Werner Erhard (est) Foundation Sponsored Experimental Physics Conference 1977: “Novel...

8/6/2019 Werner Erhard (est) Foundation Sponsored Experimental Physics Conference 1977: Novel Configurations In Quant

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PHYSICS CONFERENCE

"Novel Configurat ions in Quantum Field Theory"

Sponsored byThe e s t Foundation

January 22 through 24, 1977San Francisco


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I. THE CONFERENCEA. Definition of the Conference

The est Foundation is sponsoring and supporting the conference for physicistsat Franklin House on January 22, 23, and 24, 1977. The est Foundation, insponsoring the conference, provides only financial and logistical support.Some of the physicists who will be attending have determined the subjectmatter of the conference, have selected the other participants, and haveextended the invitations to those participants.The topic of the Conference is: ~ N o v e l Configurations in Quantcm FieldTheory". This topic was selected, as we have been told by the physicistswho did so, because i t represents the current IIfrontier" of theoreticalphysics. Essentially, i t is concerned with the nature of the ultimateconstituents of matter and the forces that hold those constituents together:

B. Purpose of the ConferenceThe est Foundation has sponsored this conference in alignment with itsown purpose as a foundation, which is to support research and educationalprojects related to the experience of individual and social transformation.The foundation's purpose in sponsoring this conference, therefore, istwo fold: 1) to provide a space for the transformation of the participants'experience of physics; 2) to provide a space for the transformation ofphysics and its contribution to transformation in general.The intended result of the conference for the participants is the miraculousoccurrence of inspiration, communication, and enthusiasm, and the experienceof true value for themselves and for the world of physics in having met.

C. BackgroundA precedent for a small non-academic physics conference was established byThe Solvay Conferences. The fo 11 owi ng pa'ragraphs bri ef1y gi ve some i nfor-mation about these conferences.


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The Solvay Conferences, which were actually called the Solvay Congresses,were held in Brussels, Belgium. Ernest Solvay, a Belgian industrial chemistwho had made a fortune with a new process of manufacturing sodium carbonate,dabbled in physics as a hobby and in 1911 conceived the notion of assemblingleading European physicists together, at his expense, and getting theiropinions of his ideas. He left the organization of the Congress to hisfriend Walther Nernst, then a professor in Berlin and a leading physicalchemist. By the time the invitations to the first Solvay Congress in 1911were issued, Nernst had succeeded in broadening the scope of the Congressto a discussion of the central problems of physics. The Congress of 1911,which included such people as H. A. Lorentz, Max Planck, Madam Curie,Ernest Rutherford, as well as Einstein, was a great success and developedinto an institution which lasted for many years.During the two decades after 1911, the Solvay Conferences became the singlemost important forum for the exchange of ideas by the great physicists ofthe period. It was especially noted for the historic dialogue betweenEinstein and Bohr, which actually continued over a period of about threedecades, concerning Einstein1s growing skepticism about the definitive valueof Quantum Theory. Anecdotes from these meetings have become part of thefolklore of modern physics. For example, Bohr has recounted one of hismost celebrated discussions with Einstein, which took place at the SolvayConference in Brussels in 1930. For this occasion, Einstein had inventeda remarkable imaginary device involving clocks and scales which appearedto violate the Uncertainty Principle. After a sleepless night, Bohrdiscovered that Einstein had forgotten to take into account the effect ofhis own discovery that clocks ran at a slower rate in a gravitational field,and that, indeed, the Uncertainty Principle was secure.

The highly theoretical discussions at the Solvay Conferences had enormouspractical import in determining the direction of inquiry in physics. Theissues raised at these conferences continued to be debated in earnest formany years to come. Ehrenfest, for example, who knew both Einstein and Bohrwell and witnessed many of their discussions at the Solvay Conferences, wasso tormented by his own conflicting feelings about who was right (and there-fore in which direction physics should move) that i t is generally agreed


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that this led to his suicide in 1933. (This information was adapted fromEinstein, by Jeremy Bernstein, and Albert Einstein, ed. by Paul Schilpp.)The est Foundation Physics Conference, like the early Solvay Conferences,brings together a relatively small group of renowned physicists who willbe in a close working relationship in a supportive and congenial environ-ment outside of a university or professional society setting. Further, thisparticular group of outstanding physicists has never before met togetherin a conference. This is the first opportunity for these distinguishedphysicists to participate directly with each other.


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NAMES OF PHYSICS CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTSEduard BrezinC.E.N. Saclay Gif sur YvetteCurt CallanUniversi te de Paris - SudGeoffrey ChewUniversi ty of California a t BerkeleySidney ColemanHarvard UniversityRoger DashenSchool for Natural Sciences

Ins t i tu te for Advanced StudyRichard FeynmanCalifornia Ins t i tu te of TechnologyDavid Finkels te inYeshiva Universi tyJean-Loup GervaisUniversi te de Paris - SudFred GoldhaberState Universi ty of New York a t Stony BrookDavid GrossPrinceton UniversityRoman JackiwM.I.T.T. D. LeeColumbia UniversityClaudio RebbiM.I.T.Stanley MandelstamUniversity of California a t BerkeleyLeonard SusskindYeshiva UniversityJ . A. Swieca

Pontif icia UniversidadeCatolica do Rio de JanieroSteven WeinbergStanford Universi ty


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NAMES OF PHYSICS CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTSPage 2

John WheelerUnivers i ty o f TexasEdward WittenHarvard Univers i ty

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