Today Professor Ma brought us a lecture in popular frontier science, mainly introducing the scientific achievements and latest developments in particle physics and cosmology.
People build ever more precise astronomical instruments and vast particle accelerators in order to probe the mysteries of the universe. The still unobserved particle left over in gauge theory—the Higgs particle—has also been called the God particle.
Why go looking for such particles? In a certain sense, physicists really are searching for “God.” The Higgs particle is used to patch up the defects of the current theory, playing a role similar to that of God: “The Higgs field once represented all the energy that created particles; it temporarily withdrew, then appeared several times in different disguises, with the aim of maintaining mathematical consistency, eliminating infinities, and managing the ever more complex relationships generated by the continued differentiation of forces and particles. This is the magnificent and dazzling ‘God particle.’” (Chinese edition of The God Particle, p. 410) It is almost like the God in Descartes and Newton, who provides the impetus for things and steps in from time to time to patch up the world. “Dark energy” may be something similar as well; if Newton were to look at it, that strange repulsive force that makes the universe expand at an accelerating rate would probably be regarded as God’s intervention.
Yet the difference is that for modern people, “God” must also be knowable; physics must investigate the ultimate ultimate thing, whether it is God or a particle. Modern physics may well be some kind of “atheistic Christianity.”
Lederman, who gave the Higgs particle the nickname “God particle,” compared physicists’ pursuit of building particle accelerators with the “Tower of Babel” in the Bible. (Chinese edition of The God Particle, p. 24) Why build the Tower of Babel? “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4) The pursuit of physics is similar: not for any practical use, but simply for the glory of human knowledge, for the pursuit of the unity of all things.
And if the “God particle” really appears at the top of the tower, what would that mean? This edifice of gauge theory would have been built, proclaiming human glory; but what, exactly, does the glory of “reaching the heavens” mean? Can it gather together the humans “over the face of the whole earth”? I’m afraid not; in any case, it is glory. Of course, perhaps the “God particle,” like God in the Bible, will also throw people into confusion at the last moment—once the Higgs particle does not exist, the entire edifice of gauge theory may collapse from the very foundation. But the people who have been scattered will always build new towers from all around in order to “reach the heavens”…
December 17, 2010
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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