The Standard Model (Part 1)

It’s our best theory of elementary particles and forces. It’s absolutely amazing: it took centuries of genius to discover that the world is like this, and it’s absolutely shocking. But nobody believes it’s the last word, so we simply call it The Standard Model.

But what does this theory say? I’ll try to explain part of it in this series of videos. I begin by introducing the cast of characters—the particles—and a bit about their interactions:

If you have questions, please ask—either here or on YouTube! Intelligent questions keep me motivated. Without them, I get bored.

By the way, these videos will contain mistakes. For example, this time I forgot to mention one key particle before saying “So I’ve introduced all the actors in the drama.” When I get better at editing videos, I will correct slips like this. But I will always try to point out errors in a “pinned” comment right below the video. So look down there.

Also: I don’t plan to explain the details of quantum field theory. So even if you watch all my videos, you’ll get just a taste of the Standard Model. But I will get into some of the math, so it will be much more than just chat. It will roughly follow this paper:

• John Baez and John Huerta, The algebra of grand unified theories, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 47 (2010), 483–552.

But I may explain more prerequisites, like a bit of quantum theory and group representation theory. That would let more people follow along.

This is part of my Edinburgh Exploration series, which will also include interviews.