Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass

*A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Selection*

On July 4, 2012, the announcement came that one of the longest-running mysteries in physics had been solved: the Higgs boson, the missing piece in understanding why particles have mass, had finally been discovered. On the rostrum, surrounded by jostling physicists and media, was the particle's retiring namesake--the only person in history to have an existing single particle named for them. Why Peter Higgs? Drawing on years of conversations with Higgs and others, Close illuminates how an unprolific man became one of the world's most famous scientists. Close finds that scientific competition between people, institutions, and states played as much of a role in making Higgs famous as Higgs's work did.

A revelatory study of both a scientist and his era, Elusive will remake our understanding of modern physics.

ISBN-13: 9781541620803

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Basic Books

Publication Date: 06-14-2022

Pages: 304

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.10(d)

Frank Close, OBE, FRS is a particle physicist and an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Oxford. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Infinity Puzzle and Half-Life. He lives in Oxford, England.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Prelude: The Case of the Disappearing Professor 1

Part 1

1 A Name on the Board 9

2 The Single Helix 25

3 The Particle Explosion 41

4 The Super Conductor 53

5 Higgs' Epiphany 65

6 Now We Are Six 81

7 Birth of a Boson 95

8 "Peter-You're Famous!" 109

Part 2

9 The First Disappearance-1976 129

10 Every Journey Begins with a Single Step 141

11 A Machine for 1 TeV 151

12 Father of the God Particle 165

13 The "Doomsday Machine" 173

14 "We Should Go to CERN" 187

15 The Fourth of July 199

Part 3

16 "Time to Plan My Escape" 213

17 The Glittering Prizes 221

18 Zigzag 231

Epilogue: The View Across the Plains 237

Acknowledgements 249

Appendix 4.1 Ginzburg and Landau's Mexican Hat 251

Appendix 5.1 Higgs' First Paper Decoded 255

Appendix 5.2 Higgs' Second Paper Decoded 259

Notes 263

Index 275