by Günther Dissertori, Ian G Knowles and Michael Schmelling, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198505728, £60.
Thirty years have passed since quantum chromodynamics (QCD) was introduced, and it has now become the generally accepted theory of strong interactions. This book is intended to give an overview of the various aspects of QCD in lepton-nucleon scattering, in e+e– annihilation and in hadron-hadron scattering.
The authors begin with a general introduction to the quark model and its features, such as the colour quantum number. This ends with a demonstration of the QCD Lagrangian, and the theory is then presented in detail, followed by applications to in e+e– annihilation, to lepton-hadron scattering and to purely hadronic reactions. In particular, there is a detailed description of the integro-differential DGLAP equations for describing scaling violations. The various aspects of the renormalization group equations are also described, including the quark mass terms. Deep-inelastic scattering is discussed, to leading order and next-to-leading order, together with the BFKL equations, the Drell-Yan process and a number of hadronization models.
A description of the related experimental work follows, starting with accelerator systems and ending with the detectors, in particular the ALEPH detector at LEP. The authors then move on to describe the general concepts of QCD analysis in in e+e– annihilation, in lepton-nucleon scattering and for hadron colliders. The discussion centres on structure functions and distribution functions. The HERA results are described, both for neutral and charged-current interactions, along with results from neutrino-nucleon scattering. Here, the gluon distribution in the nucleon and the strange quark distribution are also considered, as well as the various sum rules (Adler sum rule, Gross-Llewellyn Smith sum rule, Gottfried sum rule, sum rules for polarized structure functions). This is followed by a description of aspects of hadronic processes, such as the Drell-Yan process, and the production of direct photons.
The authors devote a special chapter to a detailed discussion of the strong coupling constant. This is deduced from the ratio R, measured in in e+e– annihilation, from Rτ, from sum rules, from the physics of heavy flavours and from measurements at hadronic colliders. Tests of the gauge structure of QCD, and especially of the colour factors, are considered next, followed by an analysis of the leading-log results of QCD.
The final chapters look at the difference between quark and gluon jets, and various aspects of fragmentation (multiplicities, momentum spectra, string effects, colour coherence, Bose-Einstein correlations and colour reconnection). Appendices on elements of group theory, dimensional regularization and scaling violations in fragmentation functions are also included. Exercises are provided after each chapter and the solutions are described at the end of the book.
The book concentrates on those aspects of QCD that have been tested in experiments. The largely unknown features of the theory, when it comes to the low-energy properties and confirmation, are only superficially discussed. Aimed at graduate students, post-doctoral physicists and professional researchers in particle physics, this book can be recommended to both experimentalists and theorists interested in QCD.
