Chen Ning Yang Retrospective
Abstract
Chen-Ning Yang made important contributions to the theory of solvable models in statistical mechanics, including generalizations of the Bethe Ansatz, magnetization in the Ising model, the Lee-Yang circle theorem, and the Yang-Baxter equation. Most famously, Yang made transformative contributions to the current Standard Model of elementary particle interactions. The proposal of Yang and T. D. Lee, that left-right symetry (parity) is violated in weak particle decays, established that the primary currents involved in weak interactions are left handed. The work of Yang and R. L. Mills gave a framework for force carriers coupling to these currents that are non-Abelian generalizations of the electromagnetic photon, which unlike the electrically neutral photon, carry ``charges'' to which they self-couple . Two decades of work by others on quantization and mass-generation mechanisms then culminated in the Standard Model.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2512.02673,
title = {Chen Ning Yang Retrospective},
author = {Stephen L. Adler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.02673},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Author's version (before journal edits) of invited Retrospective for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences