Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics

177 Pages·2006·0.84 MB·English

by  Committee on Elementary Particle Physics in the 21st Century

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
We ship printed books within 1 business day; personal PDFs are available immediately.

Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time:

Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics

Committee on Elementary Particle Physics in the 21st

Century, National Research Council

ISBN: 0-309-66039-4, 176 pages, 7 x 10, (2006)

This PDF is available from the National Academies Press at:

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html

Visit the National Academies Press online, the authoritative source for all books
from the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering,
the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council:
• Download hundreds of free books in PDF
• Read thousands of books online for free
• Explore our innovative research tools – try the “Research Dashboard” now!
• Sign up to be notified when new books are published
• Purchase printed books and selected PDF files

Thank you for downloading this PDF. If you have comments, questions or
just want more information about the books published by the National
Academies Press, you may contact our customer service department toll-
free at 888-624-8373, visit us online, or send an email to
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
REVEALING THE HIDDEN NATURE OF
SPACE AND TIME
Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
Committee on Elementary Particle Physics in the 21st Century
Board on Physics and Astronomy
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS • 500 Fifth Street, N.W. • Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the
National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of
Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the
committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for
appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Grant No. PHY-0432486 between the National Academy of Sciences
and the National Science Foundation and Contract No. DE-FG02-04ER41327 between the National
Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recom-
mendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Elementary Particle Physics in the 21st Century.
Revealing the hidden nature of space and time : charting the course for elementary particle
physics / Committee on Elementary Particle Physics in the 21st Century, Board on Physics and
Astronomy, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-309-10194-8 (pbk.) — ISBN 0-309-66039-4 (pdf) 1. Particles (Nuclear physics)—
Research—United States. 2. Space and time—Research—United States. I. Title.
QC793.4.N38 2006
539.7’2072073—dc22
2006027444
Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street,
N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; [phone] or [phone] (in the Washington
metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu.
Cover: Industrial designer Jan-Henrik Andersen, working with particle physicists Gordon Kane and
David Gerdes, portrays the collision of a proton and an antiproton in the Fermilab Tevatron accel-
erator. By parameterizing the different properties of subatomic particles with different visual ele-
ments (color, number and direction of helical turns, visual weight of solid and void space, and so
on), Andersen creates a visual interpretation of the particle physics at work. Courtesy of J.-H.
Andersen.
Copyright 2006 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished
scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and
technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by
the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government
on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of
Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National
Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its
administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences
the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also
sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research,
and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National
Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the
services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters
pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National
Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and,
upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V.
Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to
associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering
knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies
determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the
government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is adminis-
tered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Wm. A.
Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
www.national-academies.org
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
COMMITTEE ON ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS
IN THE 21ST CENTURY
HAROLD T. SHAPIRO, Princeton University, Chair
SALLY DAWSON, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Vice Chair
NORMAN R. AUGUSTINE, Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired)
JONATHAN A. BAGGER, Johns Hopkins University
PHILIP N. BURROWS, Oxford University
SANDRA M. FABER, University of California Observatories
STUART J. FREEDMAN, University of California at Berkeley
JEROME I. FRIEDMAN, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
DAVID J. GROSS, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
JOSEPH S. HEZIR, EOP Group, Inc.
NORBERT HOLTKAMP, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
TAKAAKI KAJITA, University of Tokyo
NEAL F. LANE, Rice University
NIGEL LOCKYER, University of Pennsylvania
SIDNEY R. NAGEL, University of Chicago
HOMER A. NEAL, University of Michigan
J. RITCHIE PATTERSON, Cornell University
HELEN QUINN, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
CHARLES V. SHANK, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
PAUL STEINHARDT, Princeton University
HAROLD E. VARMUS, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
EDWARD WITTEN, Institute for Advanced Study
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director
TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer
DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate
VAN AN, Financial Associate
STEVE OLSON, Consulting Editor
v
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
BURTON RICHTER, Stanford University, Chair
ANNEILA L. SARGENT, California Institute of Technology, Vice Chair
ELIHU ABRAHAMS, Rutgers University
JONATHAN A. BAGGER, Johns Hopkins University
RONALD C. DAVIDSON, Princeton University
RAYMOND J. FONCK, University of Wisconsin at Madison
ANDREA M. GHEZ, University of California at Los Angeles
PETER F. GREEN, University of Michigan
LAURA H. GREENE, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
WICK HAXTON, University of Washington
FRANCES HELLMAN, University of California at Berkeley
ERICH P. IPPEN, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MARC A. KASTNER, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CHRISTOPHER F. McKEE, University of California at Berkeley
JULIA M. PHILLIPS, Sandia National Laboratories
WILLIAM PHILLIPS, National Institute of Standards and Technology
THOMAS M. THEIS, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
C. MEGAN URRY, Yale University
Staff
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director
TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer
MICHAEL H. MOLONEY, Senior Program Officer
ROBERT L. RIEMER, Senior Program Officer
NATALIA J. MELCER, Program Officer
BRIAN D. DEWHURST, Senior Program Associate
DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate
PAMELA A. LEWIS, Program Associate
PHILLIP D. LONG, Senior Program Assistant
VAN AN, Financial Associate
vi
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
Preface
he principal charge to the Committee on Elementary Particle Physics in the
21st Century was to recommend priorities for the U.S. particle physics
Tprogram for the next 15 years. Described in the Executive Summary and
more fully presented in the Overview, the committee’s considered response is laid
out in detail in the main text of this report, which begins by discussing the scien-
tific challenges in particle physics and conveying the current status of the U.S.
program and then presents the committee’s consensus on the best way to sustain a
competitive and globally relevant U.S. particle physics program.
Given the charge (see Appendix B), the composition of this committee was
something of an experiment for the National Academies. The committee member-
ship went well beyond particle physicists and accelerator scientists to include con-
densed matter physicists, astrophysicists, astronomers, biologists, industrialists,
and a variety of experts in public policy, particularly science policy. As a result, a
good deal of education was necessary during the course of the study, and we
members who are not particle physicists would like to express our gratitude for the
intellectual generosity and patience of the committee’s physicists as they provided
us with the level of understanding necessary to proceed with the task. In the same
vein, for their considerable assistance the committee owes a great deal to its col-
leagues at the major particle physics laboratories in the United States (Argonne
National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cornell Laboratory for
Elementary Particle Physics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence
vii
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
viii P R E F A C E
Berkeley National Laboratory, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) and to
colleagues abroad at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchroton (DESY) laboratory in
Hamburg, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) laboratory in
Geneva, and the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) and High
Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) laboratories in Japan.
For the nonphysicists on the committee, the task was both intellectually excit-
ing and sobering. Simply stated, we nonphysicists were not fully aware of the
challenge faced by the U.S. particle physics program in sustaining its tradition of
leadership. Given the globalization of particle physics (and with Europe investing
twice as much as the United States and Japan investing nearly half as much as the
United States in particle physics), identifying a compelling leadership role for the
United States was not simple. Since the unfortunate demise of the Superconduct-
ing Super Collider in the early 1990s and the subsequent stagnation of support for
U.S. efforts in particle physics, the U.S. program has lacked a long-term and distin-
guishing strategic focus that would give it a competitive and distinctive position
within the worldwide effort in particle physics. The entire committee came to
believe that it was essential to adopt a compelling set of national priorities within
a well-defined, long-term strategic framework. Equally important, the committee
accepted the need for the United States to shoulder some risk in order to maximize
the opportunity to meet the leadership and scientific challenges in particle physics.
With respect to the unusual composition of the committee (see Appendix D),
others will judge whether this experiment should be repeated, but it is our judg-
ment that all members of the committee contributed distinctive and important
perspectives that helped the group as a whole to devise a more compelling set of
recommendations. In particular, members from outside particle physics posed
challenging questions to those inside the field and listened carefully to the argu-
ments. The result was an overall sharpening of everyone’s thinking as well as
stronger connections to a broader context.
Finally, we both want to personally acknowledge and thank every committee
member for the tremendous attention and effort each devoted to this activity.
Some members traveled great distances to participate in the committee meetings,
and everyone made difficult choices about other commitments to make this project
a key priority. It is only through these generous and combined efforts that this
report achieved clarity and closure.
Harold T. Shapiro, Chair
Sally Dawson, Vice Chair
Committee on Elementary Particle Physics
in the 21st Century
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physics
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11641.html
Acknowledgments
his report is the product of large amounts of work by many people. The
committee extends its thanks and appreciation to all who participated in
Tthis endeavor; it would be impossible to name them all individually.
The committee thanks the speakers who made formal presentations at each of
the meetings; their presentations and the ensuing discussions were extremely in-
formative and had a significant impact on the committee’s deliberations. The
committee is especially appreciative of efforts by members of the international
community (Robert Aymar, Ian Halliday, Yoji Totsuka, and Albrecht Wagner) to
participate in its May 2005 meeting in Illinois and its August 2005 meeting in New
York. And in general, the committee acknowledges the extra work required to
prepare remarks addressing the broad spectrum of expertise on the committee.
The committee also expresses its deep gratitude to the hosts and facilitators for
each of its meetings at the particle physics laboratories in the United States
(Jonathan Dorfan at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Michael
Witherell and Piermaria Oddone at Fermilab, and Maury Tigner at Cornell). Most
especially, the committee is grateful for the hospitality and warmth of its hosts at
site visits abroad (Robert Aymar at CERN, Brian Foster of the United Kingdom,
Shoji Nagamiya at J-PARC, Roberto Petronzio of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica
Nucleare (INFN), Yoji Totsuka at KEK, and Albrecht Wagner at DESY). These
visits overseas were tremendously valuable.
ix
Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.