Birth of the Hagedorn Temperature
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CERN Courier December 2014 CERN Courier December 2014 Bookshelf Inside Story about CERN and its latest “biggest” appeal to anyone who has an interest discovery – the Higgs boson. According in understanding the broader world to the preface, this one sets out to tell the view of human endeavour that includes story from a different perspective, by religious faith and science. I hope that it putting at its centre the modern scientists inspires people to take a more open and who are exploring this terra incognita. wide-ranging view of human life. Faithful Birth of the Hagedorn temperature Interviews with a dozen scientists working to Science should be on the bookshelf of at CERN, ranging from the director-general, anyone who is interested to explore this Rolf Heuer, to physicists working on the more comprehensive human experience. experiments, form the main part of the ● Emmanuel Tsesmelis, CERN. The statistical bootstrap thermal physics – not unusual in the particle book. These interviews are interspersed and nuclear context in the early 1970s. He with explanatory texts, and there are also a Books received model and the discovery of remembered our discussions in Frankfurt number of factual chapters about the history a few years later, resuming my education at of physics and especially particle physics, What Makes a Champion! Over Fifty quark–gluon plasma. CERN as if we had never been interrupted. from Galileo to Einstein. Extraordinary Individuals Share Their Looking back to those long sessions in the Does the book achieve what it sets out to Insights winter of 1977/1978, I see a blackboard full do, namely to give basic research a human By Allan Snyder (ed.) of clean, exact equations – and his sign not to face? Yes and no. World Scientifi c On 3 February 1978, clean the board, because he knew we would When I fi rst opened the book, I was Paperback: £18 Rolf Hagedorn handed resume early the next morning. curious to get to know some of the physicists, E-book: £14 me a copy of his secret, But how did Hagedorn, with his uncanny to understand what motivates them and to What drives great and unpublished manuscript physics instinct, by way of limiting learn how they feel about working in such a successful individuals — on “Thermodynamics of distinguishable Rolf Hagedorn at the blackboard in 1978. temperature and the statistical bootstrap, lay huge “laboratory” with thousands of people. be they athletes, artists, or particles: a key to high-energy strong (Image credit: Jan Rafelski.) foundations for a new interdisciplinary fi eld But the fi rst chapter (and a long one at that) scientists — and businesses to interactions?” – CERN preprint TH 483, of physics – relativistic heavy-ion collisions is about the history of CERN. While this is achieve the extraordinary? The dated 12 October 1964. The original had In the SBM, the exponential mass and the study of quark–gluon plasma – now interesting in itself – CERN was founded focus is Australian, but the more a big red mark, showing that it was the spectrum required for limiting temperature a vibrant research programme not only at after two devastating world wars, as a place This book sets out to validate the premise than 50 champions come from all walks original, not to be lost, with the number arose naturally ab initio, as did the close CERN, but also for example, at Brookhaven, where people from many different cultures that modern science is an integral part of life. Contributing authors include some “0” meaning less than “1” (see below). relation between the limiting temperature, GSI and Dubna? The idea of a limiting could work together peacefully – I was not of the ordinary and mainstream theistic well-known names, such as Nelson Mandela, Hagedorn kept just one red-marked copy, the exponential mass-spectrum slope and temperature transformed into what today is interested in facts and fi gures. belief. The author makes an excellent case Edmund Hillary and Corazon Aquino. and mentioned that another was in the CERN the lightest hadron mass. The CERN-TH 520 the temperature at which the confi ning QCD So I skipped ahead to the interviews of demonstrating that science and religious archives. He told me that I was never to give a preprint dated 24 January 1965, “Statistical vacuum structure dissolves, and the structure – but again they were interspersed with faith have much in common, and that they Magazines copy to anyone – a promise I can now break, thermodynamics of strong interactions at of matter changes from hadronic to quark– explanatory texts, which I found quite relate in a fruitful, inspiring and productive having found the document on the CERN high energies” – marked with a big “1” in gluon degrees of freedom. The exponential distracting. Although some of these contain manner. In fact, the author concludes Cent ans de particules... Où va la physique ? Document Server (CDS). This was the initial the Hagedorn collection, a manuscript that growth of the mass spectrum is understood interesting and useful information, I found indisputably that the most general world Dossier Pour la Science n° 85 – Octobre-décembre paper proposing an exponential hadron I was allowed to copy and give to anyone as the result of the quark content of hadrons. them too long, taking my mind away from view of human life encompasses both 2014 mass spectrum and the limiting (Hagedorn) – was published (1965 Nuovo Cim.Suppl. The statistical bootstrap idea amounts to an the interview, so it was hard to rejoin the science and theistic belief naturally, and Edition numérique : 5,49 € temperature. 3 147) and is today the renowned “Hagedorn effective model of how the quark structure conversation one or two pages later. that there is no confl ict between the two. Edition imprimée : 6,95 € Hagedorn recollected: “After Léon paper”. The Hagedorn temperature and the enters the hadron mass spectrum. The Nevertheless, you do get to know some CERN is also refl ecting on these themes Also available at the CERN bookshop van Hove read the paper, he asked me to SBM were offi cially born (CERN Courier fi nal step to quark matter was made when I hardcore scientists at a personal level. Their in terms of the origins of the universe with À l’occasion des 60 ans compute requirements for the hadron mass September 2003 p30). embarked with Hagedorn in 1977 on the path answers give the reader a glimpse of the the Big Bang. In partnership with Wilton du CERN, le magazine spectrum. This led me to recognize that not It is relevant to recollect what the dates leading to the expansion of the SBM towards great endeavour that is CERN, and they Park, two conferences have been held with Pour la Science consacre every, even exponential, mass spectrum on the CERN-TH preprints meant. In those a theory of hot nuclear matter. To achieve this also hint that the adventure is far from over experts to examine the various world views un numéro spécial à la produces limiting temperature. Thus within days, a handwritten manuscript was handed goal, we introduced the conserved baryon – even after the Higgs discovery. And with of science, philosophy and theology, and to physique des particules. Le two weeks I concluded this result was too to Tania Fabergé, the Theory Divison (TH) quantum number, and a reaction volume all the background information, you do not consider what they share in terms of common dossier commence avec une model dependent to publish, and I withdrew secretary. It received a sequential TH-preprint comprising the internal degrees of freedom. have to have a physics degree to gain a basic understanding. The fi rst conference in 2012 introduction du physicien Etienne Klein, qui this paper, placing an explanation in CERN number and the day’s date, as recorded in The outcome was that under enough understanding of the science. focused on reaching a common language rappelle les conquêtes de cette discipline, et archives.” I saw Hagedorn did not like this the TH log book. The paper then sat in the pressure, the Hagedorn clusters dissolve into ● Hannelore Hämmerle, Max Planck Institute for among the world views, while the second de l’ancien Président du Conseil du CERN, ad-hoc fi ne tuning, even 13 years after the fact. typing queue until it reappeared with date a single quark–gluon drop. Astrophysics. conference in 2014 considered the common Michel Spiro, qui revient sur l’histoire du The beginning, as always, hung on a and number clearly visible on the front page. Looking back 50 years later to the events understanding of the truth. Andrew Steane’s grand laboratoire européen. Des articles de fi ne thread: what would Hagedorn do after Somewhere along the line, a senior member in autumn 1964, I can say that they marked Faithful to Science: The Role of Science in book is therefore timely. scientifi ques de renom sont ensuite répartis withdrawing the limiting temperature paper? of TH would look at the work. This was a the beginning of the path to the quark–gluon Religion Faithful to Science is instructive, well laid en trois chapitres. Le premier est consacré He was convinced that his idea that the mild internal refereeing that also helped a plasma discovery, which CERN announced By Andrew Steane out and easy to read. It is written clearly and au bestiaire des particules et à la découverte appearance of a large number of different young fellow like me to meet senior division as a “new state of matter” in February Oxford University Press covers many aspects of the conversation, du boson de Higgs, avec notamment une hadronic states allows the energy content members.