This volume gives an up-to-date, useful review of the recent results and new ideas concerning the following topics: precision tests of the standard model, search for Higgs bosons, CP violation, flavour physics, neutrino physics, testing extensions of the standard model, supersymmetry, particle physics, cosmology and new results in strong interactions.
This new book aims to guide both the experimentalist and theoretician through their compulsory laboratory courses forming part of an undergraduate physics degree. The rationale behind this book is to show students and interested readers the value and beauty within a carefully planned and executed experiment, and to help them to develop the skills to carry out experiments themselves.
Long-listed for the 2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "An important book that provides insight into key new developments in our understanding of the nature of space, time and the universe. It will repay careful study." --John Gribbin, The Wall Street Journal "An endlessly surprising foray into the current mother of physics' many knotty mysteries, the solving of which may unveil the weirdness of quantum particles, black holes, and the essential unity of nature." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time: nonlocality-the ability of two particles to act in harmony no matter how far apart they may be. It appears to be almost magical. Einstein grappled with this oddity and couldn't come to terms with it, describing it as "spooky action at a distance." More recently, the mystery has deepened as other forms of nonlocality have been uncovered. This strange occurrence, which has direct connections to black holes, particle collisions, and even the workings of gravity, holds the potential to undermine our most basic understandings of physical reality. If space isn't what we thought it was, then what is it? In Spooky Action at a Distance, George Musser sets out to answer that question, offering a provocative exploration of nonlocality and a celebration of the scientists who are trying to explain it. Musser guides us on an epic journey into the lives of experimental physicists observing particles acting in tandem, astronomers finding galaxies that look statistically identical, and cosmologists hoping to unravel the paradoxes surrounding the big bang. He traces the often contentious debates over nonlocality through major discoveries and disruptions of the twentieth century and shows how scientists faced with the same undisputed experimental evidence develop wildly different explanations for that evidence. Their conclusions challenge our understanding of not only space and time but also the origins of the universe-and they suggest a new grand unified theory of physics. Delightfully readable, Spooky Action at a Distance is a mind-bending voyage to the frontiers of modern physics that will change the way we think about reality.
This is the first book to discuss the search for new physics in charged leptons, neutrons, and quarks in one coherent volume. The area of indirect searches for new physics is highly topical; though no new physics particles have yet been observed directly at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the methods described in this book will provide researchers with the necessary tools to keep searching for new physics. It describes the lines of research that attempt to identify quantum effects of new physics particles in low-energy experiments, in addition to detailing the mathematical basis and theoretical and phenomenological methods involved in the searches, whilst making a clear distinction between model-dependent and model-independent methods employed to make predictions. This book will be a valuable guide for graduate students and early-career researchers in particle and high energy physics who wish to learn about the techniques used in modern predictions of new physics effects at low energies, whilst also serving as a reference for researchers at other levels. Key features: • Takes an accessible, pedagogical approach suitable for graduate students and those seeking an overview of this new and fast-growing field • Illustrates common theoretical trends seen in different subfields of particle physics • Valuable both for researchers in the phenomenology of elementary particles and for experimentalists
In Shifting Standards, Allan Franklin provides an overview of notable experiments in particle physics. Using papers published in Physical Review, the journal of the American Physical Society, as his basis, Franklin details the experiments themselves, their data collection, the events witnessed, and the interpretation of results. From these papers, he distills the dramatic changes to particle physics experimentation from 1894 through 2009. Franklin develops a framework for his analysis, viewing each example according to exclusion and selection of data; possible experimenter bias; details of the experimental apparatus; size of the data set, apparatus, and number of authors; rates of data taking along with analysis and reduction; distinction between ideal and actual experiments; historical accounts of previous experiments; and personal comments and style. From Millikan's tabletop oil-drop experiment to the Compact Muon Solenoid apparatus measuring approximately 4,000 cubic meters (not including accelerators) and employing over 2,000 authors, Franklin's study follows the decade-by-decade evolution of scale and standards in particle physics experimentation. As he shows, where once there were only one or two collaborators, now it literally takes a village. Similar changes are seen in data collection: in 1909 Millikan's data set took 175 oil drops, of which he used 23 to determine the value of e, the charge of the electron; in contrast, the 1988-1992 E791 experiment using the Collider Detector at Fermilab, investigating the hadroproduction of charm quarks, recorded 20 billion events. As we also see, data collection took a quantum leap in the 1950s with the use of computers. Events are now recorded at rates as of a few hundred per second, and analysis rates have progressed similarly. Employing his epistemology of experimentation, Franklin deconstructs each example to view the arguments offered and the correctness of the results. Overall, he finds that despite the metamorphosis of the process, the role of experimentation has remained remarkably consistent through the years: to test theories and provide factual basis for scientific knowledge, to encourage new theories, and to reveal new phenomenon.
A treatment of the experimental techniques and instrumentation most often used in nuclear and particle physics experiments as well as in various other experiments, providing useful results and formulae, technical know-how and informative details. This second edition has been revised, while sections on Cherenkov radiation and radiation protection have been updated and extended.
Physics at the beginning of the twenty-first century has reached new levels of accomplishment and impact in a society and nation that are changing rapidly. Accomplishments have led us into the information age and fueled broad technological and economic development. The pace of discovery is quickening and stronger links with other fields such as the biological sciences are being developed. The intellectual reach has never been greater, and the questions being asked are more ambitious than ever before. Physics in a New Era is the final report of the NRC's six-volume decadal physics survey. The book reviews the frontiers of physics research, examines the role of physics in our society, and makes recommendations designed to strengthen physics and its ability to serve important needs such as national security, the economy, information technology, and education.
Argues that the discoveries of twentieth-century physics--relativity and the quantum theory--demand a radical reformulation of the fundamentals of reality and a way of thinking, that is closer to mysticism than materialism.
techniques, and raises new issues of physical interpretation as well as possibilities for deepening the theory. (3) Barut contributes a comprehensive review of his own ambitious program in electron theory and quantum electrodynamics. Barut's work is rich with ingenious ideas, and the interest it provokes among other theorists can be seen in the cri tique by Grandy. Cooperstock takes a much different approach to nonlinear field-electron coupling which leads him to conclusions about the size of the electron. (4) Capri and Bandrauk work within the standard framework of quantum electrodynamics. Bandrauk presents a valuable review of his theoretical approach to the striking new photoelectric phenomena in high intensity laser experiments. (5) Jung proposes a theory to merge the ideas of free-free transitions and of scattering chaos, which is becoming increasingly important in the theoretical analysis of nonlinear optical phenomena. For the last half century the properties of electrons have been probed primarily by scattering experiments at ever higher energies. Recently, however, two powerful new experimental techniques have emerged capable of giving alternative experimental views of the electron. We refer to (1) the confinement of single electrons for long term study, and (2) the interaction of electrons with high intensity laser fields. Articles by outstanding practitioners of both techniques are included in Part II of these Proceedings. The precision experiments on trapped electrons by the Washington group quoted above have already led to a Nobel prize for the most accurate measurements of the electron magnetic moment.