The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is one of the highest priority areas in particle physics today; it could provide insights to the nature of neutrino masses (currently not explained by the Standard Model) as well as how the universe survived its early stages. One promising experimental approach involves the use of large volumes of isotope-loaded liquid scintillator, but new techniques for background identification and suppression must be developed in order to reach the required sensitivity levels and clearly distinguish the signal. The results from this thesis constitute a significant advance in this area, laying the groundwork for several highly effective and novel approaches based on a detailed evaluation of state-of-the-art detector characteristics. This well written thesis includes a particularly clear and comprehensive description of the theoretical motivations as well as impressively demonstrating the effective use of diverse statistical techniques. The professionally constructed signal extraction framework contains clever algorithmic solutions to efficient error propagation in multi-dimensional space. In general, the techniques developed in this work will have a notable impact on the field.

This book will explain how group theory underpins some of the key features of particle physics. It will examine symmetries and conservation laws in quantum mechanics and relate these to groups of transformations. Group theory provides the language for describing how particles (and in particular, their quantum numbers) combine. This provides understanding of hadronic physics as well as physics beyond the Standard Model. The symmetries of the Standard Model associated with the Electroweak and Strong (QCD) forces are described by the groups U(1), SU(2) and SU(3). The properties of these groups are examined and the relevance to particle physics is discussed.Stephen Haywood, author of Symmetries And Conservation Laws In Particle Physics, explains how his book can help experimental physicists and PhD students understand group theory and particle physics in our new video!

Much instrumentation has been developed for imaging the trajectories of elementary particles produced in high energy collisions. Since 1968, gaseous detectors, beginning with multiwire chambers and drift chambers, have been used for the visualisation of particle trajectories and the imaging of X-rays, neutrons, hard gamma rays, beta rays and ultraviolet photons. This book commemorates the groundbreaking research leading to the evolution of such detectors carried out at CERN by Georges Charpak, Nobel Prizewinner for Physics in 1992. Besides collecting his key papers, the book also includes original linking commentary which sets his work in the context of other worldwide research.

Searching For the Unexpected At LHC and the Status of Our Knowledge: Proceedings of the International School of Subnuclear Physics 2011

The recent groundbreaking discovery of nonzero neutrino masses and oscillations has put the spotlight on massive neutrinos as one of the key windows on physics beyond the standard model as well as into the early universe. This third edition of the invaluable book Massive Neutrinos in Physics and Astrophysics is an introduction to the various issues related to the theory and phenomenology of massive neutrinos for the nonexpert, providing at the same time a complete and up-to-date discussion on the latest results in the field for the active researcher. It is designed not merely to be a guide but also as a self-contained tool for research with all the necessary techniques and logics included. Specially emphasized are the various implications of neutrino discoveries for the nature of new forces. Elementary discussions on topics such as grand unification, left-right symmetry and supersymmetry are presented. The most recent cosmological and astrophysical implications of massive neutrinos are also dealt with.

This book presents, in the form of reviews by world's leading physicists in wide-ranging fields in theoretical physics, the influence and prescience of Skyrme's daring idea of 1960, originally conceived for nuclear physics, that fermions can arise from bosons via topological solitons, pervasively playing a powerful role in wide-ranging areas of physics, from nuclear/astrophysics, to particle physics, to string theory and to condensed matter physics.The skyrmion description, both from gauge theory and from gauge/gravity duality, offers solutions to some long-standing and extremely difficult problems at high baryonic density, inaccessible by QCD proper. It also offers explanations and makes startling predictions for fascinating new phenomena in condensed matter systems. In both cases, what is at the core is the topology although the phenomena are drastically different, even involving different spacetime dimensions.This second edition has been expanded with addition of new reviews and extensively updated to take into account the latest developments in the field.

This informative and entertaining book provides a broad look at the fascinating history of CERN, and the physicists working in different areas at CERN who were active in the discovery of the Higgs Boson. Profound and well-structured, the contents combine present day interviews with the scientists of CERN, the world's largest laboratory dedicated to the pursuit of fundamental science, with important figures in the history of science (e.g., Maxwell, Faraday, Einstein), and also gives a lot of information on the history of quantum mechanics and the history of physics from its beginnings.It is an easy-to-read book on a complex topic, providing a very personal insight into the personalities of top scientists and the history of science as well. This invaluable book will capture the interest of the curious reader, telling the story of one of the greatest scientific endeavors ever.

The Proceedings include talks given at the 4th Workshop on Exclusive Reactions at High Momentum Transfer at Jefferson Lab, Newport News, VA USA, the world's leading facility performing research on nuclear, hadronic and quark-gluon structure of matter. Exclusive reactions are becoming one of the major sources of information about the deep structure of the nucleons and other hadrons. The workshop focused on the application of a variety of exclusive reactions at high momentum transfer, utilizing unpolarized and polarized beams and targets, to obtain information about nucleon ground state and excited state structure at short distances. This is a subject which is central to the programs of current accelerators and especially planned future facilities. The topics include: generalized parton distributions, deeply virtual Compton scattering, deeply virtual meson production (DVMP), transverse structure of hadrons (TMD), hadron form factors - elastic and transition, quantum chromodynamics (perturbative, non-perturbative, lattice calculations), and physics to study at an Electron Ion Collider.

This book provides a concise and coherent introduction to the physics of particle accelerators, with attention being paid to the design of an accelerator for use as an experimental tool. In the second edition, new chapters on spin dynamics of polarized beams as well as instrumentation and measurements are included, with a discussion of frequency spectra and Schottky signals. The additional material also covers quadratic Lie groups and integration highlighting new techniques using Cayley transforms, detailed estimation of collider luminosities, and new problems.

Edited by internationally recognized authorities in the field, this expanded and updated new edition of the bestselling Handbook, containing many new articles, is aimed at the design and operation of modern particle accelerators. It is intended as a vade mecum for professional engineers and physicists engaged in these subjects. With a collection of more than 2000 equations, 300 illustrations and 500 graphs and tables, here one will find, in addition to common formulae of previous compilations, hard to find, specialized formulae, recipes and material data pooled from the lifetime experience of many of the world's most able practioners of the art and science of accelerators.The seven chapters include both theoretical and practical matters as well as an extensive glossary of accelerator types. Chapters on beam dynamics and electromagnetic and nuclear interactions deal with linear and nonlinear single particle and collective effects including spin motion, beam-environment, beam-beam, beam-electron, beam-ion and intrabeam interactions. The impedance concept and related calculations are dealt with at length as are the instabilities with the various interactions mentioned. A chapter on operational considerations including discussions on the assessment and correction of orbit and optics errors, realtime feedbacks, generation of short photon pulses, bunch compression, tuning of normal and superconducting linacs, energy recovery linacs, free electron lasers, cryogenic vacuum systems, steady state microbuching , cooling, space-charge compensation, brightness of light sources, collider luminosity optimization and collision schemes, machine learning, multiple frequency rf systems, fel seeding. Chapters on mechanical and electrical considerations present material data and important aspects of component design including heat transfer and refrigeration. Hardware systems for particle sources, feedback systems, confinement, including undulators, and acceleration (both normal and superconducting) receive detailed treatment in a sub-systems chapter, beam measurement and apparatus being treated therein as well.A detailed name and subject index is provided together with reliable references to the literature where the most detailed information available on all subjects treated can be found.

This proceedings volume is devoted to a wide variety of items, both in theory and experiment, of particle physics such as tests of the Standard Model and beyond, physics at the future accelerators, neutrino and astroparticle physics, heavy quark physics, non-perturbative QCD, quantum gravity effects and cosmology. It is important that the papers in this volume reveal the present status and new developments in the above-mentioned items on the eve of a new era that starts with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

At the Root of Things: The Subatomic World is a journey into the world of elementary particles-the basic constituents of all matter in the universe-and the nature of the interactions among them. The book begins with a summary of pre-quantum physics and later tackles quantum physics, which is essential for the study of elementary particles. The book discusses the emergence of quantum theory from studies in heat radiation and the photoelectric effect as well as developments that led to the concept of duality between particles and waves. Also discussed is how quantum theory helped to better understand the structure of atoms and the discovery of particles that were not constituents of atoms, such as the positron and the muon. Dozens of particles that were discovered experimentally in the 1950s and the 1960s are described along with fundamental particles-quarks and leptons. The book concludes with a discussion on fundamental interactions, the basic nature of quantum theories surrounding these interactions, and a discussion of how these interactions might be unified. At the Root of Things: The Subatomic World is written in non-technical language making it accessible to a broad audience. It helps outsiders understand the subject in a non-mathematical manner and inspires them to learn more about this interesting field.

Cosmology has undergone a revolution in recent years. The exciting interplay between astronomy and fundamental physics has led to dramatic revelations, including the existence of the dark matter and the dark energy that appear to dominate our cosmos. But these discoveries only reveal themselves through small effects in noisy experimental data. Dealing with such observations requires the careful application of probability and statistics.
But it is not only in the arcane world of fundamental physics that probability theory plays such an important role. It has an impact in many aspects of our everyday life, from the law courts to the lottery.
Why then do so few people understand probability? And why do so few people understand why it is so important for science? Why do so many people think that science is about absolute certainty when, at its core, it is actually dominated by uncertainty?
This book attempts to explain the basics of probability theory, and illustrate their application across the entire spectrum of science.

The book is based on lectures given at the TASI summer school of 2010. It aims to provide advanced graduate students, postdoctorates and senior researchers with a survey of important topics in particle physics and string theory, with special emphasis on applications of methods from string theory and quantum gravity in condensed matter physics and QCD (especially heavy ion physics).

This volume is a compilation of lectures delivered at the TASI 2016 summer school, 'Anticipating the Next Discoveries in Particle Physics', held at the University of Colorado at Boulder in June 2016. The school focused on topics in theoretical particle physics, phenomenology, dark matter, and cosmology of interest to contemporary researchers in these fields. The lectures are accessible to graduate students in the initial stages of their research careers.

This thesis represents one of the most comprehensive and in-depth studies of the use of Lorentz-boosted hadronic final state systems in the search for signals of Supersymmetry conducted to date at the Large Hadron Collider. A thorough assessment is performed of the observables that provide enhanced sensitivity to new physics signals otherwise hidden under an enormous background of top quark pairs produced by Standard Model processes. This is complemented by an ingenious analysis optimization procedure that allowed for extending the reach of this analysis by hundreds of GeV in mass of these hypothetical new particles. Lastly, the combination of both deep, thoughtful physics analysis with the development of high-speed electronics for identifying and selecting these same objects is not only unique, but also revolutionary. The Global Feature Extraction system that the author played a critical role in bringing to fruition represents the first dedicated hardware device for selecting these Lorentz-boosted hadronic systems in real-time using state-of-the-art processing chips and embedded systems.

The need for this handbook is a direct consequence of a very large accumulation of new theoretical and experimental data on nucleur properties. The first five chapters are devoted to the presentation of experimental and theoretical aspects of the following topics: atomic masses of stable and radioactive nuclides; an intuitive way to understand the empirical trends of masses, based on a microscopic theory; Penning traps used as a modern mass spectrometer of high resolving power, accuracy and sensitivity; basic theoretical concepts and experimental techniques used to measure the nucleur shape parameters; new decay modes by hadron and cluster emission; the proton (p), and the beta-delayed particle emissions: neutron (n), 2n, 3n, 4n, p, 2p, 3p, d, t, etc. This book is intended for students and professionals in nuclear physics, radioactivity, astrophysics, high- energy physics and elementary particles. Also industrial applications of nuclear radiation, nuclear medicine, and environmental science.

This thesis addresses the feasibility of the production of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays in starburst galaxies and active galactic nuclei. These astrophysical objects were theoretically proposed as candidate sources a long time ago. Nevertheless, the interest in them has been recently renewed due to the observational data collected by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Telescope Array. In this work, a comprehensive review of the current status of the research on cosmic rays accelerators is provided, along with a summary of the principal concepts needed to connect these relativistic particles with electromagnetic and neutrino observations in the multi-messenger era. On one hand, the hypothesis of accelerating particles with energies above 10(1)8 eV in starburst superwinds is carefully revisited, taking into account the constraints imposed by the most recent electromagnetic observations. On the other hand, an alternative new model for the gamma emission of the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068 is presented. The implications of the results of these studies are discussed in terms of the contemporary observatories and prospects for future experiments are offered.

The past 100 years of accelerator-based research have led the field from first insights into the structure of atoms to the development and confirmation of the Standard Model of physics. Accelerators have been a key tool in developing our understanding of the elementary particles and the forces that govern their interactions. This book describes the past 100 years of accelerator development with a special focus on the technological advancements in the field, the connection of the various accelerator projects to key developments and discoveries in the Standard Model, how accelerator technologies open the door to other applications in medicine and industry, and finally presents an outlook of future accelerator projects for the coming decades.

When the discovery of the Higgs Boson at CERN hit the headlines in 2012, the world was stunned by this achievement of modern science. Less well appreciated, however, were the many ways in which this benefited wider society.The Large Hadron Collider - The Greatest Adventure in Town charts a path through the cultural, economic and medical gains of modern particle physics. It illustrates these messages through the ATLAS experiment at CERN, one of the two big experiments which found the Higgs particle. Moving clear of in-depth physics analysis, it draws on the unparalleled curiosity about particle physics aroused by the Higgs discovery, and relates it to developments familiar in the modern world, including the Internet, its successor 'The Grid', and the latest cancer treatments.In this book, advances made from developing the 27 kilometre particle accelerator and its detectors are presented with the benefit of first hand interviews and are extensively illustrated throughout. Interviewees are leading physicists including successive heads of ATLAS, a top historian of science, a highly original economic strategist, a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist and President of the Royal Society in London, and experts in many other fields. These informative and entertaining insights provide both specialists and non-specialists alike with a unique window into the world of modern international research and its often surprising consequences, as exemplified by the ATLAS experiment. The narrative reveals the extent and style of international collaboration necessary to achieve success, and how big companies as well as start-ups enhance their products in the process.

This book is a collection of lecture notes discussing the basic features of the Quantum Mechanics of Infinite Systems such as collective phenomena, spontaneous symmetry breaking, etc. The mathematical precision has been reduced to a minimum in order to communicate the main ideas to a larger audience including those who are not mathematically meinded. It is aimed at helping students who have difficulty in finding accessible and compact expositions of the material in standard textbooks.

This book is the first of its kind devoted to surface waves propagating across an external static magnetic field at harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency. Based on comprehensive theoretical studies carried out over the course of about forty years, it presents unique material on various characteristics of these transverse waves, namely, dispersion properties and their dependence on numerous design peculiarities of plasma waveguides; damping due to interaction with the plasma surface (the kinetic channel) and collisions between plasma particles (the Ohmic channel); interaction with flows of charged particles moving above the plasma surface; parametric excitation due to the effect of an external radiofrequency field; and their power transfer for sustaining gas discharges. Clarifying numerous complicated mathematical issues it is a valuable resource for postgraduate students and experts in plasma physics, electromagnetic waves, and the kinetic theory of plasmas.

Accurate uranium analysis, and particularly for isotope measurements, is essential in many fields, including environmental studies, geology, hydrogeology, the nuclear industry, health physics, and homeland security. Nevertheless, only a few scientific books are dedicated to uranium in general and analytical chemistry aspects in particular. Analytical Chemistry of Uranium: Environmental, Forensic, Nuclear, and Toxicological Applications covers the fascinating advances in the field of analytical chemistry of uranium. Exploring a broad range of topics, the book focuses on the analytical aspects of industrial processes that involve uranium, its presence in the environment, health and biological implications of exposure to uranium compounds, and nuclear forensics. Topics include: Examples of procedures used to characterize uranium in environmental samples of soil, sediments, vegetation, water, and air Analytical methods used to examine the rigorous specifications of uranium and its compounds deployed in the nuclear fuel cycle Health aspects of exposure to uranium and the bioassays used for exposure assessment Up-to-date analytical techniques used in nuclear forensics for safeguards in support of non-proliferation, including single particle characterization Each chapter includes an overview of the topic and several examples to demonstrate the analytical procedures. This is followed by sample preparation, separation and purification techniques where necessary. The book supplies readers with a solid understanding of the analytical chemistry approach used today for characterizing the different facets of uranium, providing a good starting point for further investigation into this important element.