The book is a compilation of the most important experimental results achieved during the past 60 years at CERN - from the mid-1950s to the latest discovery of the Higgs particle. Covering the results from the early accelerators at CERN to those most recent at the LHC, the contents provide an excellent review of the achievements of this outstanding laboratory. Not only presented is the impressive scientific progress achieved during the past six decades, but also demonstrated is the special way in which successful international collaboration exists at CERN.
This volume reviews the physics studied at the CERN proton-antiproton collider during its first phase of operation, from the first physics run in 1981 to the last one at the end of 1985.The volume consists of a series of review articles written by physicists who are actively involved with the collider research program. The first article describes the proton-antiproton collider facility itself, including the antiproton source and its principle of operation based on stochastic cooling.The subsequent six articles deal with the various physics subjects studied at the collider. Each article describes in detail the experimental results on a particular subject, and also provides the theoretical framework necessary for their interpretation. Finally the last two articles discuss the physics expectations from the improved collider (the so-called ACOL program, which has just started operation), and also from the next generation of ?supercolliders? which are being considered both in Europe and in the United States America.
"The past 100 years of accelerator-based research have led the field from first insights into the structure of atoms to the development and confirmation of the Standard Model of physics. Accelerators have been a key tool in developing our understanding of the elementary particles and the forces that govern their interactions. This book describes the past 100 years of accelerator development with a special focus on the technological advancements in the field, the connection of the various accelerator projects to key developments and discoveries in the Standard Model, how accelerator technologies open the door to other applications in medicine and industry, and finally presents an outlook of future accelerator projects for the coming decades."--Provided by publisher.
In 1912 Victor Franz Hess made the revolutionary discovery that ionizing radiation is incident upon the Earth from outer space. He showed with ground-based and balloon-borne detectors that the intensity of the radiation did not change significantly between day and night. Consequently, the sun could not be regarded as the sources of this radiation and the question of its origin remained unanswered. Today, almost one hundred years later the question of the origin of the cosmic radiation still remains a mystery.Hess' discovery has given an enormous impetus to large areas of science, in particular to physics, and has played a major role in the formation of our current understanding of universal evolution. For example, the development of new fields of research such as elementary particle physics, modern astrophysics and cosmology are direct consequences of this discovery. Over the years the field of cosmic ray research has evolved in various directions: Firstly, the field of particle physics that was initiated by the discovery of many so-called elementary particles in the cosmic radiation. There is a strong trend from the accelerator physics community to reenter the field of cosmic ray physics, now under the name of astroparticle physics. Secondly, an important branch of cosmic ray physics that has rapidly evolved in conjunction with space exploration concerns the low energy portion of the cosmic ray spectrum. Thirdly, the branch of research that is concerned with the origin, acceleration and propagation of the cosmic radiation represents a great challenge for astrophysics, astronomy and cosmology. Presently very popular fields of research have rapidly evolved, such as high-energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy. In addition, high-energy neutrino astronomy may soon initiate as a likely spin-off neutrino tomography of the Earth and thus open a unique new branch of geophysical research of the interior of the Earth. Finally, of considerable interest are the biological and medical aspects of the cosmic radiation because of it ionizing character and the inevitable irradiation to which we are exposed. This book is a reference manual for researchers and students of cosmic ray physics and associated fields and phenomena. It is not intended to be a tutorial. However, the book contains an adequate amount of background materials that its content should be useful to a broad community of scientists and professionals. The present book contains chiefly a data collection in compact form that covers the cosmic radiation in the vicinity of the Earth, in the Earth's atmosphere, at sea level and underground. Included are predominantly experimental but also theoretical data. In addition the book contains related data, definitions and important relations. The aim of this book is to offer the reader in a single volume a readily available comprehensive set of data that will save him the need of frequent time consuming literature searches.
This is a first-hand account of one of the most important scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. In 1983, two groups of scientists working at CERN near Geneva collected data, which were subsequently shown to be consistent with the W and Z bosons. This work earned two of those scientists the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics. The author of this book, Peter Watkins, was a member of one of those groups. His book opens with a brief statement of the background, explaining in non-technical terms the theoretical developments that led to the prediction in the late 1960s of the existence of the W and Z bosons. He then moves on rapidly to describe the background to the experiments, explaining as he does so the problems that had to be overcome, and giving details of the accelerators, detectors and computers used in these very advanced- and difficult- experiments.
