Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction

This small 100 page book was just enough info for me on particle physics. I'm not interested in the heavy math, just to understand the characteristics of the particle families and how they interact. I enjoyed it, a good, simple read. I would try another subject in this same series.

I agree with many other readers in that you could do worse in finding a book on Particle Physics. The book is not overly academic. Sometimes it can get a little detailed and requires some extra attention, but I feel the reader could forget these parts and still have a good basic idea of what particle physics is about. Someone who reads this will feel a little more in the know when they read news articles about the subject, or at the very least it may whet their appetite to learn more about the topic. A great read which I highly recommend.

One of the most intriguing and fascinating scientific stories of the 20th century has been the incredible advance in our understanding of matter in its most fundamental form. In a nutshell, the 20th century has seen the vindication of the atomic hypothesis: all of the nature, the matter and even the interactions of matter, can be reduced to a finite number of indivisible particles. It turns out that atoms, the original candidates for irreducible particles as their name suggests, are in fact composed of a myriad other particles which to the best of our knowledge and understanding are truly fundamental. Furthermore, we have discovered many other particles that cannot be found in an atom, and many of those turned out to be composites of other fundamental particles. Considering how many different kinds of these extra-atomic particles were discovered, it is quite remarkable that we were able to reduce this "zoo" to just a few basic ones. This book presents an interesting and accessible account of how we managed to get to this point. The book presents both the experimental and theoretical developments in Particle Physics that has led us to the point where we are at. The book is intelligible to anyone who has any interest in the subject, and it doesn't require any special mathematical knowledge. And yet, like most books in this series, it does not condescend to the reader but tries to educate him and bring him up to the latest in our understanding of this fascinating field. All of that makes this book an enjoyable and worthwhile read.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Frank Close for writing such a short and comprehensible introduction to a field that, in everyday scientific practice, is as technical and complex as they come. It is a major accomplishment to set out, in under 150 pages, not just the history of particle physics, the scales of time and space being investigated, the development of experimental techniques from Rutherford to the Large Hadron Collider, and the key concepts of the standard model that has dominated particle physics for more than 30 years. Indeed, the neat overview and classification of elementary particles and their interactions in the standard model is sufficient reason to keep this book close at hand. As befits a very short introduction, the book devotes only limited space to more speculative ideas such as supersymmetry, and indeed strings are mentioned only once. Even so, a few authoritative pages dealing with unsolved theoretical and conceptual problems as they relate to particle physics would have been helpful. Close is associated with CERN and an enthusiastic advocate of multi-billion dollar particle accelerators. While these machines are indeed impressive, an outside observer cannot help but wonder whether such a regimented and bureaucratic approach to science has not already reached severely diminishing marginal returns. It will be interesting to look back in a few years' time at whether this heavy investment of taxpayer money has paid the dividends in new knowledge and insight that Close and others like him hope for.

This book is excellent for anyone who would like to learn fundamentals of particle physics, or refresh his or her basic knowledge in the area. Particles are on the forefront of physics, with new ones discovered or proven to exist not long ago, with new theories emerging, or old ones confirmed or found inconsistent, chances are what we know about particles today is somewhat different than what you may have learned in school back. Interesting facts and easy to understand comparisons make this book captivating. It explains the structure of atoms, and subatomic particles, as well as methods and instruments used to study them. Sometimes the book is repetitive, but repetition is one of the key aspects of learning. Overall, this very short introduction feels very fresh and light to a reader, and the last chapter that focuses on current high priority theories to be proven, gives an excellent outlook of what may await us in the future, giving this book balanced perspective.