Who Cares About Particle Physics

CERN, the European Laboratory for particle physics, regularly makes the news. What kind of research happens at this international laboratory and how does it impact people's daily lives? Why is the discovery of the Higgs boson so important? Particle physics describes all matter found on Earth, in stars and all galaxies but it also tries to go beyond what is known to describe dark matter, a form of matter five times more prevalent than the known, regular matter. How do we know this mysterious dark matter exists and is there a chance it will be discovered soon? About sixty countries contributed to the construction of the gigantic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and its immense detectors. Dive in to discover how international teams of researchers work together to push scientific knowledge forward. Here is a book written for every person who wishes to learn a little more about particle physics, without requiring prior scientific knowledge. It starts from the basics to build a solid understanding of current research in particle physics. A good dose of curiosity is all one will need to discover a whole world that spans from the infinitesimally small and stretches to the infinitely large, and where imminent discoveries could mark the dawn of a huge revolution in the current conception of the material world.

'Who Cares About Particle Physics?' explains in clear terms for non-specialists what is happening at CERN, a European laboratory conducting research into particle physics, located near Geneva. It starts from the basics to build a solid understanding of the relevance of current research in the field and its ongoing significance.

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.

"Unique in its coverage of all aspects of modern particle physics, this textbook provides a clear connection between the theory and recent experimental results, including the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN. It provides a comprehensive and self-contained description of the Standard Model of particle physics suitable for upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students studying experimental particle physics. Physical theory is introduced in a straightforward manner with full mathematical derivations throughout. Fully-worked examples enable students to link the mathematical theory to results from modern particle physics experiments. End-of-chapter exercises, graded by difficulty, provide students with a deeper understanding of the subject. Online resources available at www.cambridge.org/MPP feature password-protected fully-worked solutions to problems for instructors, numerical solutions and hints to the problems for students and PowerPoint slides and JPEGs of figures from the book"--

A useful scientific theory, claimed Einstein, must be explicable to any intelligent person. In Deep Down Things, experimental particle physicist Bruce Schumm has taken this dictum to heart, providing in clear, straightforward prose an elucidation of the Standard Model of particle physics -- a theory that stands as one of the crowning achievements of twentieth-century science. In this one-of-a-kind book, the work of many of the past century's most notable physicists, including Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, Feynman, Gell-Mann, and Weinberg, is knit together in a thorough and accessible exposition of the revolutionary notions that underlie our current view of the fundamental nature of the physical world. Schumm, who has spent much of his life emmersed in the subatomic world, goes far beyond a mere presentation of the "building blocks" of matter, bringing to life the remarkable connection between the ivory tower world of the abstract mathematician and the day-to-day, life-enabling properties of the natural world. Schumm leaves us with an insight into the profound open questions of particle physics, setting the stage for understanding the progress the field is poised to make over the next decade or two. Introducing readers to the world of particle physics, Deep Down Things opens new realms within which are many clues to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

Sample Text

Graduate-level text offers unified treatment of mathematics applicable to many branches of physics. Theory of vector spaces, analytic function theory, theory of integral equations, group theory, and more. Many problems. Bibliography.

A clear and concise introduction to nuclear physics suitable for a core undergraduate physics course.

An essential introduction to particle physics, with coverage ranging from the basics through to the very latest developments, in an accessible and carefully structured text. Particle Physics: Third Edition is a revision of a highly regarded introduction to particle physics. In its two previous editions this book has proved to be an accessible and balanced introduction to modern particle physics, suitable for those students needed a more comprehensive introduction to the subject than provided by the ‘compendium’ style physics books. In the Third Edition the standard model of particle physics is carefully developed whilst unnecessary mathematical formalism is avoided where possible. Emphasis is placed on the interpretation of experimental data in terms of the basic properties of quarks and leptons. One of the major developments of the past decade has been the establishing of the existence of neutrino oscillations. This will have a profound effect on the plans of experimentalists. This latest edition brings the text fully up-to-date, and includes new sections on neutrino physics, as well as expanded coverage of detectors, such as the LHC detector. End of chapter problems with a full set of hints for their solutions provided at the end of the book. An accessible and carefully structured introduction to this demanding subject. Includes more advanced material in optional ‘starred’ sections. Coverage of the foundations of the subject, as well as the very latest developments.

This readable introduction to particle physics and cosmology discusses the interaction of these two fundamental branches of physics and considers recent advances beyond the standard models. Eight chapters comprise a brief introduction to the gauge theories of the strong and the electroweak interactions, the so-called grand unified theories, and general relativity. Ten more chapters address recent concepts such as composite fermions and bosons, supersymmetry, quantum gravity, supergravity, and strings theories, and relate them to modern cosmology and experimental astronomy.