If the new boson is indeed the Higgs particle, its discovery represents an important milestone in the history of particle physics. However, despite the pressure to award Nobel Prizes to physicists associated with the Higgs boson, John Moffat argues that there still remain important data analyses to be performed before uncorking the champagne. John Moffat is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Toronto and a senior researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Well-known for his outside-the-box research on topics such as dark matter, dark energy, and the varying speed of light cosmology (VSL), his new book takes a critical look at the hype surrounding the Higgs boson. In the process, he presents a cogent and often entertaining history of particle physics and an exploration of alternative theories of particle physics that do not feature the Higgs boson, including his own. He gives a detailed and personal description of how theoretical physicists come up with new theories, and emphasizes how carefully experimental physicists must interpret the complex data now coming out of accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The book does not shy away from controversial topics such as the sociology of particle physics. There is immense pressure on projects like the $9 billion LHC to come up with positive results in order to secure funding for the future. Yet to date, the Higgs boson may be the only positive result to emerge from the LHC experiments. The searches for dark matter particles, mini-black holes, extra dimensions, and supersymmetric particles have all come up empty-handed, with serious consequences for theoretical physics, including string theory and gravity theory. John Moffat is also the author of Reinventing Gravity (2008) and Einstein Wrote Back (2010).

About the Author
John W. Moffat has been a professor of physics for more than three decades. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, a member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and adjunct professor in the physics department at the University of Waterloo. Moffat is well known for his alternative theory of gravity to Einstein's general relativity. He is the author of Reinventing Gravity: A Physicist Goes Beyond Einstein and Einstein Wrote Back: My Life in Physics.

Reviews
The whole book was a delightful reading, some of the cited papers are on my reading list now. The book is also a good mixture in describing theoretical results and experimental methods. I can recommend this book to everyone who is interested in the history of the standard model and how new theories in physics works come into being. * Torsten Asselmeyer-Maluga, zb Math Open *
There are many books on the market that describe the Higgs boson discovery. This book's uniqueness is its author's uncompromising drive to question both theory and experiment. It might frustrate you. You might love it. * Tara Shears, Times Higher Education *
Two things make this book stand out. One is the authoras personal involvement in the field over a long period, and the other is that he is brave enough not to take the simplistic stance that weave found the Higgs and itas all over, but rather to point out that things are a lot more complicated than the press releases from CERN would suggest. * Brian Clegg, Popular Science *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199915521
Author John Moffat
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 522g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 160mm * 31mm