Nobelist David Gross Lecture on Fund. Theory of Physics at UCSB

[edguy99]

6/12 public lecture today by Nobelist David Gross at University of California, Santa Barbara: What's a fundamental theory of physics?

http://www.fnal.gov/culture/NewArts/Lectures/11-12/gross.shtml

Dr. David Gross received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004, along with H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek.

Frank Wilczek is quoted as saying:

"Let's see what goes into it (the proton under QCD theory), massless gluons, and massless up and down quarks, and nothing else. You have to agree that that's an explanation of the origin of mass."

Is this quote still considered valid by people today?

 

[Whovian]

Don't think so. We're fairly certain quarks DO have mass.

 

[edguy99]

I think his meaning is at very high temperatures as in high speed collisions or early big bang. The mass comes from interaction with the vacumn as the temperature drops.

I agree you often see a mass of a quark as being so many MeV's and the gluons as having zero mass. Yet the mass of the proton is much greater then the mass of the quarks, yet there is nothing else there except the quarks and the massless gluons.

I always liked this quote.. not sure people still feel its valid.