Beyond the God Particle

July 22, 2013
“The God particle” will probably be the go-to phrase to describe the Higgs boson for decades. Lederman coined the phrase, which he called an “exercise in literary license” and which served as the title of his 1993 book about the elusive particle. Here, the Nobel Laureate teams up once again with fellow Fermilab physicist and coauthor Hill (after their most recent joint effort, Quantum Physics for Poets) with a postdiscovery look at the Higgs and its important role in modern physics. But this offering isn’t for poets—unless, of course, they’ve taken their fair share of upper-level physics courses. After reviewing some basic quantum mechanics, the authors discuss “the lowly muon” (a kind of elementary particle) and how it provided the first indication that the Higgs boson must exist. Theory held that mass—a measure not of weight, but of a quantity of matter—arose from the Higgs field, which was created by Higgs bosons “piling on” to fill up the vacuum with a constant flow of weak charge. Proving this, however, required the construction of the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful and most expensive particle accelerator ever built. The authors offer a brief but intriguing glimpse of the future of particle physics, but their story jarringly jumps between past and present, making it difficult to keep track of the particles in play and why exactly each is important. Diagrams.

August 1, 2013
An energetic follow-up to The God Particle (1993), Nobel laureate Lederman's fine overview of particle physics. This time, Lederman is assisted by theoretical physicist Hill; the two co-authored Quantum Physics for Poets (2011) and Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe (2004). The Higgs field and its particle, given its glitzy name in the first book and discovered in 2012, take up only one of a dozen chapters that reveal why mass exists. Contrary to the common misconception, "mass" does not mean heaviness but simply the presence of matter, as opposed to its absence in something like a light photon. It turns out that everything in the universe--protons, electrons, atoms, human beings--would be massless if not for the Higgs field. The authors explain this with an account of the critical importance of symmetries in particle interactions and why the weak force has a much shorter range than the electromagnetic force. In a large portion of the book, Lederman and Hill examine questions that physicists should address in the coming years, as well as the machines they must build to do this. The European Large Hadron Collider of Higgs fame produces modest numbers of extremely energetic protons. Machines with a different output (muons, electrons) or an immense output of particles with less energy would illuminate rare interactions, fleeting particles such as neutrinos, or still-obscure phenomena such as dark matter and dark energy. Despite the authors' enthusiasm, chatty style, and generous use of diagrams, charts and analogy, many readers will struggle with the complexity of the subject matter. Some concepts in physics (string theory is another) are difficult to explain to general readers, but Lederman and Hill make a noble effort, and those who obey their frequent suggestions to re-read may find it worth the effort.

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September 15, 2013

The 1988 Nobel laureate (physics), Lederman (director emeritus, Fermi National Accelorator Laboratory; coauthor with Dick Teresi, The God Particle) partners again with theoretical physicist Hill (formerly, Fermi National Accelorator Laboratory; coauthor with Lederman, Quantum Physics for Poets) to discuss the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson particle at CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) and what's next for subatomic particle physics research. This is essentially a sequel to The God Particle, in which the titular term for Higgs boson was coined. Both descriptive and prescriptive, this new book presents enjoyable overviews of discoveries of the physical world, from molecules to atoms and subatomic particles, including a clear description of the need for huge machines to provide energy to accelerate tiny particles. The authors still lament the U.S. government's 1993 cancellation of the Superconducting Super Collider in Texas, which could have led to the discovery of the Higgs and kept this country in the forefront of particle physics research. That lament drives the prescriptive aspects of this text. The authors aim to offer "coulds and shoulds," and do, including a directive thoroughly to study strong interactions in particle physics. VERDICT Ranging from simple explanations of particles and forces to more detailed discussions (that are math-lite), this engaging work will be most interesting to science enthusiasts and the science literate.--Sara R. Tompson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA

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