Portrait of Gunnar Källén: A Physics Shooting Star and Poet of Early Quantum Field Theory PDF
Preview Portrait of Gunnar Källén: A Physics Shooting Star and Poet of Early Quantum Field Theory
PortraitofGunnarKällén Cecilia Jarlskog (Editor) Portrait of Gunnar Källén A Physics Shooting Star and Poet of Early Quantum Field Theory Editor CeciliaJarlskog Lund,Sweden ISBN978-3-319-00626-0 ISBN978-3-319-00627-7(eBook) DOI10.1007/978-3-319-00627-7 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013951236 Springer ©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.Allrightsarereserved,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialis concerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting, reproductiononmicrofilmorinanyotherway,andstorageindatabanks.Duplicationofthispublication orpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheGermanCopyrightLawofSeptember9, 1965,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Violations areliabletoprosecutionundertheGermanCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,etc.inthispublicationdoesnotimply, evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevantprotectivelaws andregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Printedonacid-freepaper. SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia www.springer.com TheLastPictureofGunnarKällén, takenonthe“order”fromhiswife,asheputit Wolfgang Pauli referred to him as “my discovery”, Robert Oppenheimer de- scribed him as “one of the most gifted theorists” and Niels Bohr found him enormouslystimulating.Whowasthemaninquestion,GunnarKällén1?This bookattemptstogiveatleastapartialanswertothis question. In addition to being a remarkable scientist, Källén had a very interesting personality, well worth knowing. His appearance on the physics sky was like ashootingstar2.Hisscientificinterventions causedexcitementamongyoung and old. He was not intimidated by anyone and a master of responding in kind,eventoPauli. Alas he died much too soon, at the age of 42, in a plane crash near Han- nover, Germany. Hedeservestoberemembered. 1Källén’s,forEnglishspeakersdifficult lastname,canapproximatelybepronouncedasShellen,with accentedlastsyllablewherethe“e”ispronouncedasinbetorpeck. 2ThisremarkisduetothedistinguishedDanishphysicistChristianMøller(seeChap.65). Preface In theoretical physics, history can be largely unfair. In times when there are urgentproblemstobesolved,itquicklycreatesanumber of“greatscientists” and immortalizes them, crowned with glory, in its books. This was certainly the case during the first decades of the 20th century. There were experimen- tal puzzles crying to be solved and in a relatively short time the remarkable fields of special relativity and quantum mechanics were born. Many were those who went to history as great scientists, by contributing to different aspects of this revolution. Without hints from nature, it is very difficult for a theoretical physicistto “showthe whole world”how greathe/she is,even if he/she were the smartestandmostcreative scientistofhis/her time. Creating anew wave, withoutexperimental hints, is a tremendous challenge. The best (andonly?)exampleisthecreationofgeneralrelativity,whereAlbertEinstein “single-footedly” climbed up all the way to the top of the ladder of fame by afford single-handedlyproposinghistheoryofgeneralrelativity.Buthecould it,ashewasalreadyatthetopduetohisothercontributionswhichhadbeen prompted by experimental observations. One may wonder what would have only happened if Einstein had postulated his theory of general relativity and nothingelse.Hadthescientificcommunitynoticeditandcaredenoughabout ittosendexpeditionstoBrazilandAfricatocheckhis“speculations”? Källénsometimesexpressedhisregretforhavingbeenborn“toolate”,ashe putit.He hadcometo LundUniversity in1948asafull-fledged22yearold electricalengineerwhowishedtore-orienthimselftowardtheoreticalphysics. Inno time atallhe had acquiredanincredibleamount ofknowledge, asit is testifiedbyhisveryfirstpaperpublishedalreadyin1949.Indeed,Källénwas born in 1926, while the founding fathers of quantum electrodynamics, with whomhecomparedhimself,hadbeenaroundyearsbeforeheappearedonthe scene.Theyhadalmostdoneitall!Yearslater,hisfouryearsoldercollaborator, fromPrincetonUniversity, ArthurS.Wightmansaidabouthim: “AtthattimeIwastryingtopuzzleoutthegrammarofthelanguageofquan- tumfieldtheory,andherewasKÄLLÉNwritingpoetryinthelanguage.” viii PortraitofGunnarKällén HerebelowisamoreextendedversionofWightman’sdescription3 ofKällén: “Gunnar Källén’s death in an airplane accident, October 13 at Hannover, Germany,isagreatpersonallosstohismanyfriendsallovertheworld,aloss to research and education in Scandinavia,in which heplayed an important role,andalosstotheoreticalphysicswherehiscontributionsarewellknown. GunnarKällénwasaproudcontinuerofthetraditioninquantumfieldthe- oryestablishedbyWolfgangPauli4.Hispapersonquantumelectrodynamics in the period 1950–1954 carried the non-perturbative approach to quan- tum electrodynamics forward to a point beyond which very little essential progresshasbeenmadeuptothepresentday.Istillremembertheimpactof the Helvetica Physicapaper of 1953. At the timeI wastrying to puzzle out thegrammarofthelanguageofquantumfieldtheory,andherewasKÄLLÉN alreadywritingpoetryinthelanguage! In1960’sKällénspentanincreasingfractionofhistimeonthephenomenol- ogy of elementary particles. A by-product of this was his book “Elementary ParticlePhysics”.Atypicalremark aboutthebookwas:“Thatisthebookon elementaryparticlestheexperimentalistsreallyfindhelpful”.Thoseofuswho knewhimexpectedthat. Källén’s unflinching adherence to what he thought was essential and true in theoretical physics was combined with personal cheerfulness and friend- liness.” As a second year graduate student from Lund University, Källén was sent to Zürich to attend Pauli’s lectures in the 1949 summer session at ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a prestigious institute for higher education andresearchinZürich).ThiseventstakedoutKällén’sresearchpathforyears tocome.ItwasalsothebeginningofamostfruitfulinteractionbetweenKällén andPauli,foralmostadecadeuntilPauli’sdeathin1958.Theyweremutually attracted to each other. Perhaps Pauli saw in Källén an image of himself as a young man. Källén found Pauli’s approach to physics, his strong opinions, his wit and sharp tongue quite similar to his own. They enjoyed each other’s company. 3Wightman’sentirearticleispublishedinCommunicationsinMathematicalPhysics,Volume11,Num- ber3(1968–1969)pages181–182.SeealsoChap.64and78. 4WolfgangPauliwillbeintroducedinChap.3. Preface ix Källén’sscientificwork canlargelybegroupedintofourmaincategories, namely: (1) Quantum electrodynamics andrenormalization, withoutusing pertur- bation theory: It was in this area that the young Källéndemonstrated his legendaryabilitytograspdifficultissuesquicklyaswellashismathematical powerandoriginality.HisworkplacedhiminJulianSchwinger’s“Hallof FameofQuantumElectrodynamics”.Intheliterature,hisnameappearsin theKällén-Yang-Feldmanformalism,Källén-Lehmannrepresentationand Källén-Sabry potentials. He would have been pleased to see that his “po- broad tentials”areusedevennow,aftermorethanhalfacentury,withina spectrum ofapplicationswhenever precisionisrequired,such as inquan- tumchromodynamics,Z-decays,atomictransitions,andexoticatoms. (2) The Lee Model: The joint Källén-Pauli 1955 paper on the mathematical structureofT.D.Lee’smodelofarenormalizablefieldtheoryaddedrichly totheunderstandingofacertainclassoffieldtheories.TheNobelLaureate T.D.Lee,(togetherwithR.Friedberg)haswrittenaspecialarticleforthis booktohonorKällén’smemory.WhyKällénwasatallinterestedintheLee Model is described in a chapter in this book by another Nobel Laureate, StevenWeinberg,whoalsogiveshisviewsonthefutureofquantumfield theory.WeinbergconsidershimselfasoneofKällén’s“disciples”. n (3) The -point functions:Källéndevoted severalyearsto the study ofthese n functions, which are the vacuum expectation value of the product of scalar fields. He was hoping that this novel approach would help him resolvetheissueofwhetherquantumfieldtheory(speciallyquantumelec- trodynamics) is a consistent theory. This was a topic close to his heart, as he expressed it himself. The challenging mathematical beauty and com- n plexity of the -point functions appealed to him. Källén loved to solve difficult problems. Pauli disapproved of Källén’s involvement in this field ofresearchandwarnedhimthathewaswastinghistime.Källéndisagreed butafewyearslaterhegotverydisappointedthatthislineofresearchdid physics notleadtoprogressin thathehadanticipated. (4) Radiativecorrectionsinweakinteractions.Afterhavingwrittenhisbook “ElementaryParticlePhysics”,publishedin1964,Källénstarteddoingre- search in this field and for a few years worked on radiative corrections to neutron beta decay. In this volume, Alberto Sirlin, a pioneer and expert inthisfield,givesastatus reportanddiscussesKällén’swork. Inadditionto his scientific heritage,Källénleftbehind a substantial number of“disciples”, manyofwhombecameuniversityprofessors. x PortraitofGunnarKällén The purposeofthis bookistopresentKällén,whowasoneofthe shining stars on the physics sky of 1950’s and 1960’s. The reader is invited to get to know his unusual personality and become acquainted with some aspects of the history of our science in those days, as related by him and those who correspondedwithhim.Inaddition,aselectionofhismostimportantandnot easilyaccessiblepapersisincluded,forthe specialiststoenjoy.If the readeris interested in any of his other papers he/she is invited to contact me (CJ) as I have acompletecollection. Acknowledgements This book consists of five Parts. The first four contain material of both bio- graphicalandscientificnature.Inthem,therearechapterswrittentobecom- prehensible to anyone who wishes to know more about Gunnar Källén and his time. The fifth Partis intended for specialists, as it includes a selection of Källén’sarticlesaswellascommentariesthatgivemoreinformationabouthis work. Aseveryonewhohaseverproducedabookperhapsknows,butI(CJ)didn’t realizeisthatproducingabooksuchasthisonetakesahugeamountoftime. I would not have started this enterprise if I had not been reminded, on sev- eraloccasions,byProfessorAndréMartinatCERNthat“someone”shoulddo “something” so that Källénis not forgotten. Thereby, he gave me such a bad conscience that I felt that I had no choice but to plunge into “doing some- thing” and do it as quickly as possible. Indeed, the number of people who personallyknew Källénis on constant decline and even some of his students havealreadypassedaway. My most profound thanks go to Professor Steven Weinberg who came to Lund to give the 2009 Källén Memorial Lecture and for his article included inthis volume.IamalsoindebtedtoProfessorT.D. Leewho(together with R. Friedberg) has written an article for this book, to honor the memory of GunnarKällén.SpecialthankgotoProfessorAlbertoSirlinforhisassessment of status of radiative corrections in weak interactions and Källén’s contribu- tionstothis field. Thisvolumehasbeenfurtherenrichedbycontributionsorcommentsfrom Herbert Abels, Sture Allén, James D. Bjorken, Anders Bojs, Karl-Erik Eriks- son, Ludwig D. Faddeev, Herbert M. Fried, Stephen Gasiorowicz, Nico van Kampen, Benny Lautrup, Poul Olesen, Afaf Sabry, Raymond Stora, Bengt E. Y. Svensson, Martinus J. G. Veltman and Antonino Zichichi. I wish to expressmydeepestgratitudetothemall. Special thanks go to Källén’s four children and his brother Bengt Källén. Källén’s children, Erland, Kristina, Elisabeth and Arne, for their support of thisproject.Erland–himselfaprivatepilot–uponbeingaskedimmediately agreedtowriteanarticleforthisvolume,onthefatalplaneaccidentthattook xii PortraitofGunnarKällén hisfather’slife.ProfessorBengtKällénhascontributedwithapreciousarticle abouthisbrother. I have found almost all the material for producing this bookin Sweden – primarilyinLund.Iwouldliketotakethisopportunitytothankthemembers of the Manuscripts & Archives Division of the Lund University Library for theirhospitalityduringthecountlesshoursthatIspentattheirreadingroom. I am also indebted to the staff of the Center for History of Science at the RoyalSwedish Academy of Sciences (Stockholm) as well as that of the Royal PhysiographicSociety(Lund)fortheirkindnessandforlettingmegothrough theirpreciousarchives.IhavealsobenefitedfromvisitstotheCentralLibrary atCERN. Finally, sincere thanks go Linda Jarlskog for her gratuitous artistic work - photographingportraits at the home of Arne Källén, as well as scanning and retouchingpicturessuppliedbyKristinaKällén,presentedinthisvolume. Last but not least I wish to thank Jens Vigen, the Head of the CERN Li- brary,whoseenthusiasmandgoodadvicehavealwaysimpressedme.Iamalso indebtedtoChristianCaron,theExecutiveEditoratSpringer.Ican’timagine amorepositiveandhelpfulEditorthanhe. Lund, January2013 CeciliaJarlskog(abbreviatedbyCJinthisbook)
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