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Quantum chromodynamics

Colour takes the field

Nature volume 390, pages 659–661 (1997)Cite this article

Sometimes discoveries in physics come as sudden revelations: the existence of a new kind of particle, or of a new phase of matter. But sometimes profound results take shape gradually, appearing first as suggestive but not unique interpretations of limited data, becoming fully realized only as they are recognized in different contexts and made quantitative. The phenomenon of colour coherence is of the latter type. Its observation1,2 is a very remarkable result, showing in a dramatic way the unity and predictive power of fundamental physical theories; yet it has come upon us so gradually that it has gone almost unremarked.

To set the stage, let me briefly recall the close analogies between quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of the ‘strong’ force which binds atomic nuclei and governs most high-energy particle interactions. Both theories are based on the concept that fields respond to the presence and motion of charges. In QED, the electromagnetic field responds to electric charges. In QCD a more complicated system of eight different fields responds to the presence and motion of three different kinds of charge, somewhat inappropriately called colours (‘red’, ‘green’ and ‘blue’). Although the mathematics of QCD is more intricate — and thus, to aficionados, more symmetrical, beautiful and challenging — than that of QED, the basic interactions postulated in the two theories are profoundly similar.

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Figure 1: Addition of colours.

References

  1. Bartel, W. et al. Z. Phys. C 21, 37–52 (1983).

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  2. The ALEPH collaboration Phys. Rep. 24, 1–165 (1998).

  3. Khoze, V. & Ochs, W. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 12, 2949–3120 (1997).

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  4. Abbot, B. et al. preprint hep-ex/9706012 on xxx.lanl.gov.

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  1. the School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Olden Lane, Princeton, 08540, New Jersey, USA

    Frank Wilczek

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  1. Frank Wilczek
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Wilczek, F. Colour takes the field. Nature 390, 659–661 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/37726

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