The Search for Superstrings, Symmetry, And the Theory of Everything

by Gribbin, John

• ISBN13: 9780316326148
• ISBN10: 0316326143
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-01
• Publisher: Back Bay Books

Summary

Since Einstein's time, a "theory of everything" -- one coherent mathematical model that would encompass all the forces and particles of nature -- has become the Holy Grail of physics, and its pursuit has resulted in some of the most extraordinary ideas in the history of science. This invaluable primer at last enables all of us to understand these ideas. John Gribbin provides a brief, succinct, accessible overview of the hundred-year saga of particle physics, explaining everything from the basics (how subatomic particles work) to the cutting-edge research that has produced dazzling new models of the universe, among them the radical theories of "superstrings" -- the hypothesis that particles are loops of vibrating "string" -- and "supersymmetry".

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction The Material World	3	(7)
Quantum Physics for Beginners	10	(43)
Photons
Electrons
The Central Mystery
Chance and Uncertainty
Path Integrals and a Plurality of Worlds
Out of the Frying Pan?
Particles and Fields	53	(55)
Field Theory
Two More Forces, and a Particle Zoo
The Eightfold Way: Order Out of Chaos
Quarks
Gauging the Nature of Things
In Search of Superforce	108	(36)
Electroweak Unification
Gauge Theory Comes of Age
Quarks With Colour
Desperately Seeking SUSY	144	(41)
The Search for Supersymmetry
The Many Dimensions of Reality
Stringing Things Together
SUSY Found?
Appendix I Group Theory for Beginners	185	(6)
Appendix II Recreating the Birth of the Universe in the Lab	191	(9)
Bibliography	200	(5)
Index	205