Introduction To Elementary Particle Theory | Yu. V. Novozhilov

The present book is meant as an introduction to such a constructive theory of elementary particles. The author hopes that such a book will be useful as a complement to other texts on elementary particle theory.

The book consists of four parts. The introductory Part I acquaints the reader with the basic description of elementary particles. In Part II questions of relativistic quantum me­chanics and kinematics are set forth; Part III is devoted to the problem of internal symmetry, and Part IV to those new dynamical approaches which are likely to have the greatest influ­ence on the development of theory in the future. Quantum electrodynamics and renormalization are excluded from the present book, as these questions are contained in the standard quantum theory of fields.(5' 7) The author does not give a systematic review of experimental data, but cites only the information essential to illustrate the pattern of phenomena and to connect theory with experiment. The Appendix contains tables of particles, but the reader’s main reference on particle properties should be special annual reviews.

The list of references contains only those works which, in the author’s opinion, are basic. The reader may acquaint himself with a more complete list in books(9"20) and in reviews referred to here.

The plan of the book essentially follows the program of courses on elementary particle theory given in the Physics Faculty of Leningrad University.

The reader must be familiar with nonrelativistic quantum mechanics and classical relativity theory. It would also be very useful to have a preliminary acquaintance with the fundamentals of the Lagrangian formulation of quantum field theory and with Feynman diagrams. A course in elementary particle field theory usually is preceded by a short course on group theory. We thus assume that the basic facts of group theory are known to the reader.