A Modern Primer in Particle and Nuclear Physics

Description

Suitable for undergraduate and graduate physics students, this unique textbook provides an ideal entry point into particle, nuclear, and astroparticle physics and presents the modern concepts, theories, and experiments that explain the elementary constituents and basic forces of the universe.

• Presents a truly modern and cohesive view of particle and nuclear physics at the undergraduate level without resorting to the traditional historical approach
• Includes graded exercises to scaffold learning
• Requires very few prerequisites, includes appendices on special relativity and non-relativistic quantum mechanics, allowing students to consolidate their understanding
• Additional solutions to problems available on the book's companion website

About the Author(s)

Francesco Terranova, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Milan-Bicocca and INFN

Francesco Terranova has been working in collider and neutrino physics for 25 years giving significant contributions to the DELPHI experiment at LEP (direct evidence of triple gauge couplings), the construction and data analysis of OPERA (first observation of tau neutrino appearance in a long-baseline experiment), and CUORE (search for neutrinoless double-beta decay with bolometers). In 2015, he proposed the concept of 'monitored neutrino beam' and is currently Co-Spokesperson of the CERN NP06/ENUBET experiment. Since 2018 he has worked in DUNE, the US flagship project in neutrino physics, which studies CP violation in neutrinos and multi-messenger physics.

Table of Contents

1:Setting the scene
2:Scattering and decay
3:Measurements in particle physics
4:Accelerators and colliders
5:Symmetries and antimatter
6:Electromagnetic interactions
7:The modern theory of strong interactions
8:Flavor symmetries and the quark models
9:From QCD to nuclear physics
10:Weak interactions
11:Radioactivity and cosmic engines
12:The electroweak theory
13:At the forefront of the Standard Model

Reviews

"In this long-awaited, agile and modern textbook, the author takes an innovative deep approach which favours quick and unexpected connections between diverse subjects while stimulating critical thinking and further inquiry. It is a fluent, fascinating book with an exhaustive description of the most updated particle and nuclear physics state of the art." - Lucia Votano, emeritus Frascati INFN National Laboratory

"Professor Terranova offers a fresh, much-needed look at the way the foundations of particle and nuclear physics are introduced to university students. This textbook exhibits a fine balance of mathematical rigour, clarity, useful examples, and completeness. It is a stimulating reading that will please the most exigent scholars." - Antonio Bueno, University of Granada

"An excellent undergraduate textbook that covers many aspects of modern particle physics, including quarks and the Higgs boson, assuming only basic notions of Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. An invaluable reference for any student or teacher who wants a simple but complete introduction to our current understanding of the fundamental interactions in Nature." - Alberto Zaffaroni, Milano-Bicocca University

"This book is written as a captivating story of particle physics that enlightens students on the beauty of particle physics and motivates them to pursue further studies of the subject." - Alessandro Tricoli, Brookhaven National Laboratory