The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World by Sean Carroll (PDF)

Description

Winner of the prestigious 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books“A modern voyage of discovery.” —Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate, author of The Lightness of Being The Higgs boson is one of our era’s most fascinating scientific frontiers and the key to understanding why mass exists. The most recent book on the subject, The God Particle, was a bestseller. Now, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll documents the doorway that is opening—after billions of dollars and the efforts of thousands of researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland—into the mind-boggling world of dark matter. The Particle at the End of the Universe has it all: money and politics, jealousy and self-sacrifice, history and cutting-edge physics—all grippingly told by a rising star of science writing.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “The science is authoritative, yet bold and lively. The narrative is richly documented, yet full of human drama. Carroll’s saga pulls you aboard a modern voyage of discovery.”—Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate, author of The Lightness of Being“In this superb book, Sean Carroll provides a fascinating and lucid look at the most mysterious and important particle in nature, and the experiment that revealed it. Anyone with an interest in physics should read this, and join him in examining the new worlds of physics to which this discovery may lead.” —Leonard Mlodinow, author of NYT bestseller The Drunkard’s Walk”Carroll tells the story of the particle that everyone has heard of but few of us actually understand. After you read his book—an enticing cocktail of personal anecdote, clever analogy, and a small dose of mind-bending theory—you will truly grasp why the Higgs boson has been sought after for so long by so many. Carroll is a believer in big science asking big questions and his beliefs are infectious and inspiring.”—Morgan Freeman, Actor and Executive Producer of Through the Wormhole”Carroll is a sure-footed guide through some of the most perplexing and fascinating insights of modern physics.”-Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe — Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe”[Carroll’s] writing is accessible and peppered with cultural refernces… but don’t be fooled Carroll isn’t afraid to wade into topics that have befuddled even brand-name physicists.”-Wired — Wired”Carroll keeps it real, getting at the complex guts of cutting-edge cosmology in discussions that will challenge fans of Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.”-The Washington Post — The Washington Post About the Author Sean Carroll, Ph.D., is a theoretical physicist at Caltech. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, writer Jennifer Ouellette.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐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

⭐Since the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson, I’ve tried to find books giving a fuller understanding about the Higgs field and this is the best so far. It does emphasise the reality of the field and tries to explain to laymen such as myself some of the concepts of the associated field theories. In this it has limited success – I still felt the need for more intuitive understanding but maybe it is the nature of the quantum theory beast that this is not possible. The author gives a good account of the accelerator story leading up to the construction and operation of the LHC and this, together with the explanations of the theory behind the predictions makes for a very readable and interesting book.

⭐Good, but I didn’t find it captivating and compelling the way I found other physics books for the general reader. Something Deeply Hidden, by the same author, was far better, in my view.

⭐I bought this simply because I have (and have tried to study) Carroll’s “serious” work (on relativity etc) – so this was a kind of curiosity buyWhen I started to read this, I thought “oh no, another rehash of old stuff”. But on going further, I saw that there were some valuable little insights into some finer points. As a physics graduate, I am always beefing at the way fields are treated/described in a very slapdash manner (in my opinion) even by the highest authorities. So it was good to see that Carroll has made an honest attempt to describe fields as clearly as he could for a lay person

⭐Haven’t finished yet but am enjoying it because it adds info I didn’t get from other books and lectures on the same subject

⭐Plenty of good stuff which goes beyond the fairly trivial reporting you get from most news reports, but if someone asked me over a pint exactly why thousands of physicists were celebrating at CERN I still don’t think I could give them a sensible answer. I guess modern physics is so bizarre that no author can come up with real-world analogies which truly illuminate matters. And I suspect the politicians who agreed to pour zillions of dollars into the LHC were probably hoping for a more clear-cut outcome than a small kink in a graph.

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