Missing experimental challenges to the Standard Model of particle physics Slobodan Perovic Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, 817 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA article info Article history: Received 15 April 2010 Received in revised form 12 December 2010 Accepted 16 December 2010 Available online 12 February 2011 Keywords: High energy physics The Standard Model of particle physics Particle colliders Experiments Anomalies abstract The success of particle detection in high energy physics colliders critically depends on the criteria for selecting a small number of interactions from an overwhelming number that occur in the detector. It also depends on the selection of the exact data to be analyzed and the techniques of analysis. The introduction of automation into the detection process has traded the direct involvement of the physicist at each stage of selection and analysis for the efficient handling of vast amounts of data. This tradeoff, in combination with the organizational changes in laboratories of increasing size and complexity, has resulted in automated and semi-automated systems of detection. Various aspects of the semi-automated regime were greatly diminished in more generic automated systems, but turned out to be essential to a number of surprising discoveries of anomalous processes that led to theoretical breakthroughs, notably the establishment of the Standard Model of particle physics. The automated systems are much more efficient in confirming specific hypothesis in narrow energy domains than in performing broad exploratory searches. Thus, in the main, detection processes relying excessively on automation are more likely to miss potential anomalies and impede potential theoretical advances. I suggest that putting substantially more effort into the study of electron–positron colliders and increasing its funding could minimize the likelihood of missing potential anomalies, because detection in such an environment can be handled by the semi-automated regime—unlike detection in hadron colliders. Despite virtually unavoidable excessive reliance on automated detection in hadron colliders, their development has been deemed a priority because they can operate at currently highest energy levels. I suggest, however, that a focus on collisions at the highest achievable energy levels diverts funds from searches for potential anomalies overlooked due to tradeoffs at the previous energy thresholds. I also note that even in the same collision environment, different research strategies will opt for differ- ent tradeoffs and thus achieve different experimental outcomes. Finally, I briefly discuss current searches for anomalous process in the context of the previous analysis. & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 1. Introduction The complexity and the number of events taking place in a typical High Energy Physics (HEP) detector necessitate the selec- tion of a small number of interactions that will be recorded out of a vast number taking place, the selection of data to be analyzed, and the choice of appropriate techniques and statistical methods. I discuss this in Section 1 and note that over time, the efficiency and quantity of production of the recordings and analyzed data were enhanced by the use of automation—but at the expense of the much more direct involvement of physicists in the detection process. I explain in Section 2 that this tradeoff affected selection of data at every stage of detection. The transition to automation was entangled with a number of structural changes in the ever more complex environment of high energy physics laboratories, includ- ing specialization and the increasing separation of theorists and experimentalists. It resulted in the emergence of two distinct (and opposing) approaches to detection: automated and semi- automated. The semi-automated regime of detection turned out to be the key to the discovery of processes anomalous with respect to the existing background theory. It led to theoretical breakthroughs and the establishment of the Standard Model of particle physics. In Section 3, I discuss three discoveries at the Lawrence Berkley Laboratory and the discovery of J/psi particles at SLAC that were enabled by particular aspects of the semi-automated regime; Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsb Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 1355-2198/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.shpsb.2010.12.003 E-mail address: sperovic@lycos.com Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (2011) 32–42