Fundamental Interactions In Physics

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.

The Yang-Mills theory of gauge interactions is a prime example of interdisciplinary mathematics and advanced physics. Its historical development is a fascinating window into the ongoing struggle of mankind to understand nature. The discovery of gauge fields and their properties is the most formidable landmark of modern physics. The expression of the gauge field strength as the curvature associated to a given connection, places quantum field theory in the same geometrical footing as the gravitational field of general relativity which is naturally written in geometrical terms. The understanding of such geometrical property may help one day to write a unified field theory starting from symmetry principles. Of course, there are remarkable differences between the standard gauge fields and the gravitational field, which must be understood by mathematicians and physicists before attempting such unification. In particular, it is important to understand why gravitation is not a standard gauge field. This book presents an account of the geometrical properties of gauge field theory, while trying to keep the equilibrium between mathematics and physics. At the end we will introduce a similar approach to the gravitational field.

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. For example, the CP violation currently measured does not explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the observable universe; the neutrino oscillations and the estimated amount of cosmological dark matter seem to require new physics beyond the Standard Model. A list of other introductory texts, work reviews and some specialized publications is reported in the bibliography. Translation from the Italian Language Edition "Particelle e interazioni fondamentali" by Sylvie Braibant, Giorgio Giacomelli, and Maurizio Spurio Copyright © Springer-Verlag Italia, 2009 Springer-Verlag Italia is part of Springer Science+Business Media All Rights Reserved

The Center for Theoretical Studies of the University of Miami has been the host of annual winter conferences whose content has expanded from the particular topic of symmetry principles in high energy physics to encompass the bases and relationships of many branches of know ledge. The scope of the Tenth Coral Gables Conference on Fundamental Interactions included astrophysics, atomic and molecular physics, fundamental theories of gravi tation, of electromagnetism, and of hadrons, gauge theories of weak and electromagnetic interactions, high energy physics, liquid helium physics, and theoretical biology. The range of topics is partially represented by the scientific talks which form this book. The tangible fruits of the conference are these papers; the intangible ones are the changes of outlook which the participants experienced and the new appreciation they gained of the basic unity of all knowledge. Historically, the early Coral Gables Conferences witnessed the introduction of the concept of the quark and the attempts to formulate a unification of the in ternal and space-time symmetries of the elementary particles, while later ones were the initial forums for new unified theories of interactions and for the ideas of scaling, light-cone dominance, and partons.

This volume is an exercises and solutions manual that complements the book "Particles and Fundamental Interactions" by Sylvie Braibant, Giorgio Giacomelli, and Maurizio Spurio. It aims to give additional intellectual stimulation for students in experimental particle physics. It will be a helpful companion in the preparation of a written examination, but also it provides a means to gaining a deeper understanding of high energy physics. The problems proposed are sometimes true and important research questions, which are described and solved in a step-by-step manner. In addition to the problems and solutions, this book offers fifteen Supplements that give further insight into topical subjects related to particle accelerators, signal and data acquisition systems and computational methods to treat them.

This book has been prepared to celebrate the 65th birthday of Gabriele Veneziano and his retirement from CERN in September 2007. This reti- ment certainly will not mark the end of his extraordinary scienti?c career (in particular, he will remain on the permanent sta? of the Coll` ege de France in Paris), but we believe that this important step deserves a special celebration, and an appropriate recognition of his monumental contribution to physics. Our initial idea of preparing a volume of Selected papers of Professor Gabriele Veneziano, possibly with some added commentary, was dismissed when we realized that this format of book, very popular in former times, has become redundant today because of the full “digitalization” of all important physical journals, and their availability online in the electronic archives. We have thus preferred an alternative (and unconventional, but probably more e?ective) form of celebrating Gabriele’s birthday: a collection of new papers written by his main collaborators and friends on the various aspects of th- retical physics that have been the object of his research work, during his long and fruitful career.

The fourth course of the International School of Physics of Exotic Atoms took place at the "Ettore Majorana" Center for Scien tific Culture, Erice, from March 31 to April 6, 1984. As tradition, exotic atoms have been a tool for studying elec tromagnetic, weak and strong interactions at low energies. We felt it appropriate to have a full course devoted to a discussion of the information to be gained on the fundamental interactions from the study of low energy systems. In this kind of physics, which is characterized experimentally by very intense particle sources and very sensitive apparatuses, one can search for rare events and can perform precise measurements. Sensitive tests of the predictions of current theories of electro weak and strong interactions can thus be achieved. The course was attended by 54 participants from 23 institutes in 9 countries. The morning lectures reviewed the achievements of the field in the last few years and the afternoon seminars dealt with new results and projects.