The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World (53 page)

Riess, Adam, 255

Rohlf, James, 180

Rome, 279

Royal Academy of Sciences, 209–10

Rubbia, Carlo, 62, 80–81, 90, 179–80, 237

Rubin, Vera, 243–44

Rutherford, Ernest, 41, 46

Sagan, Carl, 280

Sakurai Prize, 240

Salam, Abdus, 162, 217, 225, 233–37

Savage, Christopher, 250

scalar bosons

and the Higgs mechanism, 224

and particle spin, 286, 289–90

and spontaneous symmetry-breaking, 217–18,
218,
225

scalar fields

and development of the Higgs model, 222, 223–24

and particle spin, 286, 292

and spontaneous symmetry-breaking, 217–18,
218

and supersymmetry, 260

and vacuum energy, 256

Scherk, Joël, 262

Schmidt, Brian, 255

Schmitt, Michael, 203

Schriffer, Robert, 214

Schwartz, Melvin, 48, 67

Schwarz, John, 262–63

Schwinger, Julian, 213, 219–20, 223, 229–32,
230

Schwitters, Roy, 71

Science and Entertainment Exchange, 205

scientific method, 175–76, 266, 280–81

scintillation, 251

Scott, Ridley, 205

Segrè, Emilio, 56

Shaggy 2 Dope, 115–16

Shaposhnikov, Mikhail, 266

sigma intervals, 176–78,
177

SLAC Linear Accelerator Center, 66–67

Smoot, George, 21

solar energy, 30

Soviet Union, 228

spacetime, 124, 263–64,
264,
286

special relativity, 123, 127–28

spin of particles

and degrees of freedom, 288–90

described, 285–88

and fermions, 158, 285–86, 290–94

and gravity, 52, 286, 291

and helicity, 290–92

intrinsic spin values,
287

and mass, 283–92

of massless particles, 158

and parity violation, 231–32

right-hand rule, 286

spin statistics theorem, 286

and superconductivity, 215

Standard Model

and the Big Bang, 161

and bosons, 52–54,
53

and dark matter, 245–47, 249

fields specified in, 252

and Higgs decay modes, 171, 186, 188

and the Higgs field, 137

and the Higgs mechanism, 224

and human biology, 280

and leptons,
49

and particle detector findings, 103

and particle spin, 286

physics theories beyond, 17

and properties of the Higgs boson, 11–12, 26–27, 37, 55, 169, 245

and quantum field theory, 33

and quarks, 26,
51,
198

and statistical analysis, 179

and supersymmetry, 257,
259

theory finalized, 8

and weak interactions,
230,
235, 280

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), 66–67

statistical analysis

and discovery of the Higgs, 181–85, 187–88

and OPERA experiment findings, 196

and particle accelerator results, 64–65

and particle decay, 54

and quantum mechanics, 178–81

and significance intervals, 175–78,
177,
181–85, 196–97

statistical vs. systematic error, 197

and threshold for discovery, 16, 165

Steinberger, Jack, 48, 67, 79

Stewart, Jon, 190–91

strange quarks, 50,
51,
146, 158, 294

string theory, 117, 261–64, 267

strong nuclear force

and charge of particles, 43

and dark matter, 247–48

and fermions, 293

and Higgs decay modes, 172

and mass of ordinary matter, 145

and mass of particles, 273

and particle detector findings, 103, 104–5

and particle spin, 291

and quantum field theory, 130

and quarks, 41

range of, 30

and resting value of Higgs field, 146

and string theory, 262

and supersymmetry, 257

and symmetry, 152, 213

and Yang-Mills theories, 156

Strumia, Alessandro, 201

Sundance Film Festival, 208

Sundrum, Raman, 265

superconducting magnets, 75–77, 88–90, 274

Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), 1–2, 17, 24, 69–73, 80, 234–35, 270, 275

superconductivity, 211–15

supergravity theory, 265

superpartner particles, 257–59,
259

Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), 62, 90

superstring theory, 262, 265

supersymmetry, 257–61,
259,
262, 268, 286

Susskind, Leonard, 261

symmetry and asymmetry

analogy for lay audience, 137–39

and the Big Bang, 160–61

and connection fields, 152,
152,
162

and electroweak unification, 232–34

“flavor” symmetries, 150

and gauge bosons, 52, 160, 213

and the Higgs boson, 12

and the Higgs field, 52, 146,
147,
147–50, 156–60, 162, 273–74, 278, 289, 292

local symmetries, 151, 154–55, 211, 222, 289

and matter-antimatter ratio, 268

and particle spin, 289

summarized, 36

and superconductivity, 211–15

supersymmetry, 257–61,
259,
262, 268, 286

symmetry-breaking, 52,
147,
147–53, 156–60, 162, 215–18, 218–21,
225,
233, 235–36, 292

and weak interactions, 150–53, 154–56

Synchrocyclotron, 61

Taubes, Gary, 179–80

tau leptons

discovery of, 49, 66

and Higgs decay modes, 170,
171,
199

interaction with Higgs boson, 143

and mass, 145

and particle detector findings, 104, 180

and resting value of Higgs field, 146

and symmetry, 149, 159

tau-antitau pairs,
171,
172,
173,
187

tau neutrinos, 41, 159

taxes, 270

Taylor, Joseph, 124

Taylor, Richard, 66

“technicolor” models, 268

technological applications of physics research, 271–72, 274–75

The
Telegraph,
78, 163

Teresi, Dick, 20, 25

Tevatron

competition with LHC, 65

described, 68

and Higgs decay modes, 199

maximum energies achieved, 86

as predecessor of the LHC, 16

and search for the Higgs, 68–69

and top quark discovery, 136–37, 198

theology and physics, 21–22, 22–24

theory of everything, 262

“A Theory of Leptons” (Weinberg), 235–37

‘t Hooft, Gerard, 236, 238, 239

tidal forces, 63–64

time travel, 196

Tkachev, Igor, 266

Tomonaga, Sin-Itiro, 213, 229

Tonelli, Guido, 164, 184, 195–96

topography, 152

top quarks

charge of, 50, 294

and creation of Higgs bosons, 167

discovery of, 16, 68, 198

and Higgs decay modes, 170

and the Higgs field, 137

interaction with Higgs boson, 143

and quark generations,
51

and resting value of Higgs field, 146

and symmetry of weak interactions, 158

A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS.
See
ATLAS

toroidal magnets, 99–100

TOTEM (TOTal Elastic and diffractive cross-section Measurement), 97–98

Touschek, Bruno, 62

translation invariance, 149

triggers, 111–12

Twitter, 203–4

UA2 detector, 184

uncertainty,
35,
130

unified theories, 282

up quarks

and atomic structure, 10–11, 28

charge of, 50, 294

interaction with Higgs boson, 143

and particle spin, 285, 291

and quark generations,
51

and resting value of Higgs field, 146

and symmetry of weak interactions, 158

and weak interactions, 32

U.S. Congress, 1, 24, 269

U-70 Synchrotron, 87

vacuum energy, 221, 253, 254–56, 265–67

valence quarks,
102

Veltman, Martinus “Tini,” 236

Violent J, 115–16

VIRGO observatory, 124–25

virtual particles

and boson mass, 156

and creation of Higgs bosons, 167–68

and dark matter, 249–50

and field values, 253

and Higgs decay modes, 170, 188

and mass, 144

and neutron decay, 132–33

and proton collisions,
102

and proton mass, 101

and quantum field theory, 129–30

quark-antiquark pairs, 51, 101