The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World (49 page)

Arab-Israeli War, 106

Aristotle, 10, 119

arts, 278–79

atheism and agnosticism, 22

ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS)

announcement of Higgs discovery, 184–85, 186

authorship of scientific papers, 192–95

data sharing from, 112, 113

described, 97, 98–100

detector layers, 107–10

and Higgs decay modes, 187

memo leaks, 202–4

number of researchers at, 198, 203

and particle “pileup,” 102

search for the Higgs boson, 163–65, 170

and statistical analysis, 180

atoms and atomic structure, 10, 41–43,
42,
279–80

authorship of scientific papers, 192–95

Autiero, Dario, 195–96

axions, 169

Aymar, Robert, 77, 83

Babylonians, 10

Bardeen, John, 214

baryons, 96, 294

basic research, value of, 13–14, 26, 72, 122, 271–75, 278

BCS theory, 214–15, 216–19

Bernardi, Gregorio, 240

Berners-Lee, Tim, 113, 274

Berra, Yogi, 271

Bevatron, 55–56

Bhatia, Aatish, 33

Big Bang

and background radiation, 21

and dark matter, 247

and LHC experiments, 97–98

and nucleosynthesis, 247

and particle creation, 60

and “Primeval Atom” theory, 22

and symmetry, 160–61

Big Science, 211–12

binary star systems, 123

black holes, 15, 189–92, 211, 273

blind analysis, 179

Bloembergen, Nicolaas, 72

blogs, 198–200, 202–4

Boezio, Mike, 201

Bogolyubov, Nikolay, 215

Bohr, Niels, 41–42, 46, 209–10

Bohr model, 41–42

bosons

boson fields, 153

and connection fields, 162

described, 28–29

and Feynman diagrams, 167–68

massless, 143

and particle detector findings, 103–4

and particle spin, 285–86

and spontaneous symmetry-breaking, 217,
218

and string theory, 262

and superconductivity, 215

and supersymmetry, 257–58,
259

and the weak force, 30–31, 31–32

bottom quarks

charge of, 50, 294

decay of, 103

and Higgs decay modes, 170, 171,
171,
187

and the Higgs field, 137, 146

interaction with Higgs boson, 143

and LHC experiments, 97

and quark generations,
51

and symmetry of weak interactions, 158

Branagh, Kenneth, 205

branes,
264,
265–67

A
Brief History of Time
(Hawking), 21

Britton, David, 175

Brookhaven National Lab, 66, 67

Brout, Robert, 221–26, 228, 238, 239–41

Bugorski, Anatoli, 87

calculus, 222

California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 45, 135, 278

calorimeters, 107–10

CDF experiment, 199

CERN, 3, 61–63, 66–69, 82, 162, 183, 274.
See also
Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Cessy, France, 82, 99

Chamberlain, Owen, 56

charge of particles

and connection fields, 153

and conservation laws, 133–34

and dark matter, 247–48

and electromagnetism, 29

fermions, 294,
294

and magnetic fields,
57

and particle accelerators, 56, 97

and particle spin, 286

charm quarks, 50,
51,
66, 146, 158,
171,
294

chemical elements, 10

chemistry, 145–46

Christianity, 21, 22

Cirelli, Marco, 201

Cittolin, Sergio, 90

Close, Frank, 234

cloud chambers, 44–45,
46,
97

CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid)

and announcement of Higgs discovery, 184, 186

authorship of scientific papers, 192–95

construction of, 82

and data sharing, 112

described, 97–100

and detector layers, 107–10

and Evans’s retirement, 91

and explosion at the LHC, 78

and Higgs decay modes, 187

and memo leaks, 202–3

number of researchers on, 198, 203

and particle “pileup,” 102

and publishing process, 192

and search for the Higgs boson, 163–65, 170

and statistical analysis, 180

Coleman, Sidney, 228, 236, 281

collaboration, scientific, 112–14, 164, 185, 192–95, 201, 277

Collider Blog,
203

Collins, Nick, 163

coma clusters of galaxies, 244

compactification of dimensions, 263–65,
264

Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) (proposed), 277

Compact Muon Solenoid.
See
CMS

Compton, Arthur, 127

condensed matter physics, 213–14, 219–20

Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, 269

connection fields, 152,
152,
154, 211, 289

Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, 61.
See also
CERN

conservation laws, 133–34, 166

Conway, John, 199–200

Cooper, Leon, 214

Cooper pairs, 214–15, 217

Coppola, Francis Ford, 207

Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), 21

cosmic rays

and antimatter, 44–45

and black hole panic, 191

and dark matter, 250

energy of, 56

and LHCf experiment, 98

and muons, 48, 106

and PAMELA experiment, 200–202

Cosmic Variance
(blog), 181, 196, 198

cosmological constant, 221, 255

cosmology, 2

cryogenic particle detectors, 250–51

curiosity, value of, 13–14, 26, 278–79

The
Daily Mail,
190

The
Daily Show,
189–91

Dalton, John, 10

dark energy, 25, 221

See also
vacuum energy

dark matter

and “axions,” 169

detecting, 25, 64

discovery of, 244–45

and the early universe, 245–47

Feynman diagram of,
251

and gravity, 64, 143, 247–48

and the Higgs discovery, 268

and the Higgs portal, 249–52,
251

and PAMELA experiment, 200–201

and physics beyond the Standard Model, 17, 252–54

and supersymmetry, 190, 261

and WIMPs, 247–49

data collection, 110–14.
See also
statistical analysis

Dawson, Sally, 174

decay of particles

discovery of, 170

and evidence for the Higgs boson, 95–96

and field theory, 131–33

Higgs decay modes, 54, 170–74,
171,
173,
184–88

and neutrino emission, 46–48

neutron decay, 46–47, 131–34,
230

and particle detectors, 95–97

de Hevesy, George, 209–10

Democritus, 10, 279

Deutsch, David, 126

Dirac, Paul, 44

Discover
magazine, 181, 198–99

Dorigo, Tommaso, 198

down quarks

and atomic structure, 10–11, 28

charge of, 50, 294

interaction with Higgs boson, 143

and particle spin, 291

and quark generations,
51

and resting value of Higgs field, 146

and weak interactions, 32, 158

D Zero experiment, 199–200

early universe, 245–47

The
Economist,
200

Einstein, Albert

and “aether” theory, 139

and energy/mass equivalency, 34

and energy/wavelength connection, 126–27

and general relativity, 14

and Lederman, 19

“miraculous year,” 13

and the photoelectric effect, 127, 164

and quantum mechanics, 128

and special relativity, 123

and speed of light, 196, 197

and theological implications of physics, 21, 22–23

and vacuum energy, 221, 255

Eisner, Hal, 135, 146

electric charge.
See
charge of particles

electricity, 14, 121, 213–14

electromagnetic calorimeters,
107,
107–8,
109

electromagnetic force

and atomic structure, 42–43

electromagnetic fields, 33, 120–22

and infinite-answer problem, 229

and local symmetries, 154

and observable macroscopic forces, 31

and particle charge, 29

and particle detector findings, 104–5

and particle spin, 291

and quantum field theory, 33

and superconductivity, 211