Fields And Particles

Particles and Fields 2

Particle physics seems to be entering a new period of consoli dation. In 1977 when the first summer institute on particles and fields was held at the Banff Center, the standard model of the electro-weak interaction was a promising model more or less con firmed; today it seems quite well-confirmed. QCD was considered as probably the correct theory of strong interactions; today most theo rists take it for granted. What seems to be lacking are computa tional tools and strenuous experimental testing; the major ideas seem to exist. Thus, this is a particularly auspicious time for a review of the status of theoretical and experimental particle physics and field theory. The lectures collected in this volume were presented from August 16 to August 27, 1981 at the Banff Center in Banff, Canada. The unifying theme was gauge fields and the topics covered dealt with electro-weak interactions, Q.C.D., sub-quarks and unified theories. The format of the Institute was as follows: thirteen lecture series of two to four hours each given by S. Brodsky, D. Bryman, M. Chen, S. Coleman, M. Creutz, H. Harari, J. Iliopoulos, C.H. Llewellyn Smith, P. Lepage, D. Perkins and L. Susskind. In addition there were nine seminars (one hour each) given by G. Bodwin, G. Bunce, M.

Particles, Fields and Forces

How can fundamental particles exist as waves in the vacuum? How can such waves have particle properties such as inertia? What is behind the notion of “virtual” particles? Why and how do particles exert forces on one another? Not least: What are forces anyway? These are some of the central questions that have intriguing answers in Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Unfortunately, these theories are highly mathematical, so that most people - even many scientists - are not able to fully grasp their meaning. This book unravels these theories in a conceptual manner, using more than 180 figures and extensive explanations and will provide the nonspecialist with great insights that are not to be found in the popular science literature.

Fields and Particles