## Saturday, April 27, 2013

### Gordon Kane: Supersymmetry and Beyond

You may pre-order Gordon Kane's book, Supersymmetry and Beyond, that will be released on May 14th. It has about 200 pages, a foreword by Edward Witten, a glossary, and recommendations from Brian Greene and David Gross.

An appendix discusses the prediction of the Higgs mass from compactified string theory.

Chapters of the book introduce you to the contemporary physics, the Standard Model, its known elementary particles and their hypothetical superpartners.

But you also learn why physics is the easiest science – and, which is related, what is the effective field theory. Supersymmetry is presented as a spacetime symmetry. It is clarified what it means to break it. Special chapters are dedicated to the experimental search for supersymmetry, string/M-theory, the Higgs physics, and potential boundaries of physics.

1. Wow, this looks like a really great must have :-)!

What is the targetted audience, maybe I am exitable too fast and it is not for me ... :-/?

2. Dear Dilaton, I am sure you're among the targeted audience. ;-)

3. I'm puzzled with the different kind of compactifications. M-theory on G2 manifolds(Gordon Kane), Heterotic on Calabi-Yau, IIB flux compactifications.

These are just corners of a broader picture and this picture (non pertubative formulation of String theory) is yet to be revealed.

Banks has some interesting points about the validity of these effective vacua, although I haven't completely understood them yet...

I will buy the book of course even though I already know all the history behind G2 compactifications.

4. What do you mean by "prediction" ? It's a fit not a prediction.

5. Lubos: What is the current situation with supersymmetry? How much have the models been constrained by LHC results? I hope one of the models is confirmed eventually. Kane is a superbooster :)

6. I wonder if this is just an updated version of his 2009 book of the same name (without 'and beyond"?

7. His 2000 book, perhaps? http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0738202037. (2001 and 2009 are paperback and Kindle editions.) Are the foreword and recommendations updated as well?

8. Yes, it's a revised edition.

9. Having just read those parts of the foreword that are visible on Amazon, I can only see changes in one sentence and the date. So, "written in 2012" might be a stretch. But that's not important to me. Did you read an earlier (or: this) edition, and do you indeed, on such basis, recommend this book?

10. Hi Gugg ;-)

I did not compare the two books exactly, but I guess the newer version probably contains some new things too since research has made progress in the mean time ...

Off topic:

BTW I can not talk in any chatroom or something. But I am taking notes about what I'll have to do when I am able too again: questions and answers that need up/down votes, answers I want to write, questions I want ask I presubmit on Quora, etc ...

Dmckee should not have closed this legitimate question:

http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/61876/2751

in particular since Qmechanic said "leave open" in the review queue.

http://physics.stackexchange.com/review/close/15297

Dmckee should have listend to Qmechanic, since Qmechanic is a I guess very knowledgable theoretical physicist, and Dmckee is not!. And if Qmechanic sais a theoretical or fundamental physics question is valid, then it IS as Qmechanic says!

But I will just edit the questio, it needs at least a better more specific title, and the ping Dmckee to explain him why I (and maybe Qmechanic too?) think the question is valid and ask him if he can reopen it after my edits ...;-)

11. Oh, a new Gordy's book! Did he include any new postdictions he is famous for?