Som Ganguli is at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. He is currently participating in an experiment under preparation for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva. He has been studying properties of Z and W bosons produced in electron-positron collisions at the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP). During 1970s and early 1980s he was studying production and decay properties of strange and charm particles using bubble chambers.

We discuss the experiments carried out with LEP (large electron positron collider) that verified the standard model of the fundamental particles of nature. Some experiments planned for the future to detect Higgs particle are also discussed.

LEP Detectors

Aims of the four detectors at LEP, surrounding the interaction points of e+ e-, are to detect all the particles emerging from interactions (also called events) and these are: (a) particles with quark contents like pions, kaons, protons etc., called hadrons, (b) tau leptons, (c) photons, electrons, positrons, (d) muons and (e) neutrinos. The last mentioned particle neutrino has extremely weak interaction with matter and hence it escapes the detector without leaving any trace of itself. All these particles are detected mainly through their strong and electromagnetic interactions.

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Address for Correspondence
S N Ganguli
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Mumbai 400 005, India.