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A new high‐energy scale?

APR 01, 1972
Experiments at ultrahigh energies may verify scale invariance, or they may reveal a new substructure leading to fundamental changes in theories of the weak interaction and quantum electrodynamics.
T. D. Lee

Throughout the study of microscopic physics, new frontiers are opened whenever a new basic energy scale is reached. We have the case of atomic and molecular physics with the electron‐volt energy scale, nuclear physics with the MeV energy scale and the present stronginteraction physics with the GeV energy scale. In each case, at the energy scale of interest, we encounter a vastly rich structure of multiple energy levels and detailed dynamics; yet, when viewed against a much larger energy scale, this superstructure simply dissolves into the continuum.

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More about the Authors

T. D. Lee. Columbia University.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 25, Number 4

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