In Theory: Why bother with theoretical physics?

http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/03/theorywhybothertheoreticalphysics, 11/25/2016

Harriet Jarlett
http://home.cern/authors/harriet-jarlett

Childrens fiction books were boring so I read all the science books, says John Ellis,
a theoretical physicist who worked on the Higgsstrahlung process that helped
discover the Higgs boson in 2012.

What makes a theoretical physicist pursue their career? Camille Bonvin is one of the fellows at CERN
looking at theories of cosmology. (Image: Sophia Bennett/CERN)

Boring. That word stands out when talking to the theoretical physicists at CERN
about how they got to where they are now.
Boring and complicated are words often associated with peoples impression of
physics in general. For some theoreticians working at CERN, physics wasnt the
career they saw for themselves their own lessons in the subject were dull
and offputting. Instead they imagined themselves as mathematicians, doctors and
engineers.
It took teachers with a true passion for the subject who saw beyond the athematics
to the fundamental questions it answers about nature to show these future
physicists their true calling. For others, while it would take them time to discover
theoretical physics, their love of the subject was ignited by childhood pleasures long
before anyone could make it seem boring.
I liked physics, but I found it a bit dry, a bit boring, so I decided to study medicine,
explains Camille Bonvin, a fellow now at the beginning of her career in the CERN
theory department.
1

John Ellis, of Kings College London, in his office at CERN surrounded by science books. It was these books that
drew him into physics as a child, when he found that he couldn't check out "good fiction" from the library until he
was 14 years old (Image: Sophia Bennett/CERN)

Bonvin was at university studying medicine when something she learnt at the end of
her school days began playing on her mind: Right at the end of school we got this
fantastic teacher that started to talk about cosmology, general relativity and quantum
mechanics, not going into details as we didnt have the background, but explaining
the ideas behind these strange theories I hadnt heard of before.
This teacher was a trigger, and six weeks into her degree Bonvin switched to physics.
Now, she is looking to begin her new role as an Assistant Professor at the University
of Geneva where she gained her PhD in 2008.
It wasnt that I disliked medicine, it's just that I thought if I continue to
studymedicine I will never get tolearn more about general
relativity and quantum physicsand so on, she shrugs.
Similarly, Gian Giudice, the new Head of CERNs Theory department, fell into
physics after a substitute lecturer with a passion for the subject showed him that
physics in school is often boring because it is taught without the tools of
mathematics it is the mathematics that makes physics so exciting.
My highschool teacher was good at lecturing in mathematics but he was most boring
when he was getting to physics. He was just stating some laws: the subject sounded
totally dull, Giudice explains. One day he fell ill and this young substitute teacher
came into class and showed us how, from the laws of mechanics applied to a

system of colliding particles, one can derive the laws of thermodynamics. It opened
my eyes to a completely new perspective on the power of logical deduction in physics.
It was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life!
But for Michelangelo Mangano, who has worked in the CERN theory department for
22 years, his goal was set as a child as he stared into the night skies, seeing the depth
of the universe and wondering what he could learn.
Im from the Apollo generation I was a kid when the Apollo missions were going
to the moon, so that attracted me to the cosmos. I always planned to do astronomy
and astrophysics, Mangano grins. But when I got to university working on
astrophysics meant going from the naive approach of a young person who
looks at the sky into number crunching. That took away the fascination.

Im from the Apollo generation I was a kid when the Apollo missions were going to the moon, so
that
attracted me to the cosmos. I always planned to do astronomy and astrophysics, says
Michaelangelo
Mangano. (Image: Maximillien Brice/CERN)

To preserve his own pleasure in stargazing, he started looking into particle physics
instead.
It was at university that many of these theoretical physicists discovered that particle
physics, like all other sciences, helps to answer questions of the universe. But unlike
other sciences its about looking at nature to interpret the logic behind it and seeing
which physical laws apply.
Physics is not a descriptive science in which you just observe nature and make a
catalogue of the facts. The goal is to understand the logic behind the facts and
discover nature's inner workings,
says Giudice.

What is theory?
By university, each of these scientists had narrowed down their future career options,
from a childlike love of general science and a natural aptitude for mathematics, to
studying for a physics degree. But within physics there are many branches, and
experimental physics often captures the publics imagination more easily, with its
huge machines that seem to mimic science fiction.
At first I found particle physics very cold. But then when you look at it from the
mathematical perspective and you realize the incredible connection there is
between mathematics and the structure of the universe, well that gave
it an incredible appeal. Michelangelo Mangano
Experiments have been crucial to this decades greatest physics discoveries, despite
the machines looking for something that theory had predicted many decades before.
The Large Hadron Collider dominated the particle physics newsreel since
the huge discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson and as recently as last month, a
largescale experiment in the US, the Laser Interferometer Gravitationalwave
Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves 100 years after Einsteins theory
predicted their existence.

Camille Bonvin, a fellow in CERN's Theory department was six weeks into a medical degree before she swapped
to physics, when the thought of never learning about general relativity or cosmology made her change. (Image:
Sophia Bennett/CERN)

With these two discoveries, two theories Einsteins Theory of General Relativity
and the Standard model have proved themselves to be the best description of
our world, yet neither explain the complete picture.
Until now, these theories told the experiments where to look and what they were
looking for. Theory was so crucial to experimental physics that CERNs theory
department, led by Niels Bohr, was set up two years before the rest of CERN.
Then, in 1952, a group of theorists, many under the age of thirty, met in Copenhagen
and had three goals scientific research on the fundamental problems in nuclear
physics, training young theoretical physicists and developing active cooperation
Between laboratories the original CERN theory department.
To this day, at CERN the theory department is working on numerous theories, from
Supersymmetry to string theory. But now, its possible these theories and ideas could
be led by the experiments as opposed to vice versa.
So what makes a newly fledged physicist follow the path of theory over experiments?
Why choose theory?
I always wanted to become a theorist, I studied physics, I did physics while I was
at school, my intention was always to become a theorist. In fact at university I
studied mathematics and theoretical physics and did no experiments
while I was at university atall. John Ellis
There are so many details involved in building an experiment. Checking all the
magnets, or coiling 100 metres of wire, theyre not terribly exciting. Experimentalists
have to have huge collaborations just to share out these boring repetitive tasks, but
they also share the fun. In theory, we get to focus more on the conceptual side of
things, another CERN theorist, Slava Rychkov, explains why he chose this specific
physics path caveating that they also get to share the fun that comes with seeing a
huge experiment being built.

I was a double major at my university in Moscow. It just so happened I started doing research in pure
mathematics, then much later I got the chance to try theoretical physics. I found I had all the fun I had in
math, but in addition you have a feeling youre really studying the fundamental questions of nature. Slava
Rychkov (Image: Sophia Bennett/CERN)

Rychkovs decision to become a theorist was easy, for him the choice was actually
between mathematics and physics.
Where theoretical physicists say ok, this is 99% true, lets move forward,
a mathematician could spend decades trying to complete that 1% to make it 100%
true. Thats a big price to pay.
Like notable theorist Richard Feynman, who famously discussed his aptitude for
electronics and tinkering with radios as a child, one thing many of the CERN
theoreticians had in common was their complete lack of practical ability.
Im completely useless withmy hands, laughs John Ellis
from in front of the mountains of papers and books that fill hisoffice. My wife
finally got me doing some painting in the house for the first time in 30 years, just
the day before yesterday!
Giudice had the same problem, grinning, he explains that without his laboratory
partners he never would have passed the practical lessons at university. I was
terrible. I was always a disaster in the lab, I had no clue what to do. Thankfully
there were other people doing everything for me, because Im not a practical man.
While Mangano was useless with electronics, he disagrees this implies a lack of
practicality, as he discusses his amateur carpentry, masonry and woodwork.
Wolfgang Lerche, in contrast, greatly enjoyed playing with electronics as a teenager,
boasting that he could beat many of his experimental colleagues in terms of practical
ability.

Wolfgang Lerche (right) works on the deeply mathematical aspects of string theory, despite his practical nature.
Here, he is interviewed by Harriet Jarlett for this series of articles (Image: Sophia Bennett/CERN)

As a student in Germany his university didnt teach particle physics. Instead he

learnt about it in 1979 when, as a summer student at CERN, he found a whole new
world of physics open up, and was lured into the realm of theoretical physics.
Lerche knows that, while the skills needed for both experimental and theoretical
physics are different, theres always some overlap.
Much of any physicists time is spent trying to find out why something doesnt work.
The tolerance to deal with frustration, and the patience needed for solving
impossible problems, belong to the basic skills that are needed by both groups.
To learn more about the theory department, read the other articles and
photoessays in our In Theory serie.
-------------------------------------------------http://home.cern/topics/higgsboson
http://www.home.cern/sites/home.web.cern.ch/files/image/updatefor_the_public/2016/03/image_0.jpeg
http://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-PHOTO-201602-022-5
http://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-PHOTO-201603-058-17
http://home.cern/about/experiments)
http://home.cern/topics/largehadroncollider
http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/02/cern-congratulates-discoverers-gravitational-waves
http://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-PHOTO-201602-026-7
http://home.cern/about/physics/standardmodel
http://home.cern/about/physics/supersymmetry
http://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-PHOTO-201602-023-13
http://cds.cern.ch/images/CERN-PHOTO-201602-025-3
http://home.cern/students-educators/summer-student-programme
http://www.home.cern/about/updates/series/in-theory