KVARKER, LEPTONER OG DEN OVERFLØDIGE SAMLING: Jagten på en teori for alting – og ingenting

Abstract

The article views collections as non-random

accumulations, i.e. objects with interrelations

and a well hidden, unifying theme.

In the greatest of all collections, referred to

loosely as the universe, such interrelations

make up the “laws of nature” of which we

have already unravelled so many. The theme

under which it was all put together, however,

has still to be revealed. After briefly outlining

the evolution in physics from Democritos’

atomic theory to the 19th century advent of

the periodic table of the elements, the article

continues with a descent into the finer details

of matter, ending up at the quarks and leptons

which constitute the matter particles of the

so-called standard model of elementary

particles. The collection of all matter hitherto

observed in the universe has repeatedly been

subjected to a reduction based on the rationale

that seemingly different objects are identified

merely as different manifestations of the

same object. A simpler, yet representative

collection is established once the emerging

structures of the collection at hand have

been properly resolved. It is the nature of

this sobering reductionist process which is

the topic in which the discussion draws upon

a selection of examples from the ancient, as

well as the more contemporary, history of

physics.