No one has ever seen a quark. Yet physicists seem to know quite
a lot about the properties and behavior of these ubiquitous
elementary particles. Here a top researcher introduces us to a
fascinating but invisible realm that is part of our everyday life.
Timothy Smith tells us what we know about quarks--and how we know
it.
Though the quarks that make science headlines are typically
laboratory creations generated under extreme conditions, most
quarks occur naturally. They reside in the protons and neutrons
that make up almost all of the universe's known matter, from human
DNA to distant nebulae, from books and tables to neutron stars.
Smith explains what these quarks are, how they act, and why
physicists believe in them sight unseen. How do quarks arrange
themselves? What other combinations can nature make? How do quarks
hold nuclei together? What else is happening in their hidden
worlds? It turns out that these questions can be answered using a
few simple principles, such as the old standby: opposites attract.
With these few principles, Smith shows how quarks dance around each
other and explains what physicists mean when they refer to "up" and
"down" quarks and talk about a quark's color, flavor, and spin.
Smith also explains how we know what we know about these oddly
aloof particles, which are eternally confined inside larger
particles. He explains how quark experiments are mounted and how
massive accelerators, targets, and detectors work together to
collect the data that scientists use to infer what quarks are up
to.
A nonmathematical tour of the quark world, this book is written
for students, educators, and all who enjoy scientific
exploration--whether they seek a taste of subnuclear physics or
just wonder about nature on the smallest of scales.
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