The essay is devoted to the personality of the prominent theorist D.V. Volkov and his pioneer works in quantum field theory and elementary particle physics.
In February 1978 Julian Schwingers 60th birthday was celebrated with a SchwingerFest at UCLA. This article consists of transcripts of historical talks given there.
A brief review of the extremal projector method for Lie symmetries (Lie algebras and superalgebras as well as their quantum analogs) is given. A history of its discovery and some simplest applications are presented.
What is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe and do we have an alternative for Einsteins cosmological constant? What is dark matter made of? Do extra dimensions of space and time exist? Is there a preferred frame in the universe? To which extent is left-handedness a preferred symmetry in nature? Whats the origin of the baryon asymmetry in the universe? These fundamental and open questions are addressed by precision experiments using ultra-cold neutrons. This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first production, followed by first pioneering experiments. Actually, ultra-cold neutrons were discovered twice in the same year, once in the eastern and once in the western world. For five decades now research projects with ultra-cold neutrons have contributed to the determination of the force constants of natures fundamental interactions, and several technological breakthroughs in precision allow to address the open questions by putting them to experimental test. To mark the event and tribute to this fabulous object, we present a birthday song for ultra-cold neutrons with acoustic resonant transitions, which are based solely on properties of ultra-cold neutrons, the inertial and gravitational mass of the neutron, Plancks constant, and the local gravity. We make use of a musical intonation system that bears no relation to basic notation and basic musical theory as applied and used elsewhere but addresses two fundamental problems of music theory, the problem of reference for the concert pitch and the problem of intonation.