By Stephen Haywood
Imperial College Press
Hardback: £36 $58
Paperback: £17 $28
Group theory provides the language for describing how particles (and in particular, their quantum numbers) combine. This provides understanding of hadronic physics as well as physics beyond the Standard Model. The book examines symmetries and conservation laws in quantum mechanics and relates these to groups of transformations. The symmetries of the Standard Model associated with the electroweak and strong (QCD) forces are described by the groups U(1), SU(2) and SU(3). The properties of these groups are examined and the relevance to particle physics is discussed.
