The Early Days of Lattice Gauge Theory

Abstract

I discuss some of the historical circumstances that drove us to use the lattice as a non-perturbative regulator. This approach has had immense success, convincingly demonstrating quark confinement and obtaining crucial properties of the strong interactions from first principles. I wrap up with some challenges for the future.

Comments: 9 pages, 3 figures, contribution to conference "The Monte Carlo method in the physical sciences: Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Metropolis algorithm," Los Alamos, June 9-11, 2003