry’

Matter Interaction

Interaction Force

On the scale of things:

UT, Enschede, 05/06/'98 Symmetries in Nature, Bob van Eijk 4

‘Science in Art’M.C. Escher:

‘Waterfall’‘Three Worlds’

UT, Enschede, 05/06/'98 Symmetries in Nature, Bob van Eijk 5

‘Art in Science’Benoit Mandelbrot:

‘Fractals’

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‘Fractals in Nature’Benoit Mandelbrot:

‘Autumn forest’

‘Summer forest’

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Subatomic Physics

• Strong interactions: nuclei gluons

• Electromagnetism: electrons photons• Weak interactions: radioactivity W+, W-, Z0

• Gravitation: galaxies graviton

‘The study of forces and interactions between particles’

Glashow, Weinberg and Salam:‘The Standard Model of fundamental particles and interactions’

One single theoretical model (Quantum Field Theory) that describesstrong, weak and electromagnetic interactions

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Grand Unification

‘Are we able to find a direct relation between our macroscopic and microscopic world ?’

‘Big Bang Theory’

‘Elementary particles’

‘Are we able to include gravity ?’Or: ‘Can we quantise space-time ?’

Unification of forces and interactions:Search for a ‘Super Symmetry’

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The ‘Big Bang’ or a possible evolution of the universe

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European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN)

Penetrate deep into matter: Particle accelerators

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2005: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)Proton-proton collider: 7 Tera (1012) eV (4.7 1014 protons/beam)

0.999999991 speed of light

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The ATLAS detector

32 m

12 m

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Computer Simulation of a p-p Collision

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My first visit to the UT...

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…in the dark Dungeons of the TN-Building...

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…with a very peculiar taste...

Bitter Blood

-Beer with body-

BRAK

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…gives me a RAMAN Feeling !