The Perfect Wave: With Neutrinos at the Boundary of Space and Time

by Heinrich Päs

Overview

Almost weightless and able to pass through the densest materials with ease, neutrinos seem to defy the laws of nature. But these mysterious particles may hold the key to our deepest questions about the universe, says physicist Heinrich Päs. In The Perfect Wave, Päs serves as our fluent, deeply knowledgeable guide to a particle world that tests the boundaries of space, time, and human knowledge.

The existence of the neutrino was first proposed in 1930, but decades passed before one was detected. Päs animates the philosophical and scientific developments that led to and have followed from this seminal discovery, ranging from familiar topics of relativity and quantum mechanics to more speculative theories about dark energy and supersymmetry. Many cutting-edge topics in neutrino research—conjectures about the origin of matter, extra-dimensional spacetime, and the possibility of time travel—remain unproven. But Päs describes the ambitious projects under way that may confirm them, including accelerator experiments at CERN and Fermilab, huge subterranean telescopes designed to detect high-energy neutrino radiation, and the Planck space observatory scheduled to investigate the role of neutrinos in cosmic evolution.

As Päs's history of the neutrino illustrates, what is now established fact often sounded wildly implausible and unnatural when first proposed. The radical side of physics is both an exciting and an essential part of scientific progress, and The Perfect Wave renders it accessible to the interested reader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674725010
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	02/10/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)
Language:	German

About the Author

Heinrich Päs is Professor of Theoretical Particle Physics at Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Dawn Patrol in Honolulu 1

2 Eleusis, Plato, Magic Mushrooms 7

3 Quantum Physics: The Multiverse of Parmenides 17

4 Black Dots on a White Background: The Particle World 34

5 Beyond the Desert: Symmetries and Unification 51

6 From Symmetry Breaking to Supersymmetry 65

7 Birth of an Outlaw: The Neutrino 81

8 Nuclear Decays a Thousand Meters Underground 97

9 New Physics Is Falling from the Skies 115

10 Cosmic Connections 131

11 Neutrinos: Key to the Universe 154

12 Extra Dimensions, Strings, and Branes 167

13 Einstein's Heritage: What Is Time? 188

14 How to Build a Time Machine 202

15 Against Hawking and the Timekeepers 213

16 Into the Wilderness of the Terascale 230

17 Epilogue: Major Tom and the Singing Socrates 248

Notes 257

Further Reading 265

Acknowledgments 279

Index 283

Editorial Reviews

11/11/2013
Päs, a professor of theoretical particle physics, embraces a surfing metaphor and takes readers for a wild ride in pursuit of the neutrino—part ghost, part outlaw, part Holy Grail to theoretical physicists. Wolfgang Pauli first proposed the electrically neutral, massless neutrino in 1930 to explain what happened to the energy lost during beta decay. Päs explains how neutrinos, living up to their ghostly reputation, evaded detection until 1951. Still more mysterious, subsequent experiments revealed that neutrinos have mass, and can also transform themselves into different types—electron, muon, and tau neutrinos—as well as be their own antiparticles. Given that unique mutability, Päs’s enthusiasm is understandable as he shows how neutrinos may be the “key to the universe,” filling in the gaps in the Standard Model of modern physics as well as revealing important cosmological details about the our universe and how it formed—including the secrets of dark matter, dark energy, and perhaps even time travel. From vast laboratories deep underground to the cutting edge Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory nearing completion in frigid Antarctica, Päs reveals the “world of madmen, dreamers, and visionaries” who pursue the neutrino and its place in theoretical physics. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Entertaining and evocative, Päs has written a breezy, readable account of particle physics, especially neutrino physics, in a lucid, lively narrative.

Sandip Pakvasa

Written by one of the world’s leading experts in the field…Heinrich Päs’ book guides the reader through some difficult territory, covering the historical and philosophical developments that led to our understanding of the neutrino today. It is a peculiar route that navigates via such topics as the ancient Greek and magic mushrooms. Plus of course the obligatory cat that is simultaneously alive and dead… Though this book is written in simple language, don’t expect an easy read. There are some highly challenging ideas to get your head around—but it is worth making the effort.

BBC Sky at Night - Paul Sutherland

The ghostly neutrino—a mutable, almost massless particle that can pass through dense substances—stars in this scientific history. Theoretical physicist Heinrich Päs surfs the decades of dazzling research since Wolfgang Pauli first posited the particle in 1930. Päs revisits key theorists such as Ettore Majorana, and lays out the work of groundbreaking labs from Los Alamos in New Mexico, where Fred Reines and Clyde Cowan first detected neutrinos in the early 1950s, to today’s vast IceCube neutrino observatory in Antarctica.

Nature

Some science books are good because they tell you a lot about science. Some are good because they present their examples and argument in very well written prose. A few do both. The Perfect Wave is one of the few… I can highly recommend The Perfect Wave as a pleasant and provocative way to gain insight into the way physicists think, and into the way the universe (probably) works.

Wall Street Journal - John Gribbin

Päs for his part, places neutrinos within the broader context of contemporary high theory and delves deeper into the science. Physics buffs will relish his explanations, and not just of established ideas such a the seesaw mechanism. Neutrinos, Päs explains, may offer a way to probe the extra dimensions of space postulated by some ‘theories of everything.’ The puny particles’ weirdness, it seems, knows no end.

The Economist

The ghostly neutrino—a mutable, almost massless particle that can pass through dense substances—stars in this scientific history. Theoretical physicist Heinrich Päs surfs the decades of dazzling research since Wolfgang Pauli first posited the particle in 1930. Päs revisits key theorists such as Ettore Majorana, and lays out the work of groundbreaking labs from Los Alamos in New Mexico, where Fred Reines and Clyde Cowan first detected neutrinos in the early 1950s, to today’s vast IceCube neutrino observatory in Antarctica.

Nature Lib