These proceedings cover the recent progress and future directions of parity violation in electron scattering. Both experimental and theoretical issues are discussed, such as those of hadronic structure, radiative corrections, and tests of the standard model. There are three sessions, the first of which serves as a general overview of theory and experiment. The second session deals with the technical aspects of making a measurement of the parity violating asymmetry in electron scattering, including not only detector design but polarized electron beams and beam polarimeters.. The remaining session covers the corrections to lowest order parity violating cross sections.
This book contains the proceedings of the third international workshop on From Parity Violation to Hadronic Structure and More. The many applications of parity violation are way beyond the scope of what Lee and Yang could have imagined fifty years after their proposal. For the physics topics discussed during this workshop, the application of parity violation has become a standard work horse allowing for the extraction of many physics topics in different experiments.
This book attempts to trace the key experimental developments that led to the discovery of weak neutral currents in 1973 and the W, Z bosons in 1983, all of the results of which culminated in the identification of the unified-electroweak force.
Almost 50 years after the proposal of Lee and Young in 1956 to test the hypothesis of parity violation in weak interactions and the subsequent experimental verification of parity violation by C. S. Wu, parity violation has today become a useful property of weak interactions. This is due to the fact that the focus nowadays has changed: parity violation in weak interactions is no more a topic of investigation but is used as a tool in many different fields ranging from nuclear physics to the search for the hidden extra dimensions requested by string theory. For our first workshop which took place June 5-8, 2002, at the Institut fiir Ke- physik of the Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz, we concentrated on the in vestigation of the strangeness contribution in the nucleon. This book contains the refereed and selected papers of the second workshop "From Parity Violation to Hadron Structure and more (Part II)", which took place June 8-11, in the Labo- toire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, in Grenoble. These papers appear in EPJAdirect, the electronic-only part of EPJA, and they are accessible without restrictions. They will also appear in printed form and can be ordered through Springer. The excellent presentations show the dramatic and steady progress in the accuracy of measured parity violating asymmetries over the last few years.
Until half a century ago, it was assumed that the forces of nature were symmetric and that they did not distinguish between right and left, between image and mirror image. The discovery of the violation of parity in 1956 was more than a sensation, for some it was a shock. It implied that the universe displays handedness, or chirality, and that it is fundamentally asymmetric. Remarkably, a most striking asymmetry is encountered in the realm of biology. Living organisms contain proteins built almost exclusively from L-amino acids, and nucleic acids derived from D-sugars only. Yet a mirror-image biochemistry, based on D-amino acids and L-sugars is, from a purely chemical standpoint, entirely conceivable. Where, then, does this extraordinary natural selectivity come from? Is it directly, or indirectly, connected to the universal violation of parity? This book is meant as a brief review of the various manifestations of handedness, or chirality, in the universe. It does not attempt to present a solution to basic questions which perhaps will never be unambiguously and conclusively answered. Rather, it is an excursion through nature, to observe and recognize how the chirality manifests itself at different structural levels. The excursion starts in the chemistry and physics laboratory. Then a journey into outer space and back in time is undertaken. After a return to our planet Earth, the focus is on the development of living organisms. The text should be accessible to anyone having the equivalent of a first-year university instruction in physics and chemistry. It is also hoped that a layperson with a more modest scientific formation may gain a general impression of the basic asymmetry in nature and of the fundamental significance of chirality. Mathematical expressions, wherever they occur, may then be overlooked. Some more difficult sections may be skipped. A Glossary preceding the Subject Index should be helpful.
In the last few years there has been considerable progress in improving the accuracy of parity violation experiments in electron scattering at high energy and in atomic physics. Recent results are a challenge to the standard electroweak theory and our understanding of hadron structure. This book is an extensive review of the advances in this field. The theoretical framework is presented at a pedagogical level, experiments and future projects are reviewed, and the results and their interpretation are discussed in depth.
A thoroughly revised edition of a landmark textbook on gauge theories and their applications to particle physics This completely revised and updated graduate-level textbook is an ideal introduction to gauge theories and their applications to high-energy particle physics, and takes an in-depth look at two new laws of nature—quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak theory. From quantum electrodynamics through unified theories of the interactions among leptons and quarks, Chris Quigg examines the logic and structure behind gauge theories and the experimental underpinnings of today's theories. Quigg emphasizes how we know what we know, and in the era of the Large Hadron Collider, his insightful survey of the standard model and the next great questions for particle physics makes for compelling reading. The brand-new edition shows how the electroweak theory developed in conversation with experiment. Featuring a wide-ranging treatment of electroweak symmetry breaking, the physics of the Higgs boson, and the importance of the 1-TeV scale, the book moves beyond established knowledge and investigates the path toward unified theories of strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions. Explicit calculations and diverse exercises allow readers to derive the consequences of these theories. Extensive annotated bibliographies accompany each chapter, amplify points of conceptual or technical interest, introduce further applications, and lead readers to the research literature. Students and seasoned practitioners will profit from the text's current insights, and specialists wishing to understand gauge theories will find the book an ideal reference for self-study. Brand-new edition of a landmark text introducing gauge theories Consistent attention to how we know what we know Explicit calculations develop concepts and engage with experiment Interesting and diverse problems sharpen skills and ideas Extensive annotated bibliographies
The 20th century has been the century of unparalleled scientific advances fuelled primarily by discoveries made by physicists. The century also represents the life span of the American Physical Society, not coincidentally, and to celebrate both its own centennial and this remarkable century, the APS has prepared this book highlighting the seminal discoveries of the 20th century, with invited articles by the world's most eminent living physicists, including 12 physics Nobel Prize winners. Some 40 chapters cover a broad range of topics in physics written in an engaging and personal style. While the technical level is high, these are not review articles, but rather perspectives on discoveries written by those scientists most closely associated with the original work, as well as future directions of research.
