层展论的旗手——菲利普•安德森

文章综述了理论物理学家菲利普?安德森的生平和科学成就。安德森的科学工作既紧密联系实验又有深刻的普遍意义。他对凝聚态物理有很多方面的具体贡献，如确立了一些核心概念或者范式，特别是对称破缺。他建议用对称性自发破缺解决粒子物理领域杨-米尔斯理论中的规范粒子质量问题，而他在自旋玻璃方面的工作对生物学和计算机科学也有影响。 安德森在层展论（笔者译自emergentism）的崛起中居功至伟，他强调高层次物质的规律不是低层次规律的应用。笔者认为还原论和层展论是硬币的两面，相辅相成。

Philip W. Anderson: Representative of emergentism

The life and achievement of theoretical physicist Philip W. Anderson are reviewed. The scientific works of Anderson were not only closely related to experiments, but also of profound generalities. He has made concrete contributions in many aspects of condensed matter physics, establishing the core notions or paradigms, especially symmetry breaking. He was the first person to use spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking to solve the mass problem of the gauge particle in Yang-Mills theory. His work on spin glass has impact on biology and computer science. Anderson was crucial in the rise of the emergentism, which emphasizes that the laws in the higher layers of nature are not simple applications of laws in the lower layers. I think reductionism and emergentism are two sides of a same coin, implying and complementary with each other.