Exploring the "dark ages" of particle physics: isospin, strangeness and the construction of physical-mathematical concepts in the pre-Standard-Model era (ca. 1950-1965)
Final Report Abstract
The state of High Energy Physics in the period around 1950-65 has often been characterized in historiography as a “dark age” ending in the 1970s with the rise of the Standard Model, yet this picture contrasts with the heuristic fruitfulness of that early period, in which key concepts later embedded in the Standard Model emerged. As the first in-depth investigation of the early days of particle physics, the project shed light onto this apparent contradiction by focusing on the formation of three key concepts of particle physics: isospin, baryon number and strangeness. A thick description of the research context in which those concepts emerged in the 1950s brought to light three distinct, but mutually connected strategies of knowledge production at the interface of theory and experiment, having respectively at their core the notions of selection rules, physically conserved quantities and mathematical invariances (i.e. symmetries). This results led to the revision of the widely held view that symmetries were central to particle physics right from the start, showing that they only started being prominent in the late 1950s, and that their rise was linked to that of symmetry breaking and to the emergence of a hybrid narrative of “hidden” or “spontaneously broken” symmetries of nature. At the same time, a transformation of the concept of particle took place which was linked to the changing strategies of its representation. These went from photos of detector tracks and values of mass and charge before 1950, to symbols for processes of production and decay in the early 1950s, to (quantum) numbers and simple mathematical formulas in the late 1950s, and finally to symmetries and computer simulations in the early 1960s, when a final shift in what physicists regarded as a particle obtained, eventually including “resonance” in that category. Beside contributing to advance the state of historical-epistemological research by bringing to light the epistemic dynamics of early particle physics and shedding light to the history of symmetries and of the notion of particles, the project allowed the development of an innovative methodology to approach the investigation of concept formation through the medial strategies employed to express the concepts. This methodology can be deployed in all areas of historical-philosophical research and is described in the Habilitation of the Principal Investigator, which is being prepared for publication. Possible follow-up studies are the transformation of the epistemic role of symmetries form the 1970s onward, the interplay of analytical mathematical practices and computer-aided procedures as medial strategies to represent theory, both in high energy physics and in other areas of science, and the increasing use of hybrid narratives in high energy physics and cosmology.
Publications
- ‟Genesis des Gottesteilchen: Narrativen der Massenerzeugung in der Teilchenphysik“, in: S. Azzouni u.a. (Hg.), Erzählung und Geltung. Wissenschaft zwischen Autorschaft und Autorität (Velbrück Wissenschaft, 2015) 63-86
A. Borrelli
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845277394-63) - ‟The making of an intrinsic property: 'symmetry heuristics' in early particle physics“, in: Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 50 (2015) 59-70
A. Borrelli
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2014.09.009) - ‟The story of the Higgs boson: the origin of mass in early particle physics“, European Physical Journal H 40 (2015) 1-52
A. Borrelli
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2014-50026-9) - “Symmetry, beauty and belief in high-energy physics“, in: Arianna Borrelli and Alexandra Grieser (Hg.), The beauty fallacy: aesthetics of knowledge in science and religion, Special Issue of Approaching Religion 7(2) (2017)
A. Borrelli
- ‟The uses of isospin in early particle physics“, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 60 (2017): 81-94
A. Borrelli
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsb.2017.03.004) - “The Weinberg-Salam model of electroweak interactions: an ingenious discovery or a lucky hunch?”, Annalen der Physik 530 (2018): 1700454
A. Borrelli
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.201700454)
