粒子物理还有很长的路要走——2008年度诺贝尔物理学奖成果简介

Study on Particle Physics is Still a Long Way to Go——An Introdution to Achievements of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2008

评述了2008年度诺贝尔物理学奖获得者南部阳一郎(Yoichiro Nambu)、小林诚(Makoto Kobayashi)和益川敏英(Toshihide Maskawa)的研究工作。南部由于发现了粒子物理中的自发对称破缺,这个低调而深刻的物理学家获得2008年度物理学诺贝尔奖的一半。小林诚和益川敏英关于CP不对称的工作,获得诺贝尔物理学奖的另一半。CP是英文电荷(Charge)以及宇称(Parity)的缩写,这里的电荷不完全是我们通常所说的电荷,电荷反演其实是粒子和反粒子之间的互换,宇称是空间的反演。1957年度诺贝尔物理学奖获得者李政道和杨振宁发现发现宇称不对称时,人们还没有发现CP对称性也被破坏了。最后,虽然CP破坏对宇宙中重子不对称起源具重要意义,但小林诚和益川敏英提出的CKM矩阵所导致的CP破坏还是太弱,不足以解释宇宙早期的重子数生成。毫无疑问,我们要超出粒子标准模型才能够解释重子数的起源,粒子物理还有较长的路要走。

Explain the Nobel Prize work of Yoichiro Nambu, and Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa. Nambu won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2008 for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics, while Kobayashi and Maskawa shared the other half of the prize for explaining CP violation and predicting the third generation of quarks in the standard model. CP is the abbreviation of chargeparity exchange, charge stands for excharge between particles and anti-particles, parity is the mirror reflection in space. T. D. Lee and C. N. Yang won the physics prize of 1957 for the discovery of parity violation, and CP violation was not discovered until much later. Although we often say that CP violation is crucial for baryogensis in the early universe, the source for CP violation introduced by Kobayashi and Maskawa is not strong enough for baryogenesis. There is still a long way ahead in particle physics.