Book Description
This is the first quantitative treatment of elementary particle theory that is accessible to undergraduates. Using a lively, informal writing style, the author strikes a balance between quantitative rigor and intuitive understanding. The first chapter provides a detailed historical introduction to the subject. Subsequent chapters offer a consistent and modern presentation, covering the quark model, Feynman diagrams, quantum electrodynamics, and gauge theories. A clear introduction to the Feynman rules, using a simple model, helps readers learn the calculational techniques without the complications of spin. And an accessible treatment of QED shows how to evaluate tree-level diagrams. Contains an abundance of worked examples and many end-of-chapter problems.
Customer Reviews:
Do yourself a favor - BUY THIS BOOK NOW.......2007-07-17
Seriously, DO YOURSELF A FAVOR, BUY THIS BOOK NOW.
I find it hard to describe to you in words how much I love this book. I am just speechless! This book will take you by the hand and spoon feed you all the important concepts and calculation steps. If you are thinking of pursuing a high energy physics and trying to find the very first book to read on this subject, Griffiths is THE ONE.
Reading QFT books before this book is in my opinion a NO-GO. Trust me from someone that has been there! You lose insight immediately and get taken down hard by the unfamiliar math. Griffiths knows how to explain things and always keeps in close contact with the actual physics. You will never lose motivation / insights into what's going on.
Take my word for it. BUY THIS BOOK NOW! You will save hundreds of hours invested on other books that claim to be "good". There are none of this kind.
After Griffiths, proceed to Ryder's QFT, and then Peskins. Then and only then will you finally see the light of the day. There are not other routes to the promised land.
The perfect introduction.......2004-08-30
This is the perfect introduction for any student learning about particle physics, the Standard Model, or Quantum Field Theory. It introduces Feynman calculus very well, although anyone planning to continue will need Peskin & Schroeder's book as well for the details not introduced here. This book contains an excellent appendix with all formulae and rules needed for even an advanced researcher.
Griffiths defines "Introductory Course".......2003-09-03
David Griffiths' texts are indispensable for any beginner, and are used to "translate" more advanced texts. I used his "Quantum Mechanics" to fill in the gaps at the advanced graduate level, and his "Electrodynamics" was essential to understanding Jackson. I'm sorry that I waited so long to purchase his "Elementary Particles".
This book contains all the background that professors expect you to have already been exposed to: particle classification schemes, the November Revolution, relativistic kinematics, and fundamental force overviews. Griffiths then goes on to discuss Feynman rules, QED, QCD, electroweak and gauge theories. Griffiths also works out some essential problems, like muon decay, that you will want to see done, but I think it is done better by Lahiri and Pal (that, however, is a field theory book, which might be more advanced than is necessary to some people in particle physics).
This is a great text for anyone starting out in particle physics and for anyone who needs to review the fundamentals. My only bone with Griffiths is that sometimes more of the work is left to the reader than is appropriate (those problems worked out in gory detail are a godsend when you genuinely aren't getting the point).
Great Intro to Particle Physics.......2003-06-26
Griffiths' book provides an ideal introduction to particle physics for the undergraduate who is desperate to find a comprehensive treatment that is truly understandable. I was greatly disappointed by Griffiths' books on electrodynamics and quantum mechanics, but he really hit the mark on this one. There is the usual introductory material on the Standard Model, relativistic kinematics, symmetries and bound states, but his presentations of QED, Feynman calculus, decays and interactions are clearly written and geared for the student who has been frustrated by the obtuseness of other so-called introductory texts. His exposition on gauge theories, the Yang-Mills field and the Higgs mechanism is elementary but enlightening and even entertaining.
Griffiths' sly wit is in great evidence in this text, and this is one of the reasons why it is so enjoyable. Although he displays a similar witty vein in his other texts, it just doesn't succeed as it does for this book. If you want to be able to calculate particle decay rates and interaction cross sections and have fun doing it, Griffiths' book is an excellent investment.
A grain of salt..........2002-05-01
OK. It seems that I am the one who criticizes all the books that everyone else loves.
The book is very good as far as didactics is concerned. But have you really read it? Let me ask you a few questions:
How many typos can you find in chapter 9?
What do you think - had ANYONE proofread Chapter 11 before the book was published?
What about the exercises -can you do 9.2 without Halzen and Martin at hand (so that you may look up what, say, |7'> really means? (Griffiths mixes notation from the two books and you can never solve the exercise without intoroducing some corrections).
There are many more questions like these to be asked about the Introduction to Elementary Particles.
So, do you like the content or the lively style?
But, of course, five stars!
Book Description
Developing a theory that seamlessly combines relativity and quantum mechanics, the most important conceptual breakthroughs in twentieth century physics, has proved to be a difficult and ongoing challenge. This book details how two distinguished physicists and Nobel laureates have explored this theme in two lectures given in Cambridge, England, in 1986 to commemorate the famous British physicist Paul Dirac. Given for nonspecialists and undergraduates, the talks transcribed in Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics focus on the fundamental problems of physics and the present state of our knowledge. Professor Feynman examines the nature of antiparticles, and in particular the relationship between quantum spin and statistics. Professor Weinberg speculates on how Einstein's theory of gravitation might be reconciled with quantum theory in the final law of physics. Highly accessible, deeply thought provoking, this book will appeal to all those interested in the development of modern physics.
Customer Reviews:
Tougher than the Lectures on Physics.......2007-03-21
When I read the lectures on physics, I was hoping to understand the reasoning behind the exclusion principle, and was disappointed to find that RPF felt that this was too complex for undergraduates, so he asked them to take it on faith for the moment.
Here he is talking to a more advanced audience, and explains it - he was right, it's tough. I'm still struggling to understand it, but I have confidence that this is a good book to help.
Recommended.......2007-01-17
From Richard Feynman, with love. Need more to be said? Read it, and read it again. This one can be read all over again once in a while and does not get boring.
Great Lectures. Requires Math Background........2006-02-19
This short book, Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics, offers two lectures: Richard Feynman's The Reason for Antiparticles and Steven Weinberg's Toward the Final Laws of Physics. These two talks comprise the 1986 Dirac Memorial lectures at Cambridge University. Both presentations are cogently structured and make fascinating reading.
The talks were directed at an advanced audience, one that was familiar with quantum mechanics. Unlike many popular presentations by Feynman and Weinberg, these lectures are not suitable for the general layman.
However, these lectures are accessible to a persistent (perhaps, stubborn) layman with a calculus background and a deep interest in particle physics. I am not a physicist, but I did take my share of physics, chemistry, and math courses several decades ago. I encountered Schrodinger's equation in more than one class, but not relativistic quantum mechanics. However, having recently read Bruce Schumm's wonderful review of particle physics (titled Deep Down Things), I was sufficiently motivated to work my way through both Dirac memorial lectures.
Richard Feynman's lecture, The Reason for Antiparticles, is decidedly the more difficult. Feynman first demonstrates that quantum mechanics and relativity together require the existence of antiparticles, and then shows that they also establish the spin-statistics connection. Within a few pages advanced mathematical expressions appear and then persistently stay in the foreground for nearly the entire talk.
Although understanding Feynman's mathematics is critical for a full and deep appreciation of his exposition, with careful, repeated readings the stubborn layman will have sudden moments of enlightenment and can come away with a deeper understanding of antiparticles and spin statistics. For readers engaged in some self-tutorial readings, it may prove helpful to return occasionally to this classic Feynman lecture to qualitatively measure progress. I have no doubt that, on a deeper level, Feynman's lecture will similarly challenge and enlighten physics majors as well.
Steven Weinberg discusses his speculations on the shape of a final underlying theory of particle physics. Initially, his talk is deceptively easy as few mathematical expressions are used. However, about midway a Lagrangian density equation appears, ratcheting the difficulty several notches, as Weinberg considers a theoretical framework based on quantum mechanics and a few symmetry principles, that is also mathematically consistent with the Lagrangian dynamical principle. After discussion of some limitations of the Standard Model, Weinberg concludes his talk with a somewhat mathematical introduction to string theory.
Physics by two of the very best!.......1999-09-25
As usual, the best physics books are short and to the point, as is this one. The two Dirac lectures may serve as a perfectly good mini physics course all by themselves. I always enjoy a Feynman lecture, and this is no exception. He cuts to the chase without sacrificing the plot. But, I must say, in this case the Wienberg lecture is the better of the two. Weinberg's style has a particular grace & beauty about it that gently exposes the aesthetic meaning of the search for a picture of nature.
Two of the best give great insight into fundamentals........1998-11-18
Feynman yet again gives great insight into the laws of physics, this time exploring the reasons for existence of anti-particles, starting from the dirac equation etc.. Plus some really outstanding photographs, that fella Weinberg will be chuffed to have his name mentioned on the book cover!
Amazon.com
Bruno and Michel are half-brothers, born to a hippie mother who believed in following her bliss. As boys they live in ignorance of each other--at one point attending the same school without knowing of their blood connection. As grown men they're not truly close, but they occasionally phone each other late at night. Bruno's a hopeless sexual obsessive, often drunk or on his way there, and Michel's a molecular biologist, distant and inaccessible.
Michel Houellebecq's The Elementary Particles follows these brothers through the latter half of the 20th century. Bruno and Michel are buffeted by history, vessels of disappointment and desire rocked by the ocean of time. Shuttled away to a boarding school where he's sexually abused by other boys, Bruno grows up full of twisted sexual longings and a contempt for aging women so palpable that at times it's stomach-churning. At a commune in the country, Bruno takes stock:
The women were intolerable at breakfast, but by cocktail hour the mystical tarts were hopelessly vying with younger women once again. Death is the great leveler. On Wednesday afternoon he met Catherine, a fifty-year-old who had been a feminist of the old school. She was tanned, with dark curly hair; she must have been very attractive when she was twenty. Her breasts were still in good shape, he thought when he saw her by the pool, but she had a fat ass.
Michel doesn't hate women; he doesn't even notice them. Instead of leering at bodies by the pool, he stares at particles in microscopes. He wins prizes for his experiments, but never experiences the rush of life. For both men, the damage has been done by history, by mother, before the story begins. What interests Houellebecq are the permutations and recapitulations of damage--the way the particles of the self can never be completely reconstituted. --Emily White
Book Description
An international literary phenomenon,
The Elementary Particles is a frighteningly original novel–part Marguerite Duras and part Bret Easton Ellis-that leaps headlong into the malaise of contemporary existence.
Bruno and Michel are half-brothers abandoned by their mother, an unabashed devotee of the drugged-out free-love world of the sixties. Bruno, the older, has become a raucously promiscuous hedonist himself, while Michel is an emotionally dead molecular biologist wholly immersed in the solitude of his work. Each is ultimately offered a final chance at genuine love, and what unfolds is a brilliantly caustic and unpredictable tale.
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne.
Download Description
"This remarkable best-seller," wrote The Economist, "is France's biggest literary sensation since Françoise Sagan, people are saying, or since Albert Camus even . . . The passing to a new generation of the literary flame--albeit, in this instance, a blowtorch." In a firestorm of controversy, l'affaire Houellebecq has spread throughout Europe and beyond, with translations of the book undertaken in nearly thirty countries around the world. The central characters, Bruno and Michel, were born to a bohemian mother (but they had different fathers, of course) at the height of the sixties. Following her inevitable divorce, they endured separate childhoods and developed distinct identities. Bruno--a failure to his own family and literary calling--is pursued by sexual obsession and madness. Michel--a wholly asexual molecular biologist--expresses his disgust with society by engineering one that frees mankind at last from its uncontrollable, destructive urges. An international phenomenon, The Elementary Particles is a furiously important novel.
Customer Reviews:
Add it to your philosophy texts.......2007-03-25
The story is as cold and detached as molecules in a lab. Houellebecq does in fact reduce man to elementary particles (hence the title), devoid of emotion and driven by base instincts (as is the case with one of the brothers in the story) or completely asexual and obsessed with the base particles that create life (as with the other brother).
It's an interesting read, if vulger at points, that depicts a world where science is the master. Not in the futuristic, genetically-engineered sense, but where man is obsessed with the bioligical essence of life, and driven by natural instincts. There is very little focus on or influence by emotion or religion.
The author uses the story of these two brothers to illustrate what he refers to as "metaphysical mutations" - those "capable of sweeping away economic and political systems and social hierarchies, even in strong, well-ordered societies." For example: Christianity was able to sweep the Roman Empire, and more recently, modern science has swept Christianity.
From the book: "When modern science appeared, Christianity was a complete, comprehensive system which explained both man and the universe; it was the basis for government, the inspiration for knowledge and art, the arbiter of war as of peace, and the power behind the production and distribution of wealth - none of which was sufficient to prevent its downfall."
It's definitely not a light read, but it makes you think.
Idea of book: Good. Translation: Sloppy and crude.......2006-11-03
The translation of the book is done very poorly. There are sentences that don't make sense in the English language that may in French. Or, I'm guessing, they are errors in the translation. There are the use of French terms with slips into American colloquialisms. E.g., calling a psychiatrist an "analyst" in one sentence, then a "shrink" in another.
I think the basic idea of the book came across, but the translation was terrible. It was awkward and jumpy, which really detracted from the storyline. I'm going to buy the French version of the book and put it through the babelfish translator and I'm sure I'll understand this story more than the current translation.
Essential Reading.......2006-08-24
I started reading this book almost a year ago and got through the first 2/3 very quickly; then something strange happened: I was so depressed by the contents of it, the constant pointless sex, the graphic descriptions, the callousness and emptiness of the characters and the emptiness of their shallow lives that--despite knowing that all this was deliberate by Houllebecq, that it was his razor-sharp deconstruction and commentary on the modern Western lifestyle--I was just not able to continue, until two days ago, when, with nothing else to do, I picked it up off my bookshelf and started from where I'd left off. The hiatus worked wonders and I whizzed through the remainder of the book, enthralled and riveted, although at times disgusted too, and full of admiration.
This is a difficult book but a necessary one and, I have no hesitation in now saying, a brilliant one. The book is full of some extraordinary ideas and incisive commentary on humanity in the late 20th century, especially that of European society. The ending--it goes into (very plausible) hard science fiction territory--the erudition of the writer, his eye for detail, and his twin obsessions of sex and violence, and his ability to be brave enough to write what he sees without any thought for political correctness or any of the other sops of the liberal left, is breathtaking and--despite the ocassional Islamophobia, nay contempt he portrays for organised religion but Islam in particular, his racism, makes this book essential reading especially after the tragic events of 9/11 and those in London on 7/7 and after. This book has more important and accurate things to say about the human condition of contemporary European man than any number of the dry academic essays on sociology and anthroplogy you can care to read. Understand Houllebecq and you understand what people nowadays really care about and think. I don't think I'd like the man but to ignore him and what he is saying would be to do so at our own peril. I haven't read a book full of such big and radical ideas for a long time.
My scrofulous French novel.......2006-08-20
Michel Houellebecq's "The Elementary Particles" is a French novel which features two burned out victims of sexual liberation in the 60's: Bruno, who suffers through a humilating youth mired in excrement and spends his life eternally pursuing his next orgasm through degrading sexual acts, and Michel, the detached scientist who has difficulty maintaining normal human contact or expressing any tenderness or love and who can only find some semblance of fulfillment in the elevated life of the mind. The main difficulty is that it's a bit repetitive and not as amusing as it would like to be. Although the vast bulk of the novel could be taken (mistaken?) for a social conservative manifesto, the conclusion of the novel, involving a technological redemption of human nature, is difficult to know how to read. Is it a brief for transhumanism out of burned out Dionysian hippie excess, or is the resolution intended ironically? Most importantly, why should I care? If it's ironic, it's neither funny nor perceptive enough to retain my interest. The only motivation to read through to the end is to find out the promised resolution/breakthrough in both the plot and Michel's scientific endeavors. When it turns out to hinge on warmed over ideas from Ray Kurzweil, Julian Huxley, and Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End," I'm left a bit cold.
Jarring and Ambitious.......2006-07-05
The shock of the book's subject matter and graphic content is heightened by the matter-of-fact tone, which is reminiscent of a fairy tale. One cannot fault Houellebecq's ambition -- were I to choose a single work of fiction with which to introduce a Rip Van Winkle to the major social and philosophical themes of the last 40 years, this would be a good choice. This is not a happy read, but an important one. I agree with the assessment that Houellebecq places himself at the level of Camus with this work.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent graduate-level introduction to particle physics.......2006-05-18
The typesetting and diagrams are humble, but this book delivers big. It was, for me, a superb refresher on real nuts-and-bolts particle physics. The book is a little dated: some of the unknowns, like the mass of the Top quark, are now known. Despite that, the content wears well.
It is absolutely essential to have a background in simple Legrangian (& Hamiltonian) mechanics, and an advanced undergraduate intro to quantum mechanics course already well in hand. Also necessary is advanced science/engineering math, which would have come naturally in the quantum mechanics course.
Kane leads the reader through the standard model with smoothe explication, and presents mathematical derivation of many -- perhaps all -- crucial predictions of the standard model. His derivations have the merit of being in greatly simplified form, after which he states the "real" answer, which is always close. Best of all, the math had no errors that I could find. Wow.
This is a great text for a first-year graduate course in particle physics, but will require occasional in-class updates by the instructor.
Not for the professional, and not for the lay either........2004-02-05
My background is electrical engineering, so I'm not a physicist or a lay person. I thought this book would be perfect, but it wasn't. It started out well enough, and I was following along, relying on my knowledge of electrophysics, and Maxwell's equations. But I was soon in trouble, as Kane began to rely on a mathematical operator, the Lagrangian, one which I hadn't any experience. Thinking I had forgotten something, I went looking for it, but it wasn't in any of my old math books. OK, I'll just follow along, I thought, not trying to verify the results in my own mind. But soon I was in trouble, as Mr. Kane began just listing equation after equation, with little or no explanatory text to tie it all together. After a time, my interest waned; this was very frustrating, since I was tired of reading "popular physics" books, with their unsatisfying explanations, but I knew I wasn't ready for graduate level quantum physics texts since my physics background is not that sophisiticated. This book began with promise, but ended without its fulfillment.
I don't know what the answer is, except to warn readers to be versed in the Lagrangian before they get started.
Great Intuition.......2000-07-12
Great ! Great ! Great ! This book is all about physics. The real physics... The physics is not lying in the trace theorems or in other technicalities of Quantum Field Theory but in simple, straightforward, physical arguments that arise from the basic principles of relativity and quantum mechanics. And Kane's book is all about that. As J.J Sakurai once said, a student may be a leading expert in calculating state of the art cross sections but if he/she cannot answer the simple questions, quickly and easily, then all is lost. Kane gives the reader the ability to quickly come up with answers for questions like "what do I expect the width for this particle to be", or "taking into acount this symmetry how do I expect this cross section to behave". As Fermi said, dont start the long calculation if you dont have a quick and dirty first result that will guide you along the more rigorous and exact calculation. So this book is all about that and physicists from all backgrounds will be able to follow it. I think that the book can serve excelently as an introductory graduate course before the hifh energy student moves to the more technical Field Theory books. In my opinion it is a disaster to jump into a rigorous Quantum Field Theory book before grasping the big picture and understanding why the heck all the pain is needed for the long theoretical calculations. And Kane's book serves this purpose. I am a graduate student at Stony Brook in experimental heavy ion physics and I spent some gratifying evenings going through the pages of the book. After the reading of this book interested readers in particle physics should also consider the books by Chris Quigg and also the classic Halzen - Martin book. The book touches upon all aspects of the standard model. I strongly suggest it !
Excellent, very readable intro to the Standard Model.......1999-10-28
Particularly good are the first 8 chapters introducing gauge theories and the Standard Model. This isn't a field theory text - Kane doesn't introduce spin sums or trace theorems so he never fully calculates a process; instead, he relies on dimensional analysis to provide approximate results. As a high energy theory student, I found this to be a drawback, but I guess that's what Peskin's book is for. Also, there are a fair number of minus signs and indices incorrect throughout the book (nothing serious, just a little annoying).
Book Description
High-level treatment discusses of the general theory and its applications: basic principles, coupling coefficients for vector addition, transformation properties of the angular momentum wave functions under rotations of the coordinate axes, irreducible tensors and Racah coefficients. Also, applications involving oriented nuclei, coupling schemes in nuclear reactions, more. 1957 edition.
Customer Reviews:
Want to know angular momentum? Read this book!.......2000-01-14
This book is a good self-contained exposition of the theory of angular momentum for students at advanced undergraduate or early graduate level. Covers many of the same areas as Brink and Satchler, but the explanations and approach are different (less formal). The two books complement each other very well.
Book Description
This book gives a comprehensive account of local quantum physics, understood as the synthesis of quantum theory with the principle of locality. Centered on the algebraic approach it describes both the physical concepts and the mathematical structures, and their consequences. These include the emergence of the particle picture, general collision theory covering the cases of massless particles and infraparticles, the analysis of possible charge structures and exchange symmetries, including braid group statistics. Thermal states of an unbounded medium and local equilibrium are discussed in detail. The author takes care both to describe the ideas and to give a critical assessment of future perspectives. The new edition contains numerous improvements and a new chapter concerning formalism and interpretation of quantum theory.
Customer Reviews:
I practically owe my today's academical self to this work..........2004-10-12
As someone working in the field created by Prof. Haag - Local Quantum Physics, aka Algebraic Quantum Field Theory - I feel somewhat oblidged to write a review on this book. This is all the more true when a large amount of misunderstandings about this subject among, so to speak, "outsiders", pervade the community of theoretical physics. As for me, I had the good luck of having Local Quantum Physics as my entering door to Quantum Field Theory, after my undergraduate involvement with Nuclear Physics. Learning this through (in a major part) Prof. Haag's book, alongside with a conventional course in QFT, has helped me clear several conceptual issues underlying QFT tools and calculations - specially renormalization - which alone seemed to me more witchcraft than physics.
The aims of Local Quantum Physics, even when linked to computational issues, are eminently structural and conceptual, going beyond particular models. These concerns are transparent in this book, where only the essentials of the Lagrangian approach are mentioned, and even these with a conceptually clean and deep purpose (just to cite an example, quantization of free fields are treated in a covariant way by using the Peierls' bracket, instead of canonical quantization), and with no predilection whatsoever by any particular quantization technique (for instance, path integrals are only mentioned "en passant", with no formulas, in Section VIII.1, in the discussion on the Euclidean/Lagrangian approach to QFT). This last proviso, which is a common source of complaint, actually (at least, it looks so to me) bears the following message under the aegis of the aims above: the physical concepts of QFT have nothing to do with the quantization method chosen. Although the justification for this is somewhat subtle, it ends up being a natural consequence of the line of thinking along which this book proceeds.
Most of the things about which Prof. Haag writes in this book seem to have been thought about for a pretty long time. It's thanks to this that the formalism of Local Quantum Physics acquired a remarkably flexible and synthetic language. The underlying idea, present in almost every topic treated in the book, is the principle of locality ("Nahwirkungsprinzip" = "Principle of local action", i.e., no action at a distance). Namely, that physical procedures are all localized in finitely extended regions of spacetime, as it "usually" happens in experimental situations, and that the matter of choosing a Hilbert space on which these procedures act (often based on global criteria such as the concept of a vacuum state) is mainly a matter of convenience. The abstract framework of C*- and von Neumann algebras is what allows one to work independently of a particular representation. This is strengthened by Einstein causality - physical procedures localized at causally disjoint regions commute with each other (This is quite distinct from locality in the sense of the EPR phenomenon, which is intrinsically linked to the notion - here generalized - of states, this one still highly nonlocal, as restrictions of a state to two causally disjoint local algebras of procedures can, and do, present quantum entanglement if this state is suitably prepared), and Poincaré covariance.
The principle of locality, when applied to the myriad of inequivalent representations of the local algebras which is characteristic of QFT, lead to enormous achievements (most of them described in the book), such as: the meaning of internal global symmetries and fermion degrees of freedom, and how these emerge from the observables alone, independently of the assumption of an underlying field theory (superselection sectors); the meaning of infinities and renormalization in perturbation theory (disjointness and quasi-equivalence of representations); a natural setting for QFT at finite temperature and its thermodynamics (KMS condition, modular techniques, phase space conditions); when moving to curved spacetime, the clarification of the (still open) issue of the choice of physical states from nonessentials and how this forces us to "unlearn" several concepts of Minkowski QFT (Unruh effect, etc.). Recent developments by the schools of Wald and Fredenhagen show the growing importance of the latter and related problems.
Finally, other two admirable aspects of Haag's book are the honest treatment of latest developments regarding conceptual open issues such as the meaning of local gauge invariance in quantum theory, the infrared problem, and questions regarding the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the meaning o spacetime itself. Haag's closing personal views on the latter, in the light of the mathematical formalism of Local Quantum Physics, bear an intriguing resemblance with modern ideas by Rovelli, Ashtekar, etc. on loop quantum gravity.
The book as a whole takes quite some time to digest, due to the mathematical machinery involved (functional analysis and an acquaintance in C*-algebra theory are a rather strongly recommended background) and the subtlety of the physical ideas. But, to sum up, for me it was, in due time, the ultimate temptress.
A complete recapitulation.......2002-04-26
LQFT, a kind of Axiomatic Quantum Field theory, was slowly
developed during the 1970 age to provide solid fundamentals
to quantum fields. Haag was one of the leaders of the
development, and this book resumes the climax of the theory.
From here the development has continued, looking for nets
of observables as a tool to incorporate the renormalization
mechanism. But it is to be noted that, since then, a branch
of C* algebras has developed to formulate NonCommutative
geometry, a tool completely unavailable to the people working
in Local Quantum Field Theory. One should kept a leg in
each side, aiming to marry both formalims.
Deserves 10 stars.......2002-04-16
Quantum field theory is a subject that has occupied the time of an enormous number of researchers, both in physics and in mathematics. Those who have studied perturbation methods in quantum field theory have no doubt run acroos "Haag's theorem" that is usually loosely stated as saying that "the interactive representation does not exist". The statement of this theorem, and many other results in quantum field theory, particularly the procedure of renormalization, have been viewed by many as unsound from a mathematical standpoint, and so efforts were begun to put quantum field theory on a rigorous mathematical foundation. Going by the names of axiomatic or constructive quantum field theory, these approaches are interesting, but also a little troubling from a scientific perspective. Axiomitization is usually appropriate in mathematics when a subject has matured to the point where it can be "closed off", and this usually happens when the theory is very well understood and so its essence can be codified in a few well-forumlated axioms. But quantum field theory is no where near that stage; indeed one can say that it continues to be a theory that, oddly, has immense predictive power but whose rigorous mathematical formulation remains elusive. Not only that, quantum field theory is still in a course of evolution, and any attempt at axiomitization might become obsolete as soon as it is put down on paper. In addition, physical insight, as much as mathematical understanding, must not be sacrificed in any resulting axiomatization of quantum field theory. Frequently, the result of axiomatization is to divorce a physical theory from its physical roots, and beginning students of the theory then have difficulty in acquiring intuition of the essential physics of the theory.
One of the best attributes of this book is that the author realizes this, and early on he refers to "general", rather than "axiomatic" QFT as being more appropriate since it allows flexibility in relation to future discoveries. Not only that, the author endeavors to explain the formalism that he is expousing in the book, and he succeeds brilliantly. Anyone interested in the mathematical physics behind quantum field theory, and not just doing bread-and-butter perturbation calculations, will gain a lot from the reading of this book. It is packed full of insight, a rare occurence in books that employ the heavy mathematical formalism that this one does. One will need a strong background in operator theory, abstract theory, and several complex variables to read the book, but a lot of this is developed impromptu as the text unfolds. When it is not, the author gives references for those readers who need more in-depth discussion.
There are so many ineresting discussions in this book that space does not permit an evaluation of all of them, but the following is a short list of points in the book that I found particularly well-written: 1. The Wigner analysis of irreducible unitary representations of the Poincare group. This is not a mathematically rigorous discussion, but the author points out the physical relevance of the fact that the spectrum of the 4-momentum operator must be concentrated on a single orbit. This fact ensures the stability of matter. And, as frequently happens in physics, several mathematical consequences of a particular physical theory are discarded as not being relevant; in this case the other three classes of the irreducible representations. That being said, the author does include as of possible physical relevance the idea of parastatistics. He points out his reasons for this, namely that a strict adherence to the Bose-Fermi alternative is not operationally justified. 2. The role of fields in implementing the principle of locality and not as observable particles. This fact is usually not emphasized in books on quantum field theory. 3. The author clarifies the distinction between the notion of locality that deals with the commutation of two observables that are space-like separated, and the one dealing with the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox and Bell's inequality. 4. The discussion on the Bose-Einstein alternative, in particular the suggestion that parastatistics can be replaced by Bose or Fermi statistics in the presence of a non-Abelian unbroken global gauge group. 5. The discussion on topological charges and their prohibition by the Doplicher-Haag-Roberts selection criterion. The Doplicher-Haag-Roberts criterion was used in scattering theory and thought to be reasonable, but the author shows that its use is problematic in this case also, as well as in prohibiting topological charge. Purely massive fields can, it turns out, have measurable correlations at large distances, and Borcher's selection criterion, also discussed along these lines, gives topological charges. 6. The treatment of the Tomita-Takesaki theorem, modular automorphisms, and their connection to the KMS-condition. 7. The discussion on the need for type III-1 von Neumann algebras in relativistic quantum field theory versus type I in ordinary quantum mechanics. Such a von Neumann algebra is hyperfinite and is unique. 8. The discussion on the impossibility of coherent wave packets of one-electron states in quantum field theory, as contrasted with the usual practice in quantum mechanics. This is dues to superselection rules and the "infraparticle" nature of electrically charged particles, which are not associated with discrete eigenvalues of the mass operator. The author asks the reader to justify electron interference experiments in quantum field theory.
The most important book about algebraic qft by its founder.......1999-05-01
In spite of the succes of quantum field theory it became very early clear that this theory needed a new mathematical formulation. Haag was one of the founders of this new theory which was later called algebraic quantum field theory but Haag himself preferred "local quantum physics".
The algebra of observables is designed as the C*-inductive limit of a net of von Neumann-algebras the index set of which is formed of open subsets of space-time. The book discusses the DHR-selection criterion as well as the BF-criterion of Buchholz and Fredenhagen that is more adequate to massive fields. Furthermore Haag gives a short introduction to statistical qft in the algebraic framework. Especially the KMS-condition which was formulated in the sixties by Haag, Hugenholtz and Winnink is discussed.
A highly recommended book!
Book Description
Gauge Theory of Weak Interactions treats the unification of electromagnetic and weak interactions and considers related phenomena. First, the Fermi theory of beta decay is presented, followed by a discussion of parity violation, clarifying the importance of symmetries. Then the concept of a spontaneously broken gauge theory is introduced, and all necessary mathematical tools are carefully developed. The "standard model" of unified electroweak interactions is thoroughly discussed including current developments. The final chapter contains an introduction to unified theories of strong and electroweak interactions. Numerous solved examples and problems make this volume uniquely suited as a text for an advanced course. This third edition has been carefully revised.
Customer Reviews:
best choice - occasional errors - disconcerting jumps.......2006-05-18
As of early 2006, this is the best available choice for a text on the standard model of the weak force, and the possibilities for it's upgrade with the new neutrino discoveries.
The minimum requirements for a reader are an advanced knowledge of engineering-level calculus, basic quantum theory, and great familiarity of the sub-atomic zoo and quantum number bookkeeping.
The volume has occasional errors, like reversing the assignment of the Kayon |Ks> and |KL> mixed states to the symmetric (should be anti-) and antisymmetric (should be sym.) combination of K0 and anti-K0. The math is right, but the explication in the text is wrong. Similar small errors popped up throughout the text, which was annoying in a 3rd edition.
The authors do give a very good overview of (most) possible prior and new versions of the standard model, but for an edition published late in 2000 I expected a lot more about adaptions that accounted well for neutrino mass. There is some there, just not as much as I'd like. I'm hoping in the 4th edition that there will be more discussion on the connundrum of the weak force's preference for left-handed chirality (all the more bizzare now that neutrinos are now thought to have mass). It will be several years before anyone publishes a successor text, since theorizing is still underway, and most particle physicists will be inclined to save their ink until after they've seen results from CERN's new Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to startup in 2007. I reckon that research and textbook writing delays will keep this book current until at least 2009.
The text occasionally has superb, succinct explanations of problems and motivation, but is given to long mathematical digressions into admittedly important crossection derivations. I wanted more chit-chat with my math. It also made disturbingly abrupt jumps in subject, however, the line of reasoning is very orderly, so it's possible to catch up with the authors. The technical English did bother me: being able to read mathematical German helped me a lot to recognize "what they really meant", since the English translation occasionally uses the wrong word, or a term depricated in physicist-English. It looks to me like it could benefit from some smoothing out (1) by a single physicist adding more bridge text between sections and (2) technical editing by a native English speaker, to tidy up awkward idiom. On the other hand, if you just want the straight scoop, and can pull it out of the math with a minimum of coddling and survive an occaional simple mistake, this book is for you.
It would be nice if there were more diagrams, but on the whole, the number of diagrams and pictures is adequate. A few more would make the math sing.
There are occasional biographical notes, which are nice, and the authors give sufficient historical background for the theory, which is good, but best of all is that they do not use "the historical approach" to particle physics. Thank you! The weak interaction is desribed in stages of increasing complexity from minimum adequate to possible next version(s). By coincidence, it's mostly in historical order, but they don't waste your time with no longer relevant background. That was excellent.
weak interaction and unified theory........2000-02-18
this volume is for advanced learner who has already has a background in quantum mechanics. this volume covers weak interaction. another volume quantum chromodynamics covers strong interaction. weak interaction is essential knowledge for starting research in elementary particle physics. it is also a necessary background for strings theory.
Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive overview of modern particle physics accessible to anyone with a true passion for wanting to know how the universe works. We are introduced to the known particles of the world we live in. An elegant explanation of quantum mechanics and relativity paves the way for an understanding of the laws that govern particle physics. These laws are put into action in the world of accelerators, colliders and detectors found at institutions such as CERN and Fermilab that are in the forefront of technical innovation. Real world and theory meet using Feynman diagrams to solve the problems of infinities and deduce the need for the Higgs boson.
Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics offers an incredible insight from an eyewitness and participant in some of the greatest discoveries in 20th century science. From Einstein's theory of relativity to the elusive Higgs particle, this book will fascinate and educate anyone interested in the world of quarks, leptons and gauge theories.
This book also contains many thumbnail sketches of particle physics personalities, including contemporaries as seen through the eyes of the author. Illustrated with pictures, these candid sketches present rare, perceptive views of the characters that populate the field.
The Chapter on Particle Theory, in a pre-publication, was termed `superbly lucid' by David Miller in Nature (Vol. 396, 17 Dec. 1998), p.642.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful - both instructive and entertaining.......2007-03-30
Martinus Veltman has a rare gift - to have indepth knowledge of a complex subject, and be able to give the layman a plausible explanation of it. I have almost completed my second reading of the book. Such was the wealth of information, and my eagerness to read, that I could not take it all in on the first reading. The reader must persist with some of Dr Veltman's language quirks , but this is a minor criticism - the effort is handsomely repaid. His character profiles (occasionally caricatures), and personal stories, add a human dimension, and serve to point out that it takes many brilliant and hard working people, not just theorists and not just Nobel Prize winners, to create an edifice as grand (and yet fragile) as the Standard Model. Highly commended - a beautiful legacy for future generations.
A very good book.......2007-01-12
This is a well structured book which describes developments in modern physics in an in-depth and comprehensive way.
.
After a preliminary discussion of basic physical issues, the author launches into a detailed, yet non mathematical, outline of the standard model of particle physics which he rightly says is a beautiful model indeed. His discussion of this is a highlight of the book and the book is worth buying for this chapter alone. He then goes on to discuss quantum mechanics as well as discussing aspects of relativity pertinent to particle physics.
Understanding the basic elements of the universe did not happen overnight but rather was the fulfilment of a combined effort of a large number of people. At all stages throughout the book, the author illustrates the contribution of the various personalities involved, and does it so that the reader appreciates the erstwhile contribution each person made. The author himself made a significant contribution.
Of course, not just the `who' is relevant. How they achieved the various breakthroughs is also important and the book's discussion of the history and development of modern accelerators and particle colliders is of particular interest.
Finally the discussion of the theory of particles and of interactions within particles concludes what is an enjoyable and interesting book on topics that are justifiably regarded as complicated, yet are dealt with in the book in an easy and very readable way .
This book is recommended for all who wish to appreciate current ideas about the basic elementary particles of nature and would like to have an understanding of these incredible `building blocks' of our wonderful universe..
Excelente Libro.......2007-01-10
Muy bien explicado si tus conocimientos sobre física de partículas no son excelentes. Matemáticamente sencillo de comprender
unique book, but read others too.......2006-09-28
This is a unique book.
First of all, the paper, font, diagrams, and cover are wonderful. It's really a nice looking book cover to cover.
Next, the author includes biographies of people involved in the field. The writing is candid and humorous. The biographies don't read like a textbook at all. They include his own opinions, as well as interesting anecdotes about the people.
Finally, the author includes some of his own personal story in the book, regarding his work in particle physics. It's nice to see a first-hand account. I enjoy his commentary.
All these things make this a special book, and worth reading.
The author can be somewhat grumpy, but you have to take that with a sense of humor. Consider that physicists (I am one) tend to be literal and often TOO honest, at the risk of being blunt or awkward. So try not to be put off.
Some parts of the book are a bit tedious. If you really want to understand the topic, read some other books along with this one. If there's only one book to get, try Oerter's "Theory of Almost Everything". But if you want a few books, then definitely include this one.
Not Finished Reading Yet, But Easy And Good Book.......2006-08-08
If you "understand" at least to some extent quantum theory you will enjoy this book. It is not described by math equations but Good writing and Analogies.You Must understand elementary particles to get quantum physics and mechanics to understand how they work since it's so different from our daily reality, you must visualize. I have read enough books and looked up info on the net to grasp the sense of quantum theory and it's counterparts, Read "Parallel Worlds" By Michio Kaku, He describes things so easily. 4 stars because no book is a five yet for me except the book previously Mentioned because of it's simplicity and wide variety of topics covered. Good luck opening your mind.
Book Description
This is a practical introduction to the principal ideas in gauge theory and their applications to elementary particle physics. It explains technique and methodology with simple exposition backed up by many illustrative examples. Derivations, some of well known results, are presented in
sufficient detail to make the text accessible to readers entering the field for the first time. The book focuses on the strong interaction theory of quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak interaction theory of Glashow, Weinberg, and Salam, as well as the grand unification theory, exemplified by
the simplest SU(5) model. Not intended as an exhaustive survey, the book nevertheless provides the general background necessary for a serious student who wishes to specialize in the field of elementary particle theory. Physicists with an interest in general aspects of gauge theory will also find
the book highly useful.
Customer Reviews:
Poor Binding.......2004-03-11
I have no issues with the contents: you should know QFT at the level of Weinberg Vol 1 and group theory at the level of Tung. If it were not for the construction of this book I would probably have rated it 5 stars. The cover and binding are what you would expect from a cheap five-dollar paperback. I wasn't reading it much longer than two ot three weeks before sections started to fall out. At the price its being sold, its poor quality is nothing but a crime.
Not so elementary.......2002-10-18
This book was "recommended" for an elective course in particle physics for PhD students at OSU. Having little to no experience in the field (besides simple modern physics topics like bubble chamber examples and time-dilated lifetimes of particles, etc.) I was hoping that I would get a better introduction. The book offers no such thing. It jumps right in with "Basics in Field Quantization" (which is hardly comprehensive) and then blows through everything in high gear. Considering that most students in physics haven't seen particle physics in their core sequence of coursework, I would not recommend this book for a course in particle physics unless the requisites for the course explicitly state that the student should have experience with field theory and an understanding of group theory. This is definitely a poor source for a student who is seeing the subject for the first time. For those who are more experienced in particle physics, I would expect that this book is a good reference, though I cannot say that for sure because I am not a member of such a group.
I also purchased the book of solutions to problems in this book. It sheds some light on the topic, but not much. Nonetheless, I won't sell this book because sometime down the road I might find it and its companion to be useful.
a classic to learn particle physics.......2000-05-21
The book presents the basics of the particle physics. I don't like the first of the book: field theory part is bad. But the rest of the book is very well written. It was very help for me to understand particle physics.
gauge theory of elementary particle physics.......2000-04-06
since field theory is not setisfectory in any sense the book seems to present it not as ugly.
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General
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Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics
An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics)
An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics
Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell
Modern Quantum Mechanics (2nd Edition)
