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Süper Simetri: skuarklar, fotinolar ve doğanın en temel yasalarının açığa çıkarılması
İnsanlar, tarih boyunca doğanın nasıl işlediğini anlamaya çalışmışlardır. Parçacık fiziğinin Standart Modeli, doğanın en temel yapıtaşlannı ve kuvvetlerini betimleyerek, bu konuda oldukça başarılı bir açıklama ortaya koymuştur. Parçacık fiziğine yön veren kuruluşlardaki çok büyük boyutlu hızlandırıcılar ve araştırmanın sınırlarında çalışan kuramcılar sayesinde de doğayı keşfetme çabaları bir sonraki büyük sıçrayışına ulaşmıştır: süpersimetriye.
Tam anlamıyla bir birleşik kuram arayan çağdaş araştırmanın bu epik öyküsünde Gordon Kane, bizi hem süpersimetrinin kavramsal çerçevesine, hem de sözü edilen büyüleyici keşfin yapılacağı dev parçacık hızlandırıcılarına götürüyor. Yazar, Standart Model'in temellerini verdikten sonra, süpersimetri kuramını açıklıyor; temel parçacıkların her birinin bir "süpereş'e sahip olduğunu ve bunların CERN'deki LHC gibi dev hızlandırıcılarda saptanabileceklerini söylüyor. Süpereşler yardımıyla Higgs bozonlarmın varlığı ve protonun kararlı olup olmadığı gibi parçacık fiziğinin pek çok temel problemi çözülecek, ayrıca kozmolojinin en büyük gizemlerden biri olan evrenin "karanlık madde"si açıklanabilecektir.
Tam anlamıyla bir birleşik kuram arayan çağdaş araştırmanın bu epik öyküsünde Gordon Kane, bizi hem süpersimetrinin kavramsal çerçevesine, hem de sözü edilen büyüleyici keşfin yapılacağı dev parçacık hızlandırıcılarına götürüyor. Yazar, Standart Model'in temellerini verdikten sonra, süpersimetri kuramını açıklıyor; temel parçacıkların her birinin bir "süpereş'e sahip olduğunu ve bunların CERN'deki LHC gibi dev hızlandırıcılarda saptanabileceklerini söylüyor. Süpereşler yardımıyla Higgs bozonlarmın varlığı ve protonun kararlı olup olmadığı gibi parçacık fiziğinin pek çok temel problemi çözülecek, ayrıca kozmolojinin en büyük gizemlerden biri olan evrenin "karanlık madde"si açıklanabilecektir.
- GenresSciencePhysicsNonfiction
250 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 2000
14 people are currently reading
289 people want to read
About the author
Gordon L. Kane
19 books11 followersGordon Kane is the Victor Weisskopf Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, and the director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics. He was awarded the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, and is the author of The Particle Garden.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 9, 2011
insanın çevresine bakış açısını değiştirebilen harika bir kitap.
April 5, 2024
AN EXPLANATION OF SUPERSYMMETRY, AND HOW IT RELATES TO STRING THEORY
Gordon Leon Kane is Professor at the University of Michigan and director emeritus at the Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics (LCTP).
He wrote in the Preface to this 2000 book, “The first phase of the age-old search for understanding how the physical world works has been brought to a successful close in recent years with the development and testing of the Standard Model of particle physics… If the Standard Model describes the world successfully, how can there be physics beyond it, such as supersymmetry? There are two reasons. First, the Standard Model cannot explain aspects of the study of the large-scale universe… For example … why the universe is made of matter and not antimatter… nor can it explain what the dark matter of the universe is… Supersymmetry suggests explanations for both of these mysteries. Second, the boundaries of physics have been changing. Now scientists ask not only how the world works… but why it works that way…
“Supersymmetry is a surprising and subtle idea---the idea that the equations representing the basic laws of nature don’t change if certain particles in the equations are interchanged with one another… Supersymmetry is still an idea as this book is being written… There is considerable indirect evidence that it is a property of the laws of nature, but the confirming direct evidence is not yet in place… the accelerator facilities that could confirm it are just beginning to cover the region where the signals could appear… If the world we live in does exhibit the property called s supersymmetry, even though it has been hidden our view until now, we will have a systematic way to peer at the most basic law(s) that govern nature and our universe. Without supersymmetry that may not be possible. Though there is considerable indirect evidence that the world is indeed supersymmetric, this is not yet certain. It is worth a lot of effort to find out.” (Pg. xvi-xvii)
In the first chapter, he explains, “Today we are at a stage where there is one main idea about the next experimentally accessible step toward understanding the basic laws that govern the universe, but it is very hard, for practical reasons, to get the evidence we need in order to learn whether the idea is correct. This book focuses on that idea, which is called supersymmetry… If we understand supersymmetry and its implications correctly, direct experimental evidence for supersymmetry will be found in the next few years---possibly soon after this book is published…” (Pg. 2-3)
He states, “the main test of the validity of the idea that our world is supersymmetric is the existence of a set of previously unknown particles called ‘superpartners.’ As I write, the superpartners have not yet been directly observed… they decay rapidly, and there is no way to detect them in the atmosphere. Only now are colliders and detectors at laboratories achieving the energies and sensitivities needed to detect the superpartners explicitly, at least if our thinking about their properties is more or less right.” (Pg. 13)
He notes, “Readers unfamiliar with particle physics may have been amused by… the largely metaphorical terminology they encountered here: up and charmed and top quarks, gluons that bind, families, strings, and so on… Particle physicists have chosen to humanize them with familiar names that carry a reminder of the role of the particle or interaction they refer to…Sometimes people misinterpret the apparently cavalier terminology as an irreverent one, but in fact it shows great respect for these new properties of the world that we have discovered as we have probed nature in new ways.” (Pg. 39)
He explains, “Supersymmetry is the idea, or hypothesis, that the equations of the primary theory will remain unchanged even if the fermions are replaced by bosons, and vice versa, in those equations in an appropriate way… The replacement occurs in the equations, of course, not for a fermion of boson in the real world.” (Pg. 53) Later, he adds, “It turns out that we can attach to our normal spacetime another four ‘dimensions’ that will allow us to incorporate differences between fermions and bosons into the structure of the ‘space,’ defining a ‘superspace.’ Superspace is a geometrical structure in which fermions and bosons can be treated fully symmetrically.” (Pg. 67)
He suggests, “String theory seems to require supersymmetry as an essential part of the theory, though we do not yet know whether this is truly a necessary condition. In order to learn how string theories work, and whether their solutions might really describe our world, we must learn how to solve the equations of the theory. Finding solutions has turned out to be much easier … because of the powerful constraints that have to be satisfied when the theory is supersymmetric.” (Pg. 59-60)
He acknowledges, “For all of the phenomena that I have described so far, supersymmetry extends the Standard Model and improves on the Standard Model in many ways. There are, however, three aspects for which the supersymmetric Standard Model apparently does NOT do as well as the Standard Model without any extensions…. One is proton decay… Another is certain decays or transitions or muons and taus and quarks. The third is too-parge CP violations effects… Are these clues that something is wrong with the supersymmetric Standard Model in spite of its many successes? There is at present no consensus about the answer to that question… Because supersymmetry is an effective theory rather than the primary theory, there must be issues it cannot explain, and there are.” (Pg. 126-127)
He admits, “string theory is not unique---there seem to be several versions that apparently can predict different phenomena. This latter problem has been dealt with … leading to the next stage, called M-theory… M-theory is formulated in eleven spacetime dimensions, and it has been possible to argue that the five apparent forms of string theory in ten dimensions were in act different ways of looking at M-theory in eleven dimensions. That insight may achieve the goal of having a unique theory. All of this is very recent, and very complicated, so it will take time to sort our just what is achieved…” (Pg. 132)
He asserts, “First, we do not need to prove all possible theorems, nor do we have to prove the consistency of the whole system. We already have our world, and we know it is described by consistent laws---otherwise, it would fall apart… Second, scientific results are never proved to be true. ‘Proof’ is for mathematical theorems. At a certain stage of research, the evidence for a given result becomes so strong that it is accepted by those who understand it… Yet another concern arises from a feeling of humility in the face of the awesome size, complexity, and beauty of the universe from the particles to the cosmos. How can mere humans expect or even hope to understand all of that and how it originated and why it is the way it is? (Pg. 137-138)
He continues, “string theory can address a number of questions that the Standard Model cannot address… If a candidate theory allows us to understand why the rules that describe nature are quantum theory and relativistic invariance, and if it enables us to define space and time in a consistent way, then we will not have much doubt that it is the answer… Because we can describe some possible tests of the primary theory, it is clear that any arguments that the primary theory is in principle untestable are not valid.” (Pg. 139-140)
He argues, “There are several reasons to examine anthropic question in a book on supersymmetry and its implications. First…is nature is indeed supersymmetric… then a number of traditional anthropic arguments are not correct. Second, most or all of the anthropic questions are expected to be addressed by the primary theory. Third, nonscientific and even religious interpretations are increasingly being given to anthropic arguments whose validity is not established.” (Pg. 142) He continues, “Until we have the primary theory and understand how to calculate its implications, we cannot settle all anthropic questions, so they are valid issues to study.” (Pg. 146) He suggests, “life may emerge in some universes but not in other. If there are very many universes, then some, perhaps many, will have the right conditions for life to exist.” (Pg. 147)
He also notes, “The connection of the extra dimensions with supersymmetry is not yet well understood. String theories must be supersymmetric and have extra dimensions to be consistent, but the implications of this for how supersymmetry is hidden is not yet known. Perhaps most important, predictions for the masses and interactions of the superpartners also reflect the presence of the extra dimensions and how they are curled up. Thus experimental data on the superpartners may play a crucial role in our coming to understand the extra dimensions.” (Pg. 161)
This book will interest many who are studying such speculative theories in physics.
Gordon Leon Kane is Professor at the University of Michigan and director emeritus at the Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics (LCTP).
He wrote in the Preface to this 2000 book, “The first phase of the age-old search for understanding how the physical world works has been brought to a successful close in recent years with the development and testing of the Standard Model of particle physics… If the Standard Model describes the world successfully, how can there be physics beyond it, such as supersymmetry? There are two reasons. First, the Standard Model cannot explain aspects of the study of the large-scale universe… For example … why the universe is made of matter and not antimatter… nor can it explain what the dark matter of the universe is… Supersymmetry suggests explanations for both of these mysteries. Second, the boundaries of physics have been changing. Now scientists ask not only how the world works… but why it works that way…
“Supersymmetry is a surprising and subtle idea---the idea that the equations representing the basic laws of nature don’t change if certain particles in the equations are interchanged with one another… Supersymmetry is still an idea as this book is being written… There is considerable indirect evidence that it is a property of the laws of nature, but the confirming direct evidence is not yet in place… the accelerator facilities that could confirm it are just beginning to cover the region where the signals could appear… If the world we live in does exhibit the property called s supersymmetry, even though it has been hidden our view until now, we will have a systematic way to peer at the most basic law(s) that govern nature and our universe. Without supersymmetry that may not be possible. Though there is considerable indirect evidence that the world is indeed supersymmetric, this is not yet certain. It is worth a lot of effort to find out.” (Pg. xvi-xvii)
In the first chapter, he explains, “Today we are at a stage where there is one main idea about the next experimentally accessible step toward understanding the basic laws that govern the universe, but it is very hard, for practical reasons, to get the evidence we need in order to learn whether the idea is correct. This book focuses on that idea, which is called supersymmetry… If we understand supersymmetry and its implications correctly, direct experimental evidence for supersymmetry will be found in the next few years---possibly soon after this book is published…” (Pg. 2-3)
He states, “the main test of the validity of the idea that our world is supersymmetric is the existence of a set of previously unknown particles called ‘superpartners.’ As I write, the superpartners have not yet been directly observed… they decay rapidly, and there is no way to detect them in the atmosphere. Only now are colliders and detectors at laboratories achieving the energies and sensitivities needed to detect the superpartners explicitly, at least if our thinking about their properties is more or less right.” (Pg. 13)
He notes, “Readers unfamiliar with particle physics may have been amused by… the largely metaphorical terminology they encountered here: up and charmed and top quarks, gluons that bind, families, strings, and so on… Particle physicists have chosen to humanize them with familiar names that carry a reminder of the role of the particle or interaction they refer to…Sometimes people misinterpret the apparently cavalier terminology as an irreverent one, but in fact it shows great respect for these new properties of the world that we have discovered as we have probed nature in new ways.” (Pg. 39)
He explains, “Supersymmetry is the idea, or hypothesis, that the equations of the primary theory will remain unchanged even if the fermions are replaced by bosons, and vice versa, in those equations in an appropriate way… The replacement occurs in the equations, of course, not for a fermion of boson in the real world.” (Pg. 53) Later, he adds, “It turns out that we can attach to our normal spacetime another four ‘dimensions’ that will allow us to incorporate differences between fermions and bosons into the structure of the ‘space,’ defining a ‘superspace.’ Superspace is a geometrical structure in which fermions and bosons can be treated fully symmetrically.” (Pg. 67)
He suggests, “String theory seems to require supersymmetry as an essential part of the theory, though we do not yet know whether this is truly a necessary condition. In order to learn how string theories work, and whether their solutions might really describe our world, we must learn how to solve the equations of the theory. Finding solutions has turned out to be much easier … because of the powerful constraints that have to be satisfied when the theory is supersymmetric.” (Pg. 59-60)
He acknowledges, “For all of the phenomena that I have described so far, supersymmetry extends the Standard Model and improves on the Standard Model in many ways. There are, however, three aspects for which the supersymmetric Standard Model apparently does NOT do as well as the Standard Model without any extensions…. One is proton decay… Another is certain decays or transitions or muons and taus and quarks. The third is too-parge CP violations effects… Are these clues that something is wrong with the supersymmetric Standard Model in spite of its many successes? There is at present no consensus about the answer to that question… Because supersymmetry is an effective theory rather than the primary theory, there must be issues it cannot explain, and there are.” (Pg. 126-127)
He admits, “string theory is not unique---there seem to be several versions that apparently can predict different phenomena. This latter problem has been dealt with … leading to the next stage, called M-theory… M-theory is formulated in eleven spacetime dimensions, and it has been possible to argue that the five apparent forms of string theory in ten dimensions were in act different ways of looking at M-theory in eleven dimensions. That insight may achieve the goal of having a unique theory. All of this is very recent, and very complicated, so it will take time to sort our just what is achieved…” (Pg. 132)
He asserts, “First, we do not need to prove all possible theorems, nor do we have to prove the consistency of the whole system. We already have our world, and we know it is described by consistent laws---otherwise, it would fall apart… Second, scientific results are never proved to be true. ‘Proof’ is for mathematical theorems. At a certain stage of research, the evidence for a given result becomes so strong that it is accepted by those who understand it… Yet another concern arises from a feeling of humility in the face of the awesome size, complexity, and beauty of the universe from the particles to the cosmos. How can mere humans expect or even hope to understand all of that and how it originated and why it is the way it is? (Pg. 137-138)
He continues, “string theory can address a number of questions that the Standard Model cannot address… If a candidate theory allows us to understand why the rules that describe nature are quantum theory and relativistic invariance, and if it enables us to define space and time in a consistent way, then we will not have much doubt that it is the answer… Because we can describe some possible tests of the primary theory, it is clear that any arguments that the primary theory is in principle untestable are not valid.” (Pg. 139-140)
He argues, “There are several reasons to examine anthropic question in a book on supersymmetry and its implications. First…is nature is indeed supersymmetric… then a number of traditional anthropic arguments are not correct. Second, most or all of the anthropic questions are expected to be addressed by the primary theory. Third, nonscientific and even religious interpretations are increasingly being given to anthropic arguments whose validity is not established.” (Pg. 142) He continues, “Until we have the primary theory and understand how to calculate its implications, we cannot settle all anthropic questions, so they are valid issues to study.” (Pg. 146) He suggests, “life may emerge in some universes but not in other. If there are very many universes, then some, perhaps many, will have the right conditions for life to exist.” (Pg. 147)
He also notes, “The connection of the extra dimensions with supersymmetry is not yet well understood. String theories must be supersymmetric and have extra dimensions to be consistent, but the implications of this for how supersymmetry is hidden is not yet known. Perhaps most important, predictions for the masses and interactions of the superpartners also reflect the presence of the extra dimensions and how they are curled up. Thus experimental data on the superpartners may play a crucial role in our coming to understand the extra dimensions.” (Pg. 161)
This book will interest many who are studying such speculative theories in physics.
February 2, 2016
Physics beyond the Standard Model.
February 9, 2025
This is a light-weight book on particle physics with no math, touching on elements of quantum chromodynamics. It starts with basics of quantum mechanics and a basic introduction to Feynman diagrams. It discusses basic mechanics of the standard model, why it needs extensions and how we can get there. Dr. Kane goes into the capabilities of different colliders and their different technologies, then dives into supersymmetry particles, the search for the Higgs particle and string theory.
In spite of the topic, it is a fairly easy read, written well and is interesting, written at a good level for anyone interested in the material but not extremely versed in the science itself.
Dr. Kane is a professor at the U. of Michigan, director emeritus at the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics and is a leader in string theory.
In spite of the topic, it is a fairly easy read, written well and is interesting, written at a good level for anyone interested in the material but not extremely versed in the science itself.
Dr. Kane is a professor at the U. of Michigan, director emeritus at the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics and is a leader in string theory.
January 14, 2019
Książka niby niezbyt długa, ale miejscami rozwlekła - wydaje się, że jedną myśl, którą można zmieścić na połowie strony, autor ciągnie przez trzy kolejne zmieniając jedynie szyk zdania. Książka napisana w roku 1999 - dzisiaj, po 20-tu latach od jej publikacji śmiesznie czyta się stwierdzenia typu "już za kilka lat supersymetryczne cząstki będą odkryte". Samą ideę czym jest supersymetria autor przedstawił i wytłumaczył za to przejrzyście, więc tu duży plus. Mnie jednak do tej teorii nie przekonał.
April 3, 2020
My rating is from a lay person's point of view; one who knows very little about physics. I was a bit lost in all the particles but I certainly appreciated the author's valiant attempt to make the subject understandable. It was written in the 1990s, perhaps particle physics has advanced since then but I would imagine most of the book remains germane.
December 9, 2024
A clear introduction into some heady theories as well as the standard model in physics. It is helpful if the reader has something of a physics background but others would benefit from the information in this book.
February 27, 2018
yeterli birikime sahip olmadığım için açıkçası bir kısmını anlamadım popüler bilim kitabı için ağır
April 26, 2017
Eh...might have given this four stars if I had read it ten years ago. Lots of outdated information in this book. Kane is fond of speculation; quite the dreamer he is. He should definitely stick more to the facts, but then the book would not have had enough content to be published. Words in his favor, he does specify when he is discussing research in progress and research that has been well-tested. Overall, this book gives a good look at Supersymmetry and how it came to be. The thorough glossary rounds this book out.
Read
July 20, 2016Very nice coverage of the topic. There's a good summary of the standard model and then a very good discussion of what supersymmetry is, how it might be proven and where it fits in with string theory and the primary theory. Kane does an excellent job of giving enough complexity to make it interesting, but not so much as to be overwhelming. This was published in 2000, long before CERN verified the Higgs boson.
July 7, 2015
Oikein napakkaa tavaraa supersymmetriasta. Kirja on vuosituhannen vaihteesta, joten nyt kiinnostaa kaivaa lisää matskua ja nähdä, onko tilanne paljon muuttunut ja lisää paljastunut. Tässä kun viitataan vielä monessa kohtaa LEPin tutkimuksiin ja LHCstä vasta haaveillaan.
February 13, 2008
Very good, rather dense, quantum physics and beyond.
December 30, 2008
HHHWhaaa? I hated the way this book was organized. It seemed the author would go on irrelevant tangents. I was hoping for a more in depth and simple description of supersymmetry.
January 31, 2009
Very non-technical and as someone put it 'where are the equations'. A very good beginners account of SUSY theories, and in particular on the limits of their being verified experimentally.
December 15, 2012
Its amazing, higgs caching me on all page.
December 13, 2013
Fantabulous writing. Loved the chapters on accelerators and Higgs physics.
July 14, 2015
Interesting and a quicker read than one might think. Easy to understand even if you're not a physicist.
Want to read
February 28, 2016GOOD
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews