The Quest For Quarks

A short introduction to elementary particles that discusses the ultimate structure of matter: atoms, the nucleus, protons, neutrons and pions, and quarks.

Explore the history of the discovery and the properties of the quark, one of the most basic constituents of matter.

No one has ever seen a quark. Yet physicists seem to know quite a lot about the properties and behavior of these ubiquitous elementary particles. Here a top researcher introduces us to a fascinating but invisible realm that is part of our everyday life. Timothy Smith tells us what we know about quarks--and how we know it. Though the quarks that make science headlines are typically laboratory creations generated under extreme conditions, most quarks occur naturally. They reside in the protons and neutrons that make up almost all of the universe's known matter, from human DNA to distant nebulae, from books and tables to neutron stars. Smith explains what these quarks are, how they act, and why physicists believe in them sight unseen. How do quarks arrange themselves? What other combinations can nature make? How do quarks hold nuclei together? What else is happening in their hidden worlds? It turns out that these questions can be answered using a few simple principles, such as the old standby: opposites attract. With these few principles, Smith shows how quarks dance around each other and explains what physicists mean when they refer to "up" and "down" quarks and talk about a quark's color, flavor, and spin. Smith also explains how we know what we know about these oddly aloof particles, which are eternally confined inside larger particles. He explains how quark experiments are mounted and how massive accelerators, targets, and detectors work together to collect the data that scientists use to infer what quarks are up to. A nonmathematical tour of the quark world, this book is written for students, educators, and all who enjoy scientific exploration--whether they seek a taste of subnuclear physics or just wonder about nature on the smallest of scales.

This is the absorbing account of one of the twentieth century’s most revolutionary discoveries — our first encounter with an essential mystery of the universe. Told by an active participant in this discovery, it is the saga of the search for quarks, the elementary particles lurking within the protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei, which constitute the fundamental basis of matter. Michael Riordan, physicist and author, was present at the key moments in this story. He brings to life the personalities, triumphs and failures of this true-life scientific detective story, vividly portraying the soaring ambitions and clashing egos of modern physicists at work, vying for the coveted Nobel Prize. The Hunting of the Quark gives readers an insider’s perspective on how frontier science actually occurs — the great leaps of imagination, the blind alleys followed, and the final resolution of the mysteries that had to be overcome on the road to unity. Like James Watson’s famous accountThe Double Helix, it has the immediacy and excitement of being on the trail of a monumental discovery — leading to a striking new scientific paradigm, the Standard Model of particle physics. “Many books on the 20th-century revolution in particle physics focus on the startling new notions introduced. Not as much attention is paid to those who dirtied their hands, nursing crotchety accelerator instruments, in order to prove the conjectures. Mr. Riordan, a physicist affiliated with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, presents an authoritative account of this less-told tale. A veteran quark-stalker himself, he deftly combines his technical expertise with a journalistic flair, personally acquainting us with many of the men and women who joined in the hunt... Mr. Riordan enables us to behold exactly how physicists work and the tortuous paths that experimentalists must travel to gain just a scrap of insight into the puzzling laws of nature.” — Marcia Bartusiak, The New York Times “A great book that I couldn’t put down even though I knew the plot.” — Sheldon Glashow, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Harvard University, Nobel prize in physics (1979) “Machines two miles long, pieces of matter elusive as lost souls, the likes of Richard Feynman ‘snooping around,’ reputations made and lost on the contumacious front lines of science — what a wonderful mix for a book. Particle physics has seemed arcane, the quark business most of all. Michael Riordan, who lives the story he tells, makes it lively, literate and accessible.” — Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb “Mr. Riordan... understands the physics, but he also has an eye for the human comedy associated with the work. The result is a fine book on elementary particle physics.” — Jeremy Bernstein, The New Yorker “Riordan was an active participant in the search for the enigmatic quark, and his story reflects the excitement, passion and revelation of peeking into nature’s most elusive realm.” — Rudy Rucker, San Francisco Chronicle “An enjoyable book with enough good explanations and clear discussions to make it well worth reading both for the expert in modern high-energy physics and for the general reader.” — Alexander Firestone, Physics Today “A physicist with first-hand experience chasing quarks at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) relates the high points of the search for those elusive subatomic particles... Riordan builds a suspenseful tale around the neck-and-neck race between MIT/Brookhaven (Sam Ting) and Stanford (Burton Richter) in discovering the J/psi particle... Riordan’s epilogue is eloquent... Readers will... turn to Riordan for a close-in view and astute commentary on a pivotal period in 20th-century physics.” —Kirkus

Quarks, Leptons and The Big Bang is a clear, readable and self-contained introduction to particle physics and related areas of cosmology. It bridges the gap between non-technical popular accounts and textbooks for advanced students. The book concentrates on presenting the subject from the modern perspective of quarks, leptons and the forces between them. This book will be of interest to students, teachers and general science readers interested in fundamental ideas of modern physics.

Discusses quarks, fundamental particles that make up protons, neutrons, and other subatomic particles, and describes the process by which scientists came to "detect" them.

The Santa Fe Institute celebrates one of its founders with a new edition of a seminal work by the late Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann. Originally published in 1994, The Quark & the Jaguar spans the simple and the complex, examining the relationship between the fundamental laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world. Neither autobiography nor strictly scientific treatise, this uniquely personal and unifying vision reflects Gell-Mann's broad expertise, curiosity, and passion for topics as disparate as archaeology, linguistics, and computing.

In Quest of the Quark reinforces atomic theory for high school students, and links it with Elementary Particle Physics in a structured way that encourages literacy without heavy mathematics, by interrelating the particles which make up sub-atomic particles. At the beginning of the universe matter/energy were one, and then in the first few micro-seconds of time, they split apart or separated, a process called symmetry splitting in Particle Physics, or more commonly The Big Bang. The particles of matter, called fermions, are the bricks of the universe, and the bosons which transmit the forces of energy, the mortar which binds them together. This fundamental view of our time-continuum is quite elegant in its organization, and startling in its beauty, as the worlds within worlds of fundamental particles are explored.