Physics Of The Large And The Small

This volume presents a set of pedagogical lectures that introduce particle physics beyond the standard model and particle cosmology to advanced graduate students.

This monograph tackles three challenges. First, show a mathematics-based meta-model that matches known elementary particles. Second, apply models, based on the meta-model, to match other known physics data. Third, predict future physics data. The math features solutions to isotropic pairs of isotropic quantum harmonic oscillators. This monograph matches some solutions to known elementary particles. Matched properties include spin, types of interactions in which the particles partake, and (for elementary bosons) approximate masses. Other solutions point to possible elementary particles. This monograph applies the models and the extended particle list. Results narrow gaps between physics data and theory. Results pertain to elementary particles, astrophysics, and cosmology. For example, this monograph predicts properties for beyond-the-Standard-Model elementary particles, proposes descriptions of dark matter and dark energy, provides new relationships between known physics constants (including masses of some elementary particles), includes theory that dovetails with the ratio of dark matter to ordinary matter, includes math that dovetails with the number of elementary-fermion generations, suggests forces that govern the rate of expansion of the universe, and suggests additions to and details for the cosmology timeline.

This book is the second part of the two-volume set entitled The Big and the Small. In the earlier volume, Journey into the Microcosm: the Story of Elementary Particles, the story of elementary particle physics was related. In the present volume the author describes how the physics of elementary particles allow us to reconstruct the origin of the universe and its subsequent evolution. Carrying on from the point where volume 1 was concluded, the story of the fascinating quest for the Ultimate Theory (the theory that stands all by itself and does not rest on any other pedestal) is revealed here in the context of the shortcomings of the Standard Model.

This volume is a compilation of the lectures at TASI 2012, held in Boulder, Colorado, June 2012. The program comprises two parallel lecture series on particle physics and on cosmology. The particle physics lectures covers LHC related experimental techniques, phenomenology, as well as basics in physics beyond the standard model. The cosmology series give a general introduction to modern cosmology with special attention to the topics of dark matter, the microwave background and alternatives to the standard model of cosmology. The lectures are accessible to graduate students at the initial stages of their research careers. Contents:Dark Energy Models (R R Caldwell)Cosmological Perturbations (J Lesgourges)Implications of the Higgs Boson and the LHC for the MSSM (A Pierce)Astrophysical Probes of Dark Matter (S Profumo)Modified Gravity (F Schmidt)TASI 2012 Lectures on Inflation (L Senatore)Jet Substructure (J Shelton)Introduction to QCD (P Skands)Super-Tricks for Superspace (D Bertolini, J Thaler and Z Thomas)TASI 2012 Participants (The Students) Readership: Graduate students and researchers in high energy physics, astroparticle physics and cosmology. Keywords:High Energy Physics;Cosmology;Dark Matter;Physics Beyond Standard Model

Clayton Lagerquist is an amateur physicist with a degree in physics from Minnesota State University and a graduate degree in engineering from the University of Minnesota. He is now retired from an active career in health physics while maintaining his readings in cosmology, relativity, and quantum mechanics. He hopes to bring some of his knowledge of the latest findings in physics to those who are discovering some of these wonders for the first time. His candor about his lack of knowledge in some areas may spur others to investigate these areas in more detail for themselves.

The cutting-edge science that is taking the measure of the universe The Little Book of Cosmology provides a breathtaking look at our universe on the grandest scales imaginable. Written by one of the world's leading experimental cosmologists, this short but deeply insightful book describes what scientists are revealing through precise measurements of the faint thermal afterglow of the Big Bang—known as the cosmic microwave background, or CMB—and how their findings are transforming our view of the cosmos. Blending the latest findings in cosmology with essential concepts from physics, Lyman Page first helps readers to grasp the sheer enormity of the universe, explaining how to understand the history of its formation and evolution in space and time. Then he sheds light on how spatial variations in the CMB formed, how they reveal the age, size, and geometry of the universe, and how they offer a blueprint for the formation of cosmic structure. Not only does Page explain current observations and measurements, he describes how they can be woven together into a unified picture to form the Standard Model of Cosmology. Yet much remains unknown, and this incisive book also describes the search for ever deeper knowledge at the field's frontiers—from quests to understand the nature of neutrinos and dark energy to investigations into the physics of the very early universe.