Understanding the universe : from quarks to the cosmos / Don Lincoln.

Previous edition: 2004.

Foreword -- Preface to Revised Edition -- Preface (And so ad infinitum); dated October 24, 2003 [Preface to the First Edition] -- Acknowledgements -- 1. EARLY HISTORY -- First musings -- Better living through chemistry -- May the Force be with you -- 2. THE PATH TO KNOWLEDGE (HISTORY OF PARTICLE PHYSICS) -- Cathode rays -- X-rays -- Radioactivity -- The discovery of the electron -- The nature of the atom -- The nature of the nucleus -- Quantum mechanics: An intermission -- Beta radiation and the neutrino -- More forces -- Something to make your head spin -- Cosmic rays: Particles from the heavens -- The antimatter electron -- Who ordered that? -- Strange "V" particles -- Neutrinos get even more complicated.

3. QUARKS AND LEPTONS -- Quarks and mesons -- Quarks and baryons -- A colorful world -- First evidence for quarks -- Discovery of more quarks and leptons -- Discovery of the top quark -- Return of the leptons -- 4. FORCES: WHAT HOLDS IT ALL TOGETHER -- Gravity -- Electromagnetism -- The strong force -- The weak force -- Forces and Feynman Diagrams -- Feynman Diagrams and the strong force -- Jets: The subatomic shotgun -- Proton structure: The miniature lightning storm -- Feynman Diagrams and the weak force -- Discovery of the top quark.

5. HUNTING FOR THE HIGGS -- Mass, parity and infinities -- The Higgs solution -- Higgs by analogy I -- Higgs the way scientists think -- Higgs by analogy II -- Desperately seeking Higgs -- The current search story -- 6. ACCELERATORS AND DETECTORS: TOOLS OF THE TRADE -- A drive through Fermilab -- Not all accelerators are in cars -- Not all rings are for engagements -- The new kids on the Block -- Targets and beam types -- Enter antimatter -- Accelerators of the world -- Particle detectors: The world's biggest cameras -- Ionization and tracking -- Calorimeters: Measuring energy -- One detector: Many technologies -- Lifestyles of the rich and famous -- Water is for more than just drinking.

7. NEAR TERM MYSTERIES -- Mystery #1: Neutrinos from the Sun -- Oh where, oh where, have my neutrinos gone? -- Neutrinos from thin air -- Super-K finds the truth -- Why oscillations? -- Neutrino detectors, current status -- Mystery #2: Where's the antimatter? -- Sakharov's Three Conditions -- Charge, parity and all that -- The death of weak parity conservation -- Parity symmetry is dead! Long live CP! -- 8. EXOTIC PHYSICS (THE NEXT FRONTIER) -- Fiddling with the parameters -- If you knew SUSY -- Desperately seeking SUSY -- Large extra dimensions: Fact or fiction? -- Does Superman's cat play with superstrings?

9. RECREATING THE UNIVERSE 10,000,000 times a second -- The shape of the Universe -- The Dark Side of the Universe -- Where are the galaxies? -- The Big Whisper -- At three minutes -- Uniformity and inflation -- Back to the beginning -- 10. EPILOGUE: WHY DO WE DO IT? -- Appendix A: Greek symbols -- Appendix B: Scientific jargon -- Appendix C: Particle-naming rules -- Particle name -- Electric charge -- Form of matter -- Associated flavor -- Fundamental particles -- Non-fundamental particles (baryons and mesons) -- Appendix D: Essential relativity and quantum mechanics -- Appendix E: Higgs Boson production -- Further reading -- Glossary -- Index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 525-533) and index.

The Big Bang, the birth of the universe, was a singular event. All of the matter of the universe was concentrated at a single point, with temperatures so high that even the familiar protons and neutrons of atoms did not yet exist, but rather were replaced by a swirling maelstrom of energy, matter and antimatter. Exotic quarks and leptons flickered briefly into existence, before merging back into the energy sea.

This book explains the fascinating world of quarks and leptons and the forces that govern their behavior. Told from an experimental physicist's perspective, it forgoes mathematical complexity, using instead particularly accessible figures and apt analogies. In addition to the story of quarks and leptons, which are regarded as well-accepted fact, the author (who is a leading researcher at one of the world's highest energy particle physics laboratories) also discusses mysteries at both the experimental and theoretical frontiers, before tying it all together with the exciting field of cosmology and indeed the birth of the universe itself.

The text spans the tiny world of the quark to the depths of the universe with breathtaking clarity. The casual student of science will appreciate the careful distinction between what is known (quarks, leptons and antimatter), what is suspected (Higgs bosons, neutrino oscillations and the reason why the universe has so little antimatter) and what is merely dreamed (supersymmetry, superstrings and extra dimensions). Included is an unprecedented chapter explaining the accelerators and detectors of modern particle physics experiments. The chapter discussing the hunt for the Higgs boson--currently consuming the efforts of nearly 6000 physicists--reveals drama that only big-stakes science can give. Understanding the Universe leaves the reader with a deep appreciation of the fascinating particle realm and reverence for just how much it determines the rich beauty of our universe.

Since the release of the first edition, the landscape has changed. The venerable Fermilab Tevatron has ceased operations after a quarter century of extraordinary performance, to be replaced by the CERN Large Hadron Collider, an accelerator with a design energy of seven times greater than the Tevatron and a collision rate of nearly a billion collisions per second. The next few years promise to be very exciting as scientists explore this new realm. This revised edition of Understanding the Universe will leave the reader with a deep appreciation of just why physicists are so excited. --Publisher's description.

Print version record.

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