The scope of the book is to give an overview of the history of astroparticle physics, starting with the discovery of cosmic rays (Victor Hess, 1912) and its background (X-ray, radioactivity).
The book focusses on the ways in which physics changes in the course of this history. The following changes run parallel, overlap, and/or interact:
- Discovery of effects like X-rays, radioactivity, cosmic rays, new particles but also progress through non-discoveries (monopoles) etc.
- The change of the description of nature in physics, as consequence of new theoretical questions at the beginning of the 20th century, giving rise to quantum physics, relativity, etc.
- The change of experimental methods, cooperations, disciplinary divisions.
With regard to the latter change, a main topic of the book is to make the specific multi-diciplinary features of astroparticle physics clear.
Author(s): Wolfgang Rhode (auth.), Brigitte Falkenburg, Wolfgang Rhode (eds.)
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: 346
Tags: Astrophysics and Astroparticles;History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics;Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Front Matter....Pages I-X
Introduction....Pages 1-16
From the Discovery of Radioactivity to the First Accelerator Experiments....Pages 17-47
Development of Cosmology: From a Static Universe to Accelerated Expansion....Pages 49-70
Evolution of Astrophysics: Stars, Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Particle Acceleration....Pages 71-102
Development of Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Ray Research....Pages 103-141
Very-High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy: A 23-Year Success Story in Astroparticle Physics....Pages 143-185
Search for the Neutrino Mass and Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy....Pages 187-213
From Particle Physics to Astroparticle Physics: Proton Decay and the Rise of Non-accelerator Physics....Pages 215-229
Towards High-Energy Neutrino Astronomy....Pages 231-263
From Waves to Particle Tracks and Quantum Probabilities....Pages 265-295
Back Matter....Pages 297-345
