The book gathers the lecture notes of the Les Houches Summer School that was held in August 2011 for an audience of advanced graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in particle physics, theoretical physics, and cosmology, areas where new experimental results were on the verge of being discovered at CERN. Every Les Houches School has its own distinct character. This one was held during a summer of great anticipation that at any moment contact might be made with the most recent theories of the nature of the fundamental forces and the structure of space-time. In fact, during the session, the long anticipated discovery of the Higgs particle was announced. The book vividly describes the fruitful and healthy "schizophrenia" that is the rule among the community of theoreticians who have split into several components: those doing phenomenology, and those dealing with highly theoretical problems, with a few trying to bridge both domains. The lectures by theoreticians covered many directions in the theory of elementary particles, from classics such as the Supersymmetric Standard Model to very recent ideas such as the relation between black holes, hydrodynamics, and gauge-gravity duality. The lectures by experimentalists explained in detail how intensively and how precisely the LHC collider has verified the theoretical predictions of the Standard Model, predictions that were at the front lines of experimental discovery during the 70's, 80's and 90's, and how the LHC is ready to make new discoveries. They described many of the ingenious and pioneering techniques developed at CERN for the detection and the data analysis of billions of billions of proton-proton collisions.

Describes the technology and engineering of the Large Hadron collider (LHC), one of the greatest scientific marvels of this young 21st century. This book traces the feat of its construction, written by the head scientists involved, placed into the context of the scientific goals and principles.

This book aims to provide a guide for understanding and following the discoveries that will take place within the next few years at the Large Hadron Collider project at CERN.

"Helium: From Discovery to Modern Energy Applications" is an authoritative exploration of helium, one of the most fascinating and essential elements in the modern world. This comprehensive guide takes readers on a journey from helium's initial discovery in the sun's spectrum to its pivotal role in cutting-edge technologies and its potential as a game-changer in future energy systems. Helium is more than just a gas used to fill balloons—it's a critical resource that underpins advancements in fields as diverse as healthcare, electronics, aerospace, and energy. This book delves into the unique properties of helium that make it indispensable for applications such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), semiconductor manufacturing, and space exploration. It also addresses the looming challenges of helium scarcity and the innovative solutions being developed to ensure its availability for future generations. The book is structured to provide both a historical perspective and a forward-looking view of helium's role in our world. Early chapters offer a fascinating account of helium's discovery and its initial uses, setting the stage for more technical discussions on its physical and chemical properties. Readers will gain a deep understanding of how helium functions in cryogenics, superconductivity, and quantum computing, as well as its potential as a fuel for nuclear fusion. Special emphasis is placed on helium-3, a rare isotope with promising applications in energy production. The book explores the ambitious idea of mining helium-3 on the Moon and its potential to revolutionize the global energy landscape. Through detailed analysis and case studies, the author sheds light on the economic, environmental, and ethical considerations surrounding helium's use. Written by Ron Legarski, a telecommunications and technology solutions expert with over two decades of industry experience, this book combines technical expertise with practical insights. Ron's deep understanding of the technological landscape, coupled with his interest in helium's role in the future of energy, makes this book a valuable resource for professionals, researchers, and students alike. "Helium: From Discovery to Modern Energy Applications" is an essential read for anyone interested in the intersection of science, technology, and industry. Whether you are a scientist, engineer, policymaker, or simply curious about the role of helium in modern life, this book offers a thorough and engaging exploration of an element that continues to shape the future of technology and energy.

The topic of the CVIII session of the Ecole de Physique des Houches, held in July 2017, was Effective Field Theory in Particle Physics and Cosmology. Effective Field Theory (EFT) is a general method for describing quantum systems with multiple length scales in a tractable fashion. It allows to perform precise calculations in established models (such as the Standard Models of particle physics and cosmology), as well as to concisely parametrise possible effects from physics beyond the Standard Models. The goal of this school was to offer a broad introduction to the foundations and modern applications of Effective Field Theory in many of its incarnations. This is all the more important as there are preciously few textbooks covering the subject, none of them in a complete way. In this book, the lecturers present the concepts in a pedagogical way so that readers can adapt some of the latest developments to their own problems. The chapters cover almost all the lectures given at the school and will serve as an introduction to the topic and as a reference manual to students and researchers.

In an epoch when particle physics is awaiting a major step forward, the Large Hydron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva will soon be operational. It will collide a beam of high energy protons with another similar beam circulation in the same 27 km tunnel but in the opposite direction, resulting in the production of many elementary particles some never created in the laboratory before. It is widely expected that the LHC will discover the Higgs boson, the particle which supposedly lends masses to all other fundamental particles. In addition, the question as to whether there is some new law of physics at such high energy is likely to be answered through this experiment. The present volume contains a collection of articles written by international experts, both theoreticians and experimentalists, from India and abroad, which aims to acquaint a non-specialist with some basic issues related to the LHC. At the same time, it is expected to be a useful, rudimentary companion of introductory exposition and technical expertise alike, and it is hoped to become unique in its kind. The fact that there is substantial Indian involvement in the entire LHC endeavour, at all levels including fabrication, physics analysis procedures as well as theoretical studies, is also amply brought out in the collection.

Over the last decade new experimental tools and theoretical concepts are providing new insights into collective nonequilibrium behavior of quantum systems. The exquisite control provided by laser trapping and cooling techniques allows us to observe the behavior of condensed bose and degenerate Fermi gases under nonequilibrium drive or after `quenches' in which a Hamiltonian parameter is suddenly or slowly changed. On the solid state front, high intensity short-time pulses and fast (femtosecond) probes allow solids to be put into highly excited states and probed before relaxation and dissipation occur. Experimental developments are matched by progress in theoretical techniques ranging from exact solutions of strongly interacting nonequilibrium models to new approaches to nonequilibrium numerics. The summer school `Strongly interacting quantum systems out of equilibrium' held at the Les Houches School of Physics as its XCIX session was designed to summarize this progress, lay out the open questions and define directions for future work. This books collects the lecture notes of the main courses given in this summer school.