Elementary Particles [Paperback]

This is now the third edition of a text that is already well established as one of the standard undergraduate books on the subject of elementary particle physics. Professor Hughes has updated the whole text and has added completely new material.This is the third edition of a text that is already well established as one of the standard undergraduate books on the subject of elementary particle physics. Professor Hughes has updated the whole text in line with current particle nomenclature and has added material to cover important new developments. There is also a completely new major chapter on particle physics and cosmology, an exciting subject that has become an area of increasing importance in recent years. In this field much can be learned from the way the subject has developed, and so, where this helps its understanding, a historical treatment is used. Unlike other texts on this subject, at all stages the author closely links theoretical developments to the relevant experimental measurements, providing a sound foundation to what might otherwise be a rather abstract subject. He also provides historical background where it will aid comprehension of the material.Accelerators, beams and detectors; Pions and muons; Conservation laws; Strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions; Strange particles; Spin and parity of the K-mesons and non-conservation of parity in weak interactions; Weak interactions: basic ideas; Invariance under the CP and T operations, properties of Ko-mesons; Strongly-decaying resonances; SU (3) and the quark model: classification and dynamic probes; Weak interactions and weak-electromagnetic unification; New flavours; Quark and gluon interactions; Higher symmetries; Particle physics and cosmology; Appendices; References; Index.