Discovering quarks : remembering Feynman, Gell-Mann, and Tollestrup / George Zweig.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zweig, George, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feynman, Richard P. (Richard Phillips), 1918-1988.

Feynman, Richard P.

Gell-Mann, Murray.

Tollestrup, Alvin.

Quarks--History.

Quarks.

Particles (Nuclear physics)--History.

Particles (Nuclear physics).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 201 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

This book describes the development of our understanding of the strong interactions in particle physics, through its competing ideas and personalities, its false starts, blind alleys, and moments of glory - culminating with the author's discovery of quarks, real particles living in a deeper layer of reality. How were quarks discovered, what did physicists think they were, and what did they turn out to be? These questions are answered through a collection of personal remembrances. The focus is on the reality of quarks, and why that reality made them so difficult to accept. How Feynman and Gell-Mann practiced physics, with their contrasting styles and motivations, presented different obstacles to accepting this reality. And how was the author, as a graduate student, able to imagine their existence, and act on it? Science buffs, students, and experts alike will find much here to pique their interest and learn about quarks along the way.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Contents

Preface

1 The Road to Quarks

1.1 Prologue

1.2 Radioactivity

1.3 Rutherford and His Group

1.4 Nuclei Before Neutrons

1.5 Neutrons

1.6 Heisenberg's Nuclear Physics

1.7 Quantum Mechanics

1.8 Classical Fields

1.9 Quantum Fields

1.10 Looking Ahead

2 The Discovery of Quarks

2.1 Strangeness

2.2 The Elementary Particles in 1957

2.3 Why So Many Hadrons?

2.4 Personal History

2.5 Fundamental Physics

2.6 An Overlooked Anomaly

2.7 Constituents

2.8 The Mesons

2.9 The Baryons

2.10 Mass Relations

2.11 An Analogy

2.12 The Reaction

2.13 Invention or Discovery?

2.A Anomalies

2.B Hadrons and Their Halos

2.C The First Pion-Nucleon Resonance

2.D Ace Charges and Baryon Numbers

3 Alvin Virgil Tollestrup

3.1 Caltech

3.2 The Fermilab Years

3.3 Life Is on the Wire

4 Richard Phillips Feynman

4.1 Prologue

4.2 Before Meeting Feynman: Parity Violation

4.3 First Impressions

4.4 Quantum Gravity

4.5 Physics with Feynman

4.6 Feynman and Aces

4.7 What Constitutes the Craft of Theory?

4.8 Dirac's Visit

4.9 A Difficult Period

4.10 Recovery

4.11 Feynman's Character

4.12 His Influence on Others

4.13 Support

4.14 Diversions

4.15 A Dark Side

4.16 Towards the End

4.17 Final Thoughts

4.18 Epilogue

5 Murray Gell-Mann

5.1 Prologue

5.2 An Early Beacon

5.3 Murray's Toy Field Theories

5.4 The Eightfold Way

5.5 Mathematical Quarks for a Toy Field Theory

5.6 Later Years

5.7 Mr.Physics

5.8 A Dark Side

5.9 Comparing Feynman with Gell-Mann

5.A Gell-Mann's 1961-62 Publications

5.B Serber's Letter

6 A Deeper Layer of Reality

6.1 Prologue

6.2 Physics Before Quarks: a Précis

6.3 Down the Rabbit Hole.

6.4 The Deeper Layer

6.5 Hadrons from Aces with Spin

6.6 Zweig's Rule for Masses

6.7 Zweig's Rule for Couplings

6.8 Weak-Interaction Predictions

6.9 How to Look for Aces

6.10 A Fortuitous Accident

6.11 Difficulties

6.12 Were Aces Real?

6.13 Conclusion of the CERN Reports

6.14 Thinking Graphically

6.15 Politics Turned Personal

6.16 Heisenberg's Resistance

6.17 Leaving Physics

6.18 Looking Back

6.A Hierarchies of Representations

6.B Evaluating Theories

6.C Graphical Calculus

7 Epilogue

7.1 Recapitulation

7.2 When the Fog Lifted

7.3 Asking the Right Question

7.4 The Medium Was the Message

7.5 When the Dust Settled

7.6 Are Regularities Still Relevant?

7.7 Tetra and Pentaquarks

7.8 The Quark-Gluon Plasma

7.9 Free Fractionally Charged Particles?

7.10 The Standard Model

7.11 Lessons Learned

7.12 Remaining Questions

7.13 What About the Other Stuff?

7.A Bumps Along the Way

7.B Moving in the Right Direction

7.C Discovering the Fourth Quark

A Primer on Quarks

A.1 Prologue

A.2 Forces

A.3 Quarks

A.4 Quantum Numbers

A.5 Addition of Isospin, Spin, or Angular Momentum

A.6 Symmetry and Quantum Numbers

A.7 Orbital and Vibrational Excitations

A.8 The Limits of Conservation

A.9 Reverse Engineering Quarks

B The First CERN Report

Glossary: A Guide for the Perplexed

Acknowledgments

Further Reading

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 14 Nov 2025).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-47352-2

1-009-47351-4

OCLC:

1542866434