Erikson Lecture: David Gross, Kavli Institute, UCSB

ABSTRACT:  Quantum Chromodynamics is fifty years old this year. I shall discuss the past, present and future of this remarkable theory.

The strong nuclear force is responsible for existence and masses of the building blocks of matter, protons and neutrons.  Protons and neutrons are made of quarks, and the nuclear force between quarks is that it grows with distance, so that quarks are confined to be inside of protons and neutrons.  This phenomenon was first understood in a famous paper on April 27, 1973, and its groundbreaking nature led to a 2004 Physics Nobel Prize for its authors David Gross and Frank Wilczek, along with David Politzer.  On May 3, 2023, which is 50 years later, almost to the day, Professor David Gross will give a talk about Quark Confinement here at UMN, reviewing the present and future of quantum chromodynamics, the quantum field theory of the strong nuclear force.