Beyond the Frontier: Nonclassical Properties

Abstract

What is called fundamental particle physics, or high-energy physics, while still being in the realm of quantum theory, takes us into a new realm of reality. It started with the effort to find the ultimate source of all matter, the smallest indivisible elements of which our universe is created. Probing at an ever-smaller scale of size involved using giant machines to produce forms of matter not normally present in our immediate physical world. The search at times seemed to produce so many types of equally fundamental particles that it was difficult to believe that at the most fundamental level one would discover such complexity. But as one sorted the new particles into families, interesting relationships appeared; the use of symmetry properties to classify particles was particularly revealing.