The ideas of particle physics : an introduction for scintists

The third edition of this well-received book is a readable introduction to the world of particle physics. It bridges the gap between traditional textbooks on the subject and popular accounts that assume little or no background knowledge. Carefully revised and updated, this edition covers all of the important concepts in our modern understanding of particle physics. The theoretical development of the subject is traced from the foundations of quantum mechanics and relativity through to particle discoveries and the formulation of modern string theory. It includes a full description of the prospects for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will allow many key ideas to be tested. The book is intended for anyone with a background in the physical sciences who wishes to learn more about particle physics. It is also valuable to students of physics wishing to gain an introductory overview of the subject.

Reviews 1

Choice Review

Coughlan and colleagues offer a new edition of their book (1st ed., CH, Jan'85; 2nd ed., CH, Jun'92, 29-5740), neither textbook nor popular science product, but a review of particle physics for people with backgrounds in physics but no specialist knowledge of particle physics. This category might include beginning graduate students. It is written in chronological order, but it is not a historical account and does not include much mathematics. A great deal of ground is covered in 253 pages (divided into 10 chapters and five appendixes). There is a bibliography with references for both nonspecialists and specialists. The material covers fundamentals, the development of the standard model, and a sketch of what may be over the horizon in the next few years. As the treatment is quite condensed, it needs to be supplemented, but the references given allow the reader to do this. There are sufficiently good diagrams to supplement the textual material. The book can be highly recommended for its purpose; this reviewer's only criticism concerns its length--it would be improved by extending it by about 50 percent to allow some of the more subtle and difficult concepts to be explained more fully. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students. K. W. Ogilvie NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Preface	p. ix
Part 1 Introduction
1 Matter and light	p. 3
2 Special relativity	p. 8
3 Quantum mechanics	p. 16
4 Relativistic quantum theory	p. 26
Part 2 Basic particle physics
5 The fundamental forces	p. 39
6 Symmetry in the microworld	p. 47
7 Mesons	p. 52
8 Strange particles	p. 56
Part 3 Strong interaction physics
9 Resonance particles	p. 63
10 SU(3) and quarks	p. 65
Part 4 Weak interaction physics I
11 The violation of parity	p. 71
12 Fermi's theory of the weak interactions	p. 75
13 Two neutrinos	p. 79
14 Neutral kaons and CP violation	p. 82
Part 5 Weak interaction physics II
15 The current-current theory of the weak interactions	p. 87
16 An example leptonic process: electron-neutrino scattering	p. 90
17 The weak interactions of hadrons	p. 92
18 The W boson	p. 94
Part 6 Gauge theory of the weak interactions
19 Motivation for the theory	p. 99
20 Gauge theory	p. 101
21 Spontaneous symmetry breaking	p. 105
22 The Glashow-Weinberg-Salam model	p. 108
23 Consequences of the model	p. 112
24 The hunt for the W[superscript plusmn], Z[superscript 0] bosons	p. 116
Part 7 Deep inelastic scattering
25 Deep inelastic processes	p. 125
26 Electron-nucleon scattering	p. 127
27 The deep inelastic microscope	p. 131
28 Neutrino-nucleon scattering	p. 134
29 The quark model of the structure functions	p. 138
Part 8 Quantum chromodynamics-the theory of quarks
30 Coloured quarks	p. 145
31 Colour gauge theory	p. 150
32 Asymptotic freedom	p. 154
33 Quark confinement	p. 160
Part 9 Electron-positron collisions
34 Probing the vacuum	p. 16
35 Quarks and charm	p. 171
36 Another generation	p. 178
Part 10 The Standard Model and beyond
37 The Standard Model of particle physics	p. 185
38 Precision tests of the Standard Model	p. 189
39 Flavour mixing and CP violation revisited	p. 195
40 The hunt for the Higgs boson	p. 199
41 Neutrino masses and mixing	p. 204
42 Is there physics beyond the Standard Model?	p. 209
43 Grand unification	p. 211
44 Supersymmetry	p. 214
45 Particle physics and cosmology	p. 218
46 Superstrings	p. 226
Appendices
1 Units and constants	p. 235
2 Glossary	p. 236
3 List of symbols	p. 244
4 Bibliography	p. 246
5 Elementary particle data	p. 250
Name index	p. 251
Subject index	p. 252

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