Elementary Particle Physics: The Standard Theory

Many books have been written about theoretical particle physics; their number seems to increase every couple of months. I have collected lots of them and worked through a number. If I had to choose just one book from which to learn particle theory and to which I could refer in the future, this would be it. (To be honest, I'd have to find a way to include a second book, the strangely little-noticed masterful exposition of Ho Kim and Pham, Elementary Particles and Their Interactions. The present volume would win the coin toss, though, if only because it is newer and somewhat more comprehensive.) I often buy a book with the good intentions of working my way through it. That is what I resolve to do in this case. I think I have a much greater chance of success than usual, because this book is exceptionally well written and unusually well organized. The authors provide all the tools the novice particle physicist might need. Chapter 5, Elements of Group Theory is a good example. Someone who has truly understood this chapter and who has solved the problems will have a working knowledge of the group theory needed to understand particle physics. Too often, a similarly titled chapter in a particle physics text provides little more than a passing knowledge of terminology. The authors have not provided a bibliography. But they've provided just about everything else a student of particle physics would want. I'm looking forward to a careful reading (problem-solving included) of this book.

This book is easy if you have a Ph.D. in Field Theory. I liked the discussion of the current experimental tests of the Standard Model compared to theoretical calculations. But, as I already said, this is a book for people with some graduate-level knowledge of Quantum Field Theory, not really for undergraduates. The Kindle version is outstanding, with easy-to-read equations and illustrations. It works best on large color tablets, like large iPads.

This is a great introductory book on particle physics for someone who has been through courses on Analytical Mechanics (at the level of Taylor) Electromagnetic Theory (at the level of Griffith’s) and Quantum mechanics (at the level of Shankar). I would not recommend this for a current undergrad getting into particle physics, without this background (check out Griffith’s particle physics book instead). However, this book is very suitable for a graduate student in particle physics looking to use this as either a main text, or a reference for their research.

This is a subject that fascinates me. Not light reading but very informative.