Asymptotic Freedom in Parton Language: the Birth of Perturbative QCD

Abstract

I review the contributions of Giorgio Parisi to perturbative QCD. Concentrated in a decade, they mark the transition of the theory of strong interactions from a set of loosely connected ideas based on models, to a quantum field theory that is now an integral part of the standard model of fundamental interactions. Parisi's contributions have established at a very early stage ideas, methods and tools that are now standard, and in several cases anticipated results that only became prominent in the XXIst century.

13 pages, no figures. To appear in the volume "From Quantum Fields to Spin Glasses: A journey through the contributions of Giorgio Parisi to theoretical Physics". Several typos corrected