Whoa, dude.
大家来看看这些吓人的方程式 爽啊
(Laughter)
Check out those killer equations. Sweet. Actually, for the next 18 minutes I'm going to do the best I can to describe the beauty of particle physics without equations. It turns out there's a lot we can learn from coral. A coral is a very beautiful and unusual animal. Each coral head consists of thousands of individual polyps. These polyps are continually budding and branching into genetically identical neighbors. If we imagine this to be a hyperintelligent coral, we can single out an individual and ask him a reasonable question. We can ask how exactly he got to be in this particular location compared to his neighbors -- if it was just chance, or destiny, or what?
在接下来的18分钟里面 我会尽我所能 在不用方程的前提下让大家领略粒子物理的美妙 人们发现能在珊瑚身上学到不少东西 珊瑚是一种极其漂亮而不平常的动物 每一簇珊瑚都由成千上万的独立的珊瑚虫组成 这些珊瑚虫都不停地生长 分裂 变成基因相同的邻居 假设这些珊瑚有超常的智商 我们就可以抓住其中一个来问他一个简单的问题 你是为什么恰好出现在这个位置呢? 而不是周围其他地方 --这是偶然造成的 命运安排的 还是其他因素?
Now, after admonishing us for turning the temperature up too high, he would tell us that our question was completely stupid. These corals can be kind of mean, you see, and I have surfing scars to prove that. But this polyp would continue and tell us that his neighbors were quite clearly identical copies of him. That he was in all these other locations as well, but experiencing them as separate individuals. For a coral, branching into different copies is the most natural thing in the world.
在通过全球变暖对我们发出警告之后 他说,问这种问题真是愚蠢之极 你知道这珊瑚有时还真的不太客气 我冲浪的伤痕就是证明 这个珊瑚虫接着说 它的邻居就是和它一模一样的复制品 它和其他珊瑚合为一个整体 只是表现为不同的个体而已 对于珊瑚来说 分裂出不同个体 是再自然不过的事情了
Unlike us, a hyperintelligent coral would be uniquely prepared to understand quantum mechanics. The mathematics of quantum mechanics very accurately describes how our universe works. And it tells us our reality is continually branching into different possibilities, just like a coral. It's a weird thing for us humans to wrap our minds around, since we only ever get to experience one possibility. This quantum weirdness was first described by Erwin Schrödinger and his cat. The cat likes this version better.
和我们不同 高智商珊瑚已具备 理解量子力学的能力 量子力学通过数学方法准确描述 宇宙的运行模式 它告诉我们 现实世界和珊瑚一样 也是不同可能性的分化 人类很难理解这一问题 因为每个人只能经历一种人生 这种量子力学的奇特现象最早由 欧文 薛定谔和他的猫提出 猫更青睐这个版本
(Laughter)
(笑声)
In this setup, Schrödinger is in a box with a radioactive sample that, by the laws of quantum mechanics, branches into a state in which it is radiated and a state in which it is not.
在此实验中 薛定谔待在含有放射物质的箱子里 根据量子力学原理 放射物质有两种可能情况 可能衰变或者不衰变
(Laughter)
(笑声)
In the branch in which the sample radiates, it sets off a trigger that releases poison and Schrödinger is dead. But in the other branch of reality, he remains alive. These realities are experienced separately by each individual. As far as either can tell, the other one doesn't exist.
如果粒子发生衰变, 会激发连锁反应 释放毒气 薛定谔就死了 但在另一种可能中 他会活下来 每个个体只能经历其中的一种情形 另一种可能对他来说并不存在
This seems weird to us, because each of us only experiences an individual existence, and we don't get to see other branches. It's as if each of us, like Schrödinger here, are a kind of coral branching into different possibilities. The mathematics of quantum mechanics tells us this is how the world works at tiny scales. It can be summed up in a single sentence: Everything that can happen, does. That's quantum mechanics. But this does not mean everything happens. The rest of physics is about describing what can happen and what can't. What physics tells us is that everything comes down to geometry and the interactions of elementary particles. And things can happen only if these interactions are perfectly balanced.
这显得非常奇怪 因为我们 只能感知自身所处的状态 而感觉不到其他状态 我们和薛定谔一样,如同那些 被分化成不同的状态的珊瑚 量子力学用数学方法告诉我们 这就是微观世界的法则 用一句话来概括: 一切可能发生的事情 都在发生 这就是量子力学 但是这并不代表任何事情都会发生 物理学的其他方向则描述哪些可以发生 哪些不可以 物理学告诉我们 一切都可用几何学 和基本粒子的相互作用来解释 只有在这些相互作用恰到平衡的时候 事情才有可能发生
Now I'll go ahead and describe how we know about these particles, what they are and how this balance works. In this machine, a beam of protons and antiprotons are accelerated to near the speed of light and brought together in a collision, producing a burst of pure energy. This energy is immediately converted into a spray of subatomic particles, with detectors and computers used to figure out their properties. This enormous machine -- the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva -- has a circumference of 17 miles and, when it's operating, draws five times as much power as the city of Monterey. We can't predict specifically what particles will be produced in any individual collision. Quantum mechanics tells us all possibilities are realized. But physics does tell us what particles can be produced. These particles must have just as much mass and energy as is carried in by the proton and antiproton. Any particles more massive than this energy limit aren't produced, and remain invisible to us. This is why this new particle accelerator is so exciting. It's going to push this energy limit seven times beyond what's ever been done before, so we're going to get to see some new particles very soon.
现在我将讲述我们对这些粒子的认识 它们是什么 平衡机制如何运作 在此装置中,一簇质子和一簇反质子 被加速到接近光速的速度 然后迎头相撞,产生出一股巨大的纯能量 这些能量迅速转化 以亚原子形式喷射出来 周围的检测仪和电脑将对他们的性质加以分析 这个位于日内瓦欧核中心的巨型机器名叫 大型强子对撞机 周长17英里, 运转时消耗的能量相当于 蒙特利尔全市用电量的5倍 我们无法精确预测 哪些粒子 会在每次对撞后产生 量子力学告诉我们一切皆有可能 但物理学告诉我们哪些粒子有可能产生 这些产生的粒子的质量和能量 必须和质子和反质子的守恒 任何质量超过了这一限制的粒子 都不会出现,因此我们不会看到。 这个新型粒子加速器令人无比兴奋的原因就在于 它达到的能量极限 是以前的7倍多 所以我们很快会看到新的粒子
But before talking about what we might see, let me describe the particles we already know of. There's a whole zoo of subatomic particles. Most of us are familiar with electrons. A lot of people in this room make a good living pushing them around.
在讨论未知粒子之前 我先介绍下那些已知的粒子。 亚原子多得都可以组建动物园了 大部分人都知道电子 在座的各位的工作有不少 和它密切相关
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But the electron also has a neutral partner called the neutrino, with no electric charge and a very tiny mass. In contrast, the up and down quarks have very large masses, and combine in threes to make the protons and neutrons inside atoms. All of these matter particles come in left- and right-handed varieties, and have antiparticle partners that carry opposite charges. These familiar particles also have less familiar second and third generations, which have the same charges as the first but have much higher masses. These matter particles all interact with the various force particles. The electromagnetic force interacts with electrically charged matter via particles called photons. There is also a very weak force called, rather unimaginatively, the weak force ...
电子有个不带电的伙伴叫做中微子, 不带电,质量极小。 与此相反,上夸克和下夸克质量很大 把三者合在一起就得到 原子里的质子和中子。 这些粒子分为两类 左旋和右旋 而且它们都有携带相反电荷的反粒子 这些熟悉的粒子还有我们不太熟悉的 第二代和第三代 电量和第一代相同 但质量大很多 粒子通过基本力相互作用 电磁力通过光子和带电物质 相互作用 还有一种十分微弱的力很直接的叫做弱力 这个力只和
(Laughter)
that interacts only with left-handed matter. The strong force acts between quarks which carry a different kind of charge, called color charge, and come in three different varieties: red, green and blue. You can blame Murray Gell-Mann for these names -- they're his fault. Finally, there's the force of gravity, which interacts with matter via its mass and spin.
左旋的物质相作用 夸克以色荷为载体 通过强力相互作用 色荷分三种 红 绿 蓝 这都是默里 盖尔曼的错 名字是他起的 最后就是重力 通过质量和旋转 作用于物体
The most important thing to understand here is that there's a different kind of charge associated with each of these forces. These four different forces interact with matter according to the corresponding charges that each particle has. A particle that hasn't been seen yet, but we're pretty sure exists, is the Higgs particle, which gives masses to all these other particles. The main purpose of the Large Hadron Collider is to see this Higgs particle, and we're almost certain it will. But the greatest mystery is what else we might see. And I'm going to show you one beautiful possibility towards the end of this talk.
最重要的是 每一种力都对应有 不同的载荷 四种力通过各自粒子所携带的载荷 和物质发生作用 有一种我们没见过但确信存在的粒子 称为希格斯粒子 它使所有粒子有了质量 大型强子对撞机的主要目的 是发现希格斯粒子 我们确信可以做到 但最大的奥秘在于我们还能看到什么 我会在演讲最后向你们展示 美好的蓝图
Now, if we count up all these different particles using their various spins and charges, there are 226. That's a lot of particles to keep track of. And it seems strange that nature would have so many elementary particles. But if we plot them out according to their charges, some beautiful patterns emerge. The most familiar charge is electric charge. Electrons have an electric charge, a negative one, and quarks have electric charges in thirds. So when two up quarks and a down quark are combined to make a proton, it has a total electric charge of plus one. These particles also have antiparticles, which have opposite charges. Now, it turns out the electric charge is actually a combination of two other charges: hypercharge and weak charge. If we spread out the hypercharge and weak charge and plot the charges of particles in this two-dimensional charge space, the electric charge is where these particles sit along the vertical direction. The electromagnetic and weak forces interact with matter according to their hypercharge and weak charge, which make this pattern. This is called the unified electroweak model, and it was put together back in 1967.
现在 如果我们用不同的自旋和载荷 计算所有可能的粒子 共有226种 数目大得惊人 大自然拥有这么多的基本粒子 是多么奇妙啊 但如果我们按他们各自的载荷把他们画出来 会出现一些美丽的图案 我们最熟悉的载荷是电荷。 电子拥有一个负电荷。 而夸克拥有1/3的电荷。 由2个上夸克和1个下夸克 生成的质子有一个正电荷 粒子还有极性相反的反粒子。 我们发现电荷实际上 是另两种载荷的结合 超荷和弱荷 如果我们把超荷和弱荷分开 在这个二维载荷空间上画出粒子的载荷 电荷就在这些粒子的 垂直方向上 电磁力和弱力通过超荷和弱荷 与物质相互作用 从而形成这一图案 我们称之为电弱统一模型 于1967年提出
The reason most of us are only familiar with electric charge and not both of these is because of the Higgs particle. The Higgs, over here on the left, has a large mass and breaks the symmetry of this electroweak pattern. It makes the weak force very weak by giving the weak particles a large mass. Since this massive Higgs sits along the horizontal direction in this diagram, the photons of electromagnetism remain massless and interact with electric charge along the vertical direction in this charge space. So the electromagnetic and weak forces are described by this pattern of particle charges in two-dimensional space. We can include the strong force by spreading out its two charge directions and plotting the charges of the force particles in quarks along these directions. The charges of all known particles can be plotted in a four-dimensional charge space, and projected down to two dimensions like this so we can see them.
因为希格斯粒子的缘故 我们只对电荷有了解 却不知道超荷和弱荷 左边的希格斯粒子质量很大 打破了电弱图案的对称性 通过给弱子较大的质量 使弱力更加弱 由于大量的希格斯粒子在水平方向分布 产生电磁力的光子仍然没有质量 而且在载荷空间中和电荷 相互作用 所以电磁力和弱力在这个二维空间中 通过粒子载荷的图案表示出来 我们可以把强力沿两个载荷的方向表示出来 然后将载荷用夸克形式 沿这两个方向画出来 所有已知粒子的载荷可以 在四维空间中画出来 然后投影到 二维空间 以便我们能观察到
Whenever particles interact, nature keeps things in a perfect balance along all four of these charge directions. If a particle and an antiparticle collide, it creates a burst of energy and a total charge of zero in all four charge directions. At this point, anything can be created as long as it has the same energy and maintains a total charge of zero. For example, this weak force particle and its antiparticle can be created in a collision. In further interactions, the charges must always balance. One of the weak particles could decay into an electron and an antineutrino, and these three still add to zero total charge. Nature always keeps a perfect balance. So these patterns of charges are not just pretty. They tell us what interactions are allowed to happen. And we can rotate this charge space in four dimensions to get a better look at the strong interaction, which has this nice hexagonal symmetry. In a strong interaction, a strong force particle, such as this one, interacts with a colored quark, such as this green one, to give a quark with a different color charge -- this red one. And strong interactions are happening millions of times each second in every atom of our bodies, holding the atomic nuclei together.
无论粒子如何作用 自然会在这四个载荷方向上 保持完美的平衡 一个粒子如果和它的反粒子相撞 会产生能量 四个电荷方向的载荷叠加变为零 这样 只要保持能量相同和载荷总量为零 可以产生任何物质 比如说 这个弱子和它的反粒子 可以在碰撞中产生 在之后的相互作用中 载荷必须保持平衡 一个弱子可以衰退成一个电子 和一个反中微子 而这三个的总载荷仍然是零 大自然总是会保持完美的平衡 所以这些电荷的图案不仅漂亮 还告诉我们 什么样的相互作用是符合规则的 如果在四维空间中旋转载荷空间 可以从更好的角度观察强相互作用 也就是这个美丽的对称六角形结构 在强相互作用中 强子 比如说这个 会和色夸克相互作用 比如这个绿夸克 这样的作用会让夸克带上不同的色荷 比如这个红夸克 强相互作用每秒钟会在我们身体的 每个原子里发生上百万次 使原子核保持一体
But these four charges corresponding to three forces are not the end of the story. We can also include two more charges corresponding to the gravitational force. When we include these, each matter particle has two different spin charges, spin-up and spin-down. So they all split and give a nice pattern in six-dimensional charge space. We can rotate this pattern in six dimensions and see that it's quite pretty. Right now, this pattern matches our best current knowledge of how nature is built at the tiny scales of these elementary particles. This is what we know for certain. Some of these particles are at the very limit of what we've been able to reach with experiments. From this pattern we already know the particle physics of these tiny scales -- the way the universe works at these tiny scales is very beautiful.
但是和三种力相对应的这四种载荷 还不是终点 我们还可以根据重力 导入两个载荷 导入后 每个粒子会有 自旋向上和自旋向下两种自旋载荷 若把它们全部分开 会在六维载荷空间中 形成漂亮的图案 在六维空间中将这个图案进行旋转 我们会发现它十分漂亮 这个图案把我们已知的 自然界在微观世界中的粒子组成 完全呈现出来了 这是我们能确定的 其中的一些粒子 在实验中很难看到 从这个图案中 我们了解了微观世界的粒子组成 宇宙在这种微观世界中的运行模式 是异常美丽的
But now I'm going to discuss some new and old ideas about things we don't know yet. We want to expand this pattern using mathematics alone, and see if we can get our hands on the whole enchilada. We want to find all the particles and forces that make a complete picture of our universe. And we want to use this picture to predict new particles that we'll see when experiments reach higher energies.
接下去 我想讲一下关于未知领域的 一些新老观念 我们把这个图案用数学方法进一步扩展 看看能不能俯瞰全貌 我们希望找到构成宇宙的 所有种类的粒子和力 然后在获得更高能量进行实验之前 用这幅图案预测新的粒子
So there's an old idea in particle physics that this known pattern of charges, which is not very symmetric, could emerge from a more perfect pattern that gets broken -- similar to how the Higgs particle breaks the electroweak pattern to give electromagnetism. In order to do this, we need to introduce new forces with new charge directions. When we introduce a new direction, we get to guess what charges the particles have along this direction, and then we can rotate it in with the others. If we guess wisely, we can construct the standard charges in six charge dimensions as a broken symmetry of this more perfect pattern in seven charge dimensions.
量子物理学的旧观念认为 这个不对称的载荷图案 源于一个更完美的图案 跟希格斯粒子使电弱图案分裂 产生电磁力是一个道理 因此 我们要导入含有新的载荷方向的 新的力 在导入新方向的时候 我们要猜测 在这个方向上粒子带有什么样的载荷 然后我们就能让它和其他粒子一起旋转 如果猜对的话 我们就可以在六维载荷空间中 构造标准载荷集 作为更完美的 七维载荷空间图案的非对称子集
This particular choice corresponds to a grand unified theory introduced by Pati and Salam in 1973. When we look at this new unified pattern, we can see a couple of gaps where particles seem to be missing. This is the way theories of unification work. A physicist looks for larger, more symmetric patterns that include the established pattern as a subset. The larger pattern allows us to predict the existence of particles that have never been seen. This unification model predicts the existence of these two new force particles, which should act a lot like the weak force, only weaker.
这种粒子选择方法由帕蒂和萨拉姆在1973年提出 它是大统一理论的一种探索 在我们看到这个新的合成图案时 发现有些空间应该有粒子 却空出来了 这是统一理论的研究方式 物理学家将已有的结构作为子集 探索更大 更对称的结构 这个更大的结构可以让我们预测那些 实际存在 却没有被观察到的粒子 这个统一模型推测出了这两种新子 对应的粒子 它们应该和弱力很相似 但是效果更弱
Now, we can rotate this set of charges in seven dimensions and consider an odd fact about the matter particles: the second and third generations of matter have exactly the same charges in six-dimensional charge space as the first generation. These particles are not uniquely identified by their six charges. They sit on top of one another in the standard charge space. However, if we work in eight-dimensional charge space, then we can assign unique new charges to each particle. Then we can spin these in eight dimensions and see what the whole pattern looks like. Here we can see the second and third generations of matter now, related to the first generation by a symmetry called "triality."
现在可以在七维空间中旋转这个载荷集 同时考虑一下关于粒子的奇怪现象: 在六维载荷空间中 物质的第二代和第三代 拥有和第一代物质 相同的载荷 这些粒子通过对应的六个载荷无法一一识别 在标准载荷空间上 他们会彼此叠加 然而 在八维载荷空间中 我们可以赋予每一个粒子唯一的新载荷 然后在八维空间中旋转 看看整体的图案是什么样的 这里 我们可以看到物质的第二代和第三代 通过一种叫“三重性”对称和第一代相关联
This particular pattern of charges in eight dimensions is actually part of the most beautiful geometric structure in mathematics. It's a pattern of the largest exceptional Lie group, E8. This Lie group is a smooth, curved shape with 248 dimensions. Each point in this pattern corresponds to a symmetry of this very complex and beautiful shape. One small part of this E8 shape can be used to describe the curved space-time of Einstein's general relativity, explaining gravity. Together with quantum mechanics, the geometry of this shape could describe everything about how the universe works at the tiniest scales. The pattern of this shape living in eight-dimensional charge space is exquisitely beautiful, and it summarizes thousands of possible interactions between these elementary particles, each of which is just a facet of this complicated shape.
在八维中的这个特殊的载荷图案是 数学中最为漂亮的几何结构之一 这是最大的例外型李群E8的图案 李群是光滑曲线形的248维空间 图案的每一点都能这个极其复杂而又美丽的 图案中找到对称点 E8中的一小部分可以用来描述 爱因斯坦广义相对论中用来解释重力的 扭曲时空 这个几何形状和量子力学一起 能够以最小的尺度 描述万物之理 而在八维载荷空间中的这个图案 显得异常美丽 它还囊括了上千种这些基本粒子之间 可能的相互作用 每一种作用 只是这个复杂形状的一个平面
As we spin it, we can see many of the other intricate patterns contained in this one. And with a particular rotation, we can look down through this pattern in eight dimensions along a symmetry axis and see all the particles at once. It's a very beautiful object, and as with any unification, we can see some holes where new particles are required by this pattern. There are 20 gaps where new particles should be, two of which have been filled by the Pati-Salam particles. From their location in this pattern, we know that these new particles should be scalar fields like the Higgs particle, but have color charge and interact with the strong force. Filling in these new particles completes this pattern, giving us the full E8.
转动它时 可以看到包含其中的很多 错综复杂的图案 通过某种旋转 我们可以在八维空间 沿一个对称轴方向观察这个图案 并且一次看尽所有粒子 这是个很美的结构 和其他统一理论一样 我们可以看到在这个图案中有一些空格需要 新的粒子来填补 在这有20个空格需要新粒子来填补 其中两个已有帕蒂和萨拉姆粒子填补 从图案的位置我们知道这些新粒子和 希格斯粒子一样存在于标量场中 但是它们拥有色荷 且和强力相互作用 填入这些新粒子使图案完整 让我们得到完整的E8
This E8 pattern has very deep mathematical roots. It's considered by many to be the most beautiful structure in mathematics. It's a fantastic prospect that this object of great mathematical beauty could describe the truth of particle interactions at the smallest scales imaginable. And this idea that nature is described by mathematics is not at all new. In 1623, Galileo wrote this: "Nature's grand book, which stands continually open to our gaze, is written in the language of mathematics. Its characters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth."
这个E8图案有着深厚的数学根基 在数学界中它被很多人认为是 最美丽的结构 有人预言 这个拥有无比数学美的结构 能够以我们可以想象到的最小尺寸 描述粒子相互作用的真相 而这个数学描述自然的理论 并不是刚刚出来的 1623年 伽利略写道: “大自然这本一直展示在我们面前的书 是用数学的语言写的 它由三角形 圆形和其他几何形状组成 没有了这些东西 在人力所及的范围里我们 根本不能了解 没有了这些 我们会迷失在黑暗的迷宫中”
I believe this to be true, and I've tried to follow Galileo's guidance in describing the mathematics of particle physics using only triangles, circles and other geometrical figures. Of course, when other physicists and I actually work on this stuff, the mathematics can resemble a dark labyrinth. But it's reassuring that at the heart of this mathematics is pure, beautiful geometry. Joined with quantum mechanics, this mathematics describes our universe as a growing E8 coral, with particles interacting at every location in all possible ways according to a beautiful pattern. And as more of the pattern comes into view using new machines like the Large Hadron Collider, we may be able to see whether nature uses this E8 pattern or a different one.
我相信这是真的 我曾试过按照伽利略的指导只用三角形 圆形和其他的几何形状去描述 量子物理的数学性 当我和其他物理学家在研究这些东西时 数学就像一个黑暗的迷宫 但是我们确信 数学的核心是 纯粹美丽的几何学 数学和量子力学一起 把我们的宇宙描述为一个在成长的E8珊瑚 同时粒子在每个可能的位置相互作用 展现出美丽的图案 借助大型强子对撞机之类的新型机器 图案得到进一步丰富 我们可能看到 到底E8图案还是另一种图案反映了自然的本质
This process of discovery is a wonderful adventure to be involved in. If the LHC finds particles that fit this E8 pattern, that will be very, very cool. If the LHC finds new particles, but they don't fit this pattern -- well, that will be very interesting, but bad for this E8 theory. And, of course, bad for me personally.
这个探索过程是一个奇妙的探险 如果对撞机发现了符合E8图案的粒子 那可太酷了 如果对撞机发现了新粒子 但不符合这个图案 那会非常有趣 虽然对E8理论不利 而且 在一定程度上 对我不利
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now, how bad would that be? Well, pretty bad.
那到底有多不利呢? 恩 那是十分的不利啊
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But predicting how nature works is a very risky game. This theory and others like it are long shots. One does a lot of hard work knowing that most of these ideas probably won't end up being true about nature. That's what doing theoretical physics is like: there are a lot of wipeouts. In this regard, new physics theories are a lot like start-up companies. As with any large investment, it can be emotionally difficult to abandon a line of research when it isn't working out. But in science, if something isn't working, you have to toss it out and try something else.
但推测大自然的运作总是很冒险的 这个理论和其他这类型的理论都是在下大注 即使花很多精力取得很多成果 也不一定能得出自然的真理 理论物理就是这样 失败是很常见的 这样看来 新物理理论就像新开的公司 巨大投资后 对那些失败的尝试 情感上总会难以割舍 但在科学界 如果没有用 就要丢掉它 再试试别的
Now, the only way to maintain sanity and achieve happiness in the midst of this uncertainty is to keep balance and perspective in life. I've tried the best I can to live a balanced life.
而在这些不确定中 唯一能够保持理智并获得幸福的方法是 在生活中保持平衡和明察事理 我已经尽可能保持生活的平衡了
(Laughter)
(笑声)
I try to balance my life equally between physics, love and surfing -- my own three charge directions.
我试着在物理 爱情和冲浪中寻找平衡 就是我三个载荷的方向
(Laughter)
(笑声)
This way, even if the physics I work on comes to nothing, I still know I've lived a good life. And I try to live in beautiful places. For most of the past ten years I've lived on the island of Maui, a very beautiful place. Now, it's one of the greatest mysteries in the universe to my parents how I managed to survive all that time without engaging in anything resembling full-time employment.
这样 就算我的物理研究没有任何成果 我依然拥有美好的生活 我试着在风景优美的地方居住 过去十年 我大部分时间都住在毛伊岛 一个超级漂亮的地方 现在 我父母最大的谜团是 我是怎样在没有一个全职工作的情况下 活下来的
(Laughter)
(笑声)
I'm going to let you in on that secret. This was a view from my home office on Maui. And this is another, and another. And you may have noticed that these beautiful views are similar, but in slightly different places. That's because this used to be my home and office on Maui.
我要告诉你们这个秘密 这是我在毛伊岛上的家庭办公室的照片 这些也是 你们可能注意到这些照片 似曾相似 但背景稍有不同 因为这曾经是我在毛伊岛的家和办公室
(Laughter)
(笑声)
I've chosen a very unusual life. But not worrying about rent allowed me to spend my time doing what I love. Living a nomadic existence has been hard at times, but it's allowed me to live in beautiful places and keep a balance in my life that I've been happy with. It allows me to spend a lot of my time hanging out with hyperintelligent coral. But I also greatly enjoy the company of hyperintelligent people. So I'm very happy to have been invited here to TED.
我选择了一种不同寻常的生活 不担心房租 让我把时间花在 喜欢做的事情上 流浪的生活方式有时会很艰难 也正因此 我才能可生活在美丽的地方 维持我所喜欢的平衡的生活 我可以花大量的时间在 超级聪明的珊瑚上 同时我也很乐意和超级聪明的人打交道 很高兴能被邀请到这儿演讲
Thank you very much.
谢谢大家
(Applause)
(掌声)
Chris Anderson: Stay here one second.
(Applause)
I probably understood two percent of that, but I still absolutely loved it. So I'm going to sound dumb. Your theory of everything --
我想我只懂了百分之二的部分, 但是我绝对喜欢它。所以我想献一下丑。 你的万物理论...
Garrett Lisi: I'm used to coral.
我喜欢称之为珊瑚理论
CA: That's right. The reason it's got a few people at least excited is because, if you're right, it brings gravity and quantum theory together. So are you saying that we should think of the universe, at its heart -- that the smallest things that there are, are somehow an E8 object of possibility? I mean, is there a scale to it, at the smallest scale, or ...?
好吧,它让人们兴奋的原因是 如果你是对的,那就把 重力和量子理论结合了起来。 所以你是不是说我们应该了解 在宇宙中那些最微小的事物 有可能就是E8模型? 我是说,你心里是不是有一个最小的尺寸,
GL: Well, right now the pattern I showed you that corresponds to what we know about elementary particle physics -- that already corresponds to a very beautiful shape. And that's the one that I said we knew for certain. And that shape has remarkable similarities -- and the way it fits into this E8 pattern, which could be the rest of the picture. And these patterns of points that I've shown for you actually represent symmetries of this high-dimensional object that would be warping and moving and dancing over the space-time that we experience. And that would be what explains all these elementary particles that we see.
还是....? 嗯,刚刚给你们看得图案 就是我们所知的基本粒子物理, 而且它已经是一个很漂亮的图案了。 那个就是我所说的我们很确信的地方。 而这个形状和E8有着明显的相似处, 在剩下的图片中几乎和E8合为一体。 我给你们看得这些点状图案 实际上代表着高维物体的对称性, 这些图案在我们生活的时空中, 蜷曲,移动和舞蹈。 这就解释了所有的 我们所看见的基本粒子。
CA: But a string theorist, as I understand it, explains electrons in terms of much smaller strings vibrating -- I know, you don't like string theory -- vibrating inside it. How should we think of an electron in relation to E8?
克里斯:但是就我的理解, 弦理论家会在更小的弦震动里 解释电子-- 我知道你不喜欢弦理论。 但我们该怎样理解在E8模型中的电子?
GL: Well, it would be one of the symmetries of this E8 shape. So what's happening is, as the shape is moving over space-time, it's twisting. And the direction it's twisting as it moves is what particle we see. So it would be --
加勒特:不,它将会是这个E8型状对称性的一部分。 所以实际上,当这个形状在时空中游走, 它会扭曲。而它扭曲的方向就是 我们所看到的粒子。所以就是--
CA: The size of the E8 shape, how does that relate to the electron? I feel like I need that for my picture. Is it bigger? Is it smaller?
E8形状的大小, 是怎么样和电子相联系的呢? 我自己有些想象不出来。 它会大些还是小些?
GL: As far as we know, electrons are point particles, so this would be going down to the smallest possible scales. So the way these things are explained in quantum field theory is, all possibilities are expanding and developing at once. And this is why I use the analogy to coral. And -- in this way, the way that E8 comes in is it will be as a shape that's attached at each point in the space-time. And, as I said, the way the shape twists -- the directional along which way the shape is twisting as it moves over this curved surface -- is what the elementary particles are, themselves. So through quantum field theory, they manifest themselves as points and interact that way. I don't know if I'll be able to make this any clearer.
嗯,就我们所知电子是点粒子, 所以这个会让我们看到最小的尺寸。 所以在量子场论中,这些东西的解释方式是 所有的可能性都在同时展开发展。 这也是我为什么拿珊瑚作类比。 因为这样,E8的进入方式是 一个可以连接时空中每一点的形状。 还有,想我所说的,形状在经过这个曲线的表面时 它的扭曲的方式 和其的扭曲方向是 基本粒子它们自己。 所以根据量子场论,它们自己把放大到 和点一样,然后相互作用。 我不知道我能不能解释得更加清楚了。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
CA: It doesn't really matter. It's evoking a kind of sense of wonder, and I certainly want to understand more of this.
克里斯:没关系。 它已经激起了我们的兴趣。 我确定我想了解的更多。
But thank you so much for coming. That was absolutely fascinating.
太感谢你的光临了。你的演说太吸引人了。
(Applause)
(掌声)