Most Wanted Particle: The Inside Story of the Hunt for the Higgs, the Heart of the Future of Physics

by Jon Butterworth, Lisa Randall (Foreword by)

Overview

Now in paperback: From a top physicist at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the first insider account of the discovery of the Higgs particle, and what it all means for our understanding of the laws of nature.

Jon Butterworth captures a singular moment in science, when the entire field of particle physics hinged on a fundamental question: Why do some particles have mass? A leading physicist at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest science experiment, Butterworth recounts the fast-paced, high-stakes hunt for the Higgs boson—the stubbornly elusive particle that would finally validate a 50-year-old theory . . . and change physics forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615193011
Publisher:	Experiment, The
Publication date:	03/08/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	111,419
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jon Butterworth, author of Most Wanted Particle, is one of the leading physicists on the Large Hadron Collider and is head of Physics and Astronomy at University College London. He writes the popular Life and Physics blog for the Guardian and has written articles for a range of publications including the Guardian and New Scientist. He divides his time between London and Geneva, Switzerland.

Table of Contents

Foreword Lisa Randall ix

Preface to the Paperback Edition xiii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Before the Data 3

Chapter 2 Restart 38

Chapter 3 High Energy 61

Chapter 4 Standard Model 100

Chapter 5 Rumours and Limits 132

Chapter 6 First Higgs Hints and Some Crazy Neutrinos 170

Chapter 7 Closing In 198

Chapter 8 Discovery 224

Chapter 9 What Next? 242

Acknowledgements 275

Index 277

About the Author 288

Editorial Reviews

Butterworth is an insider’s insider. His narrative seethes with insights on the project’s science, technology and ‘tribes,’ as well as his personal (and often amusing) journey as a frontier physicist.”—Nature

“Butterworth ranges far beyond billiards to find ordinary-world comparisons that clarify abstruse scientific concepts. . . . Still, despite all of his colorful simplifying metaphors, Butterworth challenges his readers with real high-level science, taking them deep enough into the Standard Model of theoretical subatomic physics to explain why researchers around the globe monitor the reports from Europe’s Large Hadron Collider with anxious expectation—their most fundamental assumptions about the universe hanging in the balance.”—Booklist, starred review

“The author’s real achievement is in making experimental topics such as jet algorithms, cross-sections, calorimeters, and standard deviation interesting and even exciting. [Butterworth] also does an excellent job of portraying the culture of particle physics and the life of a researcher in the field. . . . Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.”—Choice

“Most of the existing popular accounts of the events leading up to the July 2012 discovery claim at CERN are written from a theoretical perspective by outsiders. Jon Butterworth is an experimentalist and is the first to give a vivid account of what the process of discovery was really like for an insider.”
—Peter Higgs, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics

“The story of the search for the Higgs boson is so edge-of-your-seat exciting that it practically tells itself—but still, why not get the story from someone who was there for every step along the way? Jon Butterworth is a talented writer and a world expert in the physics, and his book is hard to put down.”
—Sean Carroll, physicist at Caltech and author of The Particle at the End of the Universe

“If you want to know why the discovery of the Higgs boson matters, read this book!”
—Brian Cox, author of Why Does E=mc2?

“A fascinating inside perspective of the discovery of the Higgs boson . . . combined with intimate details about the life of a high-powered physicist and some lovely explanations of the physics.”—New Scientist

“The politics, excitement, and sheer intellectual adventure of discovery . . . from someone who was actually there!”
—Jim Al-Khalili, author of Quantum

“A smashing journey.”—Physics World

“If you met Jon Butterworth in a pub—which, judging from the many anecdotes in Most Wanted Particle, is a non-trivial probability—his is the voice you’d like to hear, this is the tale you’d want him to tell: a breezy recounting of the discovery of the Higgs boson that turns out to be both an accessible primer on particle physics and a lively look at behind-the-scenes Big Science.”
—Richard Panek, author of The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

“Like The Lord of the Rings, Most Wanted Particle takes readers on a long path with many moments of peril and uncertainty to reach the triumphant discovery of the Higgs Boson. It is a great chronicle of a part of the endless chain of progress in science at the LHC.”
—Jim Gates, University System of Maryland Regents Professor of Physics

“An excellent, accessible guide to one of science’s greatest discoveries . . . vivid insights into the doing of science, including the customs of various scientific tribes at CERN.”—Sunday Times

An Observer Top Ten Science and Technology book

“Unlocks the holy grail of combining entertainment and understanding.” —PFILM

“Riveting! Gonzo journalism but in the entrails of experimental particle physics.”
—Pedro G. Ferreira, author of The Perfect Theory

“[A] charming, enlightening bulletin from one of the most exciting fields of human endeavor.” —Guardian

“If you’re remotely curious about the universe, read this.”
—Steven Thompson of PhysicsSteve.co.uk, a theoretical physics blog

From the Publisher