Related papers: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physic…
I present a concise review of where we stand in particle physics today. First, I will discuss the status of the Standard Model, its open problems and the expected answers from the LHC. Then I will briefly review the avenues for New Physics…
The pursuit of knowledge in particle physics requires constant learning. As new tools become available, new theories are developed, and physicists search for new answers with ever-evolving methods. However, it is the case that formal…
Our main goal is to develop plans to increase physics enrollment. Once again we thoroughly analyze the problem from the beginning and reach the conclusion that the most appropriate starting point in this direction should be to look into…
The reader surely knows what particles physics is about: finding building blocks of nature that appear elementary at a given time and study their interactions - so why in the world this essay? The problem is how to arrive at a fundamental…
The job of a physicist is to describe Nature. General features, hypotheses and theories help to describe physics phenomena at a more abstract, fundamental level, and are sometimes tacitly assigned some sort of real existence; doing so…
Single particle models are sufficient for many topics in introductory physics courses, but become misleading when applied to situations involving changes in internal energy. This paper merges two parallel attempts to reform the teaching of…
The paper gives an overview of the principles of particle accelerators and their historical development. After introducing the basic concepts, the main emphasis is on sketching the layout of modern storage rings and discussing their…
What is physics? What are the limits of what physics can say about the world? In seeking ever-broader theoretical `umbrellas' for physical phenomena, we are seeking unifying principles. Emergent phenomena have turned out to be some of the…
Wonderful opportunities await particle physics over the next decade, with the coming of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to explore the 1-TeV scale (extending efforts at LEP and the Tevatron to unravel the nature of electroweak symmetry…
One of the main activities in science teaching, and in particular in Physics teaching, is not only the discussion of both modern problems and problems which solution is an urgent matter. It means that the picture of an active and alive…
Particle accelerators represent some of the most sophisticated engineering achievements of our time. Their construction requires a unique combination of physics insight and mechanical engineering expertise. The aim of this paper is to…
Elementary particle physics is gradually implemented into science curricula at high school level. However, common presentations on educational, semi-technical or popular level contain or support severe misconceptions. We discuss in…
The future goals of particle physics are classified from a theorist's point of view. The prospects of mass and mixing angle determination and of the top quark and Higgs boson discovery are discussed. It is shown that the most important…
I review the prospects for future progress in accelerator-based particle physics
A conjecture on the origin of elementary particle masses is discussed, based on the micro-universe and quantum state reduction concepts. The reduction of the quantum state of a real particle is understood to take place objectively; in every…
To give teenagers a new, everyday perspective on STEM topics, we use particle physics as our main topic to engage young students. Our strategy is designed to demystify particle physics, making it more accessible and attractive early in high…
We present the second part of a series of papers proposing a novel teaching sequence for Particle Physics in high school. The topic of the present work is Nuclear Physics. The goal of the sequence is to approach the subject in a way as to…
Quantum mechanics---the theory describing the fundamental workings of nature---is famously counterintuitive: it predicts that a particle can be in two places at the same time, and that two remote particles can be inextricably and…
Instruction in quantum mechanics is becoming increasingly important as the field is not only a key part of modern physics research, but is also important for emerging technologies. However, many students regard quantum mechanics as a…
We present a concise review of where we stand in particle physics today. First we discuss QCD, then the electroweak sector and finally the motivations and the avenues for new physics beyond the Standard Model.