Paths to New Physics
I wrote this short piece for an article in an undergraduate research journal at MIT. I think it ended up being too poetic so it wasn't selected, but I enjoyed writing it so I decided to put it here. I talk about the dynamics of studying physics and how I view the field.
You find yourself in a strange new land. You look back to a comfortable and familiar world. Ahead lies a shrouded terrain of untold discovery and peril. Some enter this land with a destination in mind or know which direction to begin. Worst of all, some might have no idea of where to begin the journey.
Progress in science is much like the exploration of a new land. At times, we may have clues about where to examine or none at all. Exploring and studying the modern world has led to great leaps in human understanding. In just the last 120 years, we have seen an explosion of physics progress unparalleled in human history. At the start of the 20th century, Einstein introduced special relativity and a short ten years later he generalized his results to what is now our current theory of gravity. One that intertwines space and time into one inseparable medium, spacetime.
In the mid-1920s, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, and Dirac (among others) had set the foundation for quantum mechanics. Over the next fifty years, quantum mechanics developed into what we now call quantum field theory. With the foundation built by relativity and quantum mechanics, physicists could now understand the universe at the atomic scale and galactic scale.
From black holes to the Higgs boson, there are countless momentous achievements that I’ve skipped and many Nobel prizes left unmentioned. Just listing discoveries doesn’t show the process of real physics done every day across the world. This short summary of modern physics is more of a victory lap.
The study of physics takes two forms: theoretical physics and experimental physics. Experimental physicists quantify phenomena we see across the physical world through experimentation. Theoretical physicists aim to develop the mathematical foundations for these phenomena or possibly predict new phenomena. The interplay between theory and experiment is everpresent.
To discover new physics we need to step into the shrouded landscape we first encountered. Experimental physics and theoretical physics can guide us along the way, albeit in different ways.
Experimentation shows us the destination we must work towards. Physics must match the world we observe. Experimentation gives us these crucial phenomena that we are required to explain through new or modified physical laws. Exactly how we arrive at this expanded theory is a job for theoretical physicists. Theorists construct mathematical paths through our unknown landscape and, hopefully, can arrive at our destination.
While experimentation can often motivate theory, theoretical work can as well serve as a motivator. When theorists develop promising new physics, it directs where new experimentation should occur. New theory gives us a heading entering the shrouded land. We don’t know our destination, but the theorists have provided a direction to start our search.
Theory and experimentation are necessarily intertwined. They motivate each other and propel one another forward toward new discoveries.
Physics is the quest to understand the universe. To enter the shrouded landscape and uncover the mysteries it contains. I hope from this brief discussion you can come to see how I view physics as a whole and the constant balance between theory and experiment that the field necessitates.
- Nate W.
