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 Good book on particle physics October 17, 2008
Matthew C.
Quarks and Leptons is a nice introduction to modern particle physics. It's a bit dated (1984), but isn't really missing anything too important and is still the most up-to-date comprehensive book on particle physics. The text doesn't require that you know quantum field theory, although it'll be easier to understand if you do. If you don't know QFT, you'll have to accept certain concepts for granted. For QFT I recommend Quantum Field Theory by Srednicki. I've also heard good things about An Introduction To Quantum Field Theory (Frontiers in Physics), but I have yet to read it.
My only complaint doesn't have to do with the content of the book but with Amazon. Though the book was bought new, there were several blemishes on the cover and spine. The book is of course fully functional, but when I buy a new book I like it to be in pristine condition.
Really the best book for an undergraduate course in Advanced Particle Physics October 11, 2007
T. Sandoval (London, United Kingdom)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is really a jewel. It was used extensively to support two famouse theoretical courses at Imperial College London, namely, Unification and Advanced Particle Physics. It doesn't have typos, its extremely concise and the mathematics are extremely well presented and explained (without hand-waving anything). It explains very simply and clearly hard-to-grasp concepts (a lot of it as part of the Appendix) such as symmetries and their link to particle physics, spontaneous symmetry breaking, Feynman diagrams, Abelian and Non Abelian groups, Fermi theory and in general an excellent explanation of the properties of particles. I would recommend buying this book to any Theoretical Physicist taking Advanced Particle Physics courses or interested in knowing the mathematics of High Energy Physics (and not just the theory, because for that there are many other good story-teller books!).
 Would have been great if only... January 27, 2002
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is a very good treatment of particle physics. Unfortunately, its one of those textbooks where exercises are dispersed throughout the text and which form an integral part of the pedagogy. In other words, the reader must work through the problems as they appear in the book as subsequent material is based upon it; not to do the exercies will result in an incomplete and fragmented exposure to the material. Some might like that approach but I personally find it irritating and slows down the reading. As I mentioned its a very well written expose of particle physics but it could have been great if its format had been more traditional.
Best book for preparing for a test in particle physics January 1, 2002
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
I love this book, mostly because this book told me very well about how to do every kind of particle physics problems.
Before you read it, you needn't have much background in Quantum Field Theory (while it should be quite good to read this book before studying QFT), and you can get almost all ideas of High Energy Physics in an aspect of phenomenology.
If you wanna prepare for a professional particle physics test (such as a PhD Qualification test), for sure this book is the best one to read --- you can pass any kind of these tests if you concentrate more than 2 days on this book.
And even you are not worrying about any test, this book is very good for a beginner to know particle physics quantitatively.
Do yourself a favour! July 12, 2000
Felix Matathias (Manhattan, NY, USA)
30 out of 31 found this review helpful
If you are a grad student in high energy/nuclear/heavy ion physics, experimental or theoretical, do yourself a favour and buy this book. It starts really from the begining (scalar fields, spinors, dirac equation, propagators) and slowly but steadily reaches the point of gauge field theory, QCD, partons, electroweak interactions , spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Weinberg-Salam model. Dont expect to find anything rigorous about renormalization. Chapter 7 has some calculations about running coupling constants etc. but most of it is intuitive (describing rather than proving) in order to give you a glimpse about these matters and serve as a tool for later chapters. Although I knew the basics of Quantum Field Theory before I read this book, it helped me understand topics like deep inelastic scattering, parton distribution functions, scaling, weak interactions,spontaneous symmetry breaking. Caution: It is not a Quantum Field Theory book, it is a particle physics book. If you are looking for gribov anomalies,ward-takahashi identities, and renormalization of the weinberg-salam model and stuff like that then this is not the place to find it. The book is about particles and their interactions. Its purpose is to prepare the serious student for more rigorous Quantum Field Theory books and give him/her the big picture of the standard model (the forest) rather than the little details of field theory (the tree). I strongly recommend it to any student in the field. The language is clear and the concepts are easy to follow. Its a down to earth approach trying to explain things in a clear cut manner rather than confusing the student with "big words" and terminology. A nice suplement to this book is the book by Chris Quigg (...huge number of references). In short, this book is worth its money ! Buy it !
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