Tag Archives: top quark
You’re allowed to be interested in particle physics
This piece appeared in The Hindu today. I wrote the lead article, about why scientists are so interested in an elementary particle called the top quark. Long story short: the top quark is the heaviest elementary particle, and because all … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Scicomm, Science
Tagged Higgs boson, mathematical physics, particle physics, Shreya Dasgupta, The Hindu, top quark
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Is the universe as we know it stable?
The anthropic principle has been a cornerstone of fundamental physics, being used by some physicists to console themselves about why the universe is the way it is: tightly sandwiched between two dangerous states. If the laws and equations that define … Continue reading
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Tagged anthropic principle, Circular Electron-Positron Collider, Higgs field, quantum tunnelling, scalar potential, top quark
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Why you should care about the mass of the top quark
In a paper published in Physical Review Letters on July 17, 2014, a team of American researchers reported the most precisely measured value yet of the mass of the top quark, the heaviest fundamental particle. Its mass is so high that … Continue reading
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Tagged D0 experiment, Higgs boson, Higgs field, Large Hadron Collider, particle physics, Stephen Hawking, top quark, Yukawa coupling
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