The story of the Higgs boson - the so-called 'God particle' - and the man who thought of it.
In the summer of 1964, a reclusive young professor at the University of Edinburgh wrote two scientific papers which have come to change our understanding of the most fundamental building blocks of matter and the nature of the universe. Peter Higgs posited the existence an almost infinitely tiny particle - today known as the Higgs boson - which is the key to understanding why particles have mass, and but for which atoms and molecules could not exist. For nearly 50 years afterwards, some of the largest projects in experimental physics sought to demonstrate the physical existence of the boson which Higgs had proposed. Sensationally, confirmation came in July 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. The following year Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. One of the least-known giants of science, he is the only person in history to have had a single particle named for them.
This revelatory book is 'not so much a biography of the man but of the boson named after him'. It brilliantly traces the course of much of twentieth-century physics from the inception of quantum field theory to the completion of the 'standard model' of particles and forces, and the pivotal role of Higgs's idea in this evolution. It also investigates the contested history of Higgs's responsibility for the breakthrough when there were others close by, and explains why the boson is named for him alone. Competition between institutions and states, Close shows, then played as much of a role in creating Higgs's fame as his work itself. Drawing on conversations with Higgs over a decade (a figure generally as elusive as his particle) this is a superb study of a scientist and his era - and of how scientific knowledge advances.
Author(s): Frank Close
Publisher: Basic Books
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: Converted from epub to PDF using calibre 3.48
Pages: 254
City: New York
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Prelude: The Case of the Disappearing Professor
Part 1
1. A Name on the Board
A Solitary Child
The Cotham School Alumnus
A Nuclear Awakening
The City of London
2. The Single Helix
Molecular Physics and DNA
Edinburgh and Gauge Invariance
London and General Relativity
Consultant for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
3. The Particle Explosion
1960: A Missed Opportunity
Encounter in the Staff Club
4. The Super Conductor
Hidden Symmetry
Mass from Nowhere
Goldstone's Boson
5. Higgs' Epiphany
Anderson Shows the Way
From Anderson to Higgs
Higgs' First Paper Decoded
Higgs' Second Paper Decoded
6. Now We Are Six
Fate and Higgs' Second Paper
Guralnik, Hagen, and Kibble
A Deafening Silence
7. Birth of a Boson
1966: North Carolina
DNA of a Boson
"You've Definitely Got Something Wrong"
8. "Peter—You're Famous!"
Cocktail Conversation
Weinberg's Model of Leptons
The Flying Dutchmen
Chicago 1972
A New Architecture
Part 2
9. The First Disappearance—1976
A Visit to CERN
Wilczek's Brain Wave
Banquo and the Boson
10. Every Journey Begins with a Single Step
A Theoretical Hint of the Higgs
11. A Machine for 1 TeV
LEP
Robert Brout
Boson Politics
Emotional Roller Coaster
Quantum Roller Coaster
12. Father of the God Particle
Hawking Higgs
"This is Going to Be Huge"
13. The "Doomsday Machine"
Hawking Rocks the Boat
Catastrophe
14. "We Should Go to CERN"
Popularising Higgs
Preparations
The Sicilian Hideaway
15. The Fourth of July
Once in a Generation
A Moment in History
The Press Conference
Not in My Lifetime
Part 3
16. "Time to Plan My Escape"
Nothing Is Guaranteed
Prince of Asturias: Nobel Rehearsal
17. The Glittering Prizes
The Swedish Prize
Owned by the World
18. Zigzag
Epilogue: The View Across the Plains
Acknowledgements
Appendix 4.1: Ginzburg and Landau’s Mexican Hat
Appendix 5.1: Higgs' First Paper Decoded
Appendix 5.2: Higgs' Second Paper Decoded
About the Author
Also by Frank Close
Notes
Preface
Prelude
1. A Name on the Board
2. The Single Helix
3. The Particle Explosion
4. The Super Conductor
5. Higgs' Epiphany
6. Now We Are Six
7. Birth of a Boson
8. "Peter—You're Famous!"
9. The First Disappearance—1976
10. Every Journey Begins with a Single Step
11. A Machine for 1 TeV
12. Father of the God Particle
13. The "Doomsday Machine"
14. "We Should Go to CERN"
15. The Fourth of July
16. "Time to Plan My Escape"
17. The Glittering Prizes
18. Zigzag
Epilogue: The View Across the Plains
