Perspectives on Lhc Physics


Book Description

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, is the world's largest and highest energy and highest intensity particle accelerator. Here is a timely book with several perspectives on the hoped-for discoveries from the LHC.This book provides an overview on the techniques that will be crucial for finding new physics at the LHC, as well as perspectives on the importance and implications of the discoveries. Among the accomplished contributors to this book are leaders and visionaries in the field of particle physics beyond the Standard Model, including two Nobel Laureates (Steven Weinberg and Frank Wilczek), and presumably some future Nobel Laureates, plus top younger theorists and experimenters. With its blend of popular and technical contents, the book will have wide appeal, not only to physical scientists but also to those in related fields.




LHC Physics


Book Description

Exploring the phenomenology of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, LHC Physics focuses on the first years of data collected at the LHC as well as the experimental and theoretical tools involved. It discusses a broad spectrum of experimental and theoretical activity in particle physics, from the searches for the Higgs boson and physics beyond the Standard Model to studies of quantum chromodynamics, the B-physics sector, and the properties of dense hadronic matter in heavy-ion collisions. Covering the topics in a pedagogical manner, the book introduces the theoretical and phenomenological framework of hadron collisions and presents the current theoretical models of frontier physics. It offers overviews of the main detector components, the initial calibration procedures, and search strategies. The authors also provide explicit examples of physics analyses drawn from the recently shut down Tevatron. In the coming years, or perhaps even sooner, the LHC experiments may reveal the Higgs boson and offer insight beyond the Standard Model. Written by some of the most prominent and active researchers in particle physics, this volume equips new physicists with the theory and tools needed to understand the various LHC experiments and prepares them to make future contributions to the field.




Jet Physics at the LHC


Book Description

This book reviews the latest experimental results on jet physics from proton-proton collisons at the LHC. Jets allow to determine the strong coupling constant over a wide range of energies up the highest ones possible so far, and to constrain the gluon parton distribution of the proton, both of which are important uncertainties on theory predictions in general and for the Higgs boson in particular.A novel approach in this book is to categorize the examined quantities according to the types of absolute, ratio, or shape measurements and to explain in detail the advantages and differences. Including numerous illustrations and tables the physics message and impact of each observable is clearly elaborated.




Lectures on LHC Physics


Book Description

With the discovery of the Higgs boson, the LHC experiments have closed the most important gap in our understanding of fundamental interactions, confirming that such interactions between elementary particles can be described by quantum field theory, more specifically by a renormalizable gauge theory. This theory is a priori valid for arbitrarily high energy scales and does not require an ultraviolet completion. Yet, when trying to apply the concrete knowledge of quantum field theory to actual LHC physics - in particular to the Higgs sector and certain regimes of QCD - one inevitably encounters an intricate maze of phenomenological know-how, common lore and other, often historically developed intuitions about what works and what doesn’t. These lectures cover three aspects to help understand LHC results in the Higgs sector and in searches for physics beyond the Standard Model: they discuss the many facets of Higgs physics, which is at the core of this significantly expanded second edition; then QCD, to the degree relevant for LHC measurements; as well as further standard phenomenological background knowledge. They are intended to serve as a brief but sufficiently detailed primer on LHC physics to enable graduate students and all newcomers to the field to find their way through the more advanced literature, and to help those starting to work in this very timely and exciting field of research. Advanced readers will benefit from this course-based text for their own lectures and seminars. .




Experimental Particle Physics


Book Description

Experimental Particle Physics is written for advanced undergraduate or beginning postgraduate students starting data analysis in experimental particle physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Assuming only a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics and special relativity, the text reviews the current state of affairs in particle physics, before comprehensively introducing all the ingredients that go into an analysis.




Particle Physics in the LHC Era


Book Description

This text gives an introduction to particle physics at a level accessible to advanced undergraduate students. It is based on lectures given to 4th year physics students over a number of years, and reflects the feedback from the students. The aim is to explain the theoretical and experimental basis of the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics with the simplest mathematical treatment possible. All the experimental discoveries that led to the understanding of the SM relied on particle detectors and most of them required advanced particle accelerators. A unique feature of this book is that it gives a serious introduction to the fundamental accelerator and detector physics, which is currently only available in advanced graduate textbooks. The mathematical tools that are required such as group theory are covered in one chapter. A modern treatment of the Dirac equation is given in which the free particle Dirac equation is seen as being equivalent to the Lorentz transformation. The idea of generating the SM interactions from fundamental gauge symmetries is explained. The core of the book covers the SM. The tools developed are used to explain its theoretical basis and a clear discussion is given of the critical experimental evidence which underpins it. A thorough account is given of quark flavour and neutrino oscillations based on published experimental results, including some from running experiments. A simple introduction to the Higgs sector of the SM is given. This explains the key idea of how spontaneous symmetry breaking can generate particle masses without violating the underlying gauge symmetry. A key feature of this book is that it gives an accessible explanation of the discovery of the Higgs boson, including the advanced statistical techniques required. The final chapter gives an introduction to LHC physics beyond the standard model and the techniques used in searches for new physics. There is an outline of the shortcomings of the SM and a discussion of possible solutions and future experiments to resolve these outstanding questions. For updates, new results, useful links as well as corrections to errata in this book, please see the book website maintained by the authors: https://pplhcera.physics.ox.ac.uk/




The Large Hadron Collider


Book Description

Describes the technology and engineering of the Large Hadron collider (LHC), one of the greatest scientific marvels of this young 21st century. This book traces the feat of its construction, written by the head scientists involved, placed into the context of the scientific goals and principles.




The Quantum Frontier


Book Description

The highest-energy particle accelerator ever built, the Large Hadron Collider runs under the border between France and Switzerland. It leapt into action on September 10, 2008, amid unprecedented global press coverage and widespread fears that its energy would create tiny black holes that could destroy the earth. By smashing together particles smaller than atoms, the LHC recreates the conditions hypothesized to have existed just moments after the big bang. Physicists expect it to aid our understanding of how the universe came into being and to show us much about the standard model of particle physics—even possibly proving the existence of the mysterious Higgs boson. In exploring what the collider does and what it might find, Don Lincoln explains what the LHC is likely to teach us about particle physics, including uncovering the nature of dark matter, finding micro black holes and supersymmetric particles, identifying extra dimensions, and revealing the origin of mass in the universe. Thousands of physicists from around the globe will have access to the LHC, none of whom really knows what outcomes will be produced by the $7.7 billion project. Whatever it reveals, the results arising from the Large Hadron Collider will profoundly alter our understanding of the cosmos and the atom and stimulate amateur and professional scientists for years to come.




A Zeptospace Odyssey: A Journey Into the Physics of the LHC


Book Description

This book aims to provide a guide for understanding and following the discoveries that will take place within the next few years at the Large Hadron Collider project at CERN.




The Particle at the End of the Universe


Book Description

"The Higgs boson ... is the key to understanding why mass exists and how atoms are possible. After billions of dollars and decades of effort by more than six thousand researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland--a doorway is opening into the mind-boggling world of dark matter and beyond. Caltech physicist and acclaimed writer Sean Carroll explains both the importance of the Higgs boson and the ultimately human story behind the greatest scientific achievement of our time"--Publisher