The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter

Helen R. Quinn is professor emerita of particle physics and astrophysics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, she is the coauthor of The Charm of Strange Quarks: Mysteries and Revolutions of Particle Physics. Yossi Nir is professor of physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Acknowledgments xi Chapter 1: Prelude: The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter 1 Chapter 2: Constant Physics in an Evolving Universe 7 Universal Laws 7 Hubble and the Expanding Universe 8 Red-shifts: Evidence for an Expanding Universe 12 Numbers Large and Small 17 What Do We Mean by "Universe"? 19 Chapter 3: As the Universe Expands 21 Running the Clock Forward: Radiation 21 Running the Clock Forward: Dark Matter 26 Running the Clock Forward: Light Nuclei 29 Running the Clock Forward: Matter and Antimatter 32 Chapter 4: What Is Antimatter? 36 What Is Matter? 36 Dirac Introduces Antimatter 42 Experiments Confirm That Antimatter Exists 45 Radioactive Decays of Nuclei 48 Chapter 5: Enter Neutrinos 51 Pauli: The Beta Decay Puzzle 51 Fermi: The Theory of Neutrinos Develops 53 Cowan and Reines: Neutrinos Detected 55 Chapter 6: Mesons 57 Yukawa and the Pi-Meson 57 Strange Mesons, Strange Quantum Concepts 61 Chapter 7: Through the Looking Glass 63 What Physicists Mean by the Term Symmetry 63 A Gedanken Experiment 64 The Actual Experiment 67 Chapter 8: Through the Looking Antiglass 73 Another Gedanken Experiment 73 Cronin and Fitch: Matter and Antimatter Do Not Follow the Same Laws 75 Chapter 9: The Survival of Matter 80 Pauli's Other Letter: Initial Conditions on the Universe 80 Sakharov: The Conditions Needed to Develop an Imbalance 84 Cosmology with Sakharov's Conditions Met: Baryogenesis 88 Chapter 10: Enter Quarks 91 Quarks 91 Why Don't We See the Quarks? 96 What about Dark Matter? 100 The Missing Charm, the Surprising Tau 101 The Standard Model: Particles and Interactions 107 Chapter 11: Energy Rules 111 Stored Energy, Forces, and Energy Conservation 111 Force Fields Permeating Space 114 Field Theory and the Energy Function 116 Chapter 12: Symmetry Rules 121 Symmetries as Answers to the Question "Why?" 121 Symmetries and Conservation Laws 123 Space-Time Symmetries 124 Gauge Symmetries 126 Discrete Symmetries 128 Baryon and Lepton Number Conservation? 130 Chapter 13: Standard Model Gauge Symmetries 132 The Symmetry behind the Electromagnetic Interaction 132 The Symmetry behind the Strong Interaction 134 The Symmetry behind the Weak Interaction 137 Chapter 14: A Missing Piece 140 The Puzzle of Particle Masses 140 How Do We Describe Nothing? 146 At Last, CP Violated in the Standard Model 153 Chapter 15: It Still Doesn't Work! 159 Running the Clock Forward: The Standard Model 159 Now What? 163 Chapter 16: Tools of the Trade 168 Accelerators 168 Detectors 172 Data Handling and Analysis 177 How Projects Develop 178 Chapter 17: Searching for Clues 180 Where Are We Now? 180 Testing the Standard Model in B-Meson Decays 182 Oddone: How to Build B Factories? 184 Running the B Factories: The First Test 190 Chapter 18: Speculations 194 Why Are We Never Satisfied? 194 Grand Unified Theories 195 Supersymmetry 201 Way beyond the Standard Model 204 Chapter 19: Neutrino Surprises 206 Davis, Bahcall, Koshiba: Solar Neutrinos 206 Quantum Neutrino Properties 214 Chapter 20: Following the New Clues 222 Some Things We Know 222 Some Things We Speculate About 225 Fitting It All Together 227 Chapter 21: Finale 231 Appendix: A Timeline of Particle Physics and Cosmology 233 Perspective 233 Relevant Nineteenth-Century Developments 234 1900-1930: Development of Quantum Ideas, Beginnings of Scientific Cosmology 238 1930-1950: New Particles, New Ideas 245 1930-1960s: The Advent of Accelerator Experiments--The Particle Explosion; Implications of Expanding Universe Explored 249 1964-1973: Formulation of the Modern View of Particles and the Universe 256 Two Standard Models Emerge--Particles and Cosmology 263 Index 273