Scientists / Open questions

Abdus Salam

Particle physics; electroweak unification

1979 Nobel Prize in Physics

26 questions

Anomaly structure, general gaugings, and the chiral $d=6$ descendant of the $SO(1,2)\times H$ -gauged $d=8$ supergravity with vector multiplets (Salam–Sezgin, 1985)
Complete fermionic sector of maximal supergravity in seven dimensions: quartic fermion terms, full supersymmetry rules, supercovariant curvatures, and closure of the algebra
Supersymmetric $R^2$ actions in ten dimensions: completing the two-parameter Riemann-squared/Gauss-Bonnet extension beyond $H_{(7)}$ -independent variations, and uniqueness of the Bergshoeff-de Roo action
Self-consistent dynamical foundation of nonlinear Goldstone realizations: the reducing transformation, vacuum parameters, and Goldstone content for Lagrangians without explicit Goldstone fields (Salam–Strathdee, 1969)
Black solitons as the origin of the hadronic temperature in Salam-Strathdee strong gravity: soliton existence, ab initio Hawking emission, and transverse-energy phenomenology
Completing the supersymmetric local field theory of electric and magnetic charges: off-shell N=2 extension, the Dirac condition under renormalization, string independence, ultraviolet behavior, and charge assignments (Panagiotakopoulos-Salam-Strathdee program)
Detectability of the intensity-dependent electron mass shift and its possible influence on spontaneous symmetry breaking in realistic laboratory electromagnetic fields
Nonperturbative renormalization of the covariant Fock-equation hierarchy for Feynman amplitudes (Matthews–Salam, 1954)
Global and non-perturbative stability of the instanton-induced $M^4\times S^4$ compactification of eight-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills theory
Asymptotic freedom with radiatively induced Higgs self-couplings: the open problems left by Salam and Strathdee (1978)
Uniqueness, all-orders unitarity, and true high-energy behavior of the momentum-space supergraph construction for nonpolynomial Lagrangian field theories
Validation of the M4 x S6 and M4 x G2/SU(3) vacua of ten-dimensional N=1 supergravity-Yang-Mills with an added scalar potential: chiral fermion zero modes, tachyonic stability, and explicit solutions
Self-consistent quantum determination of the compactifying stress-tensor constants $c$ and $c'$ in instanton-induced Kaluza-Klein compactification
Realization and breaking of conformal symmetry in quantum field theory: the open questions left by finite-component field representations of the conformal group
Consistency completion of the SL(6,C) gauge theory of the $2^+$ tensor-meson nonet: symmetry protection of unwanted degrees of freedom, ultraviolet behavior, vacuum stability, and canonical quantization
Quantum completion of the chiral-dilaton effective Lagrangian: loop-level status of the Isham-Salam-Strathdee dilaton mass relations, the self-consistent dilaton vacuum, and combined chiral-scale current algebra
Unresolved problems in the quantization of generalized (higher-rank) spin systems and their G/H sigma-model continuum limits
Foundations of the SO(3,1) partial-wave expansion for two-body scattering at nonzero momentum transfer: convergence domain, sigma-meromorphicity, and the parallel daughter-trajectory prediction
Dynamical consistency of the Pati-Salam-Strathdee dual electric-magnetic charge preon model (1981): binding, emergent gauge symmetry, and composite spectroscopy
Completing the tensor gauge field (strong gravity) model of quark confinement: SU(3) color, dynamical quark sources, mode structure, horizons, and quantum consistency
Dynamical completion of the Isham–Salam–Strathdee nonlinear-realization interpretation of gravity: underlying GL(4,R) symmetry breaking and the Goldstone spectrum
The Isham–Salam–Strathdee conjecture: a Wilson operator-product expansion with entire-function coefficients for localizable nonlinearly realized field theories
Soft propagators and the smooth $m\to 0$ limit of massive spin-2 (graviton) theories coupled to realistic interacting matter
Rigorous foundations for the renormalization of rational Lagrangians: minimal-singularity superpropagators and the locality of counterterms

Back to open problems

Anomaly structure, general gaugings, and the chiral d=6d=6d=6 descendant of the SO(1,2)×HSO(1,2)\times HSO(1,2)×H-gauged d=8d=8d=8 supergravity with vector multiplets (Salam–Sezgin, 1985)

Complete fermionic sector of maximal supergravity in seven dimensions: quartic fermion terms, full supersymmetry rules, supercovariant curvatures, and closure of the algebra

Supersymmetric R2R^2R2 actions in ten dimensions: completing the two-parameter Riemann-squared/Gauss-Bonnet extension beyond H(7)H_{(7)}H(7)​-independent variations, and uniqueness of the Bergshoeff-de Roo action

Self-consistent dynamical foundation of nonlinear Goldstone realizations: the reducing transformation, vacuum parameters, and Goldstone content for Lagrangians without explicit Goldstone fields (Salam–Strathdee, 1969)

Black solitons as the origin of the hadronic temperature in Salam-Strathdee strong gravity: soliton existence, ab initio Hawking emission, and transverse-energy phenomenology

Completing the supersymmetric local field theory of electric and magnetic charges: off-shell N=2 extension, the Dirac condition under renormalization, string independence, ultraviolet behavior, and charge assignments (Panagiotakopoulos-Salam-Strathdee program)

Detectability of the intensity-dependent electron mass shift and its possible influence on spontaneous symmetry breaking in realistic laboratory electromagnetic fields

Nonperturbative renormalization of the covariant Fock-equation hierarchy for Feynman amplitudes (Matthews–Salam, 1954)

Global and non-perturbative stability of the instanton-induced M4×S4M^4\times S^4M4×S4 compactification of eight-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills theory

Asymptotic freedom with radiatively induced Higgs self-couplings: the open problems left by Salam and Strathdee (1978)

Uniqueness, all-orders unitarity, and true high-energy behavior of the momentum-space supergraph construction for nonpolynomial Lagrangian field theories

Validation of the M4 x S6 and M4 x G2/SU(3) vacua of ten-dimensional N=1 supergravity-Yang-Mills with an added scalar potential: chiral fermion zero modes, tachyonic stability, and explicit solutions

Self-consistent quantum determination of the compactifying stress-tensor constants ccc and c′c'c′ in instanton-induced Kaluza-Klein compactification

Realization and breaking of conformal symmetry in quantum field theory: the open questions left by finite-component field representations of the conformal group

Consistency completion of the SL(6,C) gauge theory of the 2+2^+2+ tensor-meson nonet: symmetry protection of unwanted degrees of freedom, ultraviolet behavior, vacuum stability, and canonical quantization

Quantum completion of the chiral-dilaton effective Lagrangian: loop-level status of the Isham-Salam-Strathdee dilaton mass relations, the self-consistent dilaton vacuum, and combined chiral-scale current algebra

Unresolved problems in the quantization of generalized (higher-rank) spin systems and their G/H sigma-model continuum limits

Foundations of the SO(3,1) partial-wave expansion for two-body scattering at nonzero momentum transfer: convergence domain, sigma-meromorphicity, and the parallel daughter-trajectory prediction

Dynamical consistency of the Pati-Salam-Strathdee dual electric-magnetic charge preon model (1981): binding, emergent gauge symmetry, and composite spectroscopy

Completing the tensor gauge field (strong gravity) model of quark confinement: SU(3) color, dynamical quark sources, mode structure, horizons, and quantum consistency

Dynamical completion of the Isham–Salam–Strathdee nonlinear-realization interpretation of gravity: underlying GL(4,R) symmetry breaking and the Goldstone spectrum

The Isham–Salam–Strathdee conjecture: a Wilson operator-product expansion with entire-function coefficients for localizable nonlinearly realized field theories

Soft propagators and the smooth m→0m\to 0m→0 limit of massive spin-2 (graviton) theories coupled to realistic interacting matter

Rigorous foundations for the renormalization of rational Lagrangians: minimal-singularity superpropagators and the locality of counterterms

Anomaly structure, general gaugings, and the chiral $d=6$ descendant of the $SO(1,2)\times H$ -gauged $d=8$ supergravity with vector multiplets (Salam–Sezgin, 1985)

Supersymmetric $R^2$ actions in ten dimensions: completing the two-parameter Riemann-squared/Gauss-Bonnet extension beyond $H_{(7)}$ -independent variations, and uniqueness of the Bergshoeff-de Roo action

Global and non-perturbative stability of the instanton-induced $M^4\times S^4$ compactification of eight-dimensional Einstein-Yang-Mills theory

Self-consistent quantum determination of the compactifying stress-tensor constants $c$ and $c'$ in instanton-induced Kaluza-Klein compactification

Consistency completion of the SL(6,C) gauge theory of the $2^+$ tensor-meson nonet: symmetry protection of unwanted degrees of freedom, ultraviolet behavior, vacuum stability, and canonical quantization

Soft propagators and the smooth $m\to 0$ limit of massive spin-2 (graviton) theories coupled to realistic interacting matter