Luis Álvarez-Gaumé

Luis Álvarez-Gaumé (born 1955) is a Spanish theoretical physicist who deals with string theory and quantum gravity.

Quotes

An Invitation to Quantum Field Theory (2012)

Luis Álvarez-Gaumé and Miguel Á. Vázquez-Mozo, An Invitation to Quantum Field Theory (2012)

• Quantum field theory is the basic tool to understand the physics of the elementary constituents of matter. … It is both a very powerful and a very precise framework: using it we can describe physical processes in a range of energies going from the few millions electrovolts typical of nuclear physics to the thousands of billions of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). And all this with astonishing precision.
  • Ch. 1 : Why Do We Need Quantum Field Theory After All?

• In spite of the impressive success of quantum mechanics in describing atomic physics, it was immediately clear after its formulation that its relativistic extension was not free of difficulties.
  • Ch. 1 : Why Do We Need Quantum Field Theory After All?

• If Dirac’s idea restores the stability of the spectrum by introducing a stable vacuum where all negative energy states are occupied, the so-called Dirac sea, it also leads directly to the conclusion that a single-particle interpretation of the Dirac equation is not possible.
  • Ch. 1 : Why Do We Need Quantum Field Theory After All?

• In 1929 Oskar Klein stumbled into an apparent paradox when trying to describe the scattering of a relativistic electron by a square potential using Dirac’s wave equation. … In order to capture the essence of the problem without entering into unnecessary complication we will study Klein’s paradox in the context of the Klein– Gordon equation.
  • Ch. 1 : Why Do We Need Quantum Field Theory After All?