Epstein Secrets

ance. Since the Big Bang implies that the early universe was hot and dense, conditions ex- isted then that we might never achieve in laboratories on Earth. But if we are clever, we can look for remnant signatures of those early times out in the cosmos, and we may be able test our ideas about even the

be correct. Things got more interesting when the LHC reported a tantalizing pos- sible signal due to a new particle about six times heavier than the Higgs particle. This particle did not have the characteristics one would expect for any supersymmetric partner of ordinary matter. In general the most e

ible scalar fields in nature. What about the Standard Model Higgs field? Could it play a role in all of these current cosmic shenanigans? Could the Higgs field store energy and be responsible for inflation either in the early universe or now? Could the Higgs field not be in its final ground state, an

r than light, ulti- mately disappearing from our horizon, leaving the universe cold, dark, and largely empty—the future that may result because of a Higgs field with a mass its times the mass of the proton could be far worse. For a Higgs mass coinciding with the allowed range of the observed 2P_Gleal

0. The strands of cable needed to make up the magnetic coils in the LHC span about 270,000 kilometers, or about six times the circum- ference of the Earth. If all the filaments in the strands were unrav- eled, they would stretch to the Sun and back more than five times. 11. The total energy in each bea

s would leave only the photon left over as a massless gauge boson. But there's more. By virtue of the gauge symmetry he introduced, Weinberg's new Higgs particle would also interact with electrons, and when the condensate formed, the effect would be to give electrons a mass as well as the W and Z pa

a revolutionary. But reluctant revolutionary he was, although, due to some shortsighted journal editors, he almost didn't get the chance. In 1960 Higgs had just taken up his post and had been asked to serve on the committee that coordinated the first Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics.

jects obscure that they are actually attracted to the earth's surface at the same rate; and Darwin's epic realization that the diversity of life on Earth could arise from a single progenitor by the simple process of natural selection. None of these connections was all that obvious, at first. However,

, author of Just Six Numbers "It is an exhilarating experience to be led through this fascinating story, from Galileo to the Standard Model and the Higgs boson and beyond, with lucid detail and insight, illuminating vividly not only the achieve- ments themselves but also the joy of creative thought an