Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Notation and Constants
- 1 Particle Physics Landscape
- 2 Preliminary Concepts: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Collisions and Decays
- 4 Conservation Rules and Symmetries
- 5 FromWave Functions to Quantum Fields
- 6 A Brief Overview of Quantum Electrodynamics
- 7 From Hadrons to Partons
- 8 Quantum Chromodynamics
- 9 Weak Interaction
- 10 Electroweak Interaction
- 11 Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
- 12 The Standard Model and Beyond
- Appendix A Elements of Group Theory for Particle Physics
- Appendix B Special Unitary Group SU(2)
- Appendix C Special Unitary Group SU(3) and SU(N)
- Appendix D Lorentz and Poincaré Groups
- Appendix E Calculating with the Dirac Delta Distribution
- Appendix F Contour Integration in the Complex Plane
- Appendix G Useful Formulas with γ Matrices
- Appendix H Fermi’s Golden Rule and Time-Dependent Perturbation
- References
- Index
2 - Preliminary Concepts: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Notation and Constants
- 1 Particle Physics Landscape
- 2 Preliminary Concepts: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Collisions and Decays
- 4 Conservation Rules and Symmetries
- 5 FromWave Functions to Quantum Fields
- 6 A Brief Overview of Quantum Electrodynamics
- 7 From Hadrons to Partons
- 8 Quantum Chromodynamics
- 9 Weak Interaction
- 10 Electroweak Interaction
- 11 Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
- 12 The Standard Model and Beyond
- Appendix A Elements of Group Theory for Particle Physics
- Appendix B Special Unitary Group SU(2)
- Appendix C Special Unitary Group SU(3) and SU(N)
- Appendix D Lorentz and Poincaré Groups
- Appendix E Calculating with the Dirac Delta Distribution
- Appendix F Contour Integration in the Complex Plane
- Appendix G Useful Formulas with γ Matrices
- Appendix H Fermi’s Golden Rule and Time-Dependent Perturbation
- References
- Index
Summary
A good knowledge of special relativity and quantum mechanics is essential for studying particle physics. Even if the reader is assumed to be already familiar with these two theories, a brief review of special relativity is given in this chapter with emphasis on the covariant and contravariant notations, which may be less well mastered but are very useful in particle physics. Important aspects of quantum mechanics for particle physics, such as the angular momentum, are also addressed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fundamentals of Particle PhysicsUnderstanding the Standard Model, pp. 56 - 78Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023