Particles and Fundamental Interactions: An Introduction to Particle Physics [Paperback]

The book provides theoretical and phenomenological insights on the structure of matter, presenting concepts and features of elementary particle physics and fundamental aspects of nuclear physics. 

Starting with the basics (nomenclature, classification, acceleration techniques, detection of elementary particles), the properties of fundamental interactions (electromagnetic, weak and strong) are introduced with a mathematical formalism suited to undergraduate students. Some experimental results (the discovery of neutral currents and of the W? and Z0 bosons; the quark structure observed using deep inelastic scattering experiments) show the necessity of an evolution of the formalism. This motivates a more detailed description of the weak and strong interactions, of the Standard Model of the microcosm with its experimental tests, and of the Higgs mechanism. The open problems in the Standard Model of the microcosm and macrocosm are presented at the end of the book. 

Based on the celebrated lectures of the influential particle physicist Giorgio Giacomelli, this volume, now in a new edition, aims to provide the basic theoretical foundations, and phenomenological knowledge of, the structure of matter at the subatomic level.

Preface.- 1. Historical Notes and Fundamental Concepts.- 2. Particle Interactions with Matter and Detectors.- 3. Particle Accelerators and Particle Detection.- 4. The Paradigm of Interactions: the Electromagnetic Case.- 5. First Discussion of the Other Fundamental Interactions.- 6 Invariance and Conservation Principles.- 7. Hadron Interactions at Low Energies and the Static Quark Model.- 8. Weak Interactions and Neutrinos.- 9. Discoveries in Electron-Positron Collisions.- 10. High Energy Interactions at the Dynamic Quark Model.- 11. The Standard Model of the Microcosm.- 12. CP-Violation and Particle Oscillations.- 13. Microcosm and lc)