Product Description

In Introduction to Elementary Particles, Second, Revised Edition, author David Griffiths strikes a balance between quantitative rigor and intuitive understanding, using a lively, informal style. The first chapter provides a detailed historical introduction to the subject, while subsequent chapters offer a quantitative presentation of the Standard Model. A simplified introduction to the Feynman rules, based on a "toy" model, helps readers learn the calculational techniques without the complications of spin. It is followed by accessible treatments of quantum electrodynamics, the strong and weak interactions, and gauge theories. New chapters address neutrino oscillations and prospects for physics beyond the Standard Model. The book contains a number of worked examples and many end-of-chapter problems. A complete solution manual is available for instructors.

• Revised edition of a well-established text on elementary particle physics
• With a number of worked examples and many end-of-chapter problems
• Helps the student to master the Feynman rules
• Solution manual available for instructors

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38696 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 470 pages

Review
A clearly written textbook balancing intuitive understanding and mathematical rigour, emphasizing elementary particle theory. (Reviews, May 2009)

From the Back Cover
In the second, revised edition of a well-established textbook, the author strikes a balance between quantitative rigor and intuitive understanding, using a lively, informal style. The first chapter provides a detailed historical introduction to the subject, while subsequent chapters offer a quantitative presentation of the Standard Model. A simplified introduction to the Feynman rules, based on a "toy" model, helps readers learn the calculational techniques without the complications of spin. It is followed by accessible treatments of quantum electrodynamics, the strong and weak interactions, and gauge theories. New chapters address neutrino oscillations and prospects for physics beyond the Standard Model. The book contains a number of worked examples and many end-of-chapter problems. A complete solution manual is available for instructors.

• Revised edition of a well-established text on elementary particle physics
• With a number of worked examples and many end-of-chapter problems
• Helps the student to master the Feynman rules
• Solution manual available for instructors

About the Author
David Griffiths is Professor of Physics at the Reed College in Portland, Oregon. After obtaining his PhD in elementary particle theory at Harvard, he taught at several colleges and universities before joining the faculty at Reed in 1978. He specializes in classical electrodynamics and quantum mechanics as well as elementary particles, and has written textbooks on all three subjects.

Customer Reviews

This is the absolute must for the beginner.
This is the absolute must for the beginner high energy student, theorist or experimentalist , graduate or undergraduate. This should be your first book on the subject. Anything else is too hard or too naive.This is the book that will take you by the hand, do the calculations, show you the history of the subject and tell you what is important and what is not, in short show you what high energy physics is all about. It has the ultimate material and structure.

If you dont know what a quark is or why people keep talking about its color, or you have never seen Dirac's equation, or you have no idea about what a cross section may be or how to solve problems in relativistic kinematics, THIS BOOK will take you by hand, teach you and care for you. If your friends tell you how cool a Feynman diagram is but you have never seen one and would like to understand what it is, what is its meaning and how to calculate one, then this book will take you by the hand and explain it to you. It will open the secret gardens of particle physics in front of your eyes. It is full with great physical intuition, not just mathematics all over the place.

And after you feel comfortable with the first shock of the Feynman diagrams and the Dirac equation and Electrodynamics, then you can sail away to the second part of the book that covers Quantum Chromodynamics, weak interactions and gauge theories. Then and only then make the jump to the more "difficult" books.

You can read this book on your own, you dont need a professor or a course. Griffiths is there. He knows your questions and answers them beforehand (like Mandl). He is such a great pedagogist. Dear fellow student of high energy physics, take my word and at least take a look at the book in your library. I am sure that you will like it a lot.

P.S. Another book of this magnitude and style is Gordon Kane's "Modern Elementary Particle Physics". If you cannot affort to buy both then buy this one! (Sorry Dr. Kane)

Griffiths defines "Introductory Course"
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).

A Good Companion
It's a good thing that Griffiths has written this book about particles. So many other professors have tried but have failed miserably. Griffiths on the other hand is a gifted writer and teacher. This book is well written and easy to learn from. The text includes a chapter on bound state and another on home to calculate amplitudes from Feynmann diagrams. You won't always find mathmatical rigor in this text, but it will always be claer and readable.