Big Bang

by Harland, David M.

• ISBN13: 9781852337131
• ISBN10: 1852337133
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

David Harland describes the historical development of particle physics, and explains, in a non-mathematical way, how particle physics has influenced the structure of the Universe from the very beginning of time. He demonstrates the close links between discoveries in particle physics and in cosmology up to the present. He describes how our understanding of the Universe has developed from the discovery that the Universe is expanding, to the idea that all matter originated in a hot, Big Bang, then explains the many subtle improvements to the basic theory that have been necessary to understand how the very smallest particles and earliest structures (the 'microscale') in the Universe evolved to produce the Universe as it is now (the 'macroscale'). The author also describes how scientists are attempting to develop a 'Theory of Everything' that would explain how an instant after the Big Bang a single primordial force was transformed into the four forces of nature that we observe today, which hitherto were believed to be 'fundamental'.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xv
List of tables	xix
Author's preface	xxi
Acknowledgements	xxiii
PART I: A SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE
1 In the centre of immensities	3	(14)
The celestial realm	3	(1)
Newton's insights	4	(4)
The solar system	8	(2)
A system of stars	10	(2)
The lightyear	12	(5)
PART II: THE FORCES OF NATURE
2 The mysterious aether	17	(16)
The nature of light	17	(2)
Electricity and magnetism	19	(3)
Electromagnetism	22	(1)
Relativity	23	(4)
The discovery of the electron	27	(3)
Seeing the light	30	(3)
3 The structure of the atom	33	(20)
Mysterious rays	33	(2)
The nucleus	35	(2)
Bohr's atom	37	(4)
Quantum mechanics	41	(3)
Uncertainty	44	(1)
Fermions and bosons	45	(1)
Inside the nucleus	46	(2)
Alpha decay explained	48	(1)
Neutron instability	48	(1)
Cosmic rays	49	(1)
Antimatter	49	(1)
Accelerators	50	(1)
The little neutral one	51	(2)
4 Nuclear forces	53	(8)
Exchange particles	53	(2)
Muon	55	(1)
Pion	56	(1)
Strange particles	57	(2)
Quantum electrodynamics	59	(2)
5 Symmetries and phase changes	61	(32)
A new outlook	61	(3)
Gauge invariance	64	(2)
The weak force	66	(3)
The hadron zoo	69	(4)
Quarks	73	(3)
Feynman's partons	76	(1)
The mass issue	77	(2)
Weinberg's synthesis	79	(2)
Breakthough	81	(2)
The discovery of the charmed quark	83	(2)
Coloured quarks, gluons and asymptotic freedom	85	(6)
Quantum chromodynamics	91	(1)
The Standard Model	91	(2)
6 Seeking a theory of everything	93	(14)
Unification of fermions	93	(1)
Proton decay	94	(3)
Three generations	97	(1)
Supersymmetry of fermions and bosons	97	(1)
Supergravity	98	(1)
String theory	99	(8)
PART III: DISCOVERING THE UNIVERSE
7 The spiral nebulae	107	(26)
Whirlpools in the sky	107	(1)
The Milky Way system	108	(14)
The 'island universes'	122	(6)
Hubble's breakthrough	128	(5)
8 Cosmology	133	(22)
Amazing ideas	133	(2)
The most ambitious project	135	(1)
Theory catches up	136	(1)
The Big Eye	136	(3)
Exploding stars	139	(3)
The primordial fireball	142	(2)
The heavy elements	144	(1)
Steady state	145	(1)
The relic of the fireball	146	(4)
Missed opportunities	150	(1)
Following the curve	151	(4)
9 Probing the furthest reaches	155	(38)
A matter of scale	155	(1)
Mysterious quasars	156	(14)
Seeing red	170	(5)
Slowing down	175	(3)
Inflation	178	(10)
Large-scale structures	188	(1)
Dark matter	189	(4)
10 Supermassive black holes	193	(20)
Galactic cores	193	(13)
Our own monster	206	(7)
11 Fitting the pieces together	213	(14)
Sandage's ordeal	213	(1)
Hipparcos	213	(1)
Key Project	214	(4)
Runaway acceleration	218	(5)
Finally, Omega = 1	223	(4)
12 The Big Bang	227	(14)
The nature of black holes	227	(2)
No singularities!	229	(1)
The cooling fireball	230	(2)
The matter-antimatter imbalance	232	(3)
The earliest galaxies	235	(2)
Dim prospects	237	(4)
Further reading	241	(8)
Index	249