David J. Gross

Nobel Lecture

The Discovery of Asymptotic Freedom and the Emergence of QCD

David J. Gross held his Nobel Lecture December 8, 2004, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University. He was presented by Professor Sune Svanberg, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Summary: The development of the theory of strong interactions is followed from around 1960 with all the new data available at that time but no theory – to today’s description of the strong interaction, Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD), a theory that with one single coupling is describing all strong interactions. In contrast to electromagnetic forces, the strong force increases with distance and energy supported by many experiments over the years 1990-2004.

The Discovery of Asymptotic Freedom and the Emergence of QCD

David J. Gross held his Nobel Lecture December 8, 2004, at Aula Magna, Stockholm University. He was presented by Professor Sune Svanberg, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Summary: The development of the theory of strong interactions is followed – from around 1960 with all the new data available at that time but no theory – to today’s description of the strong interaction, Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD), which is a theory that with one single coupling is describing all strong interactions. In contrast to electromagnetic forces, the strong force increases with distance and energy, a concept supported by observations from many experiments carried out between 1990 and 2004.

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Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2004

From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 2004, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 2005

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