Essays on Particles: From X-ray Photons to the Higgs Boson

The book presents the evolution of subatomic physics, traced from the birth of the discipline in the last decade of the 19th century to its current state and prospects for the future. Particular emphasis is placed on a detailed analysis of the background and history of such important achievements in this science as the discovery of the electron, the atomic nucleus and antimatter, the emergence and development of a gauge field theory, the enrichment of particle physics with a mathematical apparatus for the theory of continuous groups and the creation of quark theory based on it, the prediction and discovery of the charm quarks and intermediate vector bosons, the invention of the Anderson-Higgs mechanism in quantum field theory as a source of the masses of elementary particles, and the detection of the Higgs bosons. Reports on these theoretical and experimental studies are supported by numerous references to relevant original publications. In addition, the book details the history of the invention and improvement of various types of accelerators, which since the mid-twentieth century have become the main tool of scientists studying subatomic particles. The book discusses the methods of obtaining and studying transuranium elements.
The author, a professional historian of science, believes that the book will be of interest and use to readers who would like to learn about the fundamental concepts of subatomic physics and to understand the scale of progress from its origins to the present day.

Alexey Levin. Essays on Particles: From X-ray Photons to the Higgs Boson. — Moscow: Scientific Publishing Partnership KMK, 2024.