Mass: The quest to understand matter from Greek atoms to quantum fields (Oxford UP, 2017)

Everything around us is made of 'stuff', from planets, to books, to our own bodies. Whatever it is, we call it matter or material substance. It is solid; it has mass. But what is matter, exactly? We are taught in school that matter is not continuous, but discrete. As a few of the philosophers of ancient Greece once speculated, nearly two and a half thousand years ago, matter comes in 'lumps', and science has relentlessly peeled away successive layers of matter to reveal its ultimate constituents. Surely, we can't keep doing this indefinitely. We imagine that we should eventually run up against some kind of ultimately fundamental, indivisible type of stuff, the building blocks from which everything in the Universe is made. The English physicist Paul Dirac called this 'the dream of philosophers'. But science has discovered that the foundations of our Universe are not as solid or as certain and dependable as we might have once imagined. They are instead built from ghosts and phantoms, of a peculiar quantum kind. And, at some point on this exciting journey of scientific discovery, we lost our grip on the reassuringly familiar concept of mass. How did this happen? How did the answers to our questions become so complicated and so difficult to comprehend? In Mass Jim Baggott explains how we come to find ourselves here, confronted by a very different understanding of the nature of matter, the origin of mass, and its implications for our understanding of the material world. Ranging from the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, and their theories of atoms and void, to the development of quantum field theory and the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, he explores our changing understanding of the nature of matter, and the fundamental related concept of mass. Content: Cover Mass: The quest to understand matter from Greek atoms to quantum fields Copyright Dedication Contents Preface List of Figures About the Author Part I. ATOM AND VOID 1. The Quiet Citadel Five things we learned 2. Things-in-Themselves Five things we learned 3. An Impression of Force Five things we learned 4. The Sceptical Chymists Five things we learned Part II. MASS AND ENERGY 5. A Very Interesting Conclusion Five things we learned 6. Incommensurable Five things we learned 7. The Fabric Five things we learned 8. In the Heart of Darkness Five things we learned PART III. WAVE AND PARTICLE9. An Act of Desperation Five things we learned 10. The Wave Equation Five things we learned 11. The Only Mystery Five things we learned 12. Mass Bare and Dressed Five things we learned PART IV. FIELD AND FORCE 13. The Symmetries of Nature Five things we learned 14. The Goddamn Particle Five things we learned 15. The Standard Model Five things we learned 16. Mass Without Mass Five things we learned EPILOGUE ENDNOTES Preface Chapter 1: The Quiet Citadel Chapter 2: Things-in-Themselves Chapter 3: An Impression of Force Chapter 4: The Sceptical ChymistsChapter 5: A Very Interesting Conclusion Chapter 6: Incommensurable Chapter 7: The Fabric Chapter 8: In the Heart of Darkness Chapter 9: An Act of Desperation Chapter 10: The Wave Equation Chapter 11: The Only Mystery Chapter 12: Mass Bare and Dressed Chapter 13: The Symmetries of Nature Chapter 14: The Goddamn Particle Chapter 15: The Standard Model Chapter 16: Mass Without Mass Epilogue GLOSSARY SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Anthologies Biographies Cosmology General History and Philosophy Quantum Theory Particle Physics PUBLISHER'S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSINDEX The Quantum Story: A history in 40 moments Physics: A short history from quintessence to quarks Neutrino Origins Everything around us is made of 'stuff', from planets, to books, to our own bodies. Whatever it is, we call it matter or material substance. It is solid; it has mass. But what is matter, exactly? We are taught in school that matter is not continuous, but discrete. As a few of the philosophers of ancient Greece once speculated, nearly two and a half thousand years ago, matter comes in 'lumps', and science has relentlessly peeled away successive layers of matter to reveal its ultimate constituents.Surely, we can't keep doing this indefinitely. We imagine that we should eventually run up against some kind of ultimately fundamental, indivisible type of stuff, the building blocks from which everything in the Universe is made. The English physicist Paul Dirac called this 'the dream of philosophers'. But science has discovered that the foundations of our Universe are not as solid or as certain and dependable as we might have once imagined. They are instead built from ghosts and phantoms, of a peculiar quantum kind. And, at some point on this exciting journey of scientific discovery, we lost our grip on the reassuringly familiar concept of mass.How did this happen? How did the answers to our questions become so complicated and so difficult to comprehend? In __Mass__ Jim Baggott explains how we come to find ourselves here, confronted by a very different understanding of the nature of matter, the origin of mass, and its implications for our understanding of the material world. Ranging from the Greek philosophers Leucippus and Democritus, and their theories of atoms and void, to the development of quantum field theory and the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle, he explores our changing understanding of the nature of matter, and the fundamental related concept of mass. "Albert Einstein once claimed that without belief in the inner harmony of our world, there could be no science. But modern science has revealed that the inner harmony of some of the simplest phenomena can be startlingly beautiful in its complexity. This is certainly true of matter, and its most commonplace property, mass. We have come a long way since the conjectures of the Greek atomists. We know for sure that atoms exist, and we also know that they're divisible. They consist of electrons, orbiting nuclei of protons and neutrons. We know that protons and neutrons are in turn composed of quarks. And we have found that elementary particles inside atoms behave like waves: mysterious phantoms of probability. We have identified several families of subatomic particles, and now recognize that 'empty' space fizzes with virtual particles. we think now of mass in terms of the energies of interactions. Elementary particles gain mass by interacting with the Higgs field, revealed by the discovery of the Higgs boson, but we still don't understand why some particles interact more strongly than others. As Jim Baggott explains in this absorbing account that takes us from atoms to quarks, gluons, and quantum chromodynamics, we have journeyed far, but we have yet to fully understand the fundamental nature of mass."-- Jacket Everything Around Us Is Made Of 'stuff', From Planets, To Books, To Our Own Bodies. Whatever It Is, We Call It Matter Or Material Substance. It Is Solid; It Has Mass. But What Is Matter, Exactly? We Are Taught In School That Matter Is Not Continuous, But Discrete. As A Few Of The Philosophers Of Ancient Greece Once Speculated, Nearly Two And A Half Thousand Years Ago, Matter Comes In 'lumps', And Science Has Relentlessly Peeled Away Successive Layers Of Matter To Reveal Its Ultimate Constituents. Part I. Atom And Void. The Quiet Citadel ; Things-in-themselves ; An Impression Of Force ; The Sceptical Chymists -- Part Ii. Mass And Energy. A Very Interesting Conclusion ; Incommensurable ; The Fabric ; In The Heart Of Darkness -- Part Iii. Wave And Particle. An Act Of Desperation ; The Wave Equation ; The Only Mystery ; Mass Bare And Dressed -- Part Iv. Field And Force. The Symmetries Of Nature ; The Goddamn Particle ; The Standard Model ; Mass Without Mass. Jim Baggott. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 317-324) And Index. Jim Baggott explores how our understanding of the nature of matter, and its fundamental property of mass, has developed, from the ancient Greek view of indivisible atoms to quantum mechanics, dark matter, the Higgs field, and beyond. He shows how the stuff of the universe is proving more elusive and uncertain than we ever imagined