Anomaly! Collider Physics And The Quest For New Phenomena At Fermilab

"From the mid-1980s, an international collaboration of 600 physicists embarked on the investigation of subnuclear physics at the high-energy frontier. As well as discovering the top quark, the heaviest elementary particle ever observed, the physicists analyzed their data to seek signals of new physics which could revolutionize our understanding of nature. Anomaly! tells the story of this research, carried out by the scientists of the Collider Detector at Fermilab, and focusses specifically on the findings of several anomalous effects which were unearthed in the process. These new anomalies proved highly controversial within the large team, and created internal disagreement. To some collaborators they required immediate publication and distribution, while to others their divulgation threatened to jeopardize the reputation of the experiment. Written in a confidential, narrative style, this book looks at the sociology of a large scientific collaboration, providing insight to the relationships between top physicists at the turn of the millennium. The stories offer an insider's view of the life cycle of the "failed" discoveries that unavoidably accompany even the greatest endeavors in modern particle physics; from the search of the Higgs boson to the contemporary quest of new physics currently ongoing at the CERN research laboratories"--