Particle physics

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This textbook offers a comprehensive and didactic approach to particle physics, enhancing learning with numerous worked examples, questions, and problems with answers. It includes various tables and diagrams to clarify complex concepts. Key topics covered include the classification of elementary particles based on the four fundamental interactions, along with an explanation of the nomenclature used in the field. The text details the discoveries and properties of elementary particles and resonances such as positrons, muons, pions, anti-protons, strange particles, neutrinos, and hadrons. Conservation laws governing particle interactions are discussed, alongside concepts like parity, spin, charge conjugation, time reversal, and gauge invariance. The introduction of quark theory explains hadron structure and strong interactions, while the solar neutrino problem is also addressed. Weak interactions are categorized, with selection rules and discussions on parity non-conservation and the universality of weak interactions. Important topics in electroweak interactions include neutral and charged currents, the discovery of W and Z bosons, and early universe phenomena. The principles of high-energy accelerators, including colliders, and descriptions of detectors used in nuclear and particle physics are also provided. This book is aimed at upper undergraduate students.