The Emperor's Last Clothes?
Abstract
We are in the middle of a remarkable paradigm shift in particle physics, a shift of opinion that occurred so slowly that some even try to deny that they changed their minds at all. It concerns a very basic question: can we expect to derive the laws of particle physics from a fundamental theory? The Standard Model of particle physics as well as the 1984 string theory revolution provided ample food for thought about this. The reason this was ignored for so long can be traced back to an old fallacy: a misguided idea about our own importance.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0807.3249,
title = {The Emperor's Last Clothes?},
author = {A. N. Schellekens},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.3249},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
88 pages, Review intended for readers with an education in physics. Preprint Nr. added, some statements corrected, some references added. A short version (about 20 pages) was published in Rept. Prog. Phys. 71:072201,2008. July 2010: Footnote added to correct a remark on nuclear binding