Advanced Concepts in Particle and Field Theory

✍ Scribed by Tristan Hübsch

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 582
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Uniting the usually distinct areas of particle physics and quantum field theory, gravity and general relativity, this expansive and comprehensive textbook of fundamental and theoretical physics describes the quest to consolidate the elementary particles that are the basic building blocks of nature. Designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate students and abounding in worked examples and detailed derivations, as well as historical anecdotes and philosophical and methodological perspectives, this textbook provides students with a unified understanding of all matter at the fundamental level. Topics range from gauge principles, particle decay and scattering cross-sections, the Higgs mechanism and mass generation, to spacetime geometries and supersymmetry. By combining historically separate areas of study and presenting them in a logically consistent manner, students will appreciate the underlying similarities and conceptual connections across these fields. This title, first published in 2015, has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication page
Contents
Preface
I Preliminaries
1 The nature of observing Nature
1.1 Fundamental physics as a natural science
1.2 Measurement units and dimensional analysis
1.3 The quantum nature of Nature and limits of information
2 Fundamental physics: elementary particles and processes
2.1 The subject matter
2.2 Elementary particles: detection and predisposition in experiments
2.3 A historical inventory of the fundamental ingredients of the World
2.4 Lessons
II The Standard Model
3 Physics in spacetime
3.1 The Lorentz transformations and tensors
3.2 Relativistic kinematics: limitations and consequences
3.3 Feynman’s diagrams and calculus
4 The quark model: combinatorics and groups
4.1 Bound states
4.2 Finite symmetries
4.3 Isospin
4.4 The eightfold way, the SU(3) f group and the u, d, s quarks
5 Gauge symmetries and interactions
5.1 The non-relativistic U(1) example
5.2 Electrodynamics with leptons
5.3 Quantum electrodynamics with leptons
5.4 Quantum electrodynamics of hadrons
6 Non-abelian gauge symmetries and interactions
6.1 The gauge symmetry of color
6.2 Concrete calculations
6.3 Non-perturbative comments
7 The Standard Model
7.1 Boundary conditions and solutions of symmetric equations
7.2 The weak nuclear interaction and its consequences
7.3 The Standard Model
III Beyond the Standard Model
8 Unification: the fabric of understanding Nature
8.1 Indications
8.2 Grand unified models
8.3 On the formalism and characteristics of scientific systems
9 Gravity and the geometrization of physics
9.1 Einstein’s equivalence principle and gauge symmetry
9.2 Gravity vs. Yang–Mills interactions
9.3 Special solutions
10 Supersymmetry: boson–fermion unification
10.1 The linear harmonic oscillator and its extensions
10.2 Supersymmetry in descriptions of Nature
10.3 Supersymmetric field theory
10.4 Classification of off-shell supermultiplets
11 Strings: unification of all foundations of reality
11.1 Strings: recycling, recycling. . .
11.2 The theoretical system of (super)strings
11.3 Towards realistic string models
11.4 Duality and dual worldviews
11.5 Instead of an epilogue: unified theory of everything
IV Appendices
A Groups: structure and notation
A.1 Groups: definitions and applications
A.2 The U(1) group
A.3 The SU(2) group
A.4 The SU (3) group
A.5 Orthogonal and Spin groups
A.6 Spinors and Dirac γ-matrices
B A lexicon
B.1 The jargon
B.2 Tensor calculus basics
B.3 A telegraphic introduction to G¨odelian incompleteness
C A few more details
C.1 Nobel Prizes
C.2 Some numerical values and useful formulae
C.3 Answers to some exercises
References
Index
Пустая страница