An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics (Paperback)

~ W. Noel Cottingham (Author), Derek A. Greenwood (Author) "It is more than a century since the discovery by J. J. Thomson of the electron..." (more)
Key Phrases: lepton universality, quark jets, lepton fields, Particle Data Group, The Levi-Civita, Using Problem (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'I am very impressed with this book. It is a beautifully clear and concise introductory text ... for a first course in the basic physics of the standard model this book would be an excellent choice. Both experimental and theoretical students would benefit from it.' Neil Turok, The Observatory

'It is fun to read this book!' Evelyn Weimar-Woods, Zentralblatt für Mathematik

Product Description

This graduate textbook provides a concise, accessible introduction to the Standard Model of particle physics. Theoretical concepts are developed clearly and carefully throughout the book--from the electromagnetic and weak interactions of leptons and quarks to the strong interactions of quarks. Chapters developing the theory are interspersed with chapters describing some of the wealth of experimental data supporting the model. The book assumes only the standard mathematics taught in an undergraduate physics course; more sophisticated mathematical ideas are developed in the text and in appendices. For graduate students in particle physics and physicists working in other fields who are interested in the current understanding of the ultimate constituents of matter, this textbook provides a lucid and up-to-date introduction.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521588324
• ISBN-13: 978-0521588324
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,066,318 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars workout with the Standard Model lagrangian, October 24, 2005

By	smallphi (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This book is about the experimental facts and the theoretical principles that lead to the construction of the Standard Model lagrangian. It is NOT about calculating scattering crossections. Some of the problems ask you to calculate decay rates but only at tree level and the fields are treated like classical fields not operators, with the exception that the fermionic fields anticommute. There is a 12-page chapter on quantizing the fields and renormalization but I find it rather sketchy so don't expect to understand a lot from it if you don't already know it.

You should have some background in varying lagrangians otherwise the book will frequently seem difficult to you. The authors obtain symmetry currents corresponding to a symmetry of the lagrangian not in the standard way of Noether's theorem. Their method is entirely correct but it took me long time to understand because they didn't explain it with enough details the first time they used it (section 7.1, page 65). I think that will throw off the horse many readers.

The style is wonderfully concise which makes the logical structure easier to follow and there isn't the usual fluff `to motivate' things that are simply put guesses like the principle of local gauge invariance. On the other hand, some places definitely need more detailed explanations like signs of certain quantities or the symmetry currents I mentioned above.

The treatment of the Dirac equation and spinors is the least messy I've seen. The way they obtain the nonrelativistic limit of the Dirac equation with EM field is again the best and least messy I've seen.

The book has nice appendix on the groups of the Standard Model which covers what you need to know about SO(3), SU(2) and SU(3) in a very efficient way. There are about 5 problems after each chapter most of which have a solution outline at the end of the book.

Things I understood from this book:

-- why time reversal, space inversion and charge conjugation of fields are defined in a way that previously seemed to me quite arbitrary
-- how demanding local gauge invariance necessitates introduction of gauge fields which leads to interaction terms
-- how local gauge invariance can't be proven, it's just a guess that has worked so far hence it's called `principle' (my own interpretation)
-- global and local symmetry breaking, Goldstone bosons and Higgs boson
-- how the Lagrangian densities of the electroweak and strong interactions were constructed from the experimental input by demanding local gauge invariance and guessing the symmetry group to be SU(2) and SU(3) correspondingly
-- what's Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix that mixes the quark fields and how it arises
-- how symmetries of the lagrangian density lead to conservation numbers
-- how neglecting some terms in the lagrangian leads to effective lagrangian and effective theory
-- how to work with the terms in the QCD lagrangian where different matrices multiply different indices

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introduction to Particle Physics, March 31, 2002

By A Customer

This book is an excellent introduction to particle physics. The chapters are short, clear and very readable. As the previous reviewer mentioned, there are a series of reasonable exercises at the end of each chapter with answers provided in the back of the book. Many concepts that field theory or particle physics books leave mysterious or have a difficult time explaining are clearly laid out in this book. I would judge it superior to Griffiths particle physics book, and if you are looking for a nice supplement to serious study of quantum field theory, this is it.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to particle physics, January 24, 2002

By	Majdi Amro (Athens, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is indeed an excellent book in particle physics. It will serve as a good introduction to gauge fields of particle physics.
The book is very readable and does not assume more than undergraduate physics. Each chapter ends with a set of problems with solution at the end of the book. It contains a lot of material which can be learned in a short time. I strongly recommend it for a beginner.