Yang-Mills and Beyond

Abstract: In their 1954 paper, Yang and Mills invented the non-Abelian field strength to satisfy certain criteria but didn't explain how it could be derived. In the penultimate section we show how the Yang-Mills field strength derives from Yang's gauge transformation. The preceding sections place Yang-Mills theory in historical perspective and cover material relating to the field strength. The final section shows how Yang-Mills theory was combined with spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Goldstone theorem and subsequent work to contribute to the Standard Model of particle physics.