From Atoms to Higgs Bosons: Voyages in Quasi Space-Time

Cover
Half Title
Tilte Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. The Reductionist Vision of Physics
	1.1 Reductionism
	1.2 Our View of the World
	1.3 Democritus’ Atoms
	1.4 Properties of Atoms in Early Physics
	1.5 The Descent into the Quark Model
	1.6 Contemporary Catalogue of Physical Things
	1.7 Have We Reached the Bottom?
	1.8 Defining the Bottom Rung of the Ladder
	1.9 Are Quarks Really at the Bottom?
2. Quasirealism
	2.1 Common Sense
	2.2 Mathematics at the Centre
	2.3 Quasiparticles
	2.4 Quasirealism Defined
	2.5 Against Quasirealism
	2.6 Quasirealism and the Theory of Everything
	2.7 Concluding Thoughts
3. Space, Time, and Relativity
	3.1 Ancient Concepts of Space and Time
	3.2 Philosophizing on Space and Time
	3.3 Newton’s Absolute Space
	3.4 Lines of Force and Fields
	3.5 The Aether
	3.6 Lorentz–FitzGerald Contraction
	3.7 Special Relativity
	3.8 General Relativity
	3.9 Concluding Remarks
4. Mathematical Spaces
	4.1 Space and N-Dimensional Spaces
	4.2 Space and Geometry
	4.3 Complex Numbers and Imaginary Planes
	4.4 Minkowski Spacetime
	4.5 Phase Space
	4.6 Hilbert Space
	4.7 String Theories and Multidimensional Space
5. Mass
	5.1 Mass and Weight
	5.2 Mass and Relativity
	5.3 Mass of Small Things
	5.4 Modern Mass Measurements of Subatomic Particles
	5.5 Mass of Short-Lived Particles
	5.6 Mass of Resonances
	5.7 Mass of Quarks
	5.8 Mass of Higgs Boson
	5.9 Concluding Remarks on Mass
6. Quantum Physics
	6.1 Statistical Microphysics and Waves
	6.2 Quantum Theory of the Atom
	6.3 What Evolves in Quantum Theory?
7. When Is an Atom?
	7.1 The Classical Atom
	7.2 The Divisible Chemical Atom
	7.3 Protons and Neutrons Are Particles, but Are They Fundamental?
	7.4 The Electron Is Fundamental, but Is It Still a Particle?
	7.5 The Electron of Wave Mechanics
	7.6 Niels Bohr’s Instrumentalist View
	7.7 Electrons in Quantum Electrodynamics
	7.8 Electrons in Bulk Matter
	7.9 In Summary: We May Still Have Atoms
8. Elementary Quanta
	8.1 Fermions, Bosons, Quarks, and Leptons
	8.2 Quarks and Leptons Are Really Very Different
	8.3 On the Reality of Neutrinos
	8.4 On the Reality of Quarks
	8.5 The Gauge Bosons
	8.6 Summary
9. What Is a Photon?
	9.1 Problem of Blackbody Radiation
	9.2 Photoelectric Effect
	9.3 Waves and Particles, Real and Virtual
	9.4 Other Lives of Photons
	9.5 Photons and Electroweak Unification
	9.6 Are Photons Phoenixes?
	9.7 Finally, What Are Photons?
10. Symmetries, Conservation Laws, and Gauge Bosons
	10.1 Symmetry and Gauge
	10.2 Gauge Invariance and Electromagnetism
	10.3 Symmetry and Isospin
	10.4 Mixing of Matter and Interactions
	10.5 Conclusion
11. Higgs Boson
	11.1 Knowing What We Cannot See
	11.2 Searching for the Higgs Boson
	11.3 Higgs Discovery
	11.4 Particle or Resonance?
	11.5 What Does the Higgs Boson Contribute?
	11.6 Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendix: Epitaph for All Photons
Index