Feynman in the eyes of Gell-Mann and Wilson

This year marks the 100th and 30th anniversaries of the birth and death of the master of physics, Professor Richard Feynman, and the physics community around the world is commemorating in various ways the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. Many of his famous sayings, such as "There is enough space at the bottom" and "The first principle of being a man is not to deceive yourself, and you are the easiest person to be deceived by yourself and deceived by yourself", have also become true words that have been passed down from generation to generation, enlightening the minds and souls of those who come after you. Given that many of Feynman's stories are already well known to the public, here we make a deep effort to understand some of the little-known true dispositions of the scientific giant from the mouths of his colleague Professor Murray Gell-mann and Professor Kenneth Wilson, a student of Gellman.

Although Gell-Mann originally joined Caltech in fact, at least to some extent, the two brilliant physicists did not always get along well. In February 1989, Gell-Mann commemorated the first anniversary of Feynman's death in the journal Physics today, titled "Dick Feynman— The Guy Sitting in that Office in the Hallway." In the article, Gell-Mann bluntly expressed disdain for Feynman's often "showman" style: "I don't think much of the well-known other side of Richard's style. He immersed himself in an endless stream of myths and spent a lot of time and energy creating interesting anecdotes about himself. He even said, "Of course, a lot of the anecdotes are derived from stories told by Richard, in which he is generally a heroic figure, and if possible, he has to appear in a posture that seems to be smarter than the others." I must admit that as the years went by, I became more and more uncomfortable with my role as the opponent he wanted to surpass; I also found that working with him was not as like-minded as before, because he seemed to think more of 'you' and 'me' than 'us'. Maybe he's less used to working with people who don't just foil his own ideas (especially people like me, because I see Richard as a tall guy who can sublimate my ideas from his feedback!). )。 ”

In addition to publishing a professional paper with co-student George Zweig, Feynman and Gell-Mann collaborated on only one academic paper over the years, the 1958 V-A theory of weak interactions. Intriguingly, the only cooperation between the two physics giants was not what you and I wanted, but the compromise result of the intervention of the head of the physics department. In the summer of 1957, Gell-Mann and Feynman realized at about the same time that all processes of weak decay could be unified in the v-a theory. Feynman, in particular, was thrilled by his discovery, and quickly wrote the first draft of his paper. Gell-Mann, who had just returned to Caltech from a field study, heard about it and immediately began writing a paper on the same topic, because he himself recognized the v-a structure of the weak interaction. When the head of the department learned of this situation, he thought that such competition between colleagues hurt caltech's dignity, so he intervened and asked the two people to cooperate. Feynman and Gell-Mann agreed, and on September 16, 1957, they submitted a paper entitled "The Theory of Fermi Interactions" to the journal Physical Review, which was officially published in January 1958 and became a classic of standard weak interaction theory

One of the papers.

In Gell-Mann's view, Feynman had a super-ability to re-represent what was known in a very different, concise and effective way, but it always seemed to lack some kind of original innovation. Feynman himself admits that the reason he was so excited about discovering the V-a structure of the weak interaction was because "I learned a law of nature that no one else knew, and for the first and only time in my career." For this story, see Mr. Feynman, you must be joking! page 474 of the original English edition of the book. Perhaps Gell-Mann had some "envy and jealousy" in feynman's over-the-top colleague, but there is no doubt that heroes cherish heroes, and in Gell-Mann's own words, "Richard likes to explore every question in a novel way, whether important or unimportant—'over and over again,' as he put it." He lost his father at a young age, and he recounted how his father had taught him to do so. This approach has always been accompanied by Richard's extraordinary efforts to be different, especially with his friends and colleagues. ”

As a descendant, Wilson did not have many opportunities to deal with Feynman. The talented teenager who was admitted to Harvard at the age of 16 not only had extraordinary intelligence, but also had a good father, Edgar Wilson, a famous chemist at Harvard University. When his son was admitted to the California Institute of Technology to start graduate school, he suggested that his son go to visit the most famous physicists there, sell himself out, and choose a good mentor. As Wilson himself later reflected, "When I entered graduate school, at my father's will, I knocked on the door of Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman and asked about the research projects they were working on. Pierre Ramond, a famous physicist at the University of Florida in the United States, recalled that Wilson once told him the truth of the matter in private. Wilson went to the famous Feynman first, knocked on the closed door of Feynman's office, and heard a rough response from inside: "What? Finally, Feynman opened the door, and Wilson quickly introduced himself, "Hello! I'm a new graduate student here, and I just want to know what topic you're working on. Feynman roared impatiently, "There is no subject! Then he slammed the office door shut.

After eating Feynman's closed door, a confused Wilson went to Gell-Mann's office and asked what kind of research he was doing. Gell-Man kindly received the fledgling young man, wrote down the assigned function of the three-dimensional Isin model on a blackboard, and then said to Wilson, "If only you could solve this problem." Wilson threw himself into Gell-Mann's footsteps and became one of his best students, even though the two never collaborated on any academic papers.

While Wilson was pursuing his Ph.D. at caltech, Gell-Mann went to Paris for a year of academic leave, so Feynman was in charge of a weekly seminar on theoretical physics. Most of the time the first thing he said when he walked into the room was, "What should we talk about today?" At a seminar, Feynman did the same, but at first it didn't spark enthusiasm for discussion. He then noticed that Wilson was whispering to his classmates in the neighborhood, so he asked what the two men were discussing. Wilson replied, "We are exploring a 16th-century mathematical theorem that happens to be called 'Wilson's theorem.'" Then Wilson became the protagonist of the seminar—Feynman told him to explain the theorem in front of the blackboard and prove it on the spot, which naturally made it difficult for the brilliant Wilson, because his mathematical skills were very deep, and he participated in many mathematical competitions when he was in college.

Wilson later recalled in an interview with the media, "One time I was discussing with other students, and Feynman was involved. He was asked, 'Have you noticed what makes a great physicist different?' I'm referring to what sets brilliant, not ordinary, physicists apart! And Feynman replied, 'Yes, I noticed that what sets them apart is perseverance. No matter how long it takes to overcome a problem, they will not give up. We discussed this issue in the 1960s. ”

Wilson received his Ph.D. in 1961. When he submitted his graduation thesis to the academy, Gell-Mann was still in Paris, so Feynman had to review his thesis on his behalf. As is customary at Caltech, after a professor reviews a student's graduation thesis, the latter makes a presentation to explain his thesis work to others. Feynman attended Wilson's presentation, in which a professor raised his hand and said, "I find the question you discussed interesting, but why is it useful?" Wilson was unable to answer for a moment. After a moment of silence, Feynman exclaimed, "Please don't nitpick about gifts! This shows Feynman's tolerant side, which is very different from his performance when he rejected Wilson's academic counseling!

*Part of this article is compiled from the murray gell-mann article "Dick feynman —

the guy in the office down the hall”(physics today,

february1989, page 50) and Paul Ginsparg's article "Kenneth G. Wilson:

renormalized after-dinner anecdots”(arxiv:1407.1855 [physics.

hist-ph], 7 october 2014)。