Public Dirac Lecture 2008
Sponsored by the Dirac Fund for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics at the University of New South Wales and by the NSW Branch of the Australian Institute for Physics
HARALD FRITZSCH
Sommerfeld Chair of Theoretical Physics,
University of Munich
will speak on 15th April, 2008 at 6:30 pm
in the KEITH BURROWS THEATRE at the University of New South Wales
on
THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTANTS IN PHYSICS
ABSTRACT: The fundamental constants in physics are a mystery. Nobody understands their strange values, which we determine in the experiments. In the Standard Model of Particle Physics we are dealing with 28 fundamental constants. I will discuss these constants, which are mostly mass parameters. Astrophysical measurements indicate that the fine structure constant is not a real constant, but depends on time. This would imply that also the masses of atoms change in time. Experiments in Quantum Optics can give information on such a time change.
PROFESSOR HARALD FRITZSCH
Harald Fritzsch was born and grew up near Zwickau in East Germany. He studied physics at the University of Leipzig, from 1963 until 1968. As a student he was a member of group of students and scientists which opposed the communist government in East Germany. In 1968 he had to escape from East Germany. With a friend he crossed the Black Sea, starting in Varna in Bulgaria. After two days they arrived in Turkey. Soon afterwards Fritzsch was in Munich. Prof. Heisenberg took him as a graduate student at the MPI in Munich. In 1971 he obtained his Ph.D. at the Technical University in Munich.
In 1972 Fritzsch wrote together with Gell-Mann the first paper on the gauge theory of the strong interactions, which they later named Quantum Chromodynamics. He worked since then and still works on this theory and investigated many of its features, such as scaling violations and the spin problem.
In 1975 Fritzsch proposed together with Minkowski the SO(10)-theory of Grand Unification, which today is the outstanding candidate for a unified theory. He wrote many papers on features of the weak interactions. He proposed the so-called Fritzsch matrices for the description of flavour mixing.
THE SILVER DIRAC MEDAL
The Silver Dirac Medal for the Advancement of Theoretical Physics is awarded by the University of New South Wales on the occasion of the Public Dirac Lecture. The Lecture and the Medal commemorate the visit to the University in 1975 of Professor P.A.M. Dirac, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the century. Professor Dirac gave five lectures at the University, which were subsequently published as a book Directions of Physics (Wiley, 1978 – H. Hora and J. Shepanski, eds.). Professor Dirac kindly donated the royalties from this book to the University for the establishment of the Dirac Lecture series.
PREVIOUS DIRAC LECTURES
1979 Professor Hannes Alfven, Nobel Laureate
1981 Professor John C. Ward, FRS
1983 Professor Nicholaas Bloembergen, Nobel Laureate
1985 Professor David Pines, M. Am. Ac. Sc.
1987 Professor Robert Hofstadter, Nobel Laureate
1988 Professor Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel Laureate
1989 Professor Carlo Rubbia, Nobel Laureate
1989 Professor Kenneth Wilson, Nobel Laureate
1990 Professor Norman F. Ramsay, Nobel Laureate
1991 Professor Herbert Hauptmann, Nobel Laureate
2002 Professor Heinrich Hora
2004 Professor Edward Shuryak
2004 Professor Iosif B. Khriplovich
