The Infinity Puzzle

by Close, Frank

• ISBN13: 9780465021444
• ISBN10: 0465021441
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-11-29
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Speculation is rife that by 2012 the elusive Higgs boson will be found at the Large Hadron Collider. If found, the Higgs boson would help explain why everything has mass. But there's more at stake--what we're really testing is our capacity to make the universe reasonable. Our best understanding of physics is predicated on something known as quantum field theory. Unfortunately, in its raw form, it doesn't make sense--its outputs are physically impossible infinite percentages when they should be something simpler, like the number 1. The kind of physics that the Higgs boson represents seeks to "renormalize" field theory, forcing equations to provide answers that match what we see in the real world. The Infinity Puzzleis the story of a wild idea on the road to acceptance. Only Close can tell it.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Prologue: Amsterdam, 1971	p. 1
Genesis
The Point of Infinity	p. 17
Shelter Island and QED	p. 33
Feynman, Schwinger,… and Tomonaga (and Dyson)	p. 55
Intermission: 1950	p. 65
Abdus Salam: A Strong Beginning	p. 67
Yang, Mills,… and Shaw	p. 77
The Identity of John Ward	p. 93
The Marriage of Weak and Electromagnetic Forces-to 1964	p. 107
Intermission: i960	p. 125
Broken Symmetries	p. 127
"The Boson That Has Been Named After Me," a.k.a. the Higgs Boson	p. 151
Intermission: Mid-1960s	p. 183
1967: From Kibble to Salam and Weinberg	p. 185
"And Now I Introduce Mr. 't Hooft"	p. 203
Intermission: Early 1970s	p. 229
REVELATION
B. J. and the Cosmic Quarks	p. 233
A Comedy of Errors	p. 257
Intermission: 1975	p. 281
Heavy Light	p. 283
Warmly Admired, Richly Deserved	p. 295
The Big Machine	p. 313
Intermission: End of the Twentieth Century	p. 333
To Infinity and Beyond	p. 335
Epilogue	p. 353
Postscript	p. 357
Glossary	p. 359
Notes	p. 365
Bibliography	p. 413
Index	p. 417
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