The Hindu : Nobel laureate lecture

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 15, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Nobel laureate lecture

By Our Science Correspondent

CHENNAI. JAN. 14. The Dutch physicist, Gerard `t Hooft, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1999 will be delivering a public lecture on `The Universe inside an atom' on January 18 at 3.30 pm at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, here. He won the prize for `elucidating the quantum structure of electro-weak interactions in physics.'

Just as electricity and magnetism were recognised by the English Scientist, James Clerk Maxwell, to be two sides of the same coin called `Electromagnetism', electromagnetism and weak interactions were recognised after decades of research to be manifestations of an underlying unity called the electro-weak interactions.

Devising a mathematical framework to describe the interactions consistent with principles of special theory of relativity and quantum mechanics remained a formidable challenge for several decades.

Professor 't Hooft along with his doctoral supervisor, Martinus Veltman, succeeded in this in 1970 and jointly received the Nobel Prize. Professor 't Hooft was only 24 years when he completed this work.

The theory of the electro-weak force predicted the existence of the new W and Z particles right from the start.

But it was only through Prof. 't Hooft's and Prof. Veltman's work that more precise prediction of physical quantities involving properties of W and Z could start.

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