Yoichiro Nambu transferred the idea of dynamical symmetry breaking from superconductivity into particle. His model with Giovanni Jona-Lasinio treats particle mass as a self-consistent interaction effect, while collective excitations reflect the underlying chiral symmetry breaking. This makes the physical vacuum and its excitations part of the explanation of particle properties. Their simplified four-fermion theory is a model of the mechanism, rather than the modern fundamental theory of the strong interaction.[ref]
Dynamical Model of Elementary Particles Based on an Analogy with Superconductivity. I by Yoichiro Nambu and Giovanni Jona-Lasinio. 1961 abstract and model: superconducting analogy, generated fermion mass and collective bound states
A physicist working on spontaneous symmetry breaking.[ref]
Guide to the Yoichiro Nambu Papers 1917-2009 by University of Chicago Library. Independent professional identity
Portrait of Yoichiro Nambu
. Betsy Devine; Franklin Institute ceremony in Philadelphia, 2005; existing Commons image adjusted by WikiPedant. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.- Dynamical Model of Elementary Particles Based on an Analogy with Superconductivity. I by Yoichiro Nambu and Giovanni Jona-Lasinio
- Nobel Lecture: Spontaneous symmetry breaking in particle physics: A case of cross fertilization by Yoichiro Nambu
- Quasi-Particles and Gauge Invariance in the Theory of Superconductivity by Yoichiro Nambu
