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The Particle Explosion
"Take a deep breath! You have just inhaled oxygen atoms that have already been breathed by every person who ever lived. At some time or another your body has contained atoms that were once part of Moses or Isaac Newton." So begins this spectacular illustrated tour of the subatomic world,
the science of particle physics and its attempts to understand the very nature of matter and energy.
The Particle Explosion is the first book to describe to the general reader how the study of basic particles by scientists over the last hundred years has led us closer to an understanding of the origins of the Universe. Particle physicists are attempting to answer such questions How did the
Universe begin? Why does it have the form it does? Will it continue expanding forever or will it eventually begin to contract?
With over 300 illustrations, the book brings together many fascinating historical pictures of leading scientists in the field and the actual images in which the particles were first identified. There are photographs of the increasingly vast and complex equipment they use (bubble chambers,
accelerators and modern electronic detectors) as well as some of the most striking images of particle tracks that they have recorded.
This journey to the heart of matter opens with an introduction to the basic particles (the subatomic "zoo" that includes quarks, electrons, leptons, 'strange' particles and 'charmed' particles) and of the methods used to create and investigate them. The even-numbered chapters tell the story of
their discovery, from the first experiments with X-rays and the elucidation of the nature of the atom, to the great machines that today smash particles together at enormous energies and the underground caverns where physicists are seeking confirmation of a Grand Unified Theory. The odd-numbered
chapters describe the major particles in more detail. The book ends with an explanation of how some of the particles have been put to work in the service of medicine, industry, and even the detection of art forgeries!
the science of particle physics and its attempts to understand the very nature of matter and energy.
The Particle Explosion is the first book to describe to the general reader how the study of basic particles by scientists over the last hundred years has led us closer to an understanding of the origins of the Universe. Particle physicists are attempting to answer such questions How did the
Universe begin? Why does it have the form it does? Will it continue expanding forever or will it eventually begin to contract?
With over 300 illustrations, the book brings together many fascinating historical pictures of leading scientists in the field and the actual images in which the particles were first identified. There are photographs of the increasingly vast and complex equipment they use (bubble chambers,
accelerators and modern electronic detectors) as well as some of the most striking images of particle tracks that they have recorded.
This journey to the heart of matter opens with an introduction to the basic particles (the subatomic "zoo" that includes quarks, electrons, leptons, 'strange' particles and 'charmed' particles) and of the methods used to create and investigate them. The even-numbered chapters tell the story of
their discovery, from the first experiments with X-rays and the elucidation of the nature of the atom, to the great machines that today smash particles together at enormous energies and the underground caverns where physicists are seeking confirmation of a Grand Unified Theory. The odd-numbered
chapters describe the major particles in more detail. The book ends with an explanation of how some of the particles have been put to work in the service of medicine, industry, and even the detection of art forgeries!
- GenresPhysics
240 pages, Hardcover
First published April 9, 1987
2 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Frank Close
50 books190 followersFrancis Edwin Close (Arabic: فرانك كلوس)
In addition to his scientific research, he is known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience.
From Oxford he went to Stanford University in California for two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1973 he went to the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and then to CERN in Switzerland from 1973–5. He joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire in 1975 as a research physicist and was latterly Head of Theoretical Physics Division from 1991. He headed the communication and public education activities at CERN from 1997 to 2000. From 2001, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham from 1996–2002.
Close lists his recreations as writing, singing, travel, squash and Real tennis, and he is a member of Harwell Squash Club.
In addition to his scientific research, he is known for his lectures and writings making science intelligible to a wider audience.
From Oxford he went to Stanford University in California for two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow on the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1973 he went to the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire and then to CERN in Switzerland from 1973–5. He joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire in 1975 as a research physicist and was latterly Head of Theoretical Physics Division from 1991. He headed the communication and public education activities at CERN from 1997 to 2000. From 2001, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Oxford. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham from 1996–2002.
Close lists his recreations as writing, singing, travel, squash and Real tennis, and he is a member of Harwell Squash Club.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 1, 2008
Although somewhat out of date, this is easy for a layperson to read and explains particle physics which is fascinating.
June 24, 2024
A SUMMARY OF THE “FUNDAMENTAL” COMPONENTS OF THE COSMOS
The authors wrote in the first chapter of this 1987 book, “If atoms could speak, what a tale they would tell… But whatever their various histories may be, one thing is certain. Most of their basic constituents, the fundamental particles---the electrons and quarks---have existed since the primordial Big Bang at the start of time. In recent years, physicists have learned to make these particles in the laboratory, and by studying them, they hope to learn about the origin of the Universe. In this introductory chapter we present an overview of these founder members of the cosmos, and of the methods used to create and investigate them. Later chapters tell in detail the story of how they came to be discovered, and provide ‘portraits’ of all the important and better-known particles.” (Pg. 7)
They explain, “The idea that the Universe consists of three types of elementary particles, which are governed by four fundamental forces, is backed up by a considerable body of experimental evidence. But it would be quite wrong to suggest that this is the end of the story. On the contrary, there remain major mysteries… It is in search of answers to these questions that particle theorists have for several years been engaged in the search for ‘unification.’ The classic example of unification is Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism, which explained the apparently diverse phenomena of electricity and magnetism as due to a single force. In the late 1960s, electromagnetism and the weak force were unified in a similar way in the ‘electroweak’ theory… electroweak theory predicted the existence of the Z particle … The discovery of the Z in 1983 … encouraged theorists in their efforts to develop a grand unified theory that would unify the electromagnetic and weak forces with the strong force. Such grand unified theories, or GUTs, predict that the strong force… and the weak force… spring from the same basic force… The search for this major proof of GUTs is currently underway.” (Pg. 10)
They note, “Imaging has always played an important role in particle physics. In earlier days, much of the data was actually recorded in photographic form---in pictures of tracks through cloud chambers and bubble chambers, or even directly in the emulsion of special photographic film… the essential clue to understanding the images of particle physics is that they show the TRACKS of the particles, not the particles themselves. What a pion, for instance, really looks like remains a mystery, but its passage through a substance… can be recorded.” (Pg. 15)
They point out, “Another consequence of the neutron’s penetrating powers is its ability to split a uranium-235 nucleus into two fragments, releasing nuclear energy and two or three additional neutrons in the process. These neutrons can in their turn split further nuclei of uranium -235, releasing more energy and more neutrons. In a sufficiently large lump of uranium-235, a chain reaction will occur in which the multiplying neutrons cause the fission of every more nuclei, leading to an explosive release of energy. This is how the atom bomb works.” (Pg. 63)
They state, “For each and every variety of matter there should exist a corresponding ‘anti-matter’---opposite in properties such as electric charge and strangeness, but with identical mass… Today, we will have no firm evidence that large-scale clumps of antimatter… exist anywhere in our Universe. But physicists can readily make antiprotons, antineutrons, and other antiparticles in high-energy collisions at accelerators, and they can manipulate them to probe the mysteries of the subatomic world. Yet it was more than 20 years after Anderson’s discovery of the positron that experiments proved the existence of the antiproton, and several more years before physicists could feel for certain that for every particle of matter there exists an appropriate antiparticle.” (Pg. 134)
They say, “The most powerful force we know of in the Universe---the strong force---binds together the quarks from which protons and neutrons and all the other hadrons are made. The inter-quark force is so strong that it is apparently impossible to prise a single ‘naked’ quark out of a gluon. It is as if quarks are stuck together by a kind of superglue. Elucidating the nature of this glue was one of the major achievements of particular physics in the 1970s.” (Pg. 189)
They comment, “A successful GUT must explain another mysterious characteristic of the birth of our Universe. The energy of the Big Bang created protons slightly more readily than antiprotons, and thus asymmetry led to a Universe that consists of matter rather than antimatter. Yet in their ‘low’-energy experiments at accelerators, physicists always create matter and antimatter in equal amounts. The GUTs suggest that stable manifestations of the original matter-antimatter asymmetry should still be around. In particular… the price we pay for the excess of protons is that they are ultimately unstable. Matter as we know it should be eroding slowly away---a reversal of the process that created protons slightly more readily at the start of the Universe. As GUTs have inspired particle physicists to take an interest in the early Universe, so have astrophysicists become aware of particles in the Universe at large. A growing symbiosis has developed between the two branches of physics. Cosmologists developing theories of how galaxies form and how the Universe evolved look to particle physics for ideas of how matter behaves. Measurements made by astronomers can in turn impose constraints on theories such as the GUTs.” (Pg. 200)
They suggest, The GUTs describe only the strong and electroweak forces, but a valid ‘theory of everything’ (or TOE) must also incorporate gravity. Many theorists are therefore putting considerable effort into working out just what kind of theory can accommodate gravity. This is the cutting edge of theoretical research, and it thrives on a number of new ideas with exotic names such as supergravity and superstrings. These ideas are still very much unproven; it is too soon to know if any of them mirror the natural law of the Universe, or whether they will all end up on the large heap of abandoned scientific theories. Some of the first exciting hints acme with ah suggestion of a new kind of symmetry---supersymmetry, or SUSY. The GUTs imply that there are basically two families of particle---particles of matter (quarks and leptons) and force-carrying particles (the gauge bosons). Supersymmetry, on the other hand, links all these particles within one ‘superfamily.’ But it does to at the expanse of predicting many new particles…” (Pg. 214)
They ask, “could there be further dimensions subtly intertwined with the familiar ones so that our senses do not perceive them?... More recently there has emerged the possibility of constructing a theory that contains all these bizarre ideas and more. There is the promise of a unique theory in which the Universe began with 10 dimensions, of which only four expanded to form what we now call space and time. In this theory, particles arise naturally out of the basic mathematical structure not as point-like objects, but as entities that are extended in space… These extended particles are referred to as ‘strings.’ Supersymmetry is one of the ingredients of the theory, which has therefore become known as the theory of ‘superstrings.’ Physicists are excited about the theory’s potential because it describes all four fundamental forces, including gravity, in a natural way, without forced juggling of the mathematics. It thus promises to provide the long-sought
marriage of gravity and quantum theory---essential to any TOE.” (Pg. 215)
This is an excellent, and well-illustrated book that provides a very helpful introduction to the modern world of subatomic particles and their implications.
The authors wrote in the first chapter of this 1987 book, “If atoms could speak, what a tale they would tell… But whatever their various histories may be, one thing is certain. Most of their basic constituents, the fundamental particles---the electrons and quarks---have existed since the primordial Big Bang at the start of time. In recent years, physicists have learned to make these particles in the laboratory, and by studying them, they hope to learn about the origin of the Universe. In this introductory chapter we present an overview of these founder members of the cosmos, and of the methods used to create and investigate them. Later chapters tell in detail the story of how they came to be discovered, and provide ‘portraits’ of all the important and better-known particles.” (Pg. 7)
They explain, “The idea that the Universe consists of three types of elementary particles, which are governed by four fundamental forces, is backed up by a considerable body of experimental evidence. But it would be quite wrong to suggest that this is the end of the story. On the contrary, there remain major mysteries… It is in search of answers to these questions that particle theorists have for several years been engaged in the search for ‘unification.’ The classic example of unification is Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism, which explained the apparently diverse phenomena of electricity and magnetism as due to a single force. In the late 1960s, electromagnetism and the weak force were unified in a similar way in the ‘electroweak’ theory… electroweak theory predicted the existence of the Z particle … The discovery of the Z in 1983 … encouraged theorists in their efforts to develop a grand unified theory that would unify the electromagnetic and weak forces with the strong force. Such grand unified theories, or GUTs, predict that the strong force… and the weak force… spring from the same basic force… The search for this major proof of GUTs is currently underway.” (Pg. 10)
They note, “Imaging has always played an important role in particle physics. In earlier days, much of the data was actually recorded in photographic form---in pictures of tracks through cloud chambers and bubble chambers, or even directly in the emulsion of special photographic film… the essential clue to understanding the images of particle physics is that they show the TRACKS of the particles, not the particles themselves. What a pion, for instance, really looks like remains a mystery, but its passage through a substance… can be recorded.” (Pg. 15)
They point out, “Another consequence of the neutron’s penetrating powers is its ability to split a uranium-235 nucleus into two fragments, releasing nuclear energy and two or three additional neutrons in the process. These neutrons can in their turn split further nuclei of uranium -235, releasing more energy and more neutrons. In a sufficiently large lump of uranium-235, a chain reaction will occur in which the multiplying neutrons cause the fission of every more nuclei, leading to an explosive release of energy. This is how the atom bomb works.” (Pg. 63)
They state, “For each and every variety of matter there should exist a corresponding ‘anti-matter’---opposite in properties such as electric charge and strangeness, but with identical mass… Today, we will have no firm evidence that large-scale clumps of antimatter… exist anywhere in our Universe. But physicists can readily make antiprotons, antineutrons, and other antiparticles in high-energy collisions at accelerators, and they can manipulate them to probe the mysteries of the subatomic world. Yet it was more than 20 years after Anderson’s discovery of the positron that experiments proved the existence of the antiproton, and several more years before physicists could feel for certain that for every particle of matter there exists an appropriate antiparticle.” (Pg. 134)
They say, “The most powerful force we know of in the Universe---the strong force---binds together the quarks from which protons and neutrons and all the other hadrons are made. The inter-quark force is so strong that it is apparently impossible to prise a single ‘naked’ quark out of a gluon. It is as if quarks are stuck together by a kind of superglue. Elucidating the nature of this glue was one of the major achievements of particular physics in the 1970s.” (Pg. 189)
They comment, “A successful GUT must explain another mysterious characteristic of the birth of our Universe. The energy of the Big Bang created protons slightly more readily than antiprotons, and thus asymmetry led to a Universe that consists of matter rather than antimatter. Yet in their ‘low’-energy experiments at accelerators, physicists always create matter and antimatter in equal amounts. The GUTs suggest that stable manifestations of the original matter-antimatter asymmetry should still be around. In particular… the price we pay for the excess of protons is that they are ultimately unstable. Matter as we know it should be eroding slowly away---a reversal of the process that created protons slightly more readily at the start of the Universe. As GUTs have inspired particle physicists to take an interest in the early Universe, so have astrophysicists become aware of particles in the Universe at large. A growing symbiosis has developed between the two branches of physics. Cosmologists developing theories of how galaxies form and how the Universe evolved look to particle physics for ideas of how matter behaves. Measurements made by astronomers can in turn impose constraints on theories such as the GUTs.” (Pg. 200)
They suggest, The GUTs describe only the strong and electroweak forces, but a valid ‘theory of everything’ (or TOE) must also incorporate gravity. Many theorists are therefore putting considerable effort into working out just what kind of theory can accommodate gravity. This is the cutting edge of theoretical research, and it thrives on a number of new ideas with exotic names such as supergravity and superstrings. These ideas are still very much unproven; it is too soon to know if any of them mirror the natural law of the Universe, or whether they will all end up on the large heap of abandoned scientific theories. Some of the first exciting hints acme with ah suggestion of a new kind of symmetry---supersymmetry, or SUSY. The GUTs imply that there are basically two families of particle---particles of matter (quarks and leptons) and force-carrying particles (the gauge bosons). Supersymmetry, on the other hand, links all these particles within one ‘superfamily.’ But it does to at the expanse of predicting many new particles…” (Pg. 214)
They ask, “could there be further dimensions subtly intertwined with the familiar ones so that our senses do not perceive them?... More recently there has emerged the possibility of constructing a theory that contains all these bizarre ideas and more. There is the promise of a unique theory in which the Universe began with 10 dimensions, of which only four expanded to form what we now call space and time. In this theory, particles arise naturally out of the basic mathematical structure not as point-like objects, but as entities that are extended in space… These extended particles are referred to as ‘strings.’ Supersymmetry is one of the ingredients of the theory, which has therefore become known as the theory of ‘superstrings.’ Physicists are excited about the theory’s potential because it describes all four fundamental forces, including gravity, in a natural way, without forced juggling of the mathematics. It thus promises to provide the long-sought
marriage of gravity and quantum theory---essential to any TOE.” (Pg. 215)
This is an excellent, and well-illustrated book that provides a very helpful introduction to the modern world of subatomic particles and their implications.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews