Nuclear Physics Seminars

The concept of “spin” was invented in the first part of the 20^th century when it was realized that if we try to assign the angular momentum of an electron to a rotating ball, the surface of the ball would necessarily travel faster than the speed of light.  In quantum theory matter is separated into fermions and bosons by the spin-statistics theorem.  Fermions occupy space and are subject to the Pauli selection constraints.  In contrast,  Bosons can cohere into extended condensates.  In the gauge field theories of the Standard Model, bosons and fermions are closely connected by gauge invariance.  My talk will use several props in addition to slides to motivate two conjectures connecting magnetic charges to the small-distance behavior of gravity.