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Proceedings of the 25th SLAC Summer Institute on Particle Physics: Physics of Leptons (SSI97) , Stanford, CA, August 4-15, 1997

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10130· OSTI ID:10130
One hundred ninety-eight physicists from 16 countries gathered at SLAC from August 4 to 15, 1997 to attend the XXV SLAC Summer Institute on Particle Physics. The theme of the school was ''The Physics of Leptons'', commemorating a century since the electron, the first lepton, was discovered. We heard about the electron's role as a probe of the structure of matter, as well as the beautifully precise tests of charged-lepton universality in Z{sup 0} decays. The focus of the school then shifted from the charged leptons to their weak partners, the neutrinos. Summer Institute attendees were not surprised in early 1998 by Super-Kamiokande's announcement of evidence for neutrino mass. After all, they had already seen the mounting evidence, both solar and atmospheric, the preceding August, in a comprehensive review of all nonaccelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments, as well as a topical conference report from Super-Kamiokande. We also heard about the past, present, and future of reactor- and accelerator-based oscillation experiments, including the prospects for terrestrial tests of the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. Leptons in cosmology and as harbingers of physics beyond the Standard Model were the subject of two more lecture series. The three-day topical conference concluding the Institute was highlighted by the Super-Kamiokande neutrino results, and Beppo-Sax's report on the cosmological origin of gamma-ray bursters. As for terrestrial accelerators, SLC, LEP, and the Tevatron put increasing pressure on the electroweak sector through precision measurements, but all direct searches for new phenomena still came up empty.
Research Organization:
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
10130
Report Number(s):
SLAC-R-528
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English