Power of (Alpha): Electron Elementary Particle Generation With (Alpha)-quantized Lifetimes ( World Scientific )

459 Pages·2007·8.43 MB·English

by  Malcolm H. MacGregor

THE POWER OF
Electron Elementary Particle Generration
With ªQuantized Lifetimes and Masses
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
THE POWER OF
Electron Elementary Particle Generration
With ªQuantized Lifetimes and Masses
MALCOLM H. MAC GREGOR
Formerly of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA
World Scientific
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
THE POWER OF ααααα
Electron Elementary Particle Generation with ααααα-Quantized Lifetimes and Masses
Copyright © 2007 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
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ISBN-13 978-981-256-961-5
ISBN-10 981-256-961-8
Printed in Singapore.
CheeHok - The Power of Alpha.pmd 1 1/23/2007, 11:59 AM
March27,2007 21:53 BookTitle: ThePowerof(cid:11)|9inx6in power-main
\The one thing everyone who cares about fundamental physics seems to
agree on is that new ideas are needed. ...We are missing something big."
\...Inthe historyof science,therehavebeenmanyinstancesofdiscoveries
that surprised scientists because they were not anticipated by theory. Are
thereobservationstodaythatwetheoristshavenotaskedfor,thatnotheory
invites|observationsthatcouldmovephysicsinaninterestingdirection?
Isthereachancethatsuchobservationshavealreadybeenmadebutignored
because, if con(cid:12)rmed, they would be inconvenient for our theorizing?"
Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics, pp. 308 and 203{4
(Houghton Mi(cid:15)in, Boston, 2006)
v
March27,2007 21:53 BookTitle: ThePowerof(cid:11)|9inx6in power-main
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
March27,2007 21:53 BookTitle: ThePowerof(cid:11)|9inx6in power-main
Preface:
The Training of an Elementary
Particle Phenomenologist
This book is about the phenomenology of the elementary particle.
Phenomenology is not experiment, and it is not really theory; it is the
intermediateregionthattiesthesetwoareasofphysicstogether. Academi-
cally, physicistswho areinterested in elementaryparticlescarryout theses
inexperimentalparticlephysicsorintheoreticalparticlephysics,butnotin
phenomenological particle physics. There is no formal academic program
that prepares a person to become a phenomenologist.
When a physicist decides to learn a new area of physics, he or she
often does a phenomenological survey to get up to speed | to learn the
\big picture." One asks: \What are the experimental facts that have been
established in this (cid:12)eld, and how well has theory succeeded in tying these
factstogether? Whataretheunansweredquestions? Whereisthefrontier?
Is there some place here where I can make a contribution?" My personal
ventureintothe(cid:12)eldofelementaryparticlephenomenologystartedin1969.
This preface is a brief summary of the route I followed to get there.
At the time when I started into physics at the University of Michigan,
rightafterWWII,therewasno(cid:12)eldofspecializationlabeledas\elementary
particle physics." There were not enough particles known to justify it. Of
course,that situation changedveryquickly in the 1950’s. In those dayswe
graduatedin physics with the labelof \experimentalist"or\theorist,"and
that was pretty much it. I was the former. The Physical Review itself was
a rather slender journal that encompassed all of physics. Its division into
several thick sections came much later.
My training in science began with my induction into the U.S. Navy
as a 17-year-old volunteer in the spring of 1944, right after complet-
ing a shortened high-school curriculum. I enrolled in training school to
vii
March27,2007 21:53 BookTitle: ThePowerof(cid:11)|9inx6in power-main
viii The Power of (cid:11)
Fig. 1. TheInstitute of Theoretical Physics, Copenhagen,Denmark,Fall 1960. The
occasion was the gathering for the o(cid:14)cial photograph of theyear’s attendees atthe
Institute. ProfessorNielsBohrisaddressingus,andheisdeliveringashortlesson on
optics. He points out that \if you can’t see the camera, the camera can’t see you."
Professor Bohr’s index (cid:12)nger is aimedin thedirection of thepresentauthor.
becomearadiotechnician, whichincluded both radiocommunicationsand
alsothe newly-implementedradarsystems. Weweretaughtthe fundamen-
tals of electromagnetic circuit theory, and we spent several months (cid:12)nding
andrepairingproblemsinradiosand radarsthat ourinstructorspurposely
created in the equipment. The entire program was 11 months long, and
included (in my case) pre-radio school in Chicago, Illinois, primary school
in Monterey, California, and secondary school (as a member of the Navy
Air Corps) in Corpus Christi, Texas. I ended up with the classi(cid:12)cation
of Aviation Electronics Technician’s Mate First Class. After completing
my training, I served as an instructor and repairman with a Naval air
squadron stationed in the US, and later as an instructor in radar naviga-
tion. After the warended inAugust 1945,my specialtywasoneof the last
onestobe discharged,since theyneeded AETM’stokeepthe planes(cid:13)ying
March27,2007 21:53 BookTitle: ThePowerof(cid:11)|9inx6in power-main
Preface ix
Fig. 2. The author Malcolm Mac Gregor and his bride-to-be Eleanor Derda in the
Fall of 1948, visiting thecampusatPurdueUniversity. The occasion was aPurdue{
Michigan football game. Eleanor was attendingnearby Valparaiso University.
properly. I was (cid:12)nally released in June 1946, and I enrolled at the Univer-
sity of Michigan in July 1946. My undergraduate work was completed in
June 1949, and I emerged with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics.
In1948IobtainedasummerjobasamemberofaUniversityofMichigan
researchteamdoingphysicalopticsmeasurementsincentralMichigan. We
mounted large(cid:13)uorescent light sourcesin (cid:12)re towersspaced some 30 miles
apart,andthen photographedthematvarioustimesof daytomeasurethe
object\shimmer"producedbyvariationsinthe densityofthe atmosphere.
My job was to obtain the loan of several Navy jeeps and install and main-
tain radio transmitters in them. This was our communications system. In
addition to carrying out our research duties, (cid:12)ve out of eight of us young
men in the project ended up marrying girls that we met in the Michigan
heartland during the summer. I met a young lady from South Bend, In-
diana named Eleanor Derda, who was vacationing at a nearby lake. We