Pions to Quarks: Particle Physics in the 1950s

by Edited by Laurie Mark Brown , Max Dresden , Lillian Hoddeson

• ISBN13: 9780521100731
• ISBN10: 0521100739
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Editors Laurie Brown, Max Dresden and Lillian Hoddeson have assembled a prestigious group of physicists and historians of science to present a broadly balanced picture of this exciting scientific era that witnessed the coming of age of particle physics and its development into 'big science'. The historical studies and analyses provided in the volume are unique in their scope and level of detail. Major topics and developments addressed include the important experiments and their theoretical explanations, the design and construction of scientific instruments and the establishment of major research centres - especially the national laboratories that played a key role in the transformation of particle physics into 'big science'. These essays also range from sociological analyses of the particle physics subculture and the political aspects of research funding to discussions of symmetry and axiomatic field theory.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Pions to quarks

Particle discoveries in cosmic rays

Cosmic-ray cloud-chamber contributions to the discovery of the strange particles in the decade 1947ndash;1957

Cosmic-ray work with emulsions in the 1940s and 1950s

High-energy nuclear physics

Learning about nucleon resonances with pion photoproduction

A personal view of nucleon structure as revealed by electron scattering

Comments on electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon

The new laboratory

The making of an accelerator physicist

Accelerator design and construction in the 1950s

Early history of the Cosmotron and AGS

Panel on accelerators and detectors in the 1950s

Accelerators and the Midwestern Universities Research Association in the 1950s

Bubbles, sparks and the postwar laboratory

Development of the discharge (spark) chamber in Japan in the 1950s

Early work at the Bevatron

High-energy nuclear physics

Learning about nucleon resonances with pion photoproduction

A personal view of nucleon structure as revealed by electron scattering

Comments on electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon

The new laboratory

The making of an accelerator physicist

Accelerator design and construction in the 1950s

Early history of the Cosmotron and AGS

Panel on accelerators and detectors in the 1950s

Accelerators and the Midwestern Universities Research Association in the 1950s

Bubbles, sparks and the postwar laboratory

Development of the discharge (spark) chamber in Japan in the 1950s

Early work at the Bevatron

The new laboratory

The making of an accelerator physicist

Accelerator design and construction in the 1950s

Early history of the Cosmotron and AGS

Panel on accelerators and detectors in the 1950s

Accelerators and the Midwestern Universities Research Association in the 1950s

Bubbles, sparks and the postwar laboratory

Development of the discharge (spark) chamber in Japan in the 1950s

Early work at the Bevatron

The Strange Particles

The hydrogen bubble chamber and the strange resonances

A particular view of particle physics in the fifties

Strange particles

Strange particles

Detection of the neutrino

Recollections on the establishment of the weak-interaction notion

Symmetry and conservation laws in particle physics in the fifties

A connection between the strong and weak interactions

Weak interactions and parity nonconservation

The nondiscovery of parity nonconservation

K-meson decays and parity violation

An Experimentalist's Perspective

The early experiments leading to the V ndash

A interaction

Midcentury adventures in particles physics

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