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

Technical Report · Sat Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1454201· OSTI ID:1454201

Breaux, Annemaria ^[1]; Chan, Jennifer ^[1]; DePorcel, Lillian ^[1]; Dixon, Lance ^[1]

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1. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

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 $Z^0$ 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 acceleratorbased 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 SuperKamiokande 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. We thank all SSI speakers for making this school such an interesting and inspiring one, as well as the provocateurs for enlivening the afternoon discussion sessions. We thank Jochen Schwiening for his invaluable web support. The Institute could not have taken place at all without the efforts of Lilian DePorcel and Jennifer Chan, who also edited these Proceedings.

• Research Organization: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1454201
• Report Number(s): SLAC-R-528; CONF-9708161; UC-414
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS