In Quest of the Quark: A Student's Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics

Contents

Chapter 1.  The Beginning

Chapter 2.  The Quest For Simplicity: History Of The Development Of The Periodic Table Of The Elements

Chapter 3.  The Composite Units Of Matter/Energy: Bosons And Fermions

Chapter 4.  The Fermion Family

Chapter 5.  The Boson Family: Forces And The Bosons Which Produce Them

Chapter 6.  Symmetry Theory Of Forces

Chapter 7.  Symmetry Breaking

Chapter 8.  The Unification Of Forces: An Historical Perspective

Chapter 9.  Summary

Chapter 10.  Echoes Of The Past

Review Questions

Glossary Of Terms

References

DEDICATION

In memory of Eric

from a small family on a big street

who is in my thoughts and in my heart

every moment of my life.

. . . . and to my dad

whose nights at the kitchen table

with me and my math

live forever in my heart.

Appreciation to Rotary International

and Rotary District 5320 for their

support of this cross-cultural project.

"Everything comes from everything.

Everything is made from everything,

And everything can be turned

Into everything else."

Leonardo de Vinci

CHAPTER 1

The Beginning

A S LONG AGO as the Greek age of Aristotle, man has been proposing that the chemical make-up of his world was based on the tiny unit called the atom from the Greek word atomos meaning indivisible (or not dividable). As chemical theory progressed through the ages, physicists began to make inquiries into the interior composition of the atomic unit. This resulted in the Periodic Table of the Elements designed by Mendeleev during the 19 th century. Finally, in the 20 th century the truth was discovered: not only is the atom dividable, but it is composed of precisely arranged, discretely categorizable particles.

The classic Atomic Theory portrait bases matter on a unit known as the atom, composed of a centrally located nucleus which contains various numbers of protons and orbited (at near light speed) by various numbers of electrons. The smallest atom is that of Hydrogen with only one proton, positively charged, as the nucleus, and orbited by one negatively charged electron. The charges then cancel each other and the atom is neutral. All other atoms are multiples of Hydrogen, from Helium with two protons and two electrons, to uranium with 92 protons orbited by 92 electrons shown in Figure 1. Additionally, neutrally charged particles called neutrons may also reside in the nucleus. Since neutrons have no charge, they do not disturb the neutrality of the atom, but only add to its mass. The larger atoms with greater numbers of electrons surrounding their nuclei have these electrons arranged in specific levels of orbital paths. It is, however, only the number of outermost electrons that determine an atom’s physical and chemical characteristics, including whether or not, how, and to what extent, the atom will interact with the outermost electrons of another atom.

As time progressed, other particles made their appearance on the list of sub-atomic particles. Although their charges and masses (or lack of it) could be detected, their relationships to each other remained, for the most part, an anomaly; until the 1960’s that is. While the political world was rending itself apart from within, and the hallowed