The Reasonable Ineffectiveness of Aesthetics in Particle Physics

Abstract

In recent years, criticism of the methodology of particle physics beyond the Standard Model has increased, diagnosing too much reliance on aesthetic criteria for theory development and evaluation. Faced with several decades of experimental confirmation of all theories lacking, we subject four aesthetic criteria - simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and inevitability -, regularly mentioned in theory evaluation, to critical examination. We find that these criteria, all of which can be reduced to a desire for simplicity, have repeatedly misled modern particle physics. This is largely due to the lack of metatheoretical permanence of a uniform conception of simplicity. The reductionist claim of particle physics - the search for simple fundamental principles in a complex world - will be worked out as the reason why this discipline is particularly susceptible to the aesthetic appeal of simplicity. Thus, compared to disciplines dealing with complex phenomena, aesthetic criteria are much more frequently applied, exposing particle physics to the risk of missteps and dead ends.