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HIGGS - The Invention and Discovery of the ‘God Particle’
The hunt for the Higgs particle has involved the biggest, most expensive experiment ever. So what is this particle called the Higgs boson? Why does it matter so much? What does this "God particle" tells us about the Universe? And was finding it really worth all the effort?
The short answer is yes, and there was much at stake: our basic model for the building blocks of the Universe, the Standard Model, would have been in tatters if there was no Higgs particle. The Higgs field had been proposed as the way in which particles gain mass - a fundamental property of matter. Little wonder the hunt and discovery have produced such intense media interest.
Here, Jim Baggott explains the science behind the discovery, looking at how the concept of a Higgs field was invented, how it is part of the Standard Model, and its implications on our understanding of all mass in the Universe.
The short answer is yes, and there was much at stake: our basic model for the building blocks of the Universe, the Standard Model, would have been in tatters if there was no Higgs particle. The Higgs field had been proposed as the way in which particles gain mass - a fundamental property of matter. Little wonder the hunt and discovery have produced such intense media interest.
Here, Jim Baggott explains the science behind the discovery, looking at how the concept of a Higgs field was invented, how it is part of the Standard Model, and its implications on our understanding of all mass in the Universe.
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2012
62 people are currently reading
1025 people want to read
About the author
Jim Baggott
24 books147 followersJim Baggott completed his doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Oxford and his postgraduate research at Stanford University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
April 27, 2021
“What is the world made of?”
A couple of weeks ago there was some talk about the so called muon anomaly, due to a discrepancy between the theoretical prediction and the experimental value of the muon’s magnetic moment. Physicists say that this could potentially break the Standard Model of particle physics, though it’s still to early to tell. I had been meaning to read a book about the discovery of the Higgs boson and the Standard Model for a while, so this felt like the right time to do it.
Most readers of science books have heard numerous times about the history of early twentieth-century quantum mechanics and its famous protagonists, but for some reason rarely do we hear of the great particle physicists that followed. Baggott does precisely this and provides a very interesting historical description of particle physics, particularly from the 1950s through to the 1970s, culminating in the formulation of the so called Standard Model. We get to know Sheldon Glashow, Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg, and many others, but we also learn about their theories and work.
The first half of the book focuses on the formulation of the Standard Model and is more related to theoretical physics, while the second half is more directed at the experiments attempting to discover or confirm new particles or theories. The only minor concern I had with this book is that I didn’t find it as interesting to read about the technical details involving particle colliders and accelerators, and I enjoyed much more reading about the underlying theoretical concepts.
Particle physics isn’t as accessible or as easy to describe as some other areas of physics, but I thought that Jim Baggott did a remarkable job at describing it. He managed to make something like symmetry groups, Yang-Mills quantum field theory, Weinberg and Salam’s formulation of the electro-weak theory, the Higgs mechanism, theories on the strong nuclear force, which involve quark charge and colour, gluons, W and Z bosons, among many other “foreign” terms, understandable from a popular point of view without recurring to mathematics. On the way, Baggott also makes sure that the history involving the various physicists is interesting.
A couple of weeks ago there was some talk about the so called muon anomaly, due to a discrepancy between the theoretical prediction and the experimental value of the muon’s magnetic moment. Physicists say that this could potentially break the Standard Model of particle physics, though it’s still to early to tell. I had been meaning to read a book about the discovery of the Higgs boson and the Standard Model for a while, so this felt like the right time to do it.
Most readers of science books have heard numerous times about the history of early twentieth-century quantum mechanics and its famous protagonists, but for some reason rarely do we hear of the great particle physicists that followed. Baggott does precisely this and provides a very interesting historical description of particle physics, particularly from the 1950s through to the 1970s, culminating in the formulation of the so called Standard Model. We get to know Sheldon Glashow, Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg, and many others, but we also learn about their theories and work.
The first half of the book focuses on the formulation of the Standard Model and is more related to theoretical physics, while the second half is more directed at the experiments attempting to discover or confirm new particles or theories. The only minor concern I had with this book is that I didn’t find it as interesting to read about the technical details involving particle colliders and accelerators, and I enjoyed much more reading about the underlying theoretical concepts.
Particle physics isn’t as accessible or as easy to describe as some other areas of physics, but I thought that Jim Baggott did a remarkable job at describing it. He managed to make something like symmetry groups, Yang-Mills quantum field theory, Weinberg and Salam’s formulation of the electro-weak theory, the Higgs mechanism, theories on the strong nuclear force, which involve quark charge and colour, gluons, W and Z bosons, among many other “foreign” terms, understandable from a popular point of view without recurring to mathematics. On the way, Baggott also makes sure that the history involving the various physicists is interesting.
February 12, 2014
I knew many individual pieces of the story of how the Higgs particle was discovered, but when I read this book I found that I didn't understand the overall picture nearly as well as I'd thought I did. Baggott does a very good job of tying it all together and showing you how a major scientific theory grows from a crazy idea you can't even get published into something that makes front-page news when it's empirically validated. He seems to know the science well - he's written a couple of other books on quantum mechanics - and he's clearly read a lot of background and talked to many of the people involved. There are some excellent anecdotes. The Manhattan project ran out of copper for the powerful electromagnets, and they had to borrow 15,000 tons of silver from the US Treasury; the standard metaphor for how the Higgs field works was the result of a challenge from then-Cabinet Minister William Waldegrave to describe it on one sheet of paper.
It's interesting to see that the plot becomes easier and easier to follow as it progresses; once they've got up to running the actual experiments and crunching the numbers, it all appears very clear, and he gives a convincing explanation of how it was possible to extract an unambiguous signal from such a huge amount of noise. (The raw data contained billions of interaction events; only a few dozen were relevant to demonstrating the existence of the Higgs). But going backwards towards the beginnings, it still seems mysterious to me. Three or four times, there is magic with representations of symmetry groups and renormalization, and somehow a new concept of the physical world emerges. I don't think it's Baggott's fault: I've seen several other people try to explain it in non-mathematical terms, and it doesn't seem to be possible.
The moral is painfully obvious. I need to read more real quantum mechanics.
It's interesting to see that the plot becomes easier and easier to follow as it progresses; once they've got up to running the actual experiments and crunching the numbers, it all appears very clear, and he gives a convincing explanation of how it was possible to extract an unambiguous signal from such a huge amount of noise. (The raw data contained billions of interaction events; only a few dozen were relevant to demonstrating the existence of the Higgs). But going backwards towards the beginnings, it still seems mysterious to me. Three or four times, there is magic with representations of symmetry groups and renormalization, and somehow a new concept of the physical world emerges. I don't think it's Baggott's fault: I've seen several other people try to explain it in non-mathematical terms, and it doesn't seem to be possible.
The moral is painfully obvious. I need to read more real quantum mechanics.
August 28, 2012
Whenever someone famous dies or there’s a major royal event you will see a book arrive in the shops with undue haste. It’s hard to imagine it wasn’t thrown together with minimum effort – and with equally minimal quality. So when I saw that Jim Baggott had produced a book on the Higgs boson all of five weeks after the likely detection was announced following several years work by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, it seemed likely that this too was a botched rush job. But the reality is very different.
In one sense it has to be a rushed job – the announcement was made on 4 July 2012 and the book was out by mid-August, featuring said announcement. So that bit of the book could hardly have had much time for careful editing, bearing in mind publishers usually take at least a couple of months from final versions of the text to having a physical book. (Much of the rest of the book was written well in advance.) But the remarkable trick that Baggott and OUP have pulled off is that the rush doesn’t show. This is an excellent book throughout.
The first, but probably not most important way it’s great is that it provides by far the best explanation of what the Higgs field is and how it is thought to work (and what the Higgs boson has to do with anything) I’ve seen – and that by a long margin. However, for me it’s not so much that, as the way it provides a superb introduction to the development of the standard model of particle physics, our current best guess of what everything’s made of. Again, this is the best I’ve ever read and yet it’s here just as a setting for the Higgs business. It is really well done, and the book deserves a wide readership for that alone, not to mention the way it puts the Higgs into context.
Is it perfect? Well, no. Like every other book I’ve read on the subject it falls down on making the linkage between the mathematics of symmetry and the particle physics comprehensible. That is immensely difficult to do, but ought to be possible. However, as long as you take some of the symmetry stuff on trust, the rest works superbly well.
Congratulations, then, to author and publisher alike. Both in its timing and its content this is a tour de force. Recommended.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission.
In one sense it has to be a rushed job – the announcement was made on 4 July 2012 and the book was out by mid-August, featuring said announcement. So that bit of the book could hardly have had much time for careful editing, bearing in mind publishers usually take at least a couple of months from final versions of the text to having a physical book. (Much of the rest of the book was written well in advance.) But the remarkable trick that Baggott and OUP have pulled off is that the rush doesn’t show. This is an excellent book throughout.
The first, but probably not most important way it’s great is that it provides by far the best explanation of what the Higgs field is and how it is thought to work (and what the Higgs boson has to do with anything) I’ve seen – and that by a long margin. However, for me it’s not so much that, as the way it provides a superb introduction to the development of the standard model of particle physics, our current best guess of what everything’s made of. Again, this is the best I’ve ever read and yet it’s here just as a setting for the Higgs business. It is really well done, and the book deserves a wide readership for that alone, not to mention the way it puts the Higgs into context.
Is it perfect? Well, no. Like every other book I’ve read on the subject it falls down on making the linkage between the mathematics of symmetry and the particle physics comprehensible. That is immensely difficult to do, but ought to be possible. However, as long as you take some of the symmetry stuff on trust, the rest works superbly well.
Congratulations, then, to author and publisher alike. Both in its timing and its content this is a tour de force. Recommended.
Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission.
January 9, 2019
Baggott locates the CERN experiments in the history of particle physics.
September 23, 2012
WARNING: My opinion of ‘Higgs: The Invention and Discovery of the ‘God Particle” by Jim Baggott is based on the Amazon sample of the book, which includes Prologue: 'Form and Substance', as well as on an executive summary I found @ newbooksinbrief.wordpress.com.
What I wanted from this book is a real explanation of what the Higgs field is and how the so-called 'massless particles' interact with it and acquire mass. In order to make up my mind whether to buy this book or not, I decided to 'taste' it first. I've just finished reading both the summary and Kindle book sample.
Both the sample and the summary of the book contain numerous physics concepts which I do not understand and it seems to me they are not well explained. Though I'm not a physicist, I've noticed lots of misleading things, logical fallacies and inconsistencies and my impression is that this book would fail to meet my expectations.
Among other things, the concepts of mass and energy are wrongly interpreted and misleadingly used throughout the book, which makes the explanation of the subject-matter highly confusing.
For instance, the first logical fallacy I came accross is Baggott's description of 'mass' in the very Prologue (loc. 227), which reads: "Mass, we now believe, is not an inherent property or 'primary' quality of the ultimate building blocks of nature. In fact, there is no such thing as mass. Mass is constructed entirely from the energy of interactions involving naturally massless elementary particles."
I can't help but wonder what the author wants to say with such description. A particle without mass does not exist. Besides, if there is no mass, there is no energy, i.e. capacity for performing any kind of interaction/work. If there's no such thing as mass, then I do not exist, and therefore I cannot buy and read the Baggott's book.
In Part I, Section 4 of the summary, entitled 'A New Understanding of Matter', I 'learn' that, as Baggott explains, 'the famous E=mc squared had it that mass is fully interchangeable with energy; and that therefore, mass is but another form of energy'.
This interpretation of Einsein's equation is totally wrong. The equation doesn't read E=m but E=mc squared, which makes a huge difference. In addition, if I have no mass (as Baggott's interpretation of the equation implies), how can I have energy, i.e. capacity to perform any work, including buying and reading this book?
And now comes the best. An explanation how the so-called 'massless particle' can acquire mass!
Quote from the summary:
'According to the theory, the Higgs field interacts with particles and slows them down in the process(loc. 1178). This makes it appear as though the particle has mass in itself, but truly it only acquires its mass through the nature of the interaction. The degree to which the Higgs field slows down any given particle (and therefore, the mass that that particle acquires) depends on the degree to which that particle interacts with the field.'
So, it appears that non-existant massless particles acquire mass because a charged field (the existence of which is to be confirmed by the Higgs bosone discovery) slows them down. What produces that charged field? Massless particles?! How can massless particles have energy to produce anything? These questions are giving me a headache and I don't like books which give me a headache.
Baggott further explains the process thus: "our instinct is to equate inertial mass with the amount of substance that the object possesses. The more 'stuff' it contains, the harder it is to accelerate. The Higgs mechanism turns this logic on its head. We now interpret the extent to which the particle's acceleration is resisted by the Higgs field as the particle's (inertial) mass. The concept of mass has vanished in a puff of logic. It has been replaced by interactions between otherwise massless particles and the Higgs field" (loc. 1189).
What logic does the Higgs mechanism turn on its head? What's 'a puff of logic' in which the concept of mass has vanished? Perhaps that 'puff of logic' is a sudden confession that the terms 'massless' and 'energy' are wrongly and misleadingly used throughout the book. My 'puff of logic' is telling me again not to buy this book.
On the other hand, it appears that this book contains a good historic review of attempts to discern a whole zoo of particles, some of which (bosons) are not considered as actual particles but carriers of force, and some of which (fermions) are considered as actual(matter)particles. For this reason I give this book 2 stars, which means: 'Ah, well, it's OK.'
To laypersons who want to read this book in spite of its faults, I highly, highly recommend first to read Felix Alba-Juez's book E=mc^2: The Most Famous Equation in History... and its Folklore (Relativity free of Folkore #1), at least.
Link: E=mc^2: The Most Famous Equation in History... and its Folklore
What I wanted from this book is a real explanation of what the Higgs field is and how the so-called 'massless particles' interact with it and acquire mass. In order to make up my mind whether to buy this book or not, I decided to 'taste' it first. I've just finished reading both the summary and Kindle book sample.
Both the sample and the summary of the book contain numerous physics concepts which I do not understand and it seems to me they are not well explained. Though I'm not a physicist, I've noticed lots of misleading things, logical fallacies and inconsistencies and my impression is that this book would fail to meet my expectations.
Among other things, the concepts of mass and energy are wrongly interpreted and misleadingly used throughout the book, which makes the explanation of the subject-matter highly confusing.
For instance, the first logical fallacy I came accross is Baggott's description of 'mass' in the very Prologue (loc. 227), which reads: "Mass, we now believe, is not an inherent property or 'primary' quality of the ultimate building blocks of nature. In fact, there is no such thing as mass. Mass is constructed entirely from the energy of interactions involving naturally massless elementary particles."
I can't help but wonder what the author wants to say with such description. A particle without mass does not exist. Besides, if there is no mass, there is no energy, i.e. capacity for performing any kind of interaction/work. If there's no such thing as mass, then I do not exist, and therefore I cannot buy and read the Baggott's book.
In Part I, Section 4 of the summary, entitled 'A New Understanding of Matter', I 'learn' that, as Baggott explains, 'the famous E=mc squared had it that mass is fully interchangeable with energy; and that therefore, mass is but another form of energy'.
This interpretation of Einsein's equation is totally wrong. The equation doesn't read E=m but E=mc squared, which makes a huge difference. In addition, if I have no mass (as Baggott's interpretation of the equation implies), how can I have energy, i.e. capacity to perform any work, including buying and reading this book?
And now comes the best. An explanation how the so-called 'massless particle' can acquire mass!
Quote from the summary:
'According to the theory, the Higgs field interacts with particles and slows them down in the process(loc. 1178). This makes it appear as though the particle has mass in itself, but truly it only acquires its mass through the nature of the interaction. The degree to which the Higgs field slows down any given particle (and therefore, the mass that that particle acquires) depends on the degree to which that particle interacts with the field.'
So, it appears that non-existant massless particles acquire mass because a charged field (the existence of which is to be confirmed by the Higgs bosone discovery) slows them down. What produces that charged field? Massless particles?! How can massless particles have energy to produce anything? These questions are giving me a headache and I don't like books which give me a headache.
Baggott further explains the process thus: "our instinct is to equate inertial mass with the amount of substance that the object possesses. The more 'stuff' it contains, the harder it is to accelerate. The Higgs mechanism turns this logic on its head. We now interpret the extent to which the particle's acceleration is resisted by the Higgs field as the particle's (inertial) mass. The concept of mass has vanished in a puff of logic. It has been replaced by interactions between otherwise massless particles and the Higgs field" (loc. 1189).
What logic does the Higgs mechanism turn on its head? What's 'a puff of logic' in which the concept of mass has vanished? Perhaps that 'puff of logic' is a sudden confession that the terms 'massless' and 'energy' are wrongly and misleadingly used throughout the book. My 'puff of logic' is telling me again not to buy this book.
On the other hand, it appears that this book contains a good historic review of attempts to discern a whole zoo of particles, some of which (bosons) are not considered as actual particles but carriers of force, and some of which (fermions) are considered as actual(matter)particles. For this reason I give this book 2 stars, which means: 'Ah, well, it's OK.'
To laypersons who want to read this book in spite of its faults, I highly, highly recommend first to read Felix Alba-Juez's book E=mc^2: The Most Famous Equation in History... and its Folklore (Relativity free of Folkore #1), at least.
Link: E=mc^2: The Most Famous Equation in History... and its Folklore
April 21, 2014
First few chapters were pleasant introduction into particle phyisics. There were nice stories about some fundamental discoveries realy comprehensive for general reader.
Later it turns to be just a LHC diary, hard to follow for a non-physicist like myself. The author talks about ups and downs in theories he brings without much explanation. Most of the book then becomes just daily news from the last few decades of CERN.
Later it turns to be just a LHC diary, hard to follow for a non-physicist like myself. The author talks about ups and downs in theories he brings without much explanation. Most of the book then becomes just daily news from the last few decades of CERN.
August 1, 2018
My brain hurts after thinking so much and so hard while reading this. Nevertheless I really enjoyed this book and almost cried at the end when they finally announced that it had been spotted.
December 4, 2022
Not the best attempt..
POSTED AT AMAZON 2012
..to present the history of Standard Model and explain its intricacies.
Stating it, I realize how the Standard Model of particles and interactions is hugely complex...all names of particles, symmetry violations and ways that symmetry is broken under numerous circumstances.
Therefore only gifted science writers and those who work (or worked) in the field of particle physics can provide the best shot at this subject. I would include here among others: Victor Stenger, Leon Lederman, Frank Wilczek, Richard Feynman, Helen Quinn (check them on Amazon).
Here is my brief impression after checking first 70 pages from Jim Baggott's book: (I doubt to read further):
Jim Baggot tries initially to explain symmetry on few pages and jumps instantly into Lie groups and gauge symmetries. This is bad. Then you read about 'subtracting one perturbation series from the other, thereby eliminating the infinite terms'. He explains further this 'renormalization procedure' by quoting after John Gribbin, that series 1+2+3+4+.. diverges into infinity. This is wrong (see Lawrence Krauss' "Hiding in the Mirror" where he explains plenty about symmetries and that infinite series do not look like they seem).
Text is flooded right from the beginning with many names and unnecessary facts about them (places where they studied for example). In short: it was hard to follow, reader will most likely get bogged down amidst all this.
Just because Higgs boson has been encountered recently, it does not warrant any need for reading "HIGGS". There are several older, better, and still perfectly valid books depicting history behind the Standard Model.
After reading Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe some time ago, I would love to see this book combined into one with The God Particle ) - Leon Lederman does fantastic job explaining what is symmetry, groups and gauge. Curious reader may also try to learn about concept of symmetry group by taking The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry .
POSTED AT AMAZON 2012
..to present the history of Standard Model and explain its intricacies.
Stating it, I realize how the Standard Model of particles and interactions is hugely complex...all names of particles, symmetry violations and ways that symmetry is broken under numerous circumstances.
Therefore only gifted science writers and those who work (or worked) in the field of particle physics can provide the best shot at this subject. I would include here among others: Victor Stenger, Leon Lederman, Frank Wilczek, Richard Feynman, Helen Quinn (check them on Amazon).
Here is my brief impression after checking first 70 pages from Jim Baggott's book: (I doubt to read further):
Jim Baggot tries initially to explain symmetry on few pages and jumps instantly into Lie groups and gauge symmetries. This is bad. Then you read about 'subtracting one perturbation series from the other, thereby eliminating the infinite terms'. He explains further this 'renormalization procedure' by quoting after John Gribbin, that series 1+2+3+4+.. diverges into infinity. This is wrong (see Lawrence Krauss' "Hiding in the Mirror" where he explains plenty about symmetries and that infinite series do not look like they seem).
Text is flooded right from the beginning with many names and unnecessary facts about them (places where they studied for example). In short: it was hard to follow, reader will most likely get bogged down amidst all this.
Just because Higgs boson has been encountered recently, it does not warrant any need for reading "HIGGS". There are several older, better, and still perfectly valid books depicting history behind the Standard Model.
After reading Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe some time ago, I would love to see this book combined into one with The God Particle ) - Leon Lederman does fantastic job explaining what is symmetry, groups and gauge. Curious reader may also try to learn about concept of symmetry group by taking The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry .
October 29, 2018
Fascynująca książka na temat cząstek, kwantów i ich odkryć. Opisuje również historię i wyboje, które towarzyszyły powstawaniu teorii, łącznie z modelem standardowym i unifikacją sił. Książka pisana przez fizyka, a nie dziennikarza więc posiada nietrywialne stwierdzenia poparte nieco technicznymi wywodami i definicjami. Bardzo dobrze i ciekawie opisany proces doswiadczalnego badania cząstek za pomocą akceleratorów w CERNie czy Fermilabie. Zdecydowanie polecam!
May 1, 2018
Quá nhiều kiến thức để có thể “nuốt” hết trong một lần . Bữa nào phải đọc lại mới được :)))
August 29, 2020
Very insightful read :)
July 1, 2022
Fascinerend maar een beke te ingewikkeld
October 13, 2022
Good book, but highly technical. You need to stay and read twice.
December 1, 2012
*A full executive summary of this book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/09/02...
Up until very recently, news out of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) regarding the progress of the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had been slow in coming, and nary a major discovery had been announced. On July 4th, though, all of that changed. As on that day CERN announced the discovery of nothing less than the Higgs boson, the 'God particle'.
The potential discovery of the Higgs boson had been one of the principal reasons why physicists were so excited about the LHC; and therefore, within the scientific community the announcement was cause for a major celebration indeed. For most of the general public, however, while the announcement was certainly intriguing, there were many basic questions yet to be answered: Just what was the Higgs boson, and why had it been labeled the God particle? Why were physicists expecting to find it, and what did the discovery really mean? Adequately answering these questions was more than what journalists were able to do in their compressed news segments and newspaper articles--and, besides this, it was a task that many journalists were not up to regardless.
Jim Baggott's new book 'Higgs: The Invention and Discovery of the 'God Particle'' is meant to remedy this situation and provide the necessary context that the general public needs in order to understand the discovery of the Higgs boson and what it all means.
With impressive clarity, Baggott first takes us through the history of the development of the Standard Model of particle physics (which theory the Higgs boson is a part). He begins with the discovery that atoms are made up of the still more elementary particles of electrons, protons and neutrons. And then takes us through the discovery of the still more fundamental particles of quarks, leptons and bosons, and the 4 fundamental forces that govern these particles: gravity, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force.
At every step of the way, Baggott is sure to explain what difficulties confronted the understanding of particle physics that was current at the time, what theoretical models were developed to overcome these difficulties, and the empirical evidence that was used to establish which theoretical model won the day. For instance, and of crucial importance here, is that--after learning of the 3 types of elementary particles, and the 4 basic forces--we learn that there was a problem with the then-current theory regarding the masses of the elementary particles--in that the 4 forces alone were simply unable to account for it. In order to overcome this difficulty, some physicists postulated that there must be a charged field pervading space, since such a field appeared to be the only appealing way to solve the mass mystery. This field was called the Higgs field.
The problem was that there was as yet no empirical evidence that the Higgs field actually exists. What physicists did think, though, was that if it did exist, it would imply the existence of a certain type of boson particle, dubbed the Higgs boson. What this meant is that if physicists could find the Higgs boson, they would have empirical evidence that the Higgs field does in fact exist, and the problem regarding the masses of elementary particles would be adequately solved. On July 4th, it was the discovery of this very particle that was announced, and Baggott takes us behind the scenes at the LHC to explain just what went into the discovery.
While the discovery of the Higgs boson solved one major problem with the Standard Model, there are a few others that have yet to be solved--including the hierarchy problem, and the problem of explaining gravity--and Baggott does touch on these issues as well.
Amazing science, wonderfully told. A full executive summary of the book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/09/02...
A podcast discussion of the book will be available soon.
Up until very recently, news out of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) regarding the progress of the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had been slow in coming, and nary a major discovery had been announced. On July 4th, though, all of that changed. As on that day CERN announced the discovery of nothing less than the Higgs boson, the 'God particle'.
The potential discovery of the Higgs boson had been one of the principal reasons why physicists were so excited about the LHC; and therefore, within the scientific community the announcement was cause for a major celebration indeed. For most of the general public, however, while the announcement was certainly intriguing, there were many basic questions yet to be answered: Just what was the Higgs boson, and why had it been labeled the God particle? Why were physicists expecting to find it, and what did the discovery really mean? Adequately answering these questions was more than what journalists were able to do in their compressed news segments and newspaper articles--and, besides this, it was a task that many journalists were not up to regardless.
Jim Baggott's new book 'Higgs: The Invention and Discovery of the 'God Particle'' is meant to remedy this situation and provide the necessary context that the general public needs in order to understand the discovery of the Higgs boson and what it all means.
With impressive clarity, Baggott first takes us through the history of the development of the Standard Model of particle physics (which theory the Higgs boson is a part). He begins with the discovery that atoms are made up of the still more elementary particles of electrons, protons and neutrons. And then takes us through the discovery of the still more fundamental particles of quarks, leptons and bosons, and the 4 fundamental forces that govern these particles: gravity, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force.
At every step of the way, Baggott is sure to explain what difficulties confronted the understanding of particle physics that was current at the time, what theoretical models were developed to overcome these difficulties, and the empirical evidence that was used to establish which theoretical model won the day. For instance, and of crucial importance here, is that--after learning of the 3 types of elementary particles, and the 4 basic forces--we learn that there was a problem with the then-current theory regarding the masses of the elementary particles--in that the 4 forces alone were simply unable to account for it. In order to overcome this difficulty, some physicists postulated that there must be a charged field pervading space, since such a field appeared to be the only appealing way to solve the mass mystery. This field was called the Higgs field.
The problem was that there was as yet no empirical evidence that the Higgs field actually exists. What physicists did think, though, was that if it did exist, it would imply the existence of a certain type of boson particle, dubbed the Higgs boson. What this meant is that if physicists could find the Higgs boson, they would have empirical evidence that the Higgs field does in fact exist, and the problem regarding the masses of elementary particles would be adequately solved. On July 4th, it was the discovery of this very particle that was announced, and Baggott takes us behind the scenes at the LHC to explain just what went into the discovery.
While the discovery of the Higgs boson solved one major problem with the Standard Model, there are a few others that have yet to be solved--including the hierarchy problem, and the problem of explaining gravity--and Baggott does touch on these issues as well.
Amazing science, wonderfully told. A full executive summary of the book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/09/02...
A podcast discussion of the book will be available soon.
January 19, 2013
Jim Baggott once wrote a lovely book about The Meaning of Quantum Theory (from Planck all the way to Bell) in which he said that you can't understand the physics without the philosophy. That was true of the early twentieth century and its physicist-philosophers (Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, Schrödinger) who laid the foundations of modern physics. In this blow by blow account of the standard model and the search for the Higgs, we see how the second half of the twentieth century saw the rise of a different kind of non-philosophical physicist, the brilliant "mechanics" who developed quantum theory into the most successful physical theory ever developed, crowned now by the discovery of the Higgs. I had questions that I suppose have not been answered yet, such as what happened to Einstein's famous principle of equivalence between gravitation and inertia. Inertia is due to the Higgs field and the force carrying boson, but gravitation awaits the discovery of a totally different hypothesized particle the graviton. So are they not the same after all? It sometimes seems that a search for all of these nuts and bolts in the erector set has replaced the elegant philosophical-scientific questionings of an Einstein or Heisenberg.
July 6, 2014
A good description how quantum physics evolved up till now.
The masses of the quarks are quite smalls, accounting for just one per cent of the mass of a proton or neutron. The other 99-precent is derived from the energy carried by the massless gluons, which flit between quarks and bind them together.
All the matter in the world might consist of quarks and leptons, but it owes its very substance to the energy gained through interactions with the Higgs field and the exchange of gluons. Without these interactions, matter would be as ephemeral and insubstantial as light itself, and nothing would be.
The masses of the quarks are quite smalls, accounting for just one per cent of the mass of a proton or neutron. The other 99-precent is derived from the energy carried by the massless gluons, which flit between quarks and bind them together.
All the matter in the world might consist of quarks and leptons, but it owes its very substance to the energy gained through interactions with the Higgs field and the exchange of gluons. Without these interactions, matter would be as ephemeral and insubstantial as light itself, and nothing would be.
October 13, 2016
Too brief for a history, and not good for learning any new physics. I'll stick to Abraham Pais' Inward Bound for now.
January 28, 2020
Probably too over complicated for regular reader. Because of complex group theory descriptions
June 24, 2024
PERHAPS NOT THE “GOD PARTICLE,” BUT AN INTERESTING HISTORY
Author Jim Baggott explained in the Preface to this 2012 book, “The Higgs boson is important in the Standard Model because it implies the existence of a Higgs Field, an otherwise invisible field of energy which pervades the entire universe. Without the Higgs field, the elementary particles that make up … the visible universe would have no mass. Without the Higgs field mass could not be constructed and nothing could be… This is one of the reasons why the Higgs boson, the particle of the Higgs field, has been hyped in the popular press as the ‘God particle.’ This is a name heartily despised by practicing scientists, as it overstates the importance of the particle and draws attention to the sometimes uneasy relationship between physics and theology. It is, however, a name much beloved by science journalists and popular science writers.”
He notes, “The discover of the Higgs mechanism in 1964 had shown how massless bosons of this kind could acquire mass… And now the carriers of the weak force had been found, precisely where they had been expected. The very existence of the W and Z particles with the predicted masses provided rather compelling evidence that the … electroweak theory was basically right. And if the theory was right, then interactions with an all-pervasive energy field (the Higgs field) were responsible for endowing the weak-force carriers with mass. And if the Higgs field exists, so too must the Higgs boson. But finding the Higgs boson was going to require an even bigger collider.” (Pg. 153)
He acknowledges, “[the] structure of Yang-Mills field theories that makes up the Standard Model is far from being a fully unified theory of particle forces. Lacking guidance from experiment, the theorists had no choice but to be guided by aesthetics, following their instincts in the search for theories that could transcend the Standard Model and explain the laws of nature at an even more fundamental level.” (Pg. 181)
At a seminar, “There could be little doubting that something very much like the Standard Model Higgs boson had been discovered and, to the layman, this was indeed ‘it.’ But the physicists had more exacting standards. They were now rather cagey about precisely what kind of discovery they had just announced and, under gentle prodding from journalists at a subsequent press conference, stuck to the conclusion that this new particle was CONSISTENT with the Higgs. They refused to be drawn on the question of whether or not this indeed was THE Higgs… In truth these results represent a critical milestone on another long journey. A new boson has been discovered that looks to all the world like a Higgs boson. But WHICH Higgs boson?... The only way to find out precisely what kind of particle has been discovered is to explore its properties and behavior in further experiments.” (Pg. 219) Later, he adds in a 2013 Afterword, “There could not be little doubt that this was indeed A Higgs boson. The question of whether or not this is THE Higgs boson remains unanswered, at least for the time being.
He summarizes, “the protons and neutrons in the nucleus are not, in fact, elementary particles. They are composed of fractionally charged quarks… The color force between quarks is carried by eight different kinds of force particle collectively called gluons… The strong nuclear force between protons and neutrons is merely a remnant, a ‘hangover’ of the color force between their constituent quarks… But the masses of the quarks are quite small, accounting for just one percent of the mass of a proton or neutron. The other 99 percent is derived from the energy carried by the massless gluons which fit between the quarks and bind them together. In the Standard model the concept of mass, as an intrinsic property or measure of an amount of substance, has gone. Mass is instead constructed entirely from the ENERGY of the interactions that occur between elementary quantum fields and their particles. The Higgs boson is part of the mechanism that explains how all the mass of all the particles in the universe is constructed. All the matter in the world might consist of quarks and leptons, but it owes its very substance to the energy gained through interactions with the Higgs field and the exchange of gluons. Without these interactions, matter would be as ephemeral an insubstantial as light itself, and nothing would be.” (Pg. 220-221)
This book will be of great interest to those wanting to know more about the research leading up to the discovery of this particle.
Author Jim Baggott explained in the Preface to this 2012 book, “The Higgs boson is important in the Standard Model because it implies the existence of a Higgs Field, an otherwise invisible field of energy which pervades the entire universe. Without the Higgs field, the elementary particles that make up … the visible universe would have no mass. Without the Higgs field mass could not be constructed and nothing could be… This is one of the reasons why the Higgs boson, the particle of the Higgs field, has been hyped in the popular press as the ‘God particle.’ This is a name heartily despised by practicing scientists, as it overstates the importance of the particle and draws attention to the sometimes uneasy relationship between physics and theology. It is, however, a name much beloved by science journalists and popular science writers.”
He notes, “The discover of the Higgs mechanism in 1964 had shown how massless bosons of this kind could acquire mass… And now the carriers of the weak force had been found, precisely where they had been expected. The very existence of the W and Z particles with the predicted masses provided rather compelling evidence that the … electroweak theory was basically right. And if the theory was right, then interactions with an all-pervasive energy field (the Higgs field) were responsible for endowing the weak-force carriers with mass. And if the Higgs field exists, so too must the Higgs boson. But finding the Higgs boson was going to require an even bigger collider.” (Pg. 153)
He acknowledges, “[the] structure of Yang-Mills field theories that makes up the Standard Model is far from being a fully unified theory of particle forces. Lacking guidance from experiment, the theorists had no choice but to be guided by aesthetics, following their instincts in the search for theories that could transcend the Standard Model and explain the laws of nature at an even more fundamental level.” (Pg. 181)
At a seminar, “There could be little doubting that something very much like the Standard Model Higgs boson had been discovered and, to the layman, this was indeed ‘it.’ But the physicists had more exacting standards. They were now rather cagey about precisely what kind of discovery they had just announced and, under gentle prodding from journalists at a subsequent press conference, stuck to the conclusion that this new particle was CONSISTENT with the Higgs. They refused to be drawn on the question of whether or not this indeed was THE Higgs… In truth these results represent a critical milestone on another long journey. A new boson has been discovered that looks to all the world like a Higgs boson. But WHICH Higgs boson?... The only way to find out precisely what kind of particle has been discovered is to explore its properties and behavior in further experiments.” (Pg. 219) Later, he adds in a 2013 Afterword, “There could not be little doubt that this was indeed A Higgs boson. The question of whether or not this is THE Higgs boson remains unanswered, at least for the time being.
He summarizes, “the protons and neutrons in the nucleus are not, in fact, elementary particles. They are composed of fractionally charged quarks… The color force between quarks is carried by eight different kinds of force particle collectively called gluons… The strong nuclear force between protons and neutrons is merely a remnant, a ‘hangover’ of the color force between their constituent quarks… But the masses of the quarks are quite small, accounting for just one percent of the mass of a proton or neutron. The other 99 percent is derived from the energy carried by the massless gluons which fit between the quarks and bind them together. In the Standard model the concept of mass, as an intrinsic property or measure of an amount of substance, has gone. Mass is instead constructed entirely from the ENERGY of the interactions that occur between elementary quantum fields and their particles. The Higgs boson is part of the mechanism that explains how all the mass of all the particles in the universe is constructed. All the matter in the world might consist of quarks and leptons, but it owes its very substance to the energy gained through interactions with the Higgs field and the exchange of gluons. Without these interactions, matter would be as ephemeral an insubstantial as light itself, and nothing would be.” (Pg. 220-221)
This book will be of great interest to those wanting to know more about the research leading up to the discovery of this particle.
May 24, 2025
Despite the title claiming the book is about Higgs - an the mechanism, field and finally boson named after him - the book is much more than that. Most of the book is a fascinating historical survey of the development of the standard model during the 20th century - from Emmy Noether's understanding in the beginning of the twentieth century that symmetry is the key to conserved quantities, through the development of quantum field theories for electrodynamics (i.e., QED) based on U(1) symmetry, the development of more advanced Yang-Mills symmetries, and then the gradual understanding of electro-weak unification with symmetry group SU(2)xU(1) and eventually the strong force's SU(3). And, of course the Higgs field. The book explains very well how these developments came gradually, including many false starts - e.g., theories invented to explain the strong force actually ended up explaining the weak force. The book also very nicely surveys the historical advancement during the 20th century in the experimental evidence for the standard model and its various particles, culminating in the discovery of the top quark at the end of the century, and how often wild symmetry-based theories predicted particles that will only be discovered later, and in one case the opposite - the muon was discovered when nobody was expected anything was missing (Rabi's famous "Who ordered that?" quip).
The book also does its name justice by explaining how the Higgs mechanism fits in the big picture, and why it is necessary to explain why the electromagnetic and weak forces are not the same things, and why leptons such as electrons have a mass (by the way, most of the mass of hadrons - protons and neutrons - come from a different mechanism).
The book ends with describing the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) that discovered in 2012 the Higgs boson and finally convinced everyone that the entire "house of cards" known as the standard model of particle physics can actually stand and one of its core foundations - the Higgs mechanism, isn't wrong. However, you should note that this part of the book is rather short, and there aren't a lot of details on how the LHC really works. Sean Carroll's book "The Particle at the End of the Universe" has a more detailed explanation of how the LHC and specifically its Higgs Boson experiments, work.
Finally, although I found this to be an enlightening and extremely interesting popular science book, it is too short (223 pages) and to lacking of technical details, formulas, etc., to fully explain the standard model, quantum field theory, the Higgs mechanism, Yang-Mills theory, Lee groups, etc. From this book you'll get an excellent introduction to what these things are about and how and why they were historically developed - I think this is a fantastic history-of-science book - but to get the full technical understanding, you'll need to refer to textbooks or to semi-professional sources (e.g., Leonard Suskind's excellent video series on the standard model). This is the only reason I "deducted" one star from my review - I wished the book was longer and had more details. Other than that, the book as excellent and a real joy to read - I finished it in just a few days.
The book also does its name justice by explaining how the Higgs mechanism fits in the big picture, and why it is necessary to explain why the electromagnetic and weak forces are not the same things, and why leptons such as electrons have a mass (by the way, most of the mass of hadrons - protons and neutrons - come from a different mechanism).
The book ends with describing the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) that discovered in 2012 the Higgs boson and finally convinced everyone that the entire "house of cards" known as the standard model of particle physics can actually stand and one of its core foundations - the Higgs mechanism, isn't wrong. However, you should note that this part of the book is rather short, and there aren't a lot of details on how the LHC really works. Sean Carroll's book "The Particle at the End of the Universe" has a more detailed explanation of how the LHC and specifically its Higgs Boson experiments, work.
Finally, although I found this to be an enlightening and extremely interesting popular science book, it is too short (223 pages) and to lacking of technical details, formulas, etc., to fully explain the standard model, quantum field theory, the Higgs mechanism, Yang-Mills theory, Lee groups, etc. From this book you'll get an excellent introduction to what these things are about and how and why they were historically developed - I think this is a fantastic history-of-science book - but to get the full technical understanding, you'll need to refer to textbooks or to semi-professional sources (e.g., Leonard Suskind's excellent video series on the standard model). This is the only reason I "deducted" one star from my review - I wished the book was longer and had more details. Other than that, the book as excellent and a real joy to read - I finished it in just a few days.
November 18, 2023
This was the first popular science book I was a bit over my head reading (or listening to). I don’t have any formal schooling on physics and it is a book on not only a complex field, that of particle/high energy physics, but also on cutting edge science, detailing what led to the theoretical prediction and then the discovery of the Higgs boson particle.
What is the Higgs boson? It is a fundamental particle whose existence was first proposed in 1964, named after one of the physicists involved, Peter Higgs, that is associated with the Higgs field. The Higgs field is the field that gives mass to other fundamental particles (such as electrons and quarks), this mass vital to understanding how much a particle resists changing either speed or position when encountering a force. Far from an esoteric thing in particle physics, this is a big deal, as the universe as we know it, certainly stars, planets, moons, and life itself, could not exist if particles had not gained mass from the Higgs field; basically, it is the mass-giving field. The existence of the particle/field also explains large differences shown to exist between the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force at the small end of the scale and at the large end of the scale has a lot of relevance to understanding the birth of the universe and its large-scale structure and its ultimate fate.
There is a lot of heady physics detailed in the book, such as deep inelastic scattering, inflationary cosmology, electroweak interaction, the Yang-Mills theory, and quantum chromodynamics, some of which I understood or at least learned more from the book, others I am still struggling to understand and have since looked up more about. I did need a more basic primer of some of the concepts in particle physics and I do think some understanding of the basics will help a reader get the most from the book. The bestiary of subatomic particles and their many properties was both fascinating to me and also at times quite perplexing.
There is some great and very accessible history, such as that of the personalities in the history of particle physics, the path that led to the prediction and forty years later the discovery of the Higgs boson, and I really liked the history of one failed project, the Superconducting Super Collider colliding beam particle accelerator in Texas, and one successful project, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the French-Swiss border, and their part in the history leading to the discovery of the Higgs boson.
The book was written throughout 2011 and 2012, author James Baggott anticipating the eventual discovery of the Higg boson, and thus when it was on announced on July 4, 2012, Baggott was able to finish writing on July 5. This has the advantage of very timely book that hadn’t just been thrown together, but it does have the disadvantage of not being able to include any thoughts and research since the announcement of the discovery as well as any confirmations.
It was a tough listen and a few times I thought about quitting, but I was buoyed along by sections I really enjoyed, such as on cosmology and the history of CERN. I am glad I stuck with it though.
What is the Higgs boson? It is a fundamental particle whose existence was first proposed in 1964, named after one of the physicists involved, Peter Higgs, that is associated with the Higgs field. The Higgs field is the field that gives mass to other fundamental particles (such as electrons and quarks), this mass vital to understanding how much a particle resists changing either speed or position when encountering a force. Far from an esoteric thing in particle physics, this is a big deal, as the universe as we know it, certainly stars, planets, moons, and life itself, could not exist if particles had not gained mass from the Higgs field; basically, it is the mass-giving field. The existence of the particle/field also explains large differences shown to exist between the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force at the small end of the scale and at the large end of the scale has a lot of relevance to understanding the birth of the universe and its large-scale structure and its ultimate fate.
There is a lot of heady physics detailed in the book, such as deep inelastic scattering, inflationary cosmology, electroweak interaction, the Yang-Mills theory, and quantum chromodynamics, some of which I understood or at least learned more from the book, others I am still struggling to understand and have since looked up more about. I did need a more basic primer of some of the concepts in particle physics and I do think some understanding of the basics will help a reader get the most from the book. The bestiary of subatomic particles and their many properties was both fascinating to me and also at times quite perplexing.
There is some great and very accessible history, such as that of the personalities in the history of particle physics, the path that led to the prediction and forty years later the discovery of the Higgs boson, and I really liked the history of one failed project, the Superconducting Super Collider colliding beam particle accelerator in Texas, and one successful project, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN on the French-Swiss border, and their part in the history leading to the discovery of the Higgs boson.
The book was written throughout 2011 and 2012, author James Baggott anticipating the eventual discovery of the Higg boson, and thus when it was on announced on July 4, 2012, Baggott was able to finish writing on July 5. This has the advantage of very timely book that hadn’t just been thrown together, but it does have the disadvantage of not being able to include any thoughts and research since the announcement of the discovery as well as any confirmations.
It was a tough listen and a few times I thought about quitting, but I was buoyed along by sections I really enjoyed, such as on cosmology and the history of CERN. I am glad I stuck with it though.
May 13, 2024
As I mentioned in my review of Oerter’s book on the Standard Model, I've read numerous books about the history of early twentieth-century quantum mechanics and its protagonists, but few on the particle physicists that followed. Baggott addresses this gap by providing a compelling historical narrative of particle physics, culminating in the formulation of the Standard Model. Through his writing, we become acquainted with figures like Sheldon Glashow, Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg, and many others, while also gaining insights into their theories and contributions.
The significance of the Higgs boson in the Standard Model lies in its implication of the existence of a Higgs field—an otherwise invisible field of energy permeating the universe. Without this field, the elementary particles comprising the visible universe would lack mass, rendering the construction of matter impossible.
Baggott's book sets out to answer the fundamental question: "What is the world made of?" It begins in the prologue, providing an overview of the state of physics circa 1930, alongside the development of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) and the recognition of two additional forces. It then delves into Noether's groundbreaking work on symmetries and their connection to the laws of conservation—a pivotal step in exploring the underlying world beneath our own, driven by an aesthetic pursuit of understanding.
The subsequent sections focus on the formulation of the Standard Model and delve deeper into theoretical physics, particularly the quest to explain the strong and weak nuclear forces. While Baggott's treatment is commendable, Oerter's work arguably provides a more comprehensive exploration in this regard.
A standout feature of the book is its detailed explanation of symmetry-breaking. This section elucidates how particles' interactions with the Higgs field manifest as resistance to acceleration, resulting in the acquisition of mass.
The latter half of the book centers on experiments aimed at discovering new particles to confirm theories, delving into technical intricacies involving particle colliders, accelerators, and the political dynamics behind the monetary needs.
Baggott's analysis shines when he emphasizes the concept that mass is not an inherent property but rather constructed from the energy of interactions involving naturally massless elementary particles.
He draws on Einstein's inquiry from 1905—“Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?"—affirming that mass is entirely derived from interactions between elementary quantum fields and their particles.
About 99 per cent of the mass of protons and neutrons is energy carried by the massless gluons that hold the quarks together.
'Mass, a seemingly irreducible property of matter, and a byword for its resistance to change and sluggishness,' wrote Wilczek, 'turns out to reflect a harmonious interplay of symmetry, uncertainty, and energy.
The Discovery of the Higgs boson confirms some of the stranger things of the Standard Model, including part of the mechanism that explains how all the mass of all the particles in the universe is constructed.
The significance of the Higgs boson in the Standard Model lies in its implication of the existence of a Higgs field—an otherwise invisible field of energy permeating the universe. Without this field, the elementary particles comprising the visible universe would lack mass, rendering the construction of matter impossible.
Baggott's book sets out to answer the fundamental question: "What is the world made of?" It begins in the prologue, providing an overview of the state of physics circa 1930, alongside the development of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) and the recognition of two additional forces. It then delves into Noether's groundbreaking work on symmetries and their connection to the laws of conservation—a pivotal step in exploring the underlying world beneath our own, driven by an aesthetic pursuit of understanding.
The subsequent sections focus on the formulation of the Standard Model and delve deeper into theoretical physics, particularly the quest to explain the strong and weak nuclear forces. While Baggott's treatment is commendable, Oerter's work arguably provides a more comprehensive exploration in this regard.
A standout feature of the book is its detailed explanation of symmetry-breaking. This section elucidates how particles' interactions with the Higgs field manifest as resistance to acceleration, resulting in the acquisition of mass.
The latter half of the book centers on experiments aimed at discovering new particles to confirm theories, delving into technical intricacies involving particle colliders, accelerators, and the political dynamics behind the monetary needs.
Baggott's analysis shines when he emphasizes the concept that mass is not an inherent property but rather constructed from the energy of interactions involving naturally massless elementary particles.
He draws on Einstein's inquiry from 1905—“Does the inertia of a body depend on its energy content?"—affirming that mass is entirely derived from interactions between elementary quantum fields and their particles.
About 99 per cent of the mass of protons and neutrons is energy carried by the massless gluons that hold the quarks together.
'Mass, a seemingly irreducible property of matter, and a byword for its resistance to change and sluggishness,' wrote Wilczek, 'turns out to reflect a harmonious interplay of symmetry, uncertainty, and energy.
The Discovery of the Higgs boson confirms some of the stranger things of the Standard Model, including part of the mechanism that explains how all the mass of all the particles in the universe is constructed.
December 20, 2022
There was a page or two related to the Higgs field. The rest of it is largely a story of the development of the standard model, and its supposed completion with the "discovery" of the higgs boson. Personally, I find much of the standard model to be just arbitrary addition of invented and unperceivable entities, requiring ever more expensive colliders, making it ever more likely they will find what they are looking for, little blips in the data, because there is simply too much money riding on the discovery for them to accept failure.
This book starts critical of aspects of it, but as it moves along sneakily becomes more and more a shill for the standard model, which surprises me given his book called Farewell to Reality, which I hear is supposed to acknowledge some difficulties with the standard model approach of mainstream physics. Or perhaps his ire is more directed at String theory? Regardless, and either way, the only interesting concept is the higgs field as a different way of understanding mass, and this, as I say, is only touched on for a page or two.
I don't think it can do the work required of it, and is the higgs field different from the zero point field? We have so many convoluted attempts to find some sort of atomism at the end of the line, for the materialist view of the world to be happy. But the fact is the more you look into reality, the more immaterial it becomes. A lot of hubris gets attached to big science, and the gall of referring to a tiny blip in data barely, and not consistently distinguishable from mere noise in the data, as the "god particle" that solves everything really takes the biscuit.
What we learn from the Higgs field concept is how subtle and immaterial reality gets as we investigate it more closely. What we learn from the "god particle" is how popular science continues to cling to a materialist ideology and take on the role of a fallen religious idol in order to mislead people, give a false sense of security and over simplify reality.
This book starts critical of aspects of it, but as it moves along sneakily becomes more and more a shill for the standard model, which surprises me given his book called Farewell to Reality, which I hear is supposed to acknowledge some difficulties with the standard model approach of mainstream physics. Or perhaps his ire is more directed at String theory? Regardless, and either way, the only interesting concept is the higgs field as a different way of understanding mass, and this, as I say, is only touched on for a page or two.
I don't think it can do the work required of it, and is the higgs field different from the zero point field? We have so many convoluted attempts to find some sort of atomism at the end of the line, for the materialist view of the world to be happy. But the fact is the more you look into reality, the more immaterial it becomes. A lot of hubris gets attached to big science, and the gall of referring to a tiny blip in data barely, and not consistently distinguishable from mere noise in the data, as the "god particle" that solves everything really takes the biscuit.
What we learn from the Higgs field concept is how subtle and immaterial reality gets as we investigate it more closely. What we learn from the "god particle" is how popular science continues to cling to a materialist ideology and take on the role of a fallen religious idol in order to mislead people, give a false sense of security and over simplify reality.
September 16, 2025
Higgs – The Invention and Discovery of the ‘God Particle’ recounts the Higgs boson’s journey from a theoretical solution to the problem of mass in electroweak theory to its experimental confirmation nearly fifty years later. It situates the Higgs within the Standard Model’s framework of quarks, leptons, and gauge bosons, explaining how the Higgs field gives mass to W and Z bosons and indirectly to quarks and leptons, enabling stable matter. The book traces the rise of quantum field theory and gauge symmetry and outlines the independent contributions of Brout, Englert, Higgs, Guralnik, Hagen, and Kibble that became foundational to the Standard Model.
It follows the evolution of experimental physics from bubble chambers and early colliders to the cancelled U.S. Superconducting Super Collider and the eventual construction of the Large Hadron Collider. It describes the LHC’s superconducting magnets, ATLAS and CMS detectors, data acquisition systems, and the statistical thresholds required to claim discovery. It examines the massive scale of international collaboration, the decades-long funding and construction timelines, and the challenges of coordinating thousands of scientists on a single project.
Of course, the book also covers the discovery of the Higgs boson itself, which became popularly known as the “God Particle” after Leon Lederman used the term in his book to draw public interest. It explains how this nickname, though disliked by many physicists for overstating the particle’s role, helped bring unprecedented public attention to the field. The text discusses the 2012 announcement, the absence of predicted supersymmetric particles, the implications for dark matter, and how the discovery reshaped expectations for physics beyond the Standard Model.
It follows the evolution of experimental physics from bubble chambers and early colliders to the cancelled U.S. Superconducting Super Collider and the eventual construction of the Large Hadron Collider. It describes the LHC’s superconducting magnets, ATLAS and CMS detectors, data acquisition systems, and the statistical thresholds required to claim discovery. It examines the massive scale of international collaboration, the decades-long funding and construction timelines, and the challenges of coordinating thousands of scientists on a single project.
Of course, the book also covers the discovery of the Higgs boson itself, which became popularly known as the “God Particle” after Leon Lederman used the term in his book to draw public interest. It explains how this nickname, though disliked by many physicists for overstating the particle’s role, helped bring unprecedented public attention to the field. The text discusses the 2012 announcement, the absence of predicted supersymmetric particles, the implications for dark matter, and how the discovery reshaped expectations for physics beyond the Standard Model.
April 14, 2021
Întrebări simple ca aceasta au frământat minţile oamenilor de când omenirea a ajuns la gândirea raţională. Desigur, felul în care punem azi această întrebare e mult mai detaliat şi mai complicat, iar răspunsurile au devenit mult mai complexe şi mai profunde. Dar nu încape îndoială că, în esenţă, întrebarea rămâne una foarte simplă.
Acum două mii cinci sute de ani, filozofii Greciei antice erau călăuziţi doar de ideea de frumos şi armonie în natură şi de forţa raţionamentului logic şi a imaginaţiei, aplicate lucrurilor pe care le puteau percepe doar cu simţurile. Privind în urmă, e de-a dreptul extraordinar cât de multe au putut înţelege.
Grecii făceau distincţia dintre formă şi substanţă. Lumea e alcătuită dintr-o substanţă materială care poate lua o diversitate de forme. Filozoful Empedocle, care a trăit în Sicilia în secolul V î.Cr., credea că această diversitate putea fi redusă la patru forme fundamentale, pe care le numim astăzi „elementele clasice“. Acestea erau pământul, aerul, focul şi apa. Elementele erau considerate eterne şi indestructibile, se puteau uni în combinaţii prin forţa de atracţie a Iubirii şi se puteau despărţi
prin forţa de respingere a Dezbinării, pentru a alcătui tot ce există în lume.
Acum două mii cinci sute de ani, filozofii Greciei antice erau călăuziţi doar de ideea de frumos şi armonie în natură şi de forţa raţionamentului logic şi a imaginaţiei, aplicate lucrurilor pe care le puteau percepe doar cu simţurile. Privind în urmă, e de-a dreptul extraordinar cât de multe au putut înţelege.
Grecii făceau distincţia dintre formă şi substanţă. Lumea e alcătuită dintr-o substanţă materială care poate lua o diversitate de forme. Filozoful Empedocle, care a trăit în Sicilia în secolul V î.Cr., credea că această diversitate putea fi redusă la patru forme fundamentale, pe care le numim astăzi „elementele clasice“. Acestea erau pământul, aerul, focul şi apa. Elementele erau considerate eterne şi indestructibile, se puteau uni în combinaţii prin forţa de atracţie a Iubirii şi se puteau despărţi
prin forţa de respingere a Dezbinării, pentru a alcătui tot ce există în lume.
October 22, 2023
Great recounting of the history on the theoretical and experimental climbing that culminated in the discovery of the Higgs. The first portion, focusing on the theoretical aspect, was fairly challenging for me since particle physics hasn't been something I've learned about in a while. I do think some foundations in the standard model is a healthy prerequisite to fully appreciating the book, but probably not necessary. The second portion was exciting, especially since I haven't had much experience with the experimental side of particle physics. Learning about the "race" to particle discoveries and building bigger particle colliders and cyclotrons, while also advancing techniques to unlocking higher energy collisions, was a very fun endeavor.
August 31, 2021
Jim Baggott is an excellent writer and always talks about the most interesting subjects. Finding the Higgs boson is likely to be one of, if not the greatest scientific discover in the early 21st century. His book covers pre-higgs theory, the things that lead to the theory, all the way up to the year it was finally found.
He wrote the book (not sure when he started) before the higgs was found, but the writing is as if it had already happened. More fascinating and impressive is that he wrote as if it WOULD be found and just how it was.
Can’t wait to pick up another Baggott book soon.
He wrote the book (not sure when he started) before the higgs was found, but the writing is as if it had already happened. More fascinating and impressive is that he wrote as if it WOULD be found and just how it was.
Can’t wait to pick up another Baggott book soon.
February 9, 2025
L'argomento è entusiasmante, anche perché non conoscevo la maggior parte della storia delle fisica delle particelle degli ultimi decenni. Il libro è inevitabilmente sintetico, a volte pure troppo: la trattazione è talmente veloce che la mia comprensione è stata più superficiale di quanto mi aspettassi. L'ho notato soprattutto sugli argomenti più fondativi, come il ruolo delle simmetrie nella scoperta delle teorie di campo quantistiche.
Quindi una bella lettura, ma credo che presto non mi ricorderò quasi nulla.
Quindi una bella lettura, ma credo che presto non mi ricorderò quasi nulla.
February 24, 2020
When I started reading the book, I thought it was too descriptive, in that it delved too deep into practically unknown history of sub-atomic particles. But by the time I had reached the third chapter, I knew this book told the most captivating story I've read in this year so far! And it took me only a few more nights to savor the entirety of the book!
An intriguing note about how this book was written made me even more invested in it. The book was published right after Higgs Boson was confirmed experimentally by CERN, but the writing itself was happening for many years, the author just being waiting for the actual discovery to publish it. Apparently, [sic] "the author Jim Baggott's idea was to start writing the book, get about 95% done, and then, when the discovery was announced, he would be able to finish the last 5% and the book would be on the shelves very soon after the announcement.Throughout 2011 and 2012 he kept updating the book, leaving the last 1,500 words unsaid. He watched CERN's live webcast announce the discovery of the boson on 4 July and finished writing the book the next day."
I found that fascinating both from the business standpoint and from the angle of Science story-telling.
Coming to the book itself, it traces the history and associated riveting stories of ups-and-downs in the evolution of Standard model of sub-atomic particles, all of which finally culminate in the experimental discovery of Higgs Boson. I liked how the author has divided the book into two parts - 'invention' and 'discovery', to highlight the theoretical prediction and experimental confirmation parts of it.
The book is way too technical (no equations and formulae though) but still reads like a novella than a textbook, and writing one such is an art. Brimming with curious facts about genius particle physicists, and even their struggle in pursuing the smallest of small particles, the book had so many underline-able sections. Facts like women's bodies actually become more symmetrical in the 24 hours prior to ovulation as a natural consequence of nature and our perception of beauty loving symmetry; the "Oh-My-God" particle, which is probably the particle equivalent of the "Wow Signal"; the funny story of Veltman jumping in the elevator and pressing the button immediately so that the elevator is under the weight-limit; are just a few things that make the book a joyous ride for the curious reader.
I did feel like some of the really interesting and important things have been mentioned under '*'s at the bottom of the page, but that doesn't take away any credit from the ideas presented in the crux of the book.
If you're interested in things like particle accelerators, quarks, SuperSymmetry etc, it's likely that you'd read it twice if you happen to pick up this book.
An intriguing note about how this book was written made me even more invested in it. The book was published right after Higgs Boson was confirmed experimentally by CERN, but the writing itself was happening for many years, the author just being waiting for the actual discovery to publish it. Apparently, [sic] "the author Jim Baggott's idea was to start writing the book, get about 95% done, and then, when the discovery was announced, he would be able to finish the last 5% and the book would be on the shelves very soon after the announcement.Throughout 2011 and 2012 he kept updating the book, leaving the last 1,500 words unsaid. He watched CERN's live webcast announce the discovery of the boson on 4 July and finished writing the book the next day."
I found that fascinating both from the business standpoint and from the angle of Science story-telling.
Coming to the book itself, it traces the history and associated riveting stories of ups-and-downs in the evolution of Standard model of sub-atomic particles, all of which finally culminate in the experimental discovery of Higgs Boson. I liked how the author has divided the book into two parts - 'invention' and 'discovery', to highlight the theoretical prediction and experimental confirmation parts of it.
The book is way too technical (no equations and formulae though) but still reads like a novella than a textbook, and writing one such is an art. Brimming with curious facts about genius particle physicists, and even their struggle in pursuing the smallest of small particles, the book had so many underline-able sections. Facts like women's bodies actually become more symmetrical in the 24 hours prior to ovulation as a natural consequence of nature and our perception of beauty loving symmetry; the "Oh-My-God" particle, which is probably the particle equivalent of the "Wow Signal"; the funny story of Veltman jumping in the elevator and pressing the button immediately so that the elevator is under the weight-limit; are just a few things that make the book a joyous ride for the curious reader.
I did feel like some of the really interesting and important things have been mentioned under '*'s at the bottom of the page, but that doesn't take away any credit from the ideas presented in the crux of the book.
If you're interested in things like particle accelerators, quarks, SuperSymmetry etc, it's likely that you'd read it twice if you happen to pick up this book.
March 20, 2020
The author does a good job at mixing history and anecdotes with more in depth explanations of particles physics, but you have to be aware of the challenges that this topic poses unless you're a physician yourself. I'd not recommend it to total strangers to the field but if you studied some physics and you're curious about this particular subfield, go ahead and read it even if you will not fully understand every part of it.
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