The One by Heinrich Päs

Author:Heinrich Päs [Päs, Heinrich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2023-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

6

ONE TO THE RESCUE

WE ARE READY NOW TO ARRIVE AT THE KEY POINT of our inquiry. Given that monism follows from quantum mechanics taken seriously as a theory about nature, having understood how the plurality of things in our daily-life experience emerges, and grasping why this implication has been ignored for so long even as it was etched into the practice of science in the past, we can ask now what these insights entail for the problems and challenges physics faces today and in the future. We are prepared to uncover a new foundation of science.

Physics in Trouble

On October 18, 2017, Gian Giudice announced that particle physics was in trouble. “There are many indications that, following the recursive pattern of scientific revolutions, we are now witnessing the beginning of the phase of crisis… This is the most complex and intense moment of scientific research, when revolutionary and unprejudiced ideas are needed for a real paradigm change.”1 In the world of physics, Giudice’s opinion carries more weight than most. He serves as the head of the Theoretical Physics department at CERN, the European center for particle physics in Geneva that is operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). As such, CERN spearheads the global effort to reconstruct the entire universe from simple, fundamental building blocks, preferably as simple as possible. And, for particle physicists, simpler always means smaller.

The great accelerators constructed by particle physicists have been compared to the magnificent cathedrals of the Middle Ages. This is a reference not just to their magnitude but to their role as a nearly sacred space for seeking if not God then at least the foundational reality and the harmonious laws that govern the cosmos. Among these, CERN’s LHC is the greatest accelerator in history: twenty-seven kilometers long, crossing the border between France and Switzerland four times, it is the largest machine ever built by humankind, constructed to make the Standard Model, which summarizes the present knowledge about particle physics, complete and to discover what lies beyond. The LHC was expected to explain why the best theory in the entirety of science features awkward coincidences that make it look like a pencil balancing on its tip. And indeed, in 2012 the Higgs particle was found, the last missing piece in the Standard Model needed to provide masses both to itself and to the other massive components of nature. After that, though, the enthusiasm slowly faded. Once the Standard Model was completed, no sign of new physics to signal the reason for its shortcomings came into sight. After more than a decade of running, the LHC is still doing what it did when it was switched on: it confirms the Standard Model, over and over again, but it finds nothing else or beyond.

The problem with this situation is that there is a desperate need for new physics beyond the Standard Model. According to what astrophysicists and cosmologists have found, roughly 85 percent of the universe’s matter content is made of nonluminous, dark matter that’s observed only via its gravitational pull.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.