New Edition: Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics (Revised Edition)This book provides a comprehensive overview of modern particle physics accessible to anyone with a true passion for wanting to know how the universe works. We are introduced to the known particles of the world we live in. An elegant explanation of quantum mechanics and relativity paves the way for an understanding of the laws that govern particle physics. These laws are put into action in the world of accelerators, colliders and detectors found at institutions such as CERN and Fermilab that are in the forefront of technical innovation. Real world and theory meet using Feynman diagrams to solve the problems of infinities and deduce the need for the Higgs boson.Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics offers an incredible insight from an eyewitness and participant in some of the greatest discoveries in 20th century science. From Einstein's theory of relativity to the elusive Higgs particle, this book will fascinate and educate anyone interested in the world of quarks, leptons and gauge theories.This book also contains many thumbnail sketches of particle physics personalities, including contemporaries as seen through the eyes of the author. Illustrated with pictures, these candid sketches present rare, perceptive views of the characters that populate the field.The Chapter on Particle Theory, in a pre-publication, was termed "superbly lucid" by David Miller in Nature (Vol. 396, 17 Dec. 1998, p. 642).
Author(s): Martinus Veltman
Publisher: World Scientific Pub
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 349
City: River Edge, NJ
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
1 Preliminaries
1.1 Atoms, Nuclei and Particles
1.2 Photons
1.3 Antiparticles
1.4 Mass and Energy
1.5 Events
1.6 Electron-Volts and Other Units
1.7 Particle Names and the Greek Alphabet
1.8 Scientific Notation
2 The Standard Model
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Conservation of Energy and Charge
2.3 Quantum Numbers
2.4 Color
2.5 The Electron-Neutrino, Electron Number and Crossing
2.6 The First Family
2.7 Families and Forces
2.8 The Spin Half Particles
2.9 The Spin 1 and 2 Particles
2.10 Forces and Interactions
2.11 Classification of Interactions
2.12 Electromagnetic, Weak, Strong, Higgs and Gravitational Interactions
2.13 Representing Interactions
2.14 The Origin of Quantum Numbers
3 Quantum Mechanics. Mixing
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Two-Slit Experiment
3.3 Amplitude and Probability
3.4 Cabibbo and CKM Mixing
3.5 Neutrino Mixing
3.6 Particle Mixing
4 Energy, Momentum and Mass-Shell
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Conservation Laws
4.3 Relativity
4.4 Relativistic Invariance
4.5 The Relation E = mc 2
5 Detection
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Photoelectric Effect
5.3 Bubble Chambers
5.4 Spark Chambers
5.5 Proportional Wire Chambers
6 Accelerators and Storage Rings
6.1 Energy Bubbles
6.2 Accelerators
6.3 Secondary Beams
6.4 The Machine Builders
7 The CERN Neutrino Experiment
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Experimental Set-up
7.3 Neutrino Physics
7.4 The First Neutrino Experiments
7.5 Vector Bosons
7.6 Missed Opportunities
7.7 Epilogue
8 The Particle Zoo
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Bound States
8.3 The Structure of Quark Bound States
8.4 Spin of a Bound State
8.5 Mesons
8.6 Baryons
8.7 Exotics
8.8 Discovering Quarks
8.9 Triplets versus Doublets and Lepton-Quark Symmetry
9 Particle Theory
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Feynman Rules
9.3 Infinities
9.4 Perturbation Theory
9.5 Renormalizability
9.6 Weak Interactions
9.7 Compton Scattering
9.8 Neutral Vector Bosons
9.9 Charmed Quarks
9.10 The Higgs Particle
9.11 General Higgs Couplings
9.12 Speculations
9.13 ρ-Parameter
10 Finding the Higgs
11 Quantum Chromodynamics
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Confinement
11.3 Asymptotic Freedom
11.4 Scaling
12 Epilogue
Name Index
Subject Index
