Physics in Collision

Physics in Collision
Author: Per Carlson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1468484656

The field of particle physics is developing very rapidly. During this past year, physicists added a new instrument to their arsenal for the study of quark-quark, quark-lepton, and lepton lepton interactions. This machine, the PROTON-ANTIPROTON COLLIDER, achieved the highest energy in the world. With its five detectors, it is beginning to explore hitherto inaccessible regions for new physics (Section I). Lepton-Iepto~ machines with detectors at full efficiency are producing copious data of the very highest precision. The possibility of glueballs and the detailing of the properties of the upsilon family have been of major importance this year (Section II). The particle jets which are believed to be direct manifesta tions of the quark structure of matter continue to provide valuable data against which we can test the ideas of QCD (Section III). With the advent of more and better data it is now possible to study in detail the formation evolution of hadronic states. Especially interesting are the properties of heavy quark states (Section IV). A far-seeing look into the future development of any fecund scienti fic field is rarely accurate, but is always stimulating (Section V). It is against this background of participating in the clarifi cation of the Physics in Collision that we continue this series.

Reflections on Experimental Science

Reflections on Experimental Science
Author: Martin L. Perl
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 551
Release: 1996
Genre: Science
ISBN: 981022429X

This is a collection of important lecture and original articles and commentaries by Martin Perl, discoverer of the tau lepton and the third generation of elementary particles, and this year's Nobel Prize winner. This book contains a fascinating and realistic picture of experimental science based on the high energy physics research work carried out by him. Using reprints of his articles with his commentaries, the author presents the various aspects of experimental research in science: the pleasures and risks of experimental work; the pain and frustration with experiments that are useless or fail; the dreaming about experiments that were not carried out; the constant search for innovation and creativity in the work; and the special joy of discovery. The articles and commentaries range from the early days of bubble chambers and spark chambers in the 1950's to the author's present research, experiments at an electron-positron collider and a search for free quarks. The book is for the general reader as well as the scientist.