Customer Reviews

Introduction to High Energy Physics.

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

As many previous reviewers have already pointed out, this book is not nearly as good an introduction to theoretical high energy physics as Griffiths' "Introduction to Elementary Particles". The primary reason for this is that Perkins' book was never meant to be read as a theoretical course in the first place. This is why Griffiths introduces Feynman rules and gamma matrices near the middle of the book and uses them extensively throughout the rest; Perkins mentions them in passing in the first chapter and then completely forgets them. In Perkins you will find little rigorous math, but a lot of experimental physics. If you want to understand the theory behind T violation, use Griffiths. If you want to know how physicists measured the electric dipole momentum of the neutron ( thus putting an upper limit on the magnitude of T violation ), Perkins will explain it in detail, together with the schematics of the apparatus they used.
Overall, this book does not fit its title well - it is not a good introduction to high energy physics ( unless you are so totally averse to math that you can't manage Griffiths or Peskin/Shroeder ). However, it has its own purpose - that is, to teach experimental methods in high energy physics. It probably should be studied after Griffiths by those who are interested in experimental side of particle physics.

Speaking as a graduate student in physics who is condemned to sort through this abominable text, I strongly discourage anyone from engaging in this book if they are given the choice. It's presentation is extremely fragmented, and explanations obscure - survey unlucky students who are condemned to this text and they will tell you that learning particle physics has been a matter of finding other strong treatments. Not at all recommended. I am disturbed by the five star marks awarded by Amazon.

Basically, If you want theoretical approach stop reading this and buy griffiths' book, it's a lot better.
I'm using Perkins for a course mainly made up of senior undergraduates. First of all, a lot of the other reviewers have ripped the book to shreds, and most of their complaints are valid. I'd like to point out that this book actually attempts a fairly difficult task of introducing relatively advanced concepts which require qft, to students without any background in field theory.
The long and the short of it is... Perkins' book is geared for learning with a phenomonological, experimental approach. This results in a lot of hand waving, and not many mathematical or theoretical insights. If you're expecting these things, the book will be dissapointing.
All of this aside, there are some major flaws in the book. First of all, it kind of lacks on organization. There are a lot of charts, tables and graphs thrown about at random, and with little reasoning or thought. This makes Perkins' fairly useless as a reference, since you might have to look at four or more different charts to find out the relevant properties of a given particle.
My other major complaint, is that Perkins uses a lot of jargon without sufficiently introducing the terminology. While, this is fine for people who already know particle physics, I'm guessing that if you're reading this book, you don't already know particle physics.
Finally, despite being a fourth addition, there are still a bunch of misprints/omissions. For example, there's a question (which i conveniently had for a homework assignment) totally based on a concept not mentioned anywhere within the book. Google searches on the topic led only to obscure and inaccessible papers.
Basically, if you have to use this book for a course be prepared to read and re-read each section of it, and to suppliment with other books. I'd suggest buying griffiths along with it, event if you're not into the whole theory thing.

I used Perkin's book for a one sememester 500 level graduate course. I honestly believe that of the 20+ books that I have used in undergrad and grad school, that this is the absolute worst text I have encountered. The equations in the text are mearly thrown in without the slightest justification or hint of the possible method of derivation. If you would truly understand the significance of the equations, then you would need a background knowledge that I can hardly believe anybody looking for an introduction to high energy physics could have. However, this is far from its biggest pitfall. The book is choppy to read. There are almost no quantitative examples and yet the questions are mostly quantitative. I am sure that I could think of more specifics dislikes, but I think that the reader has seen my opion. To anybody considering buying this text I suggest instead purchasing griffiths "introduction to elementary particles." My class was so displeased with perkins text that our professor has promised to switch to griffiths next year. To reiterate.... Perkins book is the epitome of bad writing. I give my apologies to the author, but I don't want others to waste their time and money on this text. Buy Griffiths Book, it is good!

This is not just a straightforward update of a successful book, it is a major rewrite, the most comprehensive revision so far. It covers all significant developments of the past 15 years; equally important, it has been thoroughly reorganized, such that the discussion is now firmly embedded into the classification of particles and forces of the Standard Model. A welcome addition are two new chapters which treat 'Physics beyond the Standard Model' and 'Particle physics and cosmology' in much more detail and present the relevance of particle physics in a wider scientific context.

Rüdiger Voss /CERN

A complete review is available in CERN Courier, June 2000

I agree with most other reviewers that this is a bad book, at least if you are actually looking for an "introductory" book.
It's title should read "An introduction to the experimental evidence for particle physics for those that already know quite a bit of particle physics"

It may be "comprehensive" in that it touches on a little of everything but, but like most other reviewers, despite having done all the prerequisite courses, I found that it introduces ideas and formulae with little or no background so that you gain very little understanding of anything. It follows this with problems you can't answer and solutions which simply give a value without showing any working, so you can't see how it should have been done. I didn't really get a good handle on the experimental side of things either due to the general despair that the book created...
Having said all that, it (may) be ok as a 2nd or 3rd book on the subject, if you already have a moderate background and are looking to increase your knowledge of the experimental side of particle physics.

I've just ordered Introduction to Elementary Particles by D Griffiths which comes much more highly recommended both on amazon and other internet sites, so I hope I'll get on better with this!...

I just took an intro to particle physics class as a fifth year undergraduate who has had all of the usual courses that one is supposed to have to be able to at least gain a glimpse into the world of particles. This book by Perkins is one of the worst textbooks that I have ever had to use. The examples were limited if any, and the problems seemed not to correlate with the content of the chapters at all. The problems that I did work on I had to reference other texts just to get an idea of what he was talking about. I have to say that Griffiths' (whose EM book was great and his quantum book not all that bad) was much more mathematical and clear, as well as Halzen and Martin. I agree with the other comment. Get another book before ever buying this book. Plus my Professor was not too thrilled with it as well. I ended up buying the Griffiths text in the end, which helped a lot.

For those who have had to suffer through Perkins before switching to Griffiths, I gotta say that Perkins book will really make your life miserable. This books is terribly unorganized; speaks using concepts before explaining what they are. Perkins book is horrible compared to Griffiths. I don't know if it is the fact of how bad Perkins was that makes think that Griffiths book is fantastic, but I'm really glad I changed from this book, otherwise I would have miserably failed my particle physics class.

My undergrauate particle physics class use this book, and I can't complain enough about it! I am sure many in my class share the same opinion. I must admit that earlier reviews are right. It is a very comprehensive servey of high energy physics, but the writting is simply bad! It's so obscure, hard to understand, and extremely fragmented. Here is an event that should keep anyone interested from buying it. We were assigned a problem in the book as a homework problem. The professor later had to take it out of the problem set because appearntly, the problem concern a session of the book that's already TAKEN OUT of the 4th EDITION!!!!
I would recommend Griffiths book, except that that book doesn't emphasize on concept as much I suppose...o well, it's your call...but I'd say: DROP THIS.

This is a book whose content is close to that of most 'traditional' undergraduate courses on particle physics. Yet, you will probably be tempted to throw it in the dustbin after a few pages unless you have trained yourself into thinking that it's better reading it than failing your exam and have already read a book like Giffiths' before, where you will find some good theoretical basis for all this stuff.