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From the first attempts to split the atom to the discovery of the top quark, the 20th century has witnessed a revolution in basic physics. Probing successively smaller constituents of matter has also revealed the conditions present at the time of the Big Bang. In a series of essays by scientists who have been closely involved in this exciting research, The Particle Century describes the unprecedented advances in our understanding of the universe. The book covers major historical developments as well as current advances, including early accelerator physics, the rise of the Standard Model, new comprehension of the big bang theory, and the cutting edge of today's investigations. These essays add novel insight into the continuing efforts to unravel the deepest secrets of nature.
"This annotated, chronological bibliography presents key material _including excerpts_from 500 of the most influential theoretical papers and experimental discoveries in particle physics, many of which have been cited for the Nobel prize. A general introduction places the original articles in historical context. For each entry there is a short description explaining the importance of the discovery, followed by complete bibliographic information, including title, authors, abstracts or excerpts, and references." "Contents" This annotated, chronological bibliography presents key material -- including excerpts -- from 500 of the most influential theoretical papers and experimental discoveries in particle physics, many of which have been cited for the Nobel prize. A general introduction places the original articles in historical context. For each entry there is a short description explaining the importance of the discovery, followed by complete bibliographic information, including title, authors, abstracts or excerpts, and references.
"In his new book, the author introduces us to the world of particles He traces the century of progress in our search for the basic units of matter as well as those of the forces that act on it, starting from the electron and photon, the first entry in the list of elementary quantum particles, and ending up with the quarks and gluons discovered in the last decades of this century. He gives the curious layman a clear understanding of the forefront of our knowledge about the structure of matter at its deepest level".Y NambuUniversity of Chicago"This is a readable little book on particle physics and is aimed at those with no previous exposure to the subject Nevertheless, as one would expect from a leading contributor to the field, Han takes care to get things right even when using simple language, as for example in his discussion of spin".CERN Courier
Following the discovery of the Higgs boson, Frank Close has produced this major revision to his classic and compelling introduction to the fundamental particles that make up the universe.
At the end of the nineteenth century, some physicists believed that the basic principles underlying their subject were already known, and that physics in the future would only consist of filling in the details. They could hardly have been more wrong. The past century has seen the rise of quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology, particle physics, and solid-state physics, among other fields. These subjects have fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time, and matter. They have also transformed daily life, inspiring a technological revolution that has included the development of radio, television, lasers, nuclear power, and computers. In Quantum Generations, Helge Kragh, one of the world's leading historians of physics, presents a sweeping account of these extraordinary achievements of the past one hundred years. The first comprehensive one-volume history of twentieth-century physics, the book takes us from the discovery of X rays in the mid-1890s to superstring theory in the 1990s. Unlike most previous histories of physics, written either from a scientific perspective or from a social and institutional perspective, Quantum Generations combines both approaches. Kragh writes about pure science with the expertise of a trained physicist, while keeping the content accessible to nonspecialists and paying careful attention to practical uses of science, ranging from compact disks to bombs. As a historian, Kragh skillfully outlines the social and economic contexts that have shaped the field in the twentieth century. He writes, for example, about the impact of the two world wars, the fate of physics under Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin, the role of military research, the emerging leadership of the United States, and the backlash against science that began in the 1960s. He also shows how the revolutionary discoveries of scientists ranging from Einstein, Planck, and Bohr to Stephen Hawking have been built on the great traditions of earlier centuries. Combining a mastery of detail with a sure sense of the broad contours of historical change, Kragh has written a fitting tribute to the scientists who have played such a decisive role in the making of the modern world.
The Particle Odyssey takes the reader on a spectacular illustrated journey to the heart of matter. In clear, non-technical language the authors describe the key experiments and fundamental discoveries which have led to our current understanding of the matter that makes up the universe and the forces that govern it. - ;During the 20th century, scientists discovered WHAT the Universe is made of; as the 21st century begins, they are preparing experiments to find out HOW it came to be like this. This great adventure, which will involve a metaphorical journey back in time to within a billionth of a second of the Big Bang, is the latest stage in the quest to understand the nature of the matter that makes our Universe and the forces that govern it. The Particle Odyssey takes the reader on a spectacularly illustrated journey to the heart of matter. In clear, non-technical language the authors describe the key experiments and fundamental discoveries which have led to our current understanding of the origins and nature of the material universe. There are individual 'portraits' of all the major subatomic particles, from the electron to the top quark. The authors describe the history of experimental particle physics: its origins in the discovery of X-rays in 1895; the dissection of the atom by Rutherford and others; the unexpected revelations of the cosmic rays; the explosion of new particles in the 1950s and 60s; the discovery of quarks and the rise of the 'standard model' in the last part of the 20th century. And they also look at the great challenges that face physicists today - where did antimatter go? what is dark matter? can there be a theory of everything? - and the experiments they are devising to explore them. The Particle Odyssey brings together and presents with style over 100 of the best images of particle 'events' - mysterious, abstract, often beautiful pictures of the tracks of subatomic particles as they speed, curve, dance, or explode through cloud and bubble chambers, stacks of photographic emulsion, and the giant multi-element detectors of modern experiments. Here are spiralling electrons, the tell-tale 'vees' of strange particles, matter and antimatter born from raw energy, energetic jets of particles spraying out from the decay points of quarks and gluons. A further 250 pictures, many taken specially for this book, illustrate the laboratories, experiments, and personalities of over a century of particle physics. -
The first edition of Engines of Discovery celebrated in words, images and anecdotes the accelerators and their constructors that culminated in the discovery of the Higgs boson. But even before the Higgs was discovered, before the champagne corks popped and while the television producers brushed up their quantum mechanics, a new wave of enthusiasm for accelerators to be applied for more practical purposes was gaining momentum. Almost all fields of human endeavour will be enhanced by this trend: energy conservation, medical diagnostics and treatment, national security, as well as industrial processing. Accelerators have been used most spectacularly to reveal the structure of the complex molecules that determine our metabolism and life. For every accelerator chasing the Higgs, there are now ten thousand serving other purposes. It is high time to move from abstract mathematics and philosophy to the practical needs of humankind. It is the aim of this revised and expanded edition to describe this revolution in a manner which will attract the young, not only to apply their curiosity to the building blocks of matter but to help them contribute to the improvement of the quality of life itself on this planet. As always, the authors have tried to avoid lengthy mathematical description. In describing a field which reaches out to almost all of today's cutting edge technology, some detailed explanation cannot be avoided but this has been confined to sidebars. References guide experts to move on to the journal Reviews of Accelerator Science and Technology and other publications for more information. But first we would urge every young physicist, teacher, journalist and politician to read this book. Contents: Electrostatic Accelerators; Cyclotrons; Linear Accelerators; Betatrons; Synchrotrons; Colliders; Neutrino Super Beams, Neutrino Factories and Muon Colliders; Detectors; High-Energy and Nuclear Physics; Synchrotron Radiation Sources; Isotope Production and Cancer Therapy Accelerators; Spallation Neutron Sources; Accelerators in Industry and Elsewhere; National Security; Energy and the Environment; A Final Word OCo Mainly to the Young. Readership: Scientists, research physicists, engineers and administrators at accelerator laboratories; general readers; undergraduates and graduates in physics, electrical engineering and the history of science."
With a New Afterword "Our knowledge of fundamental physics contains not one fruitful idea that does not carry the name of Murray Gell-Mann."--Richard Feynman Acclaimed science writer George Johnson brings his formidable reporting skills to the first biography of Nobel Prize-winner Murray Gell-Mann, the brilliant, irascible man who revolutionized modern particle physics with his models of the quark and the Eightfold Way. Born into a Jewish immigrant family on New York's East 14th Street, Gell-Mann's prodigious talent was evident from an early age--he entered Yale at 15, completed his Ph.D. at 21, and was soon identifying the structures of the world's smallest components and illuminating the elegant symmetries of the universe. Beautifully balanced in its portrayal of an extraordinary and difficult man, interpreting the concepts of advanced physics with scrupulous clarity and simplicity, Strange Beauty is a tour-de-force of both science writing and biography.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of modern particle physics accessible to anyone with a true passion for wanting to know how the universe works. We are introduced to the known particles of the world we live in. An elegant explanation of quantum mechanics and relativity paves the way for an understanding of the laws that govern particle physics. These laws are put into action in the world of accelerators, colliders and detectors found at institutions such as CERN and Fermilab that are in the forefront of technical innovation. Real world and theory meet using Feynman diagrams to solve the problems of infinities and deduce the need for the Higgs boson.Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics offers an incredible insight from an eyewitness and participant in some of the greatest discoveries in 20th century science. From Einstein's theory of relativity to the spectacular discovery of the Higgs particle, this book will fascinate and educate anyone interested in the world of quarks, leptons and gauge theories.This book also contains many thumbnail sketches of particle physics personalities, including contemporaries as seen through the eyes of the author. Illustrated with pictures, these candid sketches present rare, perceptive views of the characters that populate the field.The Chapter on Particle Theory, in a pre-publication, was termed 'superbly lucid' by David Miller in Nature (Vol. 396, 17 Dec. 1998, p. 642).