"The ultimate question of elementary particle physics is: What is the fundamental Lagrangian of nature surrounding us? The Lagrangian of the SM is very successful in describing nature at the currently available energy range. The discovery of the Higgs boson completed the particle spectrum of the SM and it is another proof of how well the SM works. Nevertheless the SM cannot be the end of the story and it is for sure not the fundamental Lagrangian of nature. The Lagrangian of the SM looses its validity at the latest at the Planck scale where gravitational effects become noticeable.Most physicists think of the SM as an effective theory that has to be replaced by a more fundamental theory above the TeV scale. What the word effective really means will hopefully be clear at later stages of our book. For the time being we will list some problems and open questions of the SM"--

CIPANP 2009 explores areas of common interest between nuclear physicists, high energy (particle) physicists and astrophysicists. These areas range from studies of the strong interactions that bind nuclei together to physics of the very early Universe and include such topics as neutrinos, hadron physics, spin physics, heavy ion physics, QCD and heavy flavor physics. The Conference papers include descriptions of searches for "new physics", phenomena that cannot be accounted for by current theories.

This book highlights two essential analyses of data collected during the LHCb experiment, based on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The first comprises the first observation and studies of matter-antimatter asymmetries in two three-body b-baryon decays, paving the way for more precise measurements of the relatively unknown decay properties of b-baryon decays. The second is an analysis of a charged B meson decay to three charged pions, where previously large matter-antimatter asymmetries were observed in a model-independent analysis. Here a model of the decay amplitude is constructed using the unitarity-conserving ‘K-matrix’ model for the scalar contributions, so as to gain an understanding of how the previously observed matter-antimatter asymmetries arise; further, the model’s construction yields the most precise and comprehensive study of this decay mode to date.

Encyclopedia of Nuclear Energy provides a comprehensive and reliable overview of the many ways nuclear energy contributes to society. Comprised of four volumes, it includes topics such as generating clean electricity, improving medical diagnostics and cancer treatment, improving crop yields, improving food shelf-lives, and crucially, the deployment of nuclear energy as an alternative energy source, one that is proving to be essential in the management of global warming. Carefully structured into thematic sections, this encyclopedia brings together the vast and highly diversified literature related to nuclear energy into a single resource, with convenient to read, cross-referenced chapters. This book will serve as an invaluable resource for researchers in the fields of energy, engineering, material science, chemistry, and physics, from both industry and academia. Offers a contemporary review of current nuclear energy research and insights into the future direction of the field, hence negating the need for individual searches across various databases Written by academics and practitioners from different fields to ensure that the knowledge within is easily understood by, and applicable to, a large audience Meticulously organized, with articles split into sections on key topics and clearly cross-referenced to allow students, researchers and professionals to quickly and easily find relevant information

This book is about the dark photon which is a new gauge boson whose existence has been conjectured. Due to its interaction with the ordinary, visible photon, such a particle can be experimentally detected via specific signatures. In this book, the authors review the physics of the dark photon from the theoretical and experimental point of view. They discuss the difference between the massive and the massless case, highlighting how the two phenomena arise from the same vector portal between the dark and the visible sector. A review of the cosmological and astrophysical observations is provided, together with the connection to dark matter physics. Then, a perspective on current and future experimental limits on the parameters of the massless and massive dark photon is given, as well as the related bounds on milli-charged fermions. The book is intended for graduate students and young researchers who are embarking on dark photon research, and offers them a clear and up-to-date introduction to the subject.

This comprehensive volume summarizes and structures the multitude of results obtained at the LHC in its first running period and draws the grand picture of today’s physics at a hadron collider. Topics covered are Standard Model measurements, Higgs and top-quark physics, flavour physics, heavy-ion physics, and searches for supersymmetry and other extensions of the Standard Model. Emphasis is placed on overview and presentation of the lessons learned. Chapters on detectors and the LHC machine and a thorough outlook into the future complement the book. The individual chapters are written by teams of expert authors working at the forefront of LHC research.