The Origins of Mass

An article by Frank Wilczek

Everyday work at the frontiers of modern physics usually involves complex concepts and extreme conditions. We speak of quantum fields, entanglement, or supersymmetry, and analyze the ridiculously small or conceptualize the incomprehensibly large. Just as Willie Sutton famously explained that he robbed banks because “that’s where the moneyis,”so we do these things because “that’s where the Unknown is.” It is an amazing and delightful fact, however,that occasionallythis sophisticated work gives answers to child-like questions about familiar things. Here I’d like to describe how myown work on subnuclear forces, the world of quarks and gluons, casts brilliant new light on one such child-like question: What is the origin of mass?

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