Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics

The third edition of this successful textbook has been redesigned to reflect the progress of the field in the last decade, including the latest studies of the Higgs boson, quark–gluon plasma, progress in flavour and neutrino physics and the discovery of gravitational waves. It provides undergraduate students with complete coverage of the basic elements of the Standard Model of particle physics, assuming only introductory courses in nuclear physics, special relativity and quantum mechanics. Examples of fundamental experiments are highlighted before discussions of the theory, giving students an appreciation of how experiment and theory interplay in the development of physics. The author examines leptons, hadrons and quarks, before presenting the dynamics and the surprising properties of the charges of the different forces, concluding with a discussion on neutrino properties beyond the Standard Model. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.Table of ContentPreface; Acknowledgements; 1. Preliminary notions; 2. Nucleons, leptons and mesons; 3. Symmetries; 4. Hadrons; 5. Quantum electrodynamics; 6. Chromodynamics; 7. Weak interactions; 8. Oscillations and CP violation in quarks; 9. The Standard Model; 10. Neutrinos; 11. Gravitational waves; Epilogue; Appendices; Solutions; References; Index.Review Quote'Lecturers who use this book for their courses will love this new edition even more. The balance between theory, descriptions of detectors and the experimental results remains unique to this book. The abundant choice of exercises and the appendices enrich it even more. From g-2 and lattice QCD and a much expanded part on Higgs physics, to neutrinos and CP violation, and by adding gravitational waves, the author updates us with the newest topics in the field in the last ten years, providing a very modern textbook at the bachelors and masters level.' Elisabetta Gallo, University of Hamburg and DESYReview Quote'I have used Bettini's second edition for a number of years in a junior/senior level undergraduate course at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I find that it successfully bridges the gap between the textbooks for the first modern physics courses and graduate level textbooks, such as Halzen and Martin. Bettini's book, like Donald Perkins' famous older High Energy physics textbook, weaves in experimental data and discoveries, detectors and quantum field theory but is more up to date. Bettini's book also serves the current generation of students better than Griffiths' well-known and well-written textbook, which is missing key sections such as interactions of radiation of matter, detectors and accelerators. Bettini's third edition has a number of new sections such as gravitational waves. It also includes improved versions of Chapter 1 on preliminaries, the addition of a section on the g-2 experiment etc. Many other chapters and parts of the text are improved compared to the second edition.' Tom Browder, University of Hawai'i at MānoaReview Quote'Professor Alessandro Bettini is to be thanked for such a wonderful book. I am totally amazed by the depth of the theoretical contents across all subjects, as it covers classical field theory, scattering theory, QED, QCD and unified weak-electro gauge theory and the neutrino sector. The author endeavors to bring readers their experimental and observational bases from both logical descriptions and a historical point of view. This makes this book more than just a textbook of particle physics, but a complete handbook of the whole field over the last century. In this regard, a wide spectrum of readers, graduate students, junior researchers and even professors from both experimental and theoretic communities, will benefit from it for some time to come. I'll certainly recommend this book as an essential reference in my classes on cosmic ray physics.' Zhen Cao, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of SciencesReview Quote'Bettini's is one of the most popular and comprehensive textbooks in particle physics for university degree courses. The book appeals to students and readers of various levels as it allows for easy reading with the possibility of deeper insights for those who are interested or have already acquired the skills to explore them. Its greatest asset is the fact that it manages to combine theory and experiment so beautifully, with assured elegance coupled to a remarkable spirit of synthesis that never allows the reader to lose the thread of the argument. This third edition contains nicely updated topical sections concerning, for instance, deconfinement and QCD, gravitation and the neutrino sector. The updates are concise and effective, aiming directly at the core of the subjects and highlighting the many still open issues that are at the very roots of today's research in physics.' Luisa Cifarelli, University of BolognaBiographical NoteAlessandro Bettini is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Padua, Italy and a Research Associate of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN). He has served the INFN as Director of the Padova section, Vice-president and Director of the Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS), the IUPAP as Chair of the Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Gravitation International Committee and the Spanish Government as Director of the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC). He is the author more than of 200 scientific publications, eight university textbooks and two books for the general public. He is a Fellow of the European Physical Society, 'Socio Benemerito' of the Italian Physical Society (SIF) and a member of the Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lattere e Arti.This Open Access third edition reflects the progress of field as a first course in particle physics for undergraduate students.