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The Once and Present Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics

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Discovery Beyond the Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Physics ((SpringerBriefs in Physics))

Abstract

There are many theories that have resided these last fifty years within the hazy mist we have been calling the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particles. An attempt is made here to construct a coherent description of the SM today, because only precisely articulated theories can be targeted for annihilation, corroboration, and alteration. To this end it is useful to categorize the facts, mysteries and myths that together build a single conception of the SM. For example, it is argued that constructing a myth for how neutrinos obtain mass is useful for progress. We also advocate for interpreting the cosmological constant, dark matter, baryogenesis, and inflation as four “mysteries of the cosmos” that are indeterminate regarding new particles or interactions, despite a multitude of available particle explanations. Some history of the ever-changing SM is also presented to remind us that today’s SM is not our parents’ SM, nor will it likely be our children’s SM.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, “In the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particle physics, neutrinos are massless particles” [65]. And, “Some considered [the Higgs boson] as the last brick in the construction of the Standard Model. It is not, since in the Standard Model neutrinos have no mass...” [61]. And, “The standard model of particle physics says neutrinos should be massless, but experiments have shown that they have a small but nonzero mass—the subject of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics” [34]. There are many more such quotes throughout the literature and presented in talks.

  2. 2.

    It is generally held that any particle physics theory based on standard quantum field theory will break down in extreme gravity environments, which is one of the motivations for pursuing deeper string theory descriptions for that domain. It is also why we restrict our discussion to energies well below the Planck scale.

  3. 3.

    See, for example, Sect. IV of [46] for a review of possibilities.

  4. 4.

    Analogously, one recalls that the SM of much of the western world in 325 A.D., as expressed by the Council of Nicaea, held that “God [is] maker of all things both seen and unseen” [59]. SM-325 remains compatible with all the data, but as a theory it has been continually augmented over the years by articulated, computable, and proximate explanatory theories for the mysteries of natural phenomena.

  5. 5.

    See, for example, Fig. 8 of [7].

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  1. Physics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    James D. Wells

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Wells, J.D. (2020). The Once and Present Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics. In: Discovery Beyond the Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics. SpringerBriefs in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38204-9_2

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