by ©Fernando Caracena 2024
I think that theoretical physics is currently going through some changes that may put it on the right track. I have been watching Neil Turok the cosmologist from South Africa. He discusses the current state of Theoretical Physics in an interview here. In another, he discusses some of his research on the Quantum Universe.
The issues in elementary particle physics have come back to where my interests were when I received my PhD in theoretical physics at Case Western Reserve University. My task for a thesis was to solve for a minimally electrodynamically coupled vector boson field, which was originally proposed by Alexandru Proca (1897-1955) and modified later by Corbin and Schwinger, who later added another interaction term. All attempts at the time to find a theory that did not have an infinite tending photon-vector scattering cross sections had result in failure. My task was to develop a theory a charged vector boson , which would be minimally coupled to the electromagnetic fields.
Actually, my researches had taken me wide of the problem to Yang -Mills theory and Goldstone Bosons. Abruptly graduate school was not fun anymore. I decided to solve my thesis problem and get my PhD and go out into the world. This I did quickly by applying physical intuition. My advisor. Joseph Weinberg said, "Fernando! What took you so long."