From The Planck Scale To The Weak Scale Toward A Theory Of The Universe Proceedings Of The Theoretical Advanced Study Institute In Elementary Particle Physics In 2 Volumes

The attempt to understand the nature of particle physics at the weak scale is the major goal of the current generation of collider facilities. Theorists attempt to stretch their theories to the Planck scale and beyond with the very ambitious theory of superstrings. Particle physics at all energy scales has important implications for the theory of the Early Universe. Lectures on Standard Model, Grand Unification and Supersymmetry and the present status of string and superstring theory are given by both theorists and experimentalists in a complete and pedagogical manner. Finally, lectures notes on the Early Universe, galaxy formation, and high energy colliders are directed specifically at particle physicists.

From the reviews: "Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969 and it has already become one of the fundamental publications in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics and neighbouring sciences. It is the most important English-language abstracting journal in the mentioned branches. ...The abstracts are classified under more than a hundred subject categories, thus permitting a quick survey of the whole extended material. The AAA is a valuable and important publication for all students and scientists working in the fields of astronomy and related sciences. As such it represents a necessary ingredient of any astronomical library all over the world." Space Science Reviews#1 "Dividing the whole field plus related subjects into 108 categories, each work is numbered and most are accompanied by brief abstracts. Fairly comprehensive cross-referencing links relevant papers to more than one category, and exhaustive author and subject indices are to be found at the back, making the catalogues easy to use. The series appears to be so complete in its coverage and always less than a year out of date that I shall certainly have to make a little more space on those shelves for future volumes." The Observatory Magazine#2

The book is based on lectures given at the TASI summer school of 2010. It aims to provide advanced graduate students, postdoctorates and senior researchers with a survey of important topics in particle physics and string theory, with special emphasis on applications of methods from string theory and quantum gravity in condensed matter physics and QCD (especially heavy ion physics).