The Particle at the End of the Universe

Winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize

Sean Carroll

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781780742335
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The definitive, behind-the-scenes account of the greatest science story of our time

Winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books

A Best Science Book of the Year for the Guardian, Financial Times, and New Scientist

It was the universe’s most elusive particle, the linchpin for everything scientists dreamed up to explain how physics works. It had to be found. But projects as big as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider don’t happen without incredible risks – or occasional skulduggery. In the definitive account of the greatest science story of our time, acclaimed physicist Sean Carroll reveals the insights, rivalry, and wonder that fuelled the Higgs discovery, and takes us on a riveting and irresistible ride to the very edge of physics today.

INDEX

Note: page numbers in italics indicate charts and illustrations.

Accademia Belle Arti

action at a distance

aesthetic value of basic research

aether

ALEPH

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment)

Alvarez, Luis

Alvarez, Walter

American Physical Society (APS)

Anderson, Carl

Anderson, Philip

angular momentum

anthropic principle

antimatter

antiparticles

antibottom quarks

anticharm quarks

antineutrinos

antiprotons

antiquarks

anti-tau leptons

antitop quark

and dark matter

and Higgs decay modes

tau-antitau pairs

Arab-Israeli War

Aristotle

arts

atheism and agnosticism

ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS)

announcement of Higgs discovery

authorship of scientific papers

data sharing from

described

detector layers

and Higgs decay modes

memo leaks

number of researchers at

and particle “pileup”

search for the Higgs boson

and statistical analysis

atoms and atomic structure

authorship of scientific papers

Autiero, Dario

axions

Aymar, Robert

Babylonians

Bardeen, John

baryons

basic research, value of

BCS theory

Bernardi, Gregorio

Berners-Lee, Tim

Berra, Yogi

Bevatron

Bhatia, Aatish

Big Bang

and background radiation

and dark matter

and LHC experiments

and nucleosynthesis

and particle creation

and “Primeval Atom” theory

and symmetry

Big Science

binary star systems

black holes

blind analysis

Bloembergen, Nicolaas

blogs

Boezio, Mike

Bogolyubov, Nikolay

Bohr, Niels

Bohr model

bosons

boson fields

and connection fields

described

and Feynman diagrams

massless

and particle detector findings

and particle spin

and spontaneous symmetry-breaking

and string theory

and superconductivity

and supersymmetry

and the weak force

bottom quarks

charge of

decay of

and Higgs decay modes

and the Higgs field

interaction with Higgs boson

and LHC experiments

and quark generations

and symmetry of weak interactions

Branagh, Kenneth

branes

A Brief History of Time (Hawking)

Britton, David

Brookhaven National Lab

Brout, Robert

Bugorski, Anatoli

calculus

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

calorimeters

CDF experiment

CERN. See also Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Cessy, France

Chamberlain, Owen

charge of particles

and connection fields

and conservation laws

and dark matter

and electromagnetism

fermions

and magnetic fields

and particle accelerators

and particle spin

charm quarks

chemical elements

chemistry

Christianity

Cirelli, Marco

Cittolin, Sergio

Close, Frank

cloud chambers

CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid)

and announcement of Higgs discovery

authorship of scientific papers

construction of

and data sharing

described

and detector layers

and Evans’s retirement

and explosion at the LHC

and Higgs decay ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Epigraph page
• Contents
• PROLOGUE
• ONE THE POINT
• TWO NEXT TO GODLINESS
• THREE ATOMS AND PARTICLES
• FOUR THE ACCELERATOR STORY
• FIVE THE LARGEST MACHINE EVER BUILT
• SIX WISDOM THROUGH SMASHING
• SEVEN PARTICLES IN THE WAVES
• EIGHT THROUGH A BROKEN MIRROR
• NINE BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE
• TEN SPREADING THE WORD
• ELEVEN NOBEL DREAMS
• TWELVE BEYOND THIS HORIZON
• THIRTEEN MAKING IT WORTH DEFENDING
• APPENDIX ONE MASS AND SPIN
• APPENDIX TWO STANDARD MODEL PARTICLES
• APPENDIX THREE PARTICLES AND THEIR INTERACTIONS
• FURTHER READING
• REFERENCES
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INDEX
• About the Author
• List of Illustrations