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 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.

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.

This proceedings volume contains pedagogical lectures on theoretical and experimental particle physics, cosmology and atomic trap physics. It also includes additional contributions that provide up-to-date information on new experimental results from accelerators, underground laboratories, and nuclear astrophysics. This combination of pedagogical talks and topical short talks provides comprehensive information to researchers in the fields of particle physics, cosmology and atomic trap physics. Readership: Graduate students, researchers and academics in high energy physics, particle physics and astrophysics.

The author presents the general methods of quantization of physical fields including Bose, Fermi, and gauge fields, and the methods for eliminating divergences arising in the modern theory of interacting fields are discussed in detail. The concept of quarks and gluons is used as a basis for formulating quantum chromodynamics, which represents a theory of the strong interactions of hadrons. The theory of electroweak interaction generalizes Fermi's theory of beta decay and unifies the theories of weak and electromagnetic interactions, and both Einstein's theory of gravitation and the theory of superfields are developed in terms of non-Abelian gauge fields. Fields and Fundamental Interactions is an indispensable reference for graduates and researchers in the fields of quantum theory, quantum electrodynamics and elementary particle physics.