The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World Hardcover – November 13, 2012

Many of us remember where we were during key world events; particle physicists would likely remember where they were on July 4, 2012. That was the day the Higgs boson was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. By any measure it was one of the most momentous discoveries in physics, perhaps in all of science. But what exactly is the Higgs boson? Why is it important? And how was it discovered? In this engaging and informative book Caltech physicist Sean Carroll sheds light on all these aspects of the Higgs discovery.Carroll's book can be roughly divided into three parts. In the first part, after giving us a brief overview of particle physics describing relativity, quantum mechanics, the Standard Model and the discovery of the twelve elementary particles that make up the universe, Carroll plunges into a description of the giant particle accelerators that have made possible our understanding of nature's fundamental building blocks. Personally I found this part most enjoyable, since it's a little more accessible than the theoretical part. Carroll tells us about the stupendous engineering challenges involved in the building of the LHC and takes us on a nice little tour of its interior. There's all kinds of fascinating and amusing stuff here; the lead tungstate crystals in the detectors that took ten years to grow, the earlier particle accelerator whose workings were affected by the moon's tides, the baguette dropped by a bird that temporarily created electrical problems, the helium "explosion" caused by high voltage that crippled the machine for months, the physicist whose face was exposed to an intense beam of protons and who still escaped relatively unscathed. The sheer size and complexity of the ten-thousand pound detectors - ATLAS and CMS - beggar belief and the smooth functioning of these hunks of metal, plastic and electronics is a resounding tribute to human ingenuity and collaboration. Carroll is very good at describing the structure and function of the marvelous machines that made the Higgs possible and again confirms the fact that the best science involves both great intellectual ideas and world-class engineering. Many of the LHC's components as well as the principal players are illustrated in color photographs in the center of the book.Carroll also gives us a lucid account of the statistical methods and data collection techniques used to confirm the discovery of particles. The sheer amount of data collected by the LHC is staggering; as Carroll puts it, enough to fill about a thousand terabyte hard-drives per second. He does a good job detailing the great difficulty of collecting the data from an incredibly complex dance of particle collisions and most importantly, of separating the signal from the noise. He tells us about the almost mythical "5-sigma" threshold, essentially a very stringent statistical test that allows you to claim a "discovery" of a new particle. In July 2012, data from both the ATLAS and CMS detectors was combined together to claim a 5-sigma threshold. Carroll who was in the audience when the discovery was announced captures well the excitement in Geneva and around the world as an intensely international collaboration of more than three thousand LHC-related scientists tuned in to hear the groundbreaking news. This was definitely the discovery of a lifetime, and Peter Higgs was in the audience to hear about it. Yet Carroll drives home the point that statistics is not everything, and illustrates this through the cautionary tale of the discovery of "faster-than-light" neutrinos which, although statistically significant, turned out to be incorrect.The second part of the book gives us the theoretical basis of the Higgs boson. To Carroll's credit, he spends a fair amount of time dispelling the simplistic belief that the "Higgs boson gives everything mass" and does a pretty good job leading us through the subtleties of what's called the "Higgs field" and exactly how it's relevant to particles masses and interactions. He also addresses the common misunderstanding that most of the mass of an everyday object comes from the Higgs. It doesn't; it comes from the strong interactions and therefore won't suddenly disappear if the Higgs boson were to hypothetically vanish. Along the way Carroll explains important concepts like spontaneous symmetry breaking and Feynman diagrams which are integral to understanding the Higgs mechanism. The last part of the book also has interesting discussions on the potential implications of the Higgs for understanding dark matter, dark energy and the Big Bang. And an amusing chapter lays to rest the slightly paranoid "end-of-world" scenarios postulated before the LHC went online. This same chapter also takes a thoughtful look at the public promotion of science and addresses the role of blogs and other media which communicate science, often correctly but sometimes prematurely. Carroll makes us appreciate the fact that scientists have to tread a fine line in being accurate while still not giving the media an opportunity to sensationalize their findings.Finally in the third part, Carroll sheds light on the human aspect of science. Part of this is in the earlier chapters where he details the political jockeying and the clash of personalities that was involved in the cancellation of the high-stakes Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) project during the 90s. The fact is that these days even the most fundamental curiosity-driven research can involve billion-dollar equipment like the LHC. Carroll wonders whether governments around the world will now support these increasingly expensive endeavors, especially during times of recession, but also underscores the importance of this research for human creativity and unexpected practical spinoffs (like the World Wide Web). The human aspect of science is also revealed in a separate chapter that among other things asks who would get the Nobel Prize for the discovery. There is no doubt that somebody should get it (and almost universal consensus that Higgs should be included), but the history that Carroll describes makes it clear that at least six people came up with various parts of the idea within a narrow time frame. And the experimentalists seem to deserve it as much as the theoreticians. One thing is certain; any Nobel Prize for the Higgs is going to be at least somewhat controversial.In general I greatly enjoyed reading "The Particle at the End of the Universe". It's engaging and an easy read and would complement similar other volumes like Ian Sample's "Massive" (which focuses more on the human side) and Frank Close's "The Infinity Puzzle" (which is heavier on the science). Carroll is a pleasant, informative, patient and humorous guide on our tour of the LHC and the Higgs. He is also measured and tends to temper the enthusiasm of discovery with realism; for instance he makes it clear that the discovery of the Higgs still leaves many questions unanswered, and it has no impact on other outstanding scientific problems like discovering cancer drugs or understanding the economy. What Carroll does manage to communicate is the deep satisfaction of discovery, the thrill of the chase and the astonishing achievements that human imagination and skill can make possible.

"The Particle at the End of the Universe" was both a challenge and a rewarding experience for this scientific layman. When it comes to particle physics and cosmic origins, Sean Carroll clearly knows his stuff and can communicate it well to the general public. Nevertheless, I suspect that Carroll and especially Dutton/Penguin wanted to be first out of the gate with a cogent best-seller on the Higgs boson (the stuff of Nobel prizes). While it looks like they have succeeded, I can point to a few things that have been sacrificed. What Carroll accomplishes with well-placed facts and a captivating story is undercut by the relevant material the publisher omits (not Carroll's fault).Carroll covers a lot of ground in this fair sized tome, so why are necessary details like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle left out? He touches on the "intrinsic uncertainties of quantum mechanics," like not being able to accurately measure a particle's position, and briefly mentions Werner Heisenberg by name, but goes no further. In his previous book "From Eternity to Here," Carroll explains uncertainty more fully. The publisher may have assumed as much for this book, but not every reader will be on the same page. This book ought to be more stand-alone than that.In addition, Carroll devotes a section to particle spin, which appears near the end without a discussion of quantum entanglement (one of the great enigmas of particle physics). More than once he cites observer frustration with quantum measurement, but says nothing about any influence this observer might have on the thing he or she is trying to measure. Consider the hypothetical thought experiment known as Schrodinger's cat, which confronts both quantum entanglement and possible effects of observation. Erwin Schrodinger, a quantum mechanics pioneer and Nobel laureate not mentioned by Carroll in this book, came up with the whimsical notion of placing a live cat in a box containing a sealed radioactive substance, an ampule of deadly poison, a moveable hammer capable of breaking the glass, and a Geiger counter. After a short time lapse, only a single atom need decay for the Geiger counter to detect it, and then trip the hammer which shatters the ampule releasing the poison which kills the cat. Be assured, fellow cat lovers, that neither Schrodinger nor his colleagues had any intention of carrying this out. He just wanted to point out the absurdity of the cat being both dead and alive at the same time, until an observer intervenes. As soon as the observer peeks in, the cat is either one or the other, but never both. No dilemma here, however, according to Danish physicist Niels Bohr, the "godfather" of the Copenhagen ("standard") interpretation of quantum mechanics and Einstein's friendly foil. The cat would be either alive or dead independent of observation. Please note that I have since revisited Carroll's "From Eternity to Here" and found good coverage of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Schrodinger and his cat, and quantum entanglement. Since the publisher is the same (Penguin), then any blame for the present book's omissions must lie with Penguin's editors, not with Carroll.Carroll devotes two pages highlighting some of the obstacles astrophysicist Vera Rubin has encountered in her long career. But in the bad old days, the situation was even more egregious for Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Leavitt was hired as a "computer" -- what they called female number crunchers who did the grunt work for astronomers like Edward Pickering and Harlow Shapely. Yet it was Leavitt who interpreted her findings on Cepheid variable stars, cracking open the door for Edwin Hubble to point the way toward our present understanding of a rapidly expanding universe. She would have been a finalist for the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1926, except for the fact that she had died in 1921. The Prize committee, unable to give posthumous awards, was not even aware of her death. Carroll could have mentioned Leavitt along with Rubin. Note: In her book "Bright Galaxies, Dark Matters", Vera Rubin shares Leavitt's story with her readers.I respectfully disagree with one aspect of Carroll's point of view. He ascribes seemingly godlike qualities to the natural world, something non-theists generally do (i.e. Laplace, who saw "no need for that hypothesis" (God's power in nature)). Carroll sums up his position by saying: "There are certainly prominent examples of religious physicists, but just as certainly the real work of physics gets along without allowing anything other than the natural world into the equation." True, in that science takes measurements of natural phenomena. Yet, many world-class scientists were serious religious believers and/or clergy, including Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Blaise Pascal, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Georges Lemaitre, and, more recently, John C. Eccles, Arno Penzias, Charles H. Townes, Vera Rubin, John Polkinghorne, Paul Davies, Kenneth R. Miller, and Robert J. Asher. Refusing to abandon their intellect, they weaved together seamlessly the threads of their science and faith. With neither expelling the other, scientific discoveries informed their faith, and vice versa. Be that as it may, when Carroll disagrees with scientists of a more religious persuasion, he does so with respect. Clearly, he appreciates the limits of science, avoiding scientism (the ideology that science is the final arbiter of all objective truth). And, in his "From Eternity to Here," Carroll gives a nod to St. Augustine, calling him a "Father of the Church" who was "interdisciplinary enough to occasionally turn his hand to metaphysical issues." It will be interesting to see Carroll's approach as he tangles with William Lane Craig on February 21-22, 2014. No predictions here, except that, unlike the Super Bowl and the Nye-Ham debate, this one should at least be close. Note: It was.To sum up, this is a very engaging book that I am glad to own. Carroll offers much close-to-the-pulse information on the Higgs boson, as well as on the major players involved in its discovery. It really helps to have such good contacts, and you get the feeling that Carroll was right there with them as the drama unfolded. Also, Carroll does a great job of explaining the unique importance of the Higgs boson: how it fits into and largely completes the jigsaw puzzle of the Standard Model theory of particle physics, as well as predicting that its discovery will have a revolutionary effect on physics and on our lives. With that said, a dedicated reader can still benefit from other points of view on the Higgs boson. Fr. Dennis

A wonderful review of particle physics without the math, but with plenty of details. It’s all necessary in order to really understand the Higgs story and how it was developed, measured and accepted. Very well done.

I sent a very brief review of this excellent book when I was about halfway through. I would now like to share with readers a warning about a table on page 294 that is grossly flawed. The table has 4 columns. The first column has the items 'Up-type quarks, Top, Top, Top'. It should be 'Up-type quarks, Top, Charm, Up'. The second column has the items 'Down-type quarks (charge +1/3), Bottom, Bottom, Bottom'. It should be 'Down-type quarks (charge -1/3), Bottom, Strange, Down'. The third column has the items 'Charged leptons, 'Tau, Tau, Tau'. It should be 'Charged leptons, Tau, Muon, Electron'. And the fourth column has the items 'Neutrinos, Tau Neutrino, Tau Neutrino, Tau Neutrino'. It should be 'Neutrinos, Tau neutrino, Muon neutrino, Electron neutrino'.Making corrections to this chart will make reading this book a lot easier. The only other complaint I have is that the references to chapter 7 have been omitted. This book makes a lot of things intelligible for the non-specialist.

No tiene ningun error de impresion o algo parecido, solo que el papel se siente algo delgado.

Sean Caroll ist theoretischen Physiker am Caltech in Pasadena, er beschäftigt sich mit fundamentalen Fragen der Physik und Kosmologie, darunter zum Ursprung der Universums und der Natur der dunklen Materie und Energie. Sein vorliegendes populär wissenschaftliches Buch entstand auf dem Hintergrund der Bekanntgabe der Entdeckung des Higgs Boson am CERN, im Rahmen zweier Seminarvorträge am 4. Juli 2012, die als Videostream live in alle Welt, und insbesondere als Beiträge zur ICHEP2012 Konferenz in Melbourne, übertragen wurden. Der Autor erläutert die Hintergründe und die herausragende Bedeutung dieses Ergebnisses für die Elementarteilchen Physik, dabei geht er sowohl auf theoretische Bedeutung dieses Teilchen im sogenannten Standardmodel ein, er schildert aber auch ausführlich, welcher enorme experimentelle Aufwand notwendig war, um schließlich zu dieser Entdeckung zu gelangen – und was die beiden Experimente ATLAS und CMS am LHC eigentlich genau gemessen haben.Caroll tritt damit in gewisser Weise in die Fußstapfen von Leon Lederman und dessen The God Particle (1993), Ledermans leidenschaftliches Plädoyer für die Rolle, die der damals geplante SSC für die Fortschritte der Teilchenphysik haben würde. Der Bau des SSC wurde schließlich vom US Kongress gestoppt, so dass die Hoffnungen vieler Physiker auf Eis lagen, bis der LHC in Betrieb gehen konnte.Nach eine kurzen Einführung in das Thema, erläutert der Autor die grundlegenden Konzepte: Atome, Teilchen, Felder, Quanten etc. – die in der grundlegenden Vorstellung der modernen Elementarteilchentheorie zusammenführen, der Quantenfeldtheorie (QFT), danach sind die fundamentalen Objekte Quantenfelder, deren Anregungen (Vibrationen) aber gerade (virtuellen) Teilchen entsprechen, d.h. wann immer diese Felder beobachtet bzw. gemessen werden, treten sie als Teilchen in Erscheinung. Die erste ausgearbeitet QFT, die Quantenelektrodynamik (QED), beschrieb den Elektromagnetismus, und wurde von Schwinger, Feynman und Tomanaga um 1950 fertig gestellt.Es fehlte noch die Idee der Verbindung dieser Felder mit Eichsymmetrien, um auch starke und schwache Wechselwirkungen einbeziehen zu können; dabei handelt es sich um abstrakte Symmetrien, die etwa im Fall der starken Kraft, die sogenannten Farbladungen (rot, grün, blau) gegeneinander austauschen, ohne dass sich etwas wesentliches an der Theorie ändert. Allerdings sind solche globalen Symmetrien unphysikalisch, vielmehr sollte die Art es Tausches lokaler Natur sein. Damit eine Theorie unter solchen lokalen Eichtransformationen invariant bleibt, müssen zusätzliche Eichfelder eingeführt werdeb, die die von Punkt zu Punkt verschiedenen Transformation miteinander 'verbinden'. Es stellte sich nun heraus, dass diese Eichfelder gerade die Wechselwirkungskräfte beschreiben. Die Sache hatte leider noch einen Haken, denn die auf diese Weise beschrieben WW Bosonen, sind masselos – wie das Photon; allerdings wusste man bereits, dass die Bosonen der schwachen Kraft auf keinen Fall masselos sein konnten. Die Eichsymmetrie der schwachen WW muss also in der Natur 'gebrochen' vorkommen.Die Lösung dieses Dilemmas fand sich in der spontanen Symmetriebrechung durch ein Skalarfeld, dessen Vakuumwert verscheiden von Null ist. Diese Idee entwickelten gleich eine ganze Reihe von Forschern unabhängig voneinander: Robert Brout, François Englert und Peter Higgs, sowie T. W. B. Kibble, Carl Hagen und Gerald Guralnik.Die Darstellung des Autors ist allgemein verständlich gehalten, die theoretischen Erörterungen werden aufgelockert durch Schilderung der experimentellen Bemühungen auf der Suche nach dem Higgs, und der Tricks der Physiker, die sie anwenden müssen, um das Teilchen schließlich dingfest zu machen. Dabei räumt der Autor selbst eine Ausnahme ein, in dem Kapitel 'Nobel Träume' schildert er die historischen Umstände des Verständnisses der schwache WW und ihrer Symmetriebrechung genauer – diese Kapitel richtet sich an Physik- Begeisterte, die auch vor eine paar technischeren Zusammenhängen nicht zurückschrecken.In den ersten Entwürfen einer Eichtheorie der schwachen WW von Salam wurde die Symmetriebrechung per Hand hinzugefügt, solche Theorie können aber nicht renormierbar sein. Die Symmetrie muss also spontan gebrochen werden, d.h. die Naturgestze bleiben weiterhin unter der vollen Symmetrie invariant, während sie durch ein weiteres Feld 'verborgen' wird. Allerdings verwirrte zunähst die Aussage des Goldstone Theorems, wonach eine spontane Symmetriebrechung stets mit den Auftreten eines masselosen Boson verbunden ist; Schwinger und andere fanden schließlich ein Schlupfloch in dieser Argumentation. Und das Verdienst von Higgs und seinen Mitstreitern ist es gerade, einen Mechanismus dafür gefunden zu haben und zu zeigen, wie das Goldstone Boson 'vermieden' wird. Für den Leser dürfte es hilfreich sein, dazu auch den ersten Anhang über Masse und Spin von Teilchen zu beachten. Hier erläutert de Autor den Unterschied von masselosen und Masse behafteten Spin 1 Bosonen hinsichtlich ihrer Freiheitsgrade – so wird verständlich wieso die Zahl der Freiheitsgrade beim der spontanen Symmetriebrechung erhalten bleibt.Das Buch ist überaus gelungen, der Autor findet eine gute Balance zwischen Allgemeinverständlichkeit und der Erläuterung auch tieferer Zusammenhänge. Um den Umfang nicht zu sprengen, verzichtet er auf eine detailliertere Erörterung der Geheimnisse der Neutrinos – wer dazu mehr erfahren möchte, wird vielleicht das gerade erschiene, neue Buch von Jon Butterworth A Map of the Invisible interessant finden.

Particle physics, quantum theory cannot get simpler that this. I am still less than 50% done with this book but even after close to 150 pages I have not come across a single equation (except E=mc2). This is truly particle physics for dummies and still those dummies better be smart. The simplification is amazing and a constant vein of light humour through out the book makes it for an amazing read. Not something you can relax with just before bedtime (unless you want to be dreaming of gluons and fermions). But enthralling nonetheless if you are a person with basic understanding of physics.

Great book. It contains that which most certainly is the most thorough divulgative explanation of the Higgs mechanism I've ever read.

le demarrage est un peu lent, ceci ne retire neammoins en rien les qualites du contenuL'on obtient une vision large de la competition ayant eu cours entre l'europe et les USA por la construction d'accelerateurs (outils de recherche fondamentale).