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好书推介:《宇宙终极粒子》

已有 4766 次阅读 2017-5-12 11:42 |个人分类:道法自然|系统分类:科普集锦| 希格斯子

THE PARTICLE AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE

How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World

Sean Carroll

宇宙终极粒子:如何探测希格斯玻色子,率我们到新世界的前缘

作者:肖恩凯若尔


电子版下载地址见后文

作者简介


   全名肖恩迈克尔凯若尔(SeanMichael Carroll),生于1966105,是一位宇宙学家和物理学教授,研究领域包括暗能量、广义相对论、量子力学、引力作用、统计力学和宇宙学。他的兴趣宽广,涉及哲学、复杂性理论和信息论。他是美国加利福尼亚理工学院物理系的一位研究教授,是物理学博克“宇宙方差”的供稿者,在科学期刊杂志(如《自然》、《纽约时代》、《天空和望远镜》、《新科学家》)上发表过文章。    

   凯若尔是一位活跃的科学传播者,自2004年以来就经常在博克中发表文章。他出现在美国历史频道的《宇宙》、科学频道的《与摩甘弗瑞曼一起穿过虫洞》和喜剧中心的《科尔伯特报告》等节目上。他已为教育公司发行了一套讲义,是关于暗物质和暗能量的;另一套讲义是关于时间的本性。他曾作为影片(如《雷神和创神:遗产》(Thor and TRON: Legacy))以及电视秀(如《波纹和骨架》(Fringe and Bones))的科学顾问。

凯若尔是广义相对论研究生课本《时空和几何》的作者,此书被美国许多大学采用;他还是一位频繁的公众演讲者,参与录制了《宇宙大课堂》、《时间物理学》、《希格斯玻色子》等讲课视频。

他还是三本畅销科普的作者:一本是关于时间之箭,名叫《从永恒到此刻》;一本关于希格斯玻色子,名叫《宇宙终极粒子》(本书);另一本关于科学和哲学,名叫《大图景:关于生命起源、意义和宇宙本身》。

《豪放的宇宙》一书作者科尔希勒曾评价他:“年青的博士后肖恩卡若尔Sean Carroll),他是哈佛最聪明、最风趣的天文学研究生之一。”这正是他后来在物理科普界和科学媒体中受欢迎的原因之一。


详见:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_M._Carroll

http://preposterousuniverse.com/


内容简介    

   希格斯玻色子是我们时代最迷人的科学前缘之一,是理解为何存在质量的关键。关于该主题的最新畅销书是《上帝粒子》。现在,加利福尼亚理工学院物理学家肖尔凯若尔用资料证明了——用瑞士大型强子对撞机,耗费数十亿美元,经数千名研究人员的努力——门道向难以置信的暗物质世界是打开的。《宇宙终极粒子》完全讲述了:经费和政策,嫉妒和牺牲,历史和前缘物理——全被一颗正在升起的科学作家明星进行了富有吸引力的讲述。

   当媒体在20127月初宣布探测者终于证实了难以捉摸的希格斯玻色子(所谓的上帝粒子)的存在时,世界各地物理学家们欢呼该发现是一次重大的科学突破。传到加利福尼亚理工学院研究员凯若尔(《从永恒到此刻》出版于2010)那里,该事件赐予了又一次机会:他是最好的将复杂思想转译为通俗语言。在描述希格斯玻色子在理论推测几十年之后如何被探测到的过程中,凯若尔覆盖了宽广的科学领域,从大爆炸到量子力学,以及建造瑞士大型强子对撞机(实验建立了证实了该粒子的存在性)背后的棘手政策。顺带概述了像超对称这种抽象概念,凯若尔更轻松地解释了为啥好莱坞喜爱科学,并解释了如果对撞机非故意地产生了一个微型黑洞,为啥世界不可能终结。第一流的物理学逐渐放大了我们对所居住的宇宙的理解。


短评

本书关于宇宙中最难以捉摸的粒子,它是万有科学家们梦想解释物理学如何运作的关键。它必须被发现。但大型项目,如CERN的大型强子对撞机,不会不发生不可置信的风险,以及偶尔的欺骗。在这种标志性时间的定义考量中,加利福尼亚理工学院物理学家和喝彩的科学作家肖尔凯若尔展示了认识、竞争和发现希格斯子的惊叹,并带领我们经历一次引人入胜的、不可抗拒的、通往当今物理学最前缘的旅行。

——因科学著作而获2013年皇家协会温顿奖的赢得者


科学具有权威性,但仍勇敢而活跃。本书叙述的材料丰富,但充满人类戏剧性。凯若尔的探险故事将你推向现代发现之旅。

——弗兰克维尔泽克(FrankWilczek),诺贝尔奖获得者,《存在之轻》的作者


   在这本丰富的著作中,肖尔凯若尔关于自然界中最神秘的重要粒子,以及发现它的实验,提供了一次迷人而清楚的观览。对物理感兴趣的任何人应该阅读本书,并与他一起检察这次发现可能导致的物理新世界。

——勒诺德穆罗德劳(LeonardMlodinow),NYT畅销书《醉汉的脚步》的作者


   凯若尔讲述了每个人曾听过、但实际上我们很少几人理解的粒子故事。本书是一道关于个人轶事的、充满诱惑的“鸡尾酒”(开胃菜),巧妙的比喻,以及少量磨心的理论。在你阅读本书之后,你将真正了解为何希格斯玻色子长期被那么多人发现到了。凯若尔在探究大问题的大科学中是一位信心者,他的信念带有感染性和启发性。

——摩甘弗瑞曼(MorganFreeman),《穿过虫洞》的导演和执行制片人


   凯若尔是一位步伐坚定的向导,纵览了现代物理学中一些最困惑而迷人的认识。

——博润格林,《优雅的宇宙》的作者


   [凯若尔的]著作是平易近人的,而且参考了丰富的文献但不会把人弄傻。凯若尔不怕跋涉进入甚至困惑大牌科学家的那些主题。

——网友Wired


   凯若尔保持真实,站在宇宙学前缘的复杂机构内部进行探讨,要“挑战”霍金的《时间简史》的粉丝们。


——《华盛顿邮报》


长评(部分)

StarsAn effective menu of the particle zoo

By Dan F. Duda on November 29, 2012

Sean Carroll is clearly one of the giantsin his ability to make comprehensible the incomprehensible world of particlephysics. In terms of cataloguing and explaining the fields, forces and matter(and their relationships) that make up reality, this is the ultimate work thatI've read so far (at least for those of us not in the particle physicsprofession). And importantly, we need to remember that this is an area ofscience in the process of very rapid evolution. That brings us to one of themajor themes of the book. Carroll does an excellent job presenting the historyand the ongoing research at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) including thecritical search for the illusive Higg's Boson. A word of caution: don't skipthe appendices.


I'd have to rate this an "importantread" for anyone obsessed with understanding what existence is all about.Not surprisingly it doesn't have the answer, but it does help explain theprocess and the path science is on to reach that goal.


AnExciting History of the Higgs and What it Means

By RandolphEck on July 25, 2013

Having read Sean Carroll's previous bookFrom Eternity to Here, and having thoroughly enjoyed it, I eagerly anticipatedthe opportunity to read this book. I wasn't disappointed. The title is interesting.It is not that the Higgs is at the "end of the universe" as if therewas such a thing, but that it is located at the "explanatory end." Itprovides a final piece of puzzle that helps us understand how ordinary matterin our world works at a deep level.


Carroll first introduces us to someelementary particle physics theory, where we learn about quarks, leptons(electron, muon, tau particles, for example), bosons (photons, gluons, and thehiggs), fermions (matter particles such as protons and neutrons) and what theyall mean. This provides a nice introduction to the topic. He then segues into adiscussion of the Large Hadron Collider. It is here that bunches of protons aresmashed into each other by two beams going in opposite directions. The amountof data produced by these collisions is enormous. We are talking aboutcollisions occurring 20 million times per second, each crossing producingdozens of collisions resulting in hundreds of millions of collisions a second -yikes!. This vast amount of data is filtered by something called a trigger, ofwhich there are two levels. This data is then sent through a Worldwide LHCComputing Grid that connects computing centers in thirty-five differentnations. Both the Internet and private optical cables are used to distributethis vast amount of data. This whole thing is incredible!


After that brief insight into the workingof the LHC, Carroll switches to theoretical concepts. We learn some informationabout quantum field theory, fields that result in the particles we detect, theHiggs field and its boson, and symmetry (what is local symmetry, connectionfields, problems with symmetry and symmetry breaking, and the symmetries ofweak interactions). This information helps us to appreciate the Higgs field andits importance to the Standard Model. We can now get into the events leading upto the discovery of the Higgs at CERN in the chapter appropriately entitled"Bringing the House Down."


Carroll then discusses the people andevents leading to the discovery of the "Higgs mechanism". The storyactually goes back to research on superconductors. Physicists Yoichiro Nambuand Giovanni Jona-Lasinio showed how spontaneous symmetry breaking (necessaryin the Higgs model) could occur even if you weren't inside a superconductor butcould also happen in empty space. Through the work of numerous physicists suchas Jeffrey Goldstone, Phil Anderson, Francois Englert, Robert Brout, PeterHiggs, Gerald Guralnik, Carl Richard Hagen, Tom Kibble, Sheldon Glashow, AbdusSalam, John Ward, Steven Weinberg, and others I probably missed, the story ofthe discovery of the "Higgs mechanism" became a permanent part ofhistory. This history might be a bit difficult to follow for the non-expert,but it gives you an idea of how the work of many individuals contributed to anunderstanding of the matter.


Carroll then discusses things beyond theHiggs, such as, the early universe, WIMPs, the hierarchy problem, vacuum energy,dark energy, supersymmetry (here we have five Higgs instead of one), strings,extra dimensions, branes, and the multiverse. He concludes the section sayingthat "Discovering the Higgs is not the end of particle physics. The Higgswas the final piece of the Standard Model, but it's also a window onto physicsbeyond that theory." The Higgs will be important in the understanding ofdark matter, supersymmetry, extra dimensions, and whatever is to follow. Thisis the beginning of a new era.


I want to also mention the three appendixesthat provide more in depth information on the nature of mass and spin as theyrelate to particles, the Standard Model particles themselves, and theirinteractions. This is a welcome addition for those who want a more detaileddiscussion of the theoretical concepts. One note, however, there is a misprintof The Particle Zoo table on page 294. The masses and charges are correct, butthe quark (top, bottom) and lepton (Tau, Tau neutrino) labels were repeated.You can easily find the correct table on the Internet. In addition, Carrollprovides two full color panel sections with pictures of the key peopleinvolved, the LHC, and some data charts showing the Higgs discovery - verynice.


I love Sean Carroll's books. I think I'lladd him to my favorite authors list.



Greatread

By Shane Anthony Pitts on November 13, 2012

Sean Carroll is a great writer, with hisown brand of penmanship. He elegantly introduces particle physics without themathematical jargon that can be confusing to some scientifically illiteratereaders, which is a good thing if his goal is to explicate this topic to themasses. It does contain some repetitive info though, especially if you havealready browsed through a bunch theoretical physics books. However, Sean Carroll'sbook does have an advantage, since the discovery of the particle, that seems tobe the Higgs boson, was just around the corner. If you are interested inparticle physics, amazed by the standard model's newly discovered member, andeager to fill your curiosity bucket with as much information as possible, thanthis book is a must read for you.


目录

开篇语

1

2 近乎神圣

3 原子与粒子

4 加速器故事

5 最大碰撞机

6 碰撞智慧

7 波中之粒

8 透过破镜

9 推倒大厦

10 传播喜讯

11 诺奖之梦

12 超越视界

13 值得捍卫

附录1 质量和自旋

附录2 标准模型粒子

附录3 粒子及其相互作用


英语好的建议看英文电子书,下载地址(下载后可转化成pdf等格式),物理粉丝们切莫错过(资料来自网络,仅供学习教育研究之用):

http://vdisk.weibo.com/s/GhU7fYDiGkDC?sudaref=www.baidu.com


注:本书最初在2012年出版了,我前几年在网上搜到此书电子版,闪电般浏览后感觉不错。目录反映出本书比较详细的介绍了希格斯子的探测证实过程,而且介绍了与之有关的许多物理学前缘,知识较新颖,思想丰富,语言通俗。

本书作者肖恩是美国著名物理学家、科普作家和科普活动家,在亚马逊网站评论达232个。他之前所写的三本科普书都已成为畅销书。推测这三本书可能已被国内出版社拿走了版权,目前还没有汉译本出版,希望此书不会被人糟蹋。

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