MURRAY GELL-MANN - SELECTED PAPERS (World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics, 40)

Murray Gell-Mann received the Nobel Prize in 1969. Deep research did not prevent him to write for a large pubilc, for instance The Quark and the Jaguar. Here, we have a series of scientific papers, mainly of research level (Symmetries of baryons and mesons, for instance), sometimes of philosophical bearing (The garden of live flowers).Unless you are yourself a physics professional, or at least of graduate mathematics level, don't buy this book. Or accept to find the treasure you look for in some pages in English among dozens of others in formulas.

Murray Gell-Mann passed away 24 May 2019.Physicist John Preskill: “He contributed so many deep ideas that drove the field forward, many of which are just as relevant today.” (Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2019).The editor of this volume, physicist Harold Fritzsch: "Gell-Mann has contributed more than anybody else to the theoretical understanding of elementary particles" and "...became regarded by some as Albert Einstein's scientific successor." (pages vii and 26, respectively).Physicist Sheldon Glashow: "Early in 1961, Feynman and Gell-Mann developed a sudden interest in Lie groups. They huddled together on a work that would be named 'The Eightfold Way: A Theory of Strong Interaction Symmetry.' Feynman chose to withdraw from what he thought was a speculation too far."(Inference, July 2019).Unfortunately, an average non-professional, non- physicist, reader will struggle in placing those remarks in context of this comparatively slim volume (compared to World Scientific's 'Selected Papers of Richard Feynman' or 'Papers of Julian Schwinger'). Here are 31 reprinted papers, most are technical, a few are not. The editor, in an initial 23 pages, provides brief commentary for each paper. Even while perusing these papers, I found it difficult to comprehend how Murray Gell-Mann arrived at the results he did arrive at. That is, his thought-processes are not transparent. Be that as it may, I let Gell-Mann speak:(1) "it is important not only to situate scientific ideas in the context of their own time but also to try to figure out what relation the scientists' thinking bore to what we now know to be correct, how close they came to the right answers, or why they missed them." (1980, Particle Theory, From S-matrix to Quarks).(2) "It may be that a new approach to the rest-masses of elementary particles can solve many of our present theoretical problems." (1964, The Eightfold Way).(3) "If quantum mechanics is the underlying framework of the laws of physics, then there must be a description of the Universe as a whole-- and everything in it--in quantum mechanical terms." (1989, Quantum Mechanics in the Light of Quantum Cosmology).(4) "Life can perfectly well emerge from the laws of physics plus accidents, and mind from neurobiology." (1992, Nature Conformable to Herself).(5) "The founders of quantum mechanics were right in pointing out that something external to the framework of wave-function and Schrodinger equation is needed to interpret the theory." (2007, Quasiclassical Coarse Graining and Thermodynamic Entropy).(6) "In our work, we are always between Scylla and Charybdis; we may fail to abstract enough, or we may abstract too much and end up with fictitious objects in our models turning into real monsters that devour us." (1972, Quarks).Concluding: My hardcover edition is sturdy and well-produced and printed on high-quality, glossy, paper.These are challenging papers. In the nontechnical essay recalling Richard Feynman, Gell-Mann writes: "I have always personally preferred the operator approach" and "we drifted apart to a considerable extent." (1989, Physics Today). In perusing these papers by Gell-Mann, it is easy to see why those two physicists would have "drifted apart."