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The Discovery of the Tau Lepton and the Changes in Elementary-Particle Physics in Forty Years

Abstract.

I describe the discovery of the tau lepton in the 1970s using the SPEAR electron-positron collider and the SLAC-LBL detector of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. I also describe the subsequent verification of the existence of the tau lepton and its leptonic nature by experiments at SPEAR and at the DORIS electron-positron collider at DESY. As a preliminary to the tau discovery I discuss how I became a physicist and became interested in leptons. This history of the discovery of the tau allows me to give a general picture of the high-energy physics world of forty years ago and to discuss the changes that have occurred in the practice of high-energy physics over these forty years.

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Correspondence to Martin L. Perl.

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Martin L. Perl is a professor, experimenter, and group leader at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center of Stanford University. In 1995 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the tau lepton.

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Perl, M.L. The Discovery of the Tau Lepton and the Changes in Elementary-Particle Physics in Forty Years. Phys. perspect. 6, 401–427 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-003-0218-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-003-0218-3

Key words.

  • Martin L. Perl
  • tau lepton discovery
  • Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  • leptons
  • tau lepton
  • tau neutrino
  • electron
  • muon
  • electron-muon puzzle
  • sequential lepton model
  • SPEAR
  • SLAC-LBL detector
  • high-energy physics