Prof. James Bjorken, the weak force researcher and astrophysicist Prof. Robert Kirchner won the Wolf Prize for Physics

According to the jury, the Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded this year to two researchers who have made fundamental contributions to understanding the structure of the universe at the smallest and largest scales

The Wolf Prize in Physics is awarded this year to two researchers who have made fundamental contributions to understanding the structure of the universe at the smallest and largest scales: James Bjorken from Stanford University, USA for predicting the scaling phenomenon in deep inelastic scattering, which led to the identification of point components within the proton and Robert Kirchner from Harvard University, USA - for the breakthrough to the exploration of the universe with the help of supernova stars, Based on his observations and insights.

The discovery that led to the discovery of quarks

The following are the award committee's reasons for choosing Bjorken: "The strong force enables the existence of protons and neutrons and is what holds them together inside the nuclei of atoms. It is also responsible for more than 99% of the mass of atoms. Bjorken made a decisive contribution to understanding the nature of the strong force. b -1967 Bjorken predicted that electrons accelerated to high energy in an accelerator and then collided strongly in protons will behave as if they came into contact with charged particles and points moving inside the proton almost freely. This phenomenon was called scaling."

"At the time, this was a radical idea that completely contradicted the accepted intuition at the time. Nevertheless, experiments conducted in 1968/69 at the line accelerator at Stanford in California provided dramatic confirmation of Bjorken's prediction. The heads of the experiments, Jeremy Friedman, Richard Kendall and Richard Taylor were awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics for the proof experimental for the existence of the quarks, which are the point components of the proton."

"Following the experimental confirmation of scaling, theorists began searching for a fundamental quantum theory that explains the phenomenon. In 1973, David Gross, Frank Wilchek and David Pulitzer discovered that a theory known as quantum chromodynamics (QCD) has the required property, that is, it predicts that the force between the quarks gets smaller as they get closer to each other, so that at short distances they behave As if they were free. This property is called "asymptotic freedom". In 2004, Wilchek and Pulitzer were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

"The accepted view today is that all the fundamental forces in nature, perhaps with the exception of gravity, are described by theories whose mathematical structure is similar to QCD. These theories are called non-Abelian scaling theories. In this sense, looking back Björken's scaling not only resulted in to the experimental discovery of the quarks, but also pointed the way towards the mathematical structure that describes all the fundamental forces."

Supernovae as a tool to measure the expansion of the universe

"Robert Kirchner dedicated his professional life to research at the cutting edge of cosmology and the study of supernova stars. He created the group, the scientific infrastructure and the research directions that allowed his research students and post-doctoral colleagues to discover the acceleration in the rate of expansion of the universe. This discovery is a fundamental milestone in physics and astronomy And it poses a supreme challenge to the theorists."

"In 1974, together with John Kwan, Kirchner invented a method for measuring the rate of expansion of the universe based on observations of supernova stars. Many difficult barriers had to be overcome, especially the change in the color of the stars towards the red due to the effect of intergalactic dust, before the stars could be used The supernova for measuring cosmological distances is precisely enough to notice the change in the expansion rate of the universe in years 80 Prof. Kirchner's research for monitoring supernova explosions using different wavelengths was the most extensive research of its kind in the world and resulted in the scientific community recognizing Type Ia supernovae as an optimal tool for studying the universe at great distances. It was an essential step towards the next step - the discovery of rate increase expansion of the universe."

"Kirchner also headed a research program in which the Hubble Space Telescope was used to measure the spectra of Type Ia supernova stars in the ultraviolet region. The results made it possible to accurately calibrate the effect of redshift on the light of supernova stars at different distances. All research groups dealing with supernova stars now use in these vital data."

"Kirchner directed the establishment of the HIGH Z SUPERNOVA TEAM, one of the two research groups credited with the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. He gathered around him a group of first-class research students, such as Brian Schmitt and Adam Reiss, and led them towards practical and efficient research methods for tracking stars A type Ia supernova, in a way that would allow a reliable discovery of the result that everyone expected at the time, namely the slowing down of the expansion of the universe was particularly important Kirchner's insistence that the data be collected in more than one color, in order to allow the separation of dust effects and cosmic motion in the analysis of the light intensity and color.