Gell-Mann and Ne'eman discovered that one such simple Lie group, called "special...

Gell-Mann and Ne'eman discovered that one such simple Lie group, called "special unitary group of degree 3," or SU{3}, was particularly well suited for the "eightfold way"-the family structure the particles were found to obey. The beaty of the SU{3} symmetry was revealed in full glory via its predictive power. Gell-Mann and Ne'eman showed that if the theory were to hold true, a previously unknown tenth member of a particular family of nine particles had to be found. The extensive hunt for the missing particle was conducted in an accelerator experiment in 1964 at Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island. Yuval Ne'eman told me some years later that, upon hearing that half of the data had already been scrutinized without discovering the anticipated particle, he was contemplating leaving physics altogether. Symmetry triumphed at the end-the missing particle {called the omega minus} was found, and it had precisely the properties predicted by the theory.

www.QuoteSweet.com