Books — Particle Accelerators

Particle Accelerators

The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World

Lowest new price: $12.04
Lowest used price: $9.00
List price: $27.95
Author: Sean Carroll

Scientists have just announced an historic discovery on a par with the splitting of the atom: the Higgs boson, the key to understanding why mass exists has been found. In The Particle at the End of the Universe, Caltech physicist and acclaimed writer Sean Carroll takes readers behind the scenes of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to meet the scientists and explain this landmark event.

The Higgs boson is the particle that more than six thousand scientists have been looking for using the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest energy particle accelerator, which lies in a tunnel 17 miles in circumference, as deep as 575 feet beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. It took ten years to build and this search has now cost over $9 billion and required the collaboration of engineers from more than one hundred countries.

What is so special about the Higgs boson? We didn’t really know for sure if anything at the subatomic level had any mass at all until we found it. The fact is, while we have now essentially solved the mass puzzle, there are things we didn’t predict and possibilities we haven’t yet dreamed. A doorway is opening into the mind boggling, somewhat frightening world of dark matter. We only discovered the electron just over a hundred years ago and considering where that took us—from nuclear energy to quantum computing--the inventions that will result from the Higgs discovery will be world-changing.

The Particle at the End of the Universe not only explains the importance of the Higgs boson but also the Large Hadron Collider project itself. Projects this big don’t happen without a certain amount of conniving, dealing, and occasional skullduggery— and Sean Carroll explores it all. This is an irresistible story (including characters now set to win the Nobel Prize among other glories) about the greatest scientific achievement of our time.

Similar Products:

Handbook of Accelerator Physics and Engineering: 2nd Edition

Lowest new price: $54.55
List price: $58.00
Author: Alexander Wu Chao

Edited by internationally recognized authorities in the field, this expanded and updated new edition of the bestselling Handbook, containing more than 100 new articles, is aimed at the design and operation of modern particle accelerators. It is intended as a vade mecum for professional engineers and physicists engaged in these subjects. With a collection of more than 2000 equations, 300 illustrations and 500 graphs and tables, here one will find, in addition to the common formulae of previous compilations, hard-to-find, specialized formulae, recipes and material data pooled from the lifetime experience of many of the world's most able practitioners of the art and science of accelerators.

The eight chapters include both theoretical and practical matters as well as an extensive glossary of accelerator types. Chapters on beam dynamics and electromagnetic and nuclear interactions deal with linear and nonlinear single particle and collective effects including spin motion, beam-environment, beam-beam, beam-electron, beam-ion and intrabeam interactions. The impedance concept and related calculations are dealt with at length as are the instabilities associated with the various interactions mentioned. A chapter on operational considerations includes discussions on the assessment and correction of orbit and optics errors, real-time feedbacks, generation of short photon pulses, bunch compression, tuning of normal and superconducting linacs, energy recovery linacs, free electron lasers, cooling, space-charge compensation, brightness of light sources, collider luminosity optimization and collision schemes. Chapters on mechanical and electrical considerations present material data and important aspects of component design including heat transfer and refrigeration. Hardware systems for particle sources, feedback systems, confinement and acceleration (both normal conducting and superconducting) receive detailed treatment in a subsystems chapter, beam measurement techniques and apparatus being treated therein as well. The closing chapter gives data and methods for radiation protection computations as well as much data on radiation damage to various materials and devices.

A detailed name and subject index is provided together with reliable references to the literature where the most detailed information available on all subjects treated can be found.

The Quantum Frontier: The Large Hadron Collider

Lowest new price: $10.00
Lowest used price: $3.65
List price: $26.00
Author: Don Lincoln

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.

Similar Products:

The Physics and Technology of Ion Sources

Lowest new price: $229.13
Lowest used price: $245.00
List price: $300.00

The first edition of this title has become a well-known reference book on ion sources. The field is evolving constantly and rapidly, calling for a new, up-to-date version of the book. In the second edition of this significant title, editor Ian Brown, himself an authority in the field, compiles yet again articles written by renowned experts covering various aspects of ion source physics and technology. The book contains full chapters on the plasma physics of ion sources, ion beam formation, beam transport, computer modeling, and treats many different specific kinds of ion sources in sufficient detail to serve as a valuable reference text.

Similar Products:

Principles of Plasma Discharges and Materials Processing , 2nd Edition

Crystal Channeling and Its Application at High-Energy Accelerators (Accelerator Physics)

Lowest new price: $140.18
Lowest used price: $68.00
List price: $219.00
Author: Valery M. Biryukov

This monograph describes the basic physics of high-energy crystal channeling and introduces the nonspecialist to the application of bent-crystals at accelerators. It covers topics such as charged particle channeling in straight and bent crystals, particle trapping into the channeling mode, the effects of crystal lattice distortions, and computer simulations. It also deals with crystal bending methods and discusses experimental schemes and theoretical results. Particular consideration is given to the projects for crystal use at future large hadron colliders. The topics are treated in a textbook style with many figures. The book addresses students as well as the working physicists in high-energy physics laboratories.

Novel Radiation Sources Using Relativistic Electrons, from Infrared to X-Rays: F Rom Infrared to X-Rays (Series on Synchrotron Radiation Techniques and Applications)

Lowest new price: $98.00
Lowest used price: $73.50
List price: $102.00

The purpose of this text is to give a description of the state of art in theoretical and experimental work achieved in radiation source development. It summarizes the basic physical aspects needed to understand the phenomena, and also provides sufficient literature to be able to follow the development in more detail. In addition, the text contains a unified view of mosts theoretical effects and ther common properties. Recent developments as well as references to further work can also be found in this volume, and in many cases, review articles and texbooks published in specialized areas are incorporated into the text.

Handbook of Accelerator Physics and Engineering

Lowest new price: $84.35
Lowest used price: $81.82
List price: $97.00

Concerned with the design and operation of modern accelerators including linacs, synchrotrons and storage rings, this text includes both theoretical and practical matters. Chapters on beam dynamics and electromagnetic and nuclear interactions deals with linear and nonlinear single particle and collective effects including spin motion, beam-environment, beam-beam and intrabeam interactions. The impedance concept and calculations are covered along with the instabilities associated with the various interactions mentioned. A chapter on operational considerations deals with orbit error assessment and correction. Chapters on mechanical and electrical considerations present material data and aspects of component design including heat transfer and refrigeration. Hardware systems for particle sources, feedback systems, confinement and acceleration (both normal conduction and superconducting) receive detailed treatment in a subsystems chapter, which also covers beam measurement techniques and apparatus. The closing chapter gives data and methods for radiation protection computations as well as much data on radiation damage to various materials and devices.

Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles

Lowest new price: $2.65
Lowest used price: $0.01
List price: $27.95
Author: Paul Halpern

An accessible look at the hottest topic in physics and the experiments that will transform our understanding of the universe

The biggest news in science today is the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle-smasher, and the anticipation of finally discovering the Higgs boson particle. But what is the Higgs boson and why is it often referred to as the God Particle? Why are the Higgs and the LHC so important? Getting a handle on the science behind the LHC can be difficult for anyone without an advanced degree in particle physics, but you don't need to go back to school to learn about it. In Collider, award-winning physicist Paul Halpern provides you with the tools you need to understand what the LHC is and what it hopes to discover.

Comprehensive, accessible guide to the theory, history, and science behind experimental high-energy physics
Explains why particle physics could well be on the verge of some of its greatest breakthroughs, changing what we think we know about quarks, string theory, dark matter, dark energy, and the fundamentals of modern physics
Tells you why the theoretical Higgs boson is often referred to as the God particle and how its discovery could change our understanding of the universe
Clearly explains why fears that the LHC could create a miniature black hole that could swallow up the Earth amount to a tempest in a very tiny teapot
"Best of 2009 Sci-Tech Books (Physics)"-Library Journal
"Halpern makes the search for mysterious particles pertinent and exciting by explaining clearly what we don't know about the universe, and offering a hopeful outlook for future research."-Publishers Weekly
Includes a new author preface, "The Fate of the Large Hadron Collider and the Future of High-Energy Physics"

The world will not come to an end any time soon, but we may learn a lot more about it in the blink of an eye. Read Collider and find out what, when, and how.

Top Ten Ways the Large Hadron Collider Could Revolutionize the World of Science
Content from Paul Halpern

1. Solve the riddle of dark matter: the elusive invisible substance that helps steer the outer stars of galaxies and bind galaxies into clusters. The LHC could produce particles massive enough to explain this mystery.

2. Complete the puzzle of the Standard Model: the theory uniting two of the four known forces of nature, electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Based on what turns up in the LHC decay products, this model could be confirmed or need to be modified.

3. Identify the God Particle: more formally known as the Higgs boson. The Higgs is part of a mechanism that explains how the particles that make up matter acquired mass in the early universe, while photons, the carriers of light, remained massless. The mass of the Higgs, if it were found, would help indicate whether the Standard Model is fine as it stands or requires adjustment.

4. Reproduce some of the intense conditions of the Big Bang: the fiery, highly-compact state of the primordial cosmos. One of the specialized detectors at the LHC, called ALICE, will study quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter that existed in the first microseconds of the universe. At that point its temperature was so high that the quarks and gluons that would later form elementary particles such as protons and neutrons were free to move.

5. Explain the universe’s shortage of antimatter: the oppositely-charged counterparts of electrons, protons and other particles. The LHCb, another specialized detector at the LHC, is designed to look for imbalances in certain types of decays that could elucidate how the balance of a harmonious early state of the universe came to tilt in the direction of far more matter than antimatter.

6. Generate miniature black holes: hypothetical incredibly dense states of matter analogous to some of the intense gravitational conditions of the collapsed cores of massive stars. No worries, however; these would decay almost immediately into various particles before presenting even the slimmest chance of harming the Earth.

7. Reveal gateways to higher dimensions: unseen paths beyond ordinary space and time. Certain theories justify why gravity is so much weaker than the other natural forces by positing that gravity particles leak into an extra dimension that ordinary matter and light cannot penetrate. Investigators at the LHC will search for evidence of such invisible channels.

8. Unify matter and forces through supersymmetry: a hypothesis asserting that each matter particle has a counterpart in the world of forces, and each force carrier, a companion in the realm of matter. The LHC will search for the least massive superpartners of conventional particles. The verification of supersymmetry would be an extraordinarily important step toward a theory of everything.

9. Predict the ultimate fate of the cosmos: Recent astronomical discoveries have indicated that space is accelerating in its expansion. The nature of any massive particles found at the LHC could help scientists unravel the properties of this dark energy and thereby determine what will ultimately happen to the universe.

10. Inspire new generations: to pursue careers in physics and carry on the search for the ultimate theory of nature. The shining example of discoveries at the LHC would illuminate a path for future scientists to follow.

Browse Photos of the Collider (Click on image to enlarge)

A corner of the Proton Synchrotron device with its bending magnets. Built in the late 1950s, it has since been used for a variety of purposes and now serves as an early stage of the injector system to accelerate protons and ions before they reach the main ring of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Paul Halpern standing on the grounds of CERN in Switzerland. In the right background is the Globe of Science and Innovation, built in 2002 as a symbol of our planet. In the far left background are the Jura Mountains in France. The 17 mile main ring of the LHC lies deep beneath the verdant countryside between the mountains and CERN.

The Linac (linear accelerator) at CERN is another component of the system for accelerating protons and ions before they reach the main ring of the LHC.

A sample cross-section of a beam pipe through which particles travel.

Similar Products:

Particle Accelerator Physics

Lowest new price: $94.36
Lowest used price: $89.00
List price: $129.00
Author: Helmut Wiedemann

This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive introduction to the field of high-energy particle acceleration and beam dynamics. This is the first modern and comprehensive textbook in the field. It begins by gathering the basic tools, recalling the essentials of electrostatics and electrodynamics as well as of particle dynamics in electromagnetic fields. It includes coverage of advanced topics of coupled beam dynamics. There is an exhaustive treatment of radiation from accelerated charges. Appendices gather useful mathematical and physical formulae, parameters and units, and solutions to the many end-of-chapter problems are given.

Similar Products:

Accelerator Physics (Third Edition)

Lowest new price: $55.24
Lowest used price: $68.10
List price: $68.00
Author: S Y Lee

Research and development of high energy accelerators began in 1911. Since then, milestones achieved are:

The impacts of the accelerator development are evidenced by the many ground-breaking discoveries in particle and nuclear physics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, biology, biomedical physics, nuclear medicine, medical therapy, and industrial processing. This book is intended to be used as a graduate or senior undergraduate textbook in accelerator physics and science. It can be used as preparatory course material in graduate accelerator physics thesis research. The text covers historical accelerator development, transverse betatron motion, synchrotron motion, an introduction to linear accelerators, and synchrotron radiation phenomena in low emittance electron storage rings, introduction to special topics such as the free electron laser and the beam-beam interaction. Attention is paid to derivation of the action-angle variables of the phase space, because the transformation is important for understanding advanced topics such as the collective instability and nonlinear beam dynamics. Each section is followed by exercises, which are designed to reinforce concepts and to solve realistic accelerator design problems.

Similar Products:

Particle Accelerator Physics

Apparel & Accessories	Books	Classical Music	DVD	Electronics & Photo	Gourmet Food and Groceries	Health & Personal Care	Home & Garden	Industrial & Scientific	Kitchen
Popular Music	Musical Instruments	Outdoor Living	Computer Hardware	Computer Software	Sporting Goods	Tools	Toys and Games	VHS Video	Video Games