Physics Colloquium, February 7, 2006

Puzzle of Charge and Mass

Stuart Raby

The Ohio State University

Beginning with the seminal work of Rutherford, Geiger and Marsden in 1911, physicists have investigated the atom using particle beams (alpha particles, and protons) as probes. They developed new detection methods; the geiger counter, scintillators, cloud and then bubble chambers. This new paradigm for probing matter and new detectors led to many discoveries. To make a long story short, by 1974 the chaos of discovery lead to the Standard Model describing all observed particle phenomena in terms of three fundamental forces (4 including gravity) and the fundamental building blocks of matter, quarks and leptons. Only now, after the dust of this chaotic discovery settles, are we able with hindsight to recognize the underlying principles which define the theory we call the Standard Model. It is these principles and their logical extension which I will attempt to describe in this talk.

4:00 p.m., Physics Research Building (PRB), Room 1080

Reception at 3:45 p.m., Atrium, PRB