From Current Algebra to Quantum Chromodynamics A Case for Structural Realism

The advent of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in the early 1970s was one of the most important events in twentieth-century science. This book examines the conceptual steps that were crucial to the rise of QCD, placing them in historical context against the background of debates that were ongoing between the bootstrap approach and composite modeling, and between mathematical and realistic conceptions of quarks. It explains the origins of QCD in current algebra and its development through high-energy experiments, model-building, mathematical analysis and conceptual synthesis. Addressing a range of complex physical, philosophical and historiographical issues in detail, this book will interest graduate students and researchers in physics and in the history and philosophy of science.

1. Introduction; 2. The rise of current algebra (CA); 3. Sum rules; 4. Saturation and closure; 5. Scaling; 6. Theorizations of scaling; 7. The advent of quantum chromodynamics (QCD); 8. Early justifications and explorations; 9. Structural realism and the construction of QCD; 10. Historiographical issues in the CA-QCD narrative.

Addressing a range of complex physical, philosophical and historiographical issues in detail, this 2010 book examines the conceptual steps that were crucial to the rise of quantum chromodynamics. It will interest graduate students and researchers in physics and in the history and philosophy of science.