Screen LibraryRemnants of the fall : revelations of particle secrets /
This is a book that sings about the beauty of the fundamental laws of nature. Clear, accurate descriptions for general science readers (no equations in sight!) are punctuated with original, scintillating verses. The reader is taken on a journey through the contemporary understanding of the building...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Corporate Authors: | |
| Published: |
World Scientific Pub. Co.,
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| Publisher Address: | Singapore ; Hackensack, N.J. : |
| Publication Dates: | 2003. |
| Literature type: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/5016#t=toc |
| Summary: |
This is a book that sings about the beauty of the fundamental laws of nature. Clear, accurate descriptions for general science readers (no equations in sight!) are punctuated with original, scintillating verses. The reader is taken on a journey through the contemporary understanding of the building blocks of nature and their interactions - the current status of that age-old, intriguing quest. The central role of symmetry is explained in a manner suitable for general science readers, and its splendor is celebrated in verse. The book facilitates understanding of the background and significance of today's scientific discoveries in atomic, nuclear and particle physics. Many of the poems appear as interludes that reinforce the discussions as they amuse the reader, making this informative book a delight to read. |
| Carrier Form: | 1 online resource (xxii,287pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9789812388810 (electronic bk.) |
| CLC: | O572.2 |
| Contents: |
Dear reader -- Introduction -- Overture -- pt. I. The journey begins. ch. 1. About questions and answers. Lightbulb interlude. ch. 2. The matter we know - properties and principles. 1. The science of elementary particles. 2. General properties of particles - a preliminary look. 3. Particles in motion. ch. 3. The relativity of space and time. 1. The Principle. 2. Electromagnetic waves. 3. Space and time. 4. Energy and momentum. Interlude. The "illions" and the "illionths". ch. 4. The quantum properties of nature - part one. 1. Classical particles and waves. 2. Quantum objects and indeterminacy. ch. 5. The quantum properties of nature - part two. 1. Quantum particles and uncertainties. 2. Quantization. 3. Quantum fields. ch. 6. Quantum mechanical reality. 1. Battle of the giants. 2. The triumph of quantum mechanics. 3. Quantum mechanics and measurement. ch. 7. The particles of matter. 1. Seeking the structure of protons and neutrons. 2. Strongly interacting matter particles - the hadrons. 3. Matter particles with no strong interactions - the leptons. ch. 8. The basic interactions. 1. Introducing the interactions. 2. The gauge bosons of the interactions. 3. The "reach" or range of the interactions -- pt. II. Particle symmetries. ch. 9. Spacetime symmetries. 1. Symmetry at an art exhibit. 2. Generators and conservation laws. 3. Intertwining rotations. About whimsy. ch. 10. "Internal" symmetries - isotopic spin. 1. Conservation laws and symmetry. 2. Welcome to flavor space. ch. 11. Particle flavors. 1. Hypercharge (Y) and the group U(1). 2. Strangeness (S). 3. Baryon number (B). 4. Lepton number (L). 5. Recollections of conserved numbers and associated flavor symmetries. ch. 12. A larger flavor symmetry - entrance to the land of quarks. 1. A historical note: the periodic scheme of the elements. 2. Flavor SU(3) and the periodic scheme of the hadrons. 3. Entering the land of quarks -- pt. III. On to the standard model and beyond. ch. 13. About gauge theories. 1. Their "local" property. 2. Gauge bosons and the interactions. 3. The ideal vacuum and renormalization. 4. What are the gauges in the gauge theories? ch. 14. The strong interaction - quantum chromodynamics (QCD). 1. The exclusion principle mystery. 2. Color SU(3) - the gauge theory of quantum chromodynamics. 3. A new phase of matter. 4. More exotica. ch. 15. The weak interaction - the foot-hills. 1. Beta decays. 2. The other weak interactions. 3. Handedness, time reversal and antimatter. 4. Range, strength and mass. ch. 16. The electroweak interaction and the standard model. 1. Higgs magic. 2. The glorious gauge theory - the standard model. ch. 17. Above and beyond. 1. Neutrino mass and "oscillations". 2. Grand unified theories (GUTs). 3. The early universe. 4. Superdreams. 5. Large extra dimensions. 6. Have we reached bottom? A reconstruction of the origin of the particles -- pt. IV. The experiments - exploration and discovery. ch. 18. The role of experiments and experimentalists. 1. What is a scientific theory? 2. And what in the world is an experimentalist? 3. The importance of confirmation of discoveries and of error estimation. ch. 19. The experimental connection. 1. A preliminary: energy units for atomic and subatomic considerations. 2. "Scatterings" and decays. 3. The scattering "cross section" - a direct connection between theory and experiment. 4. Particle "resonances". 5. "Resonances" and decay widths. ch. 20. Particle accelerators and detectors. 1. Why accelerate particles? 2. Accelerator types. 3. The basics of particle detection. 4. Large hybrid detectors. 5. Important experimental concerns -- Finale -- Epilogues -- Glossary -- Index. |