Particle Physics, 3rd Edition

An essential introduction to particle physics, with coverage ranging from the basics through to the very latest developments, in an accessible and carefully structured text.

Particle Physics: Third Edition is a revision of a highly regarded introduction to particle physics. In its two previous editions this book has proved to be an accessible and balanced introduction to modern particle physics, suitable for those students needed a more comprehensive introduction to the subject than provided by the ‘compendium’ style physics books.

In the Third Edition the standard model of particle physics is carefully developed whilst unnecessary mathematical formalism is avoided where possible. Emphasis is placed on the interpretation of experimental data in terms of the basic properties of quarks and leptons.

One of the major developments of the past decade has been the establishing of the existence of neutrino oscillations. This will have a profound effect on the plans of experimentalists. This latest edition brings the text fully up-to-date, and includes new sections on neutrino physics, as well as expanded coverage of detectors, such as the LHC detector.

• End of chapter problems with a full set of hints for their solutions provided at the end of the book.
• An accessible and carefully structured introduction to this demanding subject.
• Includes more advanced material in optional ‘starred’ sections.
• Coverage of the foundations of the subject, as well as the very latest developments. 

Particle Physics is the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces between them.

Particle Physics, Third Edition, provides a short introduction to particle physics, which emphasizes the foundations of the standard model in experimental data, rather than its more formal and theoretical aspects. It is intended for undergraduate students who have previously taken introductory courses in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics and special relativity.

The structure of the book is simple. The first three chapters give a brief overview of the subject. They introduce some of the basic ideas that are used extensively throughout the rest of the book and discuss leptons, quarks and hadrons and the interactions between them. The remaining chapters discuss a wide selection of important topics in more detail. These include experimental methods; space-time symmetries; the quark model of hadrons; quantum chromodynamics and jet physics; the weak interaction, including its unification with the electromagnetic interaction, and CP-violation and related symmetries; and a brief account of some of the important open questions ‘beyond the standard model’ that are currently being investigated in laboratories around the world. Problems to aid student study are given at the end of each chapter, with solutions given in an Appendix.

Particle Physics 3rd Edition features:

• Expanded coverage of neutrino physics, including recent experimental result on neutrino mixing and neutrino masses.

• A revised and updated discussion of modern particle detectors and experiments.

• A fuller treatment of the Higgs mechanism and experimental searches for the Higgs boson.

• A more extensive discussion of CP violation, including new results B decays their implications for the standard model.

• An updated treatment of physics beyond the standard model, including the expanding field of particle astrophysics and cosmology.