The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of

Modern Physics
Berry Holstein

Citation: Physics Today 59, 7, 49 (2006); doi: 10.1063/1.2337829

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2337829
View Table of Contents: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/toc/pto/59/7
Published by the American Institute of Physics

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 A modern model
that deserves more respect
The Theory of those symbols mean to an audience that
has not heard of most of the concepts.
Oerter uses an entire chapter to explain
Feynman diagrams, I doubt if most
Almost Everything Thus Oerter describes what quarks,
gluons, and gauge bosons are. That,
readers will comprehend the meaning
of the simple pictorial representations
The Standard Model, the however, is the easy part. The real chal- of complex underlying mathematical
Unsung Triumph of Modern lenge is that the standard model is a rel- calculations, especially those diagrams
Physics ativistic quantum field theory, which with multiple loops. Also, it is hard to
Robert Oerter means that truly understanding it re- imagine that the concepts of colored
Pi Press, New York, 2006. $24.95 quires knowledge of relativity, quan- gluons, Bell’s theorem, and the Copen-
(327 pp.). ISBN 0-13-236678-9 tum mechanics, fields in general, and hagen interpretation of the wavefunc-
Reviewed by Barry Holstein quantum fields in particular. But there’s tion—all of which are discussed in the
more: To comprehend how relativity book—can really be understood by the
The standard model, like the Roman
modifies Newtonian physics, one needs casual reader.
god Janus, presents two faces to the
to understand Isaac Newton’s Principia, Despite those minor reservations, I
world. To physicists,
which is also necessary to see how the had fun with this book because it pre-
it is like Jacqueline
new ideas are engendered by quantum sents so many new and clever ways to
Kennedy, chic and
mechanics. Understanding quantum explain basic physics to nonphysicists.
beautiful. But to the
fields requires knowing what a classical What is not so clear to me is whether
general public, it is
field is, and the best example is the elec- such readers can ever really hope to un-
like Rodney Danger-
tromagnetic field, so Oerter presents derstand the many concepts involved in
field: It gets little re-
the contributions of James Clerk the standard model. In fact, I was struck
spect. Robert Oerter,
Maxwell. by the huge number of crucial ideas in
a physics professor at
The author undertakes all of these the book, such as quantum theory, rela-
George Mason Uni-
versity in Virginia, endeavors with élan. His style is enter- tivity, quarks, and gluons, that practic-
has set out to change that popular mis- taining and involves numerous simple ing physicists must assimilate. Many of
conception. In The Theory of Almost and sometimes whimsical examples. those concepts are nonintuitive. In my
Everything: The Standard Model, the Un- For instance, in presenting time dila- case, much of the comfort level was
sung Triumph of Modern Physics, he at- tion, Oerter imagines a taxi trip to the reached only after considerable repeti-
tempts to give the standard model the airport in a world where the speed of tion and detailed study. The casual
respect it deserves. Does he succeed? light is only 30 mph. Assuming that the reader has only one shot with Oerter’s
Keep reading. airport is 15 miles away and the cab book. Nevertheless, the book gave me a
The task Oerter has undertaken is travels 29 mph, the traveler must leave lot of new ideas about how to answer
difficult because the standard model is well over a half hour early but will ar- friends who ask me what I do. Come to
not as sexy as the physics of black holes, rive at the airport having aged only 10 think of it, perhaps a professional
string theory, extra dimensions, dark minutes. To help readers grasp the idea physicist is not the best reviewer for
energy, dark matter, inflation, and so of how a particle at a distance from a Oerter’s book. Maybe it should be re-
forth; and most casual readers have source can “sense” a classical field, the viewed by someone who has little or no
only a limited familiarity with many of author introduces a homeowner whose knowledge of the field. Now that could
the ideas that constitute the model. neighbors are having a barbecue; the be interesting.
Physicists represent the standard homeowner knows by the aroma that I should also point out that in the
model very simply by the gauge theo- something is happening even if he or final two chapters, the author does go
ries SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1). The group she is not invited. To explain the princi- beyond the standard model to consider
SU(3) signifies the gauge theory of eight ple of least action, the author imagines the sort of ideas many popular books
color gluons coupled to quarks and to a lifeguard who must save a flounder- embrace—for example, dark matter,
each other. The group SU(2) × U(1) is ing swimmer in the ocean. The path of dark energy, inflation, grand unifica-
the electroweak theory, which unifies least time does not involve a simple tion, extra dimensions, the matter–
the weak and electromagnetic interac- straight-line path but rather comprises antimatter asymmetry of the universe,
tions and includes three massive gauge two different straight-line paths—one supersymmetry, and string theory.
bosons in addition to the massless pho- on land, one in the water. I could con- None of those concepts are covered in
ton. One test then is to explain what tinue, but you get the idea. The entire depth in the two chapters; rather, they
book is filled with similar examples, serve as a hook for the reader who is
Barry Holstein is a professor in the which are necessary to entice readers nibbling around the edge of standard
physics department at the University of who have little knowledge of the model physics.
Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a parti- standard model, or even of physics in Reading The Theory of Almost Every-
cle and nuclear theorist, and in his 35 general. thing was overall a very satisfying ex-
years at the university, he has taught the Of course, some of the arguments perience, and I will enthusiastically
theory of almost everything. work better than others. Although recommend it to friends who are

© 2006 American Institute of Physics, S-0031-9228-0607-240-1 July 2006 Physics Today 49

interested in understanding the essence and modern ones on macroscopic quan- In some ways, reading Low-
of contemporary particle physics. tum behavior; and treats normal and Temperature Physics was a trip down
Oerter is to be commended for success- superfluid 3He and the properties of memory lane because the book treats
fully pulling off a challenging project, 3
He–4He mixtures. The emphasis is al- well the classical topics of the field of
one that we physicists hope can possi- ways on the experiments and in most low-temperature physics, and it does
bly change this Rodney Dangerfield of cases simple explanations of the phe- an excellent job in about 550 pages. To
theories into, if not a beautiful Jackie nomena. As with other parts of the a large extent, the subjects discussed are
Kennedy, at least a model that gets book, citations to the original literature mature; many other topics could have
more respect. will help readers interested in details been included or treated more exten-
that cannot be included in a text of fi- sively to give the book a more contem-
nite size. porary flavor. For example, the authors
could have mentioned the physics of
Low-Temperature The second part, on solids at low
temperatures, starts with discussions of systems of reduced dimensions, such as
Physics phonons and electrons, which greatly those that manifest the integer and frac-
tional quantum Hall effects. Also, the
augment material covered in elemen-
Christian Enss and treatment of high-temperature super-
tary books on solid-state physics. The
Siegfried Hunklinger conductors and strongly correlated
authors then proceed to consider cer-
Springer, New York, 2005. $79.95 electron systems only scratches the sur-
(573 pp.). tain types of spin systems such as para-
magnets, spin glasses, and systems ex- face of subjects that are the focus of in-
ISBN 3-540-23164-1 tense work in the contemporary re-
hibiting nuclear magnetic ordering.
Low-Temperature Physics is unique in the They even provide a section on nega- search environment. Despite such
breadth of topics covered in one text tive spin temperatures. Some of the top- shortcomings, much is to be learned
and the extent to which it emphasizes ics are important parts of what might be from Enss and Hunklinger’s book. And
the interconnectedness of various sub- called classical low-temperature students who read Low-Temperature
jects, which is frequently lost in this age physics that are not generally included Physics will benefit from it.
of specialization. Christian Enss and in conventional texts on solid-state or Allen Goldman
Siegfried Hunklinger have written an University of Minnesota
statistical physics.
extremely readable Minneapolis
Tunneling systems, the area of the
book that effec-
authors’ research, is usually not treated
tively treats most of
the classical topics
in as much detail in other contemporary
texts. The topic involves a number of
The Equation That
in a succinct yet
reasonably com-
phenomena that are not yet fully ex- Couldn’t Be Solved
plained, especially in the case of disor- How Mathematical Genius
plete manner; it
dered systems. The discussion could Discovered the Language of
also includes a sur-
have included additional material on
vey chapter on ex- Symmetry
perimental tech- electrical transport phenomena because
they are an important part of contem- Mario Livio
niques. The book Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005.
will be useful to students who are en- porary research.
The treatment of superconductivity $26.95 (353 pp.).
tering parts of the broader field of ex- ISBN 0-7432-5820-7
perimental condensed matter physics provides an excellent introduction to
in which low temperature is a critical the phenomenology and includes ac-
tool. The text provides background on cessible coverage of the Bardeen- Hiding in the Mirror
foundational aspects of physics and ex- Cooper-Schrieffer theory and macro-
scopic quantum effects. The chapter is
The Mysterious Allure of
plains the principles of cooling and Extra Dimensions, from Plato
thermometry in a manner that should not a substitute for any of the textbooks
specific to superconductivity, such as to String Theory and Beyond
make the operation of modern turnkey
apparatus less mysterious. Michael Tinkham’s Introduction to Su- Lawrence M. Krauss
With minor exceptions regarding perconductivity, (McGraw-Hill, 1975), Viking, New York, 2005. $24.95
discussions of the physics of liquid but it is adequate for someone working (276 pp.). ISBN 0-670-03395-2
helium-3, the book can be easily read by in another area or using such supercon- In hindsight one could judge these
students who know elementary quan- ducting devices as SQUIDs, supercon- books by their covers. With its parch-
tum mechanics and statistical physics. ducting quantum interference devices. ment-like background, multiple type-
Exercises at the end of each chapter The section also contains brief discus- faces, butterfly photograph, and
make studying the subject material sions of some contemporary supercon- sprawling layout, Mario Livio’s The
much less passive; they either illustrate ducting materials such as organic Equation That Couldn’t Be Solved: How
important points or ask for numerical superconductors, the interplay of mag- Mathematical Genius Discovered the Lan-
work that gives students a better quan- netism and superconductivity, heavy guage of Symmetry promises a richly de-
titative understanding of the subject. fermions, and high-Tc materials. tailed story linking life, history, and
The book is divided into three parts, The final part of the book, on refrig- mathematics. Lawrence Krauss’s Hiding
“Quantum Fluids,” “Solids at Low eration and thermometry, was a delight in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of
Temperatures,” and “Principles of Re- to read. It clearly explains the princi- Extra Dimensions, from Plato to String
frigeration and Thermometry.” The first ples of various commonly used tech- Theory and Beyond, with its geometric
part covers the general properties of niques without going into too much graphics, single visual focal point, and
He; contains a masterfully written sec- technical detail. Chapters offer refer- subtle literary allusion, hints at the
tion on 4He, which includes a clear de- ences to satisfy readers interested in more streamlined story and argument
scription of the classical experiments more information. within.

50 July 2006 Physics Today www.physicstoday.org