God Particle: If the universe is the answer, what is the question?

Author: Leon Lederman / Dick Teresi / Mi Zujun / Gu Hongwei / Zhao Jianhui / Chen Hongwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: What are the ultimate particles that make up the universe? Starting from Democritus's "thought experiment" in ancient Greece, where he deduced the existence of "atoms" by smelling the aroma of baked bread, countless experimenters and theorists have struggled to unravel this mystery for over 2,000 years. In the early chapters of this book, one of the greatest particle physicists of our time, Nobel laureate in Physics in 1988, Leon Lederman, guides us through the long river of history with humorous and vivid language, offering a concise review of humanity's journey in searching for the ultimate particles of the universe. From this, we will see how the scientific predecessors, through one "Eureka moment" after another, gradually advanced this puzzle toward the key to unlocking the ultimate mystery of the universe—the God Particle. The "God Particle" is Lederman's nickname for the Higgs boson. This particle is a fundamental particle that physicists theoretically postulate to exist and has now become the center of research in the entire particle physics community. Lederman more vividly refers to it as the "particle conducting the universe's symphony." Through Lederman's entertaining narration, we not only gain a clear understanding of how modern physicists search for fundamental particles, read many interesting anecdotes from the history of modern physics, but also gain a deeper understanding of cutting-edge issues in contemporary physics, including the standard model, the Large Theory, superstrings, and dark matter. This also includes the more fundamental question of "why all matter has mass."