Modern Elementary Particle Physics: Explaining and Extending the Standard Model, 2nd Edition

This book is written for students and scientists wanting to learn about the Standard Model of particle physics. Only an introductory course knowledge about quantum theory is needed. The text provides a pedagogical description of the theory, and incorporates the recent Higgs boson and top quark discoveries. With its clear and engaging style, this new edition retains its essential simplicity. Long and detailed calculations are replaced by simple approximate ones. It includes introductions to accelerators, colliders, and detectors, and several main experimental tests of the Standard Model are explained. Descriptions of some well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model prepare the reader for new developments. It emphasizes the concepts of gauge theories and Higgs physics, electroweak unification and symmetry breaking, and how force strengths vary with energy, providing a solid foundation for those working in the field, and for those who simply want to learn about the Standard Model.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Relativistic Notation, Lagrangians, And Interactions
Chapter 3 Gauge Invariance
Chapter 4 Non-Abelian Gauge Theories
Chapter 5 Dirac Notation For Spin
Chapter 6 The Standard Model Lagrangian
Chapter 7 The Electroweak Theory And Quantum Chromodynamics
Chapter 8 Masses And The Higgs Mechanism
Chapter 9 Cross Sections, Decay Widths, And Lifetimes; W And Z Decays
Chapter 10 Production And Properties Of W[Sup(±)] And Z[Sup(0)]
Chapter 11 Measurement Of Electroweak And Qcd Parameters; The Muon Lifetime
Chapter 12 Accelerators – Present And Future
Chapter 13 Experiments And Detectors
Chapter 14 Low Energy And Non-Accelerator Experiments
Chapter 15 Observation Of The Higgs Boson At The Cern Lhc; Is It The Higgs Boson?
Chapter 16 Colliders And Tests Of The Standard Model; Particles Are Point-Like
Chapter 17 Quarks And Gluons, Confinement And Jets
Chapter 18 Hadrons, Heavy Quarks, And Strong Isospin Invariance
Chapter 19 Coupling Strengths Depend On Momentum Transfer And On Virtual Particles
Chapter 20 Quark (And Lepton) Mixing Angles
Chapter 21 Cp Violation
Chapter 22 Overview Of Physics Beyond The Standard Model
Chapter 23 Grand Unification
Chapter 24 Neutrino Masses
Chapter 25 Dark Matter
Chapter 26 Supersymmetry
Appendix A: Angular Momentum and Spin and SU(2)
Appendix B: Some Group Theory
Appendix C: Some Relativistic Kinematics
Appendix D: The Point-Like Cross Section
Appendix E: When Are Our Approximations Not Valid?
Appendix F: Lagrangians and Symmetries; the Euler–Lagrange Equations and Maxwell’s Equations