An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Perfect.
  • Wow, does this suck . . . get a different book!
  • This book is a very very very bad book which you never buy.
  • Don't make the same fault I did!
  • It is sad that we don't have a better book out there...
An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)
Michael E. Peskin , and Dan V. Schroeder
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0201503972

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Perfect........2007-08-10

I received the book as it should be: knew. And it cames before the estimated time.

1 out of 5 stars Wow, does this suck . . . get a different book!.......2007-06-13

Ok--I just need to help lower the overall rating for this book. I think the people who love it are professors and students who already are familiar with QFT--because it glosses over everything, does pertinent examples, etc. But that's just it, it GLOSSES over everything. Note that nearly all the higher reviews say things like: "oh, you wouldn't want to start with this book." or "Everyone knows that you're going to need more books than this one to understand it . . ." I couldn't even figure out how to create a Feynmann diagram from this book, let alone what one MEANT. FYI, my favorite QFT book so far is Weinberg's Quantum Theory of Fields.

1 out of 5 stars This book is a very very very bad book which you never buy........2007-01-20

Absolutely no logic.
Perfectly nonclear.
No subject.
Mathematically poor.(very poor.)
Nonneccessary words.
No depth.
Not for self-study.
Just arrangement.
No physical insight.
No process.
No thinking.

This is indeed not a book.
This is a stuff for a vanity.
I wonder whether Peskin and Schroeder are genuine physicists.

1 out of 5 stars Don't make the same fault I did!.......2006-12-16

Hi there!

The important information first: I'm a graduate student, mainly interested in theoretical physics. At the moment, I'm trying to get a deeper understanding of QFT.

Peskin's QFT book is NOT the one you should buy if you want to UNDERSTAND renormalization.

I learned the basics of QFT (\phi^4 and QED up to a first contact with renormalization - "trivial" subtraction of infinities) in a lecture and I finally felt like: "What does renormalization mean? What is it good for? Is there a deeper truth in it?" Well, the answer to the last question is definitely yes. It's about the Beta function. This function tells you how the coupling constants of a QFT behave at different momenta. E.g., we can learn from it why perturbation theory works for QED at low energies and for QCD at high energies (I think, this is amazing).

What I just said I learned from Huang's book. Peskin "deals" with it in chapters 10 to 12. In the middle of chapter 12 I finally said to myself: "Hey, don't feel stupid. This book is just completely incomprehensible here."

In my opinion, if you want to see behind renormalization (and therefore behind any QFT(!!)), don't buy Peskin's book. Any other book is better regarding this issue.

3 out of 5 stars It is sad that we don't have a better book out there..........2006-05-28

The main problem of this book: what exactly is it supposed to be?

If it is an introduction, then the opening chapters are written at a level too sophisticated that an average first-time student can't handle.

If it aims to be a "bible" of the subject, then the later chapters are far too technical, loaded with only Feynman diagram calculations for standard model. Not being a phenomenologist, I personally have very little interest in all the technical detail, and apparently several other reviewers share my view here.

Now let me gives some examples to support my claim.

First, C, P and T symmetries are introduced very early on (right after Dirac spinor), and in a very formal way. Yes, they logically belong there, but in an "introduction" of the subject you don't throw out an isolated topic like this which you don't make use of in the following few hundred pages.

The part on cannonical quantization is written at a very fast pace. A complex scalar field is probably the first model you can construct with charged particles. And guess what kind of treatment it receives in this book? Not a single word in the main text. The problem 2 of that chapter essentially asks you to work out the content of this model with few hints given. If you have troble working it out, which is not uncommon for a first-timer, then you won't see the logic behind the decomposition of a complex Dirac field either. This is done in the following chapter, with no explaination.

Like the charged scalar field example, some important pieces of knowledge are hidden only in the exercises. So if you treat these high-power opening chapters as your bible-type reference, you will often end up in the frustrating situation that the book tells you to work out by yourself what you are seeking in the first place.

Now get to the later parts of the book. As I mentioned above, the second half of the book is almost conceptually too simple, overloaded with technical details.

This downfall begins around the renormalization group. On the back of this book, this Prof. Micheal Dine is qouted: "it is the only field theory text with a thoroughly modern, Wilsonian treatment of renormalization". The connection between the Wilsonian idea and dimensional regularization/renormalization scale is shaky at best. You read the text, and are left puzzled at the magic: how does a cut-off scale become some (much lower) arbitrary momentum scale? No explaination. The Wilsonian theory is completely isolated and have little connection with the rest of the renormalization section.

Furthermore, the book does not do a very good job on Lie algebra and non-abilien Lie groups. I mean, come on, if this is an "introduction" type of book, make it more readable. If this is a "bible" type of book, make it more comprehensive.

Having voiced all my bad opinions, I have to admit that the book has its merit. Bottom line is, this is a book written by phenomenologists for phenomenologists. If you view it from such an angle, it is not too badly written after all, and does cover most of the important topics a phnomenologist would want to know. But you may want to start from a more accessible text such as Ryder.

If you are a theorist, but not a phenomenologist, then, well, let's say the ability of getting through the first part perfectly is the minimum requirement for your research.

If you are an experimentalist, don't bother.
An Introduction to Gauge Theories and Modern Particle Physics (Cambridge Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • A clear and well thought out treatment
An Introduction to Gauge Theories and Modern Particle Physics (Cambridge Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology)
Elliot Leader , and Enrico Predazzi
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521499518

Book Description

Volume 2 deals at some length with CP-violation, but is mainly devoted to QCD and its application to "hard" processes. The authors briefly cover "soft" hadronic physics, also. This work will provide a comprehensive reference and textbook for all postgraduate students and researchers interested in modern particle physics.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A clear and well thought out treatment.......1998-09-16

Leader and Predazzi have written an exsellent text for graduate students. They cover the wide range of topics in great clarity. Especially in the chapter about renormalization they succeed in presenting the core in detail without technical obfuscation.
Gauge Field Theories: An Introduction with Applications
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Excellent
Gauge Field Theories: An Introduction with Applications
Mike Guidry
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 047135385X

Book Description

Acquaints readers with the main concepts and literature of elementary particle physics and quantum field theory. In particular, the book is concerned with the elaboration of gauge field theories in nuclear physics; the possibility of creating fundamental new states of matter such as an extended quark-gluon plasma in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions; and the relation of gauge theories to the creation and evolution of the universe. Divided into three parts, it opens with an introduction to the general principles of relativistic quantum field theory followed by the essential ingredients of gauge fields for weak and electromagnetic interactions, quantum chromodynamics and strong interactions. The third part is concerned with the interface between modern elementary particle physics and "applied disciplines" such as nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Includes references and numerous exercises.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Excellent.......2001-11-01

This book is very nice. Not only does it present the theory and give problems, the problems are solved in the appendix (for the most part) and many references are cited, allowing the reader to review work elsewhere. If you are interested in quantum fields and gauge theory, I would suggest reading and working out of this book.
Foundation of Quantum Chromodynamics: an Introduction to Perturbative Methods in Gauge Theories
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    Foundation of Quantum Chromodynamics: an Introduction to Perturbative Methods in Gauge Theories
    Taizo Muta
    Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
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    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: 9810226748

    Book Description

    This volume develops the techniques of perturbative QCD in great pedagogical detail starting with field theory. Aside from extensive treatments of the renormalization group technique, the operator product expansion formalism and their applications to short-distance reactions, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to gauge theories. Examples and exercises are provided to amplify the discussions on important topics. This is an ideal textbook on the subject of quantum chromodynamics and is essential for researchers and graduate students in high energy physics, nuclear physics and mathematical physics.
    Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Introduction
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • This is an Introduction - Not an In-Depth Study...DUH
    • mediocre exposition
    • extensive problem sets are useful
    • Too superficial, but ok reference
    • Expectations unrewarded
    Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Introduction
    Michio Kaku
    Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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    ASIN: 0195076524

    Book Description

    The rise of quantum electrodynamics (QED) made possible a number of excellent textbooks on quantum field theory in the 1960s. However, the rise of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and the Standard Model has made it urgent to have a fully modern textbook for the 1990s and beyond. Building on the foundation of QED, Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Introduction presents a clear and comprehensive discussion of the gauge revolution and the theoretical and experimental evidence which makes the Standard Model the leading theory of subatomic phenomena. The book is divided into three parts: Part I, Fields and Renormalization, lays a solid foundation by presenting canonical quantization, Feynman rules and scattering matrices, and renormalization theory. Part II, Gauge Theory and the Standard Model, focuses on the Standard Model and discusses path integrals, gauge theory, spontaneous symmetry breaking, the renormalization group, and BPHZ quantization. Part III, Non-perturbative Methods and Unification, discusses more advanced methods which now form an essential part of field theory, such as critical phenomena, lattice gauge theory, instantons, supersymmetry, quantum gravity, supergravity, and superstrings.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars This is an Introduction - Not an In-Depth Study...DUH.......2006-11-13

    Some of these reviewers need to review the title of the book. This is a "modern introduction to quantum field theory", not some in-depth study with hearty breadth. Duh. For physicist's you people don't have much common sense to speak of.

    2 out of 5 stars mediocre exposition.......2006-08-25

    This is all around a pretty mediocre, uninspired exposition of quantum field theory. More recent works by Weinberg and Peskin & Schroder, for example, are far more coherent and elegant.

    4 out of 5 stars extensive problem sets are useful.......2006-08-13

    Several of the other reviewers may be correct, about the quality of the text, and the developments of some of its arguments. It does however go beyond such earlier standard texts, like Sakurai's "Advanced Quantum Mechanics", which was just an introductory treatment of relativistic quantum mechanics. Kaku takes you well into the depths of QCD and the [current] Standard Model.

    If you are a grad student wanting expertise in this field, an attraction of the book is its extensive problem sets for each chapter. Perhaps more so than the textual exposition! Another reviewer bemoaned the lack of worked out problems or answers. Well, that lack is the norm for many advanced texts. You just have to get used to it. But a more positive way to look at this is to recognise that sometimes knowing that an answer to a problem exists can be valuable in itself.

    3 out of 5 stars Too superficial, but ok reference.......2006-03-21

    In my opinion this book is just ok. The breadth of material it covers is good. You can find topics such as critical phenomena and lattice gauge theory among its twenty plus chapters. However, I don't think there is generally much depth. To me the book reads like a catalog of results, I don't see it providing students with any real mathematical or physical insights. The main use I see for it is as a reference.

    Page counting isn't a perfect means to determine completeness, but hopefully it does give an impression of the style. A couple of brief examples would be BRST quantization being covered in two pages (almost all equations) and SU(5) in one page. These are just a couple of places where I thought the treatment was so superficial I wondered why it was included at all.

    A more detailed example would be the treatment of quantum gravity. It goes from the equivalence principle to Christoffel symbols in five pages, the Robertson-Walker solution is covered in barely more than a page and inflation in two pages. Maybe it's me, but I just don't see people that don't already know this stuff learning it here. Another comment on this chapter concerns the approach to developing classical general relativity. It is based on the properties of covariant vectors and contravariant vectors under coordinate transformation, this is definitely not a modern approach.

    The topics it covers are quite interesting, a student with an excellent instructor may find it a useful book. However, I find it hard to imagine many people learning quantum field theory by reading this book. Just off the top of my head I can think of four books that I think most people would find much more helpful in learning quantum field theory: Peskin and Schroeder, Ryder, Weinberg and Zee ("quantum field theory in a nutshell" this isn't so much a traditional text book, but it is very insightful).

    1 out of 5 stars Expectations unrewarded.......2003-03-09

    My background is a Ph.D. (1963) in physics. My dissertation was based on the Mössbauer Effect, and my brief career in research was in areas of electron transport physics. I never had a strong background in high energy physics, and my quantum field theory exposure was mainly QED.

    Now that I am retired, I read some physics and looked to Prof. Kaku's book for a survey of current QFT and an introduction to string theory. I have just finished reading Chapter 2, which the Preface states may be skipped by the student who "already understands the basics of group theory . . . or who does not want to delve that deeply into the intricacies of quantum field theory." I certainly did not place myself in that class of student and decided to delve.

    The presentation of Chapter 2 leads to the "essential point" (p58) that the Lorentz and Poincaré groups are at the heart of quantum field theory, and "the results of this chapter will be used throughout the book". For that reason, the results should have been developed with great clarity, and I cannot say I found that true.

    For example, equations 2.104 which state the Poincaré algebra, as described as showing that translations transform as a vector under the Lorentz group. But the transformation of a vector is defined by eq. 2.91. No connection is anywhere demonsrated between eq. 2.91 and 2.104; nor elsewhere between commutation relations and the transformation of vector fields.

    In the discussion of the Casimir operator, the Pauli-Lubanski tensor (p.55), the evaluation in the rest-frame of the space part of the vector (tensor) based on eq. 2.106 leads to "the rotation matrix in three dimensions." But eq. 2.106 is an operator equation, whereas the result (eq. 2.108) is a matrix equation. What is the connection?

    I shall plow on with the text in the hope that it will become clearer as I proceed. My feeling at this point is frustration, because I cannot tell for whom this book was written.
    Introduction to the Classical Theory of Particles and Fields
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      Introduction to the Classical Theory of Particles and Fields
      Boris Kosyakov
      Manufacturer: Springer
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      Binding: Hardcover

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      Product Description

      This volume is intended as a systematic introduction to gauge field theory for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in high energy physics. The discussion is restricted to the classical (non-quantum) theory in Minkowski spacetime. Particular attention has been given to conceptual aspects of field theory, accurate definitions of basic physical notions, and thorough analysis of exact solutions to the equations of motion for interacting systems. Two theories covered by the book in great detail are the Maxwell-Lorentz electrodynamics and Yang-Mills-Wong theory.

      Gauge Theories in Particle Physics, Volume II: A Practical Introduction : Non-Abelian Gauge Theories : Qcd and the Electoweak Theory (Graduate Student ... (Graduate Student Series in Physics)
      Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
      • Very clear and readable
      • more understandable QFT for beginners
      • If you are having trouble with QFT - BUY THIS BOOK!
      • Amazingly clear introduction to the subject
      Gauge Theories in Particle Physics, Volume II: A Practical Introduction : Non-Abelian Gauge Theories : Qcd and the Electoweak Theory (Graduate Student ... (Graduate Student Series in Physics)
      I.J.R. Aitchison , and A.J.G. Hey
      Manufacturer: Taylor & Francis
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      Binding: Paperback

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      5. Geometry, Topology and Physics, Second Edition (Graduate Student Series in Physics) Geometry, Topology and Physics, Second Edition (Graduate Student Series in Physics)

      ASIN: 0750309504

      Book Description

      This is the second volume of the third edition of a successful text, now substantially enlarged and updated to reflect developments over the last decade in the curricula of university courses and in particle physics research. Volume I covered relativistic quantum mechanics, electromagnetism as a gauge theory, and introductory quantum field theory, and ended with the formulation and application of quantum electrodynamics (QED), including renormalization. Building on these foundations, this second volume provides a complete, accessible, and self-contained introduction to the remaining two gauge theories of the standard model of particle physics: quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and the electroweak theory. The treatment significantly extends that of the second edition in several important respects. Simple ideas of group theory are now incorporated into the discussion of non-Abelian symmetries. Two new chapters have been added on QCD, one devoted to the renormalization group and scaling violations in deep inelastic scattering and the other to non-perturbative aspects of QCD using the lattice (path-integral) formulation of quantum field theory; the latter is also used to illuminate various aspects of renormalization theory, via analogies with condensed matter systems. Three chapters treat the fundamental topic of spontaneous symmetry breaking: the (Bogoliubov) superfluid and the (BCS) superconductor are studied in some detail; one chapter is devoted to the implications of global chiral symmetry breaking in QCD; and one to the breaking of local SU(2)xU(1) symmetry in the electroweak theory. Weak interaction phenomenology is extended to include discussion of discrete symmetries and of the possibility that neutrinosare Majorana (rather than Dirac) particles. Most of these topics are normally found only in more advanced texts, and this is the first book to treat them in a manner accessible to the wide readership that the previous editions have attracted.

      Customer Reviews:

      5 out of 5 stars Very clear and readable.......2007-03-21

      Like the 2nd edition this 2 volume set is very readable. I like it's informal style, and the wealth of background material presented, as well as the hints about when to expect further discussions of a subject in succeding chapters. By far the best Quantum Field Theory book I've come across.

      5 out of 5 stars more understandable QFT for beginners.......2005-09-17


      The 3rd edition of that book clarified to a degree the fog left in my mind by a two-semester QFT course. The book is better suited for beginners than Peskin & Shroeder, Mandl & Show or Lahiri & Pal simply because it senses better the difficult points for beginners and tries to explain them at lower level. It focuses on the main concepts and doesn't try to `cover broad material in shortest time' or get into extreme computational technicalities totally irrelevant to beginners. The correct historical perspective of many ideas is given and the important historical papers are cited. The theory is frequently compared to the experimental results. Violin string is used as a prototype of a continuous system described by a classical field which is the first field quantized later. The book develops physical intuition showing how a scattering process can be analyzed in full QED (all fields are operators), in semiclassical approximation (all fields are operators except the EM field) or using the lowest level wavefunction approximation (all fields are treated like wave functions just like scattering in nonrelativistic QM) often getting the same result (see chapter 8). Important concepts like Feynman diagrams and Renormalization of a theory are first explored in a simple theoretical playground - a hypothetical `ABC theory' of three massive scalar fields with an interaction ABC term - and later discussed again in the case of QED with all the complications like fermions and Electromagnetic gauge field.

      Topics discussed include gauge invariance principle; relativistic field equations describing free particles like Klein-Gordon and Dirac; Feynman interpretation of the negative energy solutions of Dirac eq. (no its not `antiparticle going back in time'); Dirac equation with EM field; Lagrangian and Hamiltonian densities for continuous systems; quantization of free fields like KG (real and complex scalar), Dirac and Electromagnetic field [the quantization is by postulating commutators/anticommutators, no path integrals]; Normal ordering of operators; Interaction picture for interacting fields, Time ordering of operators, Dyson expansion of the S matrix; Wick's theorem; scattering processes in QED at tree level; Ward identity; form factors for scattering from non point particle; parton model, Bjorken scaling; diagrams with loops, regularization and renormalization of ultraviolet divergences in QED.

      It took me a month and a half to read the book and solve all problems (10 problems per chapter on average). The problems are exactly the ones every beginner should solve and usually revolve about filling in details from the text or proving statements in the text. Solving them is usually easy with a few exceptions and teaches you the typical computational tricks of the trade. You have to know quantum mechanics (at least have seen scattering theory) and special relativity. You have to at least have heard of Green function and contour integration in the complex plane. The book provides nice appendices about all these.

      Not everything is crystal clear in that book, sometimes it took me a few days for an idea to sink in or I understood some paragraphs only after I read the whole book. Other ideas I did not understand at all. Sometimes it's hard to tell what they are trying to say although they say it several times from different angles ... The authors should work on expressing an idea in a direct succinct way once and for all instead of repeating several fuzzy versions of it. Overall that book made me understand MUCH more than a regular QFT course and I highly recommend it as a prep for such a course.

      5 out of 5 stars If you are having trouble with QFT - BUY THIS BOOK!.......2003-04-13

      This book (2nd edition) has 15 chapters . I have just finished chapter 4 entitled QFT and I am compeled to write this review! After a year of studying of QFT informally I can report that this is the way to introduce yourself to the topic. I've been through Mandl & Shaw, Peskin & Schoeder, Ryder, Weinberg and a few others and this is heads and tails the BEST intro available. In 42 pages, Aitchison & Hey make the transistion from classical to QM and from QM to QFT as gracefully as I can conceive. For example, the transition from the discrete Lagrangian to the field Lagrangian is very explicit. One benfit of this is that the dependence of L on partial of phi wrt x is clearly motivated leading to the manifestly relativistically invariant form of L. They explicitly develop physical intuition at every step of the way - for example, this is the only book that I have found that explicitly asks the question where is QM's wavefunction in the QFT formalism? Answer - The vacuum to one-particle matrix elements of the field operators. The transistion from free fields to interacting fields is far clearer than any other treatment I've seen. I also appreciated that the problems were used to basically fill in details left out of the text. I was able to 'practice' the various kinds of manipulations that are required.

      5 out of 5 stars Amazingly clear introduction to the subject.......1998-08-03

      This book is the best book I've seen on the subject. The qualitative description of qunatum field theory in particular are amazingly lucid for the subject. The only possible flaw in the book is that the problems at the end of each chapter are both few in number and for the most part do not challenge the student at all; for the most part they are just rote calculations.
      Introduction to Gauge Field Theory Revised Edition (Graduate Student Series in Physics)
      Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
      • Excellent, very concise text
      Introduction to Gauge Field Theory Revised Edition (Graduate Student Series in Physics)
      D. Bailin , and Alexander Love
      Manufacturer: Taylor & Francis
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      ASIN: 075030281X

      Book Description

      Introduction to Gauge Field Theory provides comprehensive coverage of modern relativistic quantum field theory, emphasizing the details of actual calculations rather than the phenomenology of the applications. Forming a foundation in the subject, the book assumes knowledge of relativistic quantum mechanics, but not of quantum field theory. The book is ideal for graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and researchers in the field of particle physics.

      Customer Reviews:

      4 out of 5 stars Excellent, very concise text.......1998-07-01

      This book is a very nice introduction if you already have some notions of QFT. It can happily supplement Lowell Brown's book for instance. Its main characteristics is conciseness, it goes straight to the point, in the minimum expenditure of time and effort, without sacrifying mathematical correctness. Unfortunately some important topics are almost absent from the book, such as Ward identities, or infrared divergences. But the book remains self-contained despite this.
      Gauge Field Theories an Introduction
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Gauge Field Theories an Introduction
        J. Leite Lopes
        Manufacturer: Pergamon
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback
        ASIN: B000OGVVYE
        Gauge Field Theories: An Introduction
        Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
        • Out of date
        Gauge Field Theories: An Introduction
        J. Leite Lopes
        Manufacturer: Pergamon
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

        GeneralGeneral | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
        Waves & Wave MechanicsWaves & Wave Mechanics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
        Waves & Wave MechanicsWaves & Wave Mechanics | Physics | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
        ASIN: 0080265014

        Customer Reviews:

        3 out of 5 stars Out of date.......2003-03-15

        The concept of gauge invariance is now ubiquitous in elementary particle physics, and has become very important in pure mathematics also. This book, in spite of its date of publication, could still serve to introduce gauge theories to the beginning student of high energy physics or quantum field theory. It was written shortly after the awarding of the Nobel prizes to Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg, and Abdus Salam for their work on the electroweak interaction (their Nobel lectures are reprinted in the back of the book), but before the discovery of the W and Z bosons in 1982. The book includes a discussion of the work of the author on an SU(2) x U(1) gauge theory with heavy leptons, and its resulting prediction of lepton flavour non-conservation. Due to the recent experimental verification of neutrino mixing, this theory is now vacuous. In addition, the author includes a discussion of the SU(5) theory of grand unification. The experiment limits on proton decay though have caused the SU(5) theory to be discarded. The reader though will find a thorough discussion of the Weinberg-Salam theory as well as an historical overview of the various attempts to understand the weak interaction, such as the current-current Fermi theory and ther resulting conflicts between renormalizability and gauge invariance. A fairly good discussion of the Higgs mechanism is given also. There is no discussion however of supersymmetry. The book has 484 pages but the layout is very sparse, making the reading of it relatively fast. Beginning students of particle physics will no doubt want a more up-to-date book that is more in tune with the present experimental status, but this one could still be used to learn the underlying bread-and-butter topics. Since the book was published many changes have occurred in high energy physics, one of the most significant being the advent of string theories, which began very shortly after the book appeared. Out of string theory grew M-theory and "brane" theories, and these and string theories were constructed to satisfy the need of incorporating gravity into the unification scheme.

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