The Unity of the Fundamental Interactions

Description

In summer 1981, a group of 108 physicists from 75 laboratories in 27 countries met in Erice for the 19th Course of the International School of Subnuclear Physics. The programme of the School was mainly devoted to a review of the most significant results, both in theory and experiment, obtained in the field of high-energy interactions. The outcome of the School was to present a clear picture of how far we are along the fascinating route towards understanding the deep meaning of the natural laws of hadronic and leptonic matter -- the final goal being the unity of all forces. As stated by P.A.M. Dirac in a discussion, physicists should try to be more modest. Nowadays the trend is to understand everything: from the origin and the fate of the Universe to the substructure of a quark, the unity of all forces of nature. This volume contains a very significant sample of the present status of this ambitious game in which subnuclear physicists have become involved. It is certainly not their fault if the research in high-energy physics has now developed to a degree which was unthinkable a few years ago. This unexpected and spectacular development needs to be guided by intellectual modesty -- not by arrogance -- if we want that our scientific activity should develop along a continuing successful road.