The Particle Explosion

The Particle Explosion (1987) by Oxford University Press tells the story of particle physics from the unexpected discoveries of electrons, x-rays, and radioactivity in the 1890s to the meticulously planned, large scale experiments nearly a century later that detected the W and Z particles, thereby confirming the Standard Model. The three authors - Frank Close, Michael Marten, and Christine Sutton - should be commended for the exceptional set of photos that make this book so fascinating. The target audience is the enthusiastic layman, but this account should also appeal to all science students, especially undergraduate physics majors. Even numbered chapters focus on the researchers and their massive machines. Odd numbered chapters describe the subatomic particles. This unusual even-odd arrangement is surprisingly well-integrated and does not attract attention to itself. The Particle Explosion is true to its title. The reader encounters neutrinos, muons, pions (pi-zero, pi-plus, pi-minus), kaons (K-zero, K-plus, K-minus), J/PSI, D (D-zero, D-plus), upsilon, lambda, sigma (sigma-zero, sigma-plus, sigma-minus), xi (xi-minus, xi-zero), omega minus, and charmed lambda. And don't forget, there is an antiparticle for every particle as well as resonance states for many particles. Fortunately, Murray Gell-Mann and others bundled these bewildering particles into well-behaved symmetry groups. Rather unexpectedly, I actually developed some skill at deciphering images of particle tracks from cloud chambers, bubble chambers, and various electronic detectors. I found that I could even recognize indications of missing particles. Nonetheless, complicated images revealing quarks and gluons remain intimidating. Computer processing is needed to remove unrelated low-momentum tracks, and thereby expose the unique signatures of high energy quarks. As fate would have it, I no sooner completed this book review than I learned that a 2002 edition with the title The Particle Odyssey (same three authors) was available. The new layout is quite similar. The material has been updated to cover the years 1987-2002 and the graphics are even better. Recommendation: Deep Down Things (John Hopkins Press, 2004) by Bruce A. Schumm offers a more technical look at the Standard Model. Five stars.

Bubble chamber tracks were always a mystery to me ... until I discovered "The Particle Explosion". This book is wonderful because ... The edited & colorized bubble chamber photographs engender a new, visceral, level of understanding of elementary particles. With so many books and articles on theoretical and abstract aspects of quantum mechaniscs, this book reveals the, oft neglected, world of experimental particle physicists and their immense accomplishments. It is a wonderful example of expository writing, where complex mechanisms are clearly described without resorting to diagrams.