Americans David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczeck won the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for their work in the discovery and exploration of the force that binds particles inside an atomic nucleus. The research has helped science get a step closer to "fulfilling a grand dream, to formulate a unified theory comprising gravity as well _ a theory for everything," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in awarding the physics prize. The trio _ researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology _ were cited for their important theoretical discoveries "concerning the strong force, or the 'color force' as it is also called," the academy said in its citation. "The strong force is the one that is dominant in the atomic nucleus, acting between the quarks inside the proton and the neutron." Their discoveries, made public in 1973, led to the theory of quantum chromodynamics, or QCD. "This theory was an important contribution to the Standard Model, the theory that describes all physics connected with the electromagnetic force (which acts between charged particles), the weak force (which is important for the sun's energy production) and the strong force (which acts between quarks)," the academy said.
