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5 The Physics of the Next Decade
Pages 68-77

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From page 68...
... Many particle properties are not predicted by the theory, including the masses of quarks and leptons and the way flavors are mixed by weak interactions. Physicists do not know whether the strong and electroweak interactions are different manifestations of a single force, and the origins of the breaking of electroweak symmetry, either by a Higgs particle or by some other mechanism, have not been discovered.
From page 70...
... In the simplest case, the Higgs boson is a single elementary particle. The Standard Model does not determine the mass of the Higgs boson, but various lines of reasoning based on empirical data suggest loose upper and lower bounds on its mass.
From page 71...
... Because SUSY contains many new particles, each with a short lifetime and complex decay scheme, there is not a unique way to search for it. On the other hand, many supersymmetric processes produce very distinctive signatures.
From page 72...
... Physicists believe that if they further study CP violation in the K meson system and in the B meson system, which might exhibit a similar matter-antimatter asymmetry, they can learn something about this cosmological mystery of the universe. Chapter 3 shows that the Standard Model with three generations might explain why CP violation appears in the K meson system; if this model is correct, similar phenomena should be evident in the B meson system.
From page 73...
... This is because there is a natural mechanism to produce CP violation in the strong interactions at a much larger level than that observed. The symmetries of the Standard Model allow an additional interaction among gluons, which leads to the strong interactions that break CP symmetry.
From page 74...
... The effect of the matter in the Sun on the propagating neutrinos makes these searches sensitive to very small quantum mechanical mixing. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada and the Superkamiokande experiment in Japan are sensitive to neutrinos from the Sun and will produce measurements that, in a few years, could definitively establish that neutrinos have mass and that lepton fla vor-changing interactions occur.
From page 75...
... It has not yet been fully demonstrated that quarks are "confined." Already mentioned is the puzzle that QCD naturally accommodates a matter-antimatter asymmetry far beyond what has been observed. And many experimental manifestations of the strong force cannot yet be adequately predicted because of limited calculational tools.
From page 76...
... Although answers to questions posed incrementally can increase knowledge, the observation of an unanticipated phenomenon can revolutionize the way physicists and eventually society think about the universe. The original electronscattering experiment revealing for the first time that the proton had an internal structure made of quarks; the discovery that a fundamental symmetry of nature, CP, was violated; and the discovery of the charm quark, which introduced a second generation of quarks these are three spectacular examples of experiments that profoundly influenced the field with unanticipated results.
From page 77...
... SUMMARY The experiments beginning during the coming decade in this country and abroad will explore very important issues in elementary-particle physics. Researchers stand to learn a tremendous amount about the fundamental differences between matter and antimatter, enough so that the current understanding of CP violation should be either confirmed or refuted.


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