Particle Physics Reading list update

This is an update to a previous post written many years ago for those who want to understand modern particle physics. This is aimed at those readers who have a basic knowledge of undergraduate physics such as those who have completed the Open university quantum physics course SM358 and are comfortable with the marhematical techniques given in that course. Unfortunately the Open University doesn't go much further and so students of the Open university are left high and dry if they want to understand the excitement of particle physics. 

Particle physics can be understood at a basic level by extending Fermi's Golden rule for time dependent perturbation theory to relativistic equations of motion in particular the Dirac equation. This is some what surprising given that most postgraduate courses in particle physics launch the student in the deep end by starting with quantum field theory. So that the impression is given that one must wade through many pages and pages of abstract formalism before getting to the stage where one can actually study particle physics. Whilst eventually understanding quantum field theory is important for those who want to do actual research or at least understand what is going on. As a first step I would reccomend the reader to stick with the approach based on Fermi's Golden rule. To that end my current reccomendation for the best introduction to particle physics is given by the first two books in the list. These two books will give the reader a basic understanding of what a Feynman diagram is, how to use Feynman diagrams to calculate the quantities of interest to particle physics such as particle decay rates and scattering cross sections and how numerous experiments and calculations led to the development of the Standard Model of particle physics. 

  1)     Modern Particle Physics Mark Thomson Cambridge University Press 2013

 There is an associated web site with summaries of each chapter given to his Cambridge students and also hints and solutions to many of the problems. 

http://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/~thomson/MPP/ModernParticlePhysics.html

Another (older book) which covers some topics in more detail at the same level as Thomson is

2)     Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory course in Modern Particle Physics  F Halzen and A Martin John Wiley and Sons 1984

It is a testimony to the robustness of the Standard Model of particle physics that a book published 33 years ago is still relevant to today.

The above two books should be enough for most people who want to gain a working knowledge of the Standard model of particle physics, without getting bogged down in the intricacies of quantum field theory. Having said that there is no doubt that quantum field theory is one of the foundations of modern physics, so for those who want to begin a lifes time journey to understand quantum field theory then the best starting point (IMHO) is

3)     Student Friendly Quantum Field theory Robert D Klauber Sandtrove Press 2013

Whilst this book only covers quantum electrodynamics, and the so called canonical formalism it does so in great detail, filling in alll the gaps (or at least most of them) and includes an introduction to renormalisation theory and how to do 1 loop calculations (the meat of quantum field theory). Again there is an associated web site

http://www.quantumfieldtheory.info/

The next step which covers both QCD and the Weinberg Salam Model from a field theory perspective in some detail is this book

4)     Quantum Field Theory 2^nd Edition Franz Mandl and Graham Shaw Wiley 2010

Finally for those who want graduate level textbooks which will take the reader up to the stage of postgraduate research then my two current favourites are

5)     An introduction to Quantum Field theory Peskin and Schroeder Perseus Books 1995

This book has 3 research projects at the end of each section, culminating in an investigation of the properties of the Higg’s boson (It is my ambition to try and attempt these some time)

A more modern text book is

6)     Quantum Field theory and the Standard Model M D Schwartz Cambridge 2014

The above two books, unless one is really dedicated, are probably best seen as reference books, as it will take the reader pages and pages of algebra to fill in the details. With such books it is probably best to focus on repeating one or two calculations in detail and accept the rest on trust.

Finally a good survey of the experimental foundations of particle physics which includes many original papers is

7)     The Experimental Foundations of Particle Physics R Cahn and G Goldhaber  Cambridge 2009

I hope this helps  I am near the end of completing a particle physics calculation on elastic electron proton scattering and its experimental confirmation, as a preliminary to umderstanding the inelastic scattering which led to the development of the quark model and our current understanding of the theory of the strong interaction. I will post details of this calculation in the next post. Unfortunately Drop box is no longer supporting public acccess to files which means that some of the links I have posted to my work, no longer work. I will try and find a work around. If not then I can post the files to anyone who contacts me via my  e-mail address chrisf19572002@yahoo.co.uk It only remains for me to wish all my readers and followers a happy new year and good luck if you are studying for any Open University or other course.