Questions Parity Conservation Weak Interactions by Yang  c N T D Lee (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. "A rather complete theoretical structure has been shattered at the base and we are not sure how the pieces will be put together" I. Rabi__+__ YANG, C.N. and T.D. Lee. "Questions of Parity Conservation in Weak Interactions". The Physical Review, volume 104, October 1, No. 1, 1956.  Article occupies pp. 254-58 in the entire issue of 272pp.  Offered in the original wrappers, a fine copy.   Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee were awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for their work "for their penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles". The award was the climax of the most exciting year in postwar physics. Jeremy Bernstein, The New Yorker, 1962__+__ The importance of parity conservation, its fundamental nature, was discovered in 1927 by the physicist Eugene Wigner, Wigner proved that Laporte's rule was a consequence of right-left symmetry (or mirror image symmetry) of the electromagnetic force. Conservation of parity rested upon Maxwell's equations describing electromagnetism, but more important, the intuitive idea that nature should be left-right symmetric had been established on the quantum level. Thus, when in 1949, the weak force was postulated to explain disintegration of elementary particles, physicists could not conceive that parity conservation would not hold for reactions involving the weak force. It was a minor oversight however that there was no direct evidence for the extension of this law to the fourth force of nature. Seven years later physicists would come full circle to question their acceptance of parity conservation __+__ The new province of weak interactions had not been tested before Lee and Yang made the suggestion. Nevertheless, the physicists' assumption that nature will present a simple understanding is unflailing. Chen Ning Yang has stated, "In the study of nature, one believes in something simple underlying all". Madame Wu agrees, "One hopes that nature possesses an order that one may aspire to comprehend. When we arrive at an understanding, we shall marvel how neatly all the elementary particles fit into the great scheme." Violation of the law of conservation of parity, then, should lead one to search for an even more fundamental symmetry to the universe. --Symmetry Destroyed: The Failure of Parity, 1984 Krishna Myneni.