Panel E7
Open problems in the unification of the forces

The figure shows a symbolic representation of the fundamental interactions (forces), strong, weak and electromagnetic, using subnuclear reactions involving each type of interaction.
The figure on the right is a bubble chamber photograph showing the production of particles via the weak interaction of a high energy neutrino coming from the CERN-SPS accelerator.
The figure at the top of the cube is a bubble chamber photograph of particle production by a high energy proton interacting via the strong interaction with a proton of the bubble chamber.
The bottom-left figure illustrates the production of two jets of particles via the electroweak interaction of an electron with a positron at the LEP collider at CERN.
In the collisions of two particles of low energy the three forces are quite distinct. At LEP energies one observes the unification of the elettromagnetic and weak forces into the electroweak interaction. Physicists think that at much higher energies there should be the unification of the electroweak with the strong forces into the Grand Unified Interaction. At even higher energies one expects the unification of this force with the gravitational interaction.