The New Cosmic Onion: Quarks and the Nature of the Universe

ISBN-13: 9781584887980 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 232 str.

Frank Close

Opis

Not since Newton s apple has there been a physics phenomenon as deliciously appealing to the masses as Frank Close s Cosmic Onion. Widely embraced by scientists and laypersons alike, the book quickly became an international bestseller. Translated into seven languages, it propelled the author to become a worldwide celebrity as well as an inspiration to a generation of scientists. The book s title itself has entered popular usage as a metaphor for the layers that can be peeled away to understand the foundations of the physical world, from dimensions and galaxies, to atoms and quarks. Close is a lucid, reliable, and enthusiastic guide to the strange and wonderful microcosmic world that dwells deep within reality
Frank Wilczek, Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics, MIT, 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics NEW Material

• Explains the principles behind the Hadron Collider as well as the potential it presents
• Considers the recent development of the Electroweak Theory as a law of nature
• Explores the mysteries uncovered and the ones that may be in store with regard to top and bottom quarks

Keeping still-pertinent contents from the original volume that caught the world s attention in 1983, this fresh edition of the Cosmic Onion includes extensive new material to reflect new views of the universe. Providing explanations that explore the foundations of 21^st Century science and future directions, this work offers ready access and unique perspectives to more typical topics such as the forces of nature, atoms, the nucleus, and nuclear particles. It also travels down paths that only a true pioneer and educator can venture, such as a discussion of what Professor Close refers to as the Eightfold Way including the findings, surprises, and new questions emerging from the latest work with accelerators."

Spis treści

THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE             Inward Bound. The Fly in the Cathedral              ATOMS                 THE NUCLEUS                Neutrons and Protons. Radioactivity and Nuclear Fission. Beta Radioactivity and Neutrinos. Nuclear Stability and Where the Elements Came From. Neutrons: When Are They Stable and When Not? THE FORCES OF NATURE              Gravity and Electromagnetism. Nuclear Forces             NUCLEAR PARTICLES AND THE EIGHTFOLD WAY         Pions. Strange Particles. More Hadrons. The Eightfold Way: ‘A Periodic Table for the Nuclear Particles’  Quarks                 Quarks and the Eightfold Way Patterns. An ‘Atomic’ Model of Hadrons. Quarks in the Proton            QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS: A THEORY FOR QUARKS Colour. Colour and Quark Forces. Gluons. Quantum Chromodynamics and Electrodynamics     THE ELECTROWEAK FORCE             History. A New Form of Weak Interaction is Predicted. The Discovery of Neutral Currents. Electromagnetic and Weak Interactions Get Together. Does Electron Scattering Respect Mirror Symmetry? Bosons. Discovery of the W Boson. Conclusions               FROM CHARM TO TOP           The J/cMeson. Charmed Mesons. The J/cSignificance. Charm: A Testbed for Quantum Chromodynamics. How Many Quarks?              THE LEP ERA               Quantum Foresight              CP VIOLATION AND BETA-FACTORIES           CP Symmetry. The Strange Case of the Neutral Kaons. Beta Decays among the Generations. Matter to Antimatter. Appendix 11A: CKM and Bottom          NEUTRINOS               BEYOND THE STANDARD MODEL: GUTS, SUSY AND HIGGS Coincidences? (Particles, Forces). Supersymmetry. Higgs Boson. Why Is 1 TeV Special?             COSMOLOGY, PARTICLE PHYSICS, AND THE BIG BANG       Dark Energy. Dark Matter. The Universe Today. Five Stages in a Cooling Universe. Light Elements and Neutrinos. Quarksynthesis and the Predominance of Matter. Exodus. Epilogue                Glossary              

O autorze

Frank Close