Description
Book SynopsisThe dramatic developments in theoretical physics are examined in this fully updated second edition, which includes brand new material on the groundbreaking Higgs discovery, results of the WMAP, Planck experiments and sections on metastable supersymmetry breaking. Provides graduates and researchers in particle and string theory with a modern perspective.
Table of ContentsPreface to the first edition; Preface to the second edition; A note on choice of metric; Text website; Part I. Effective Field Theory: The Standard Model, Supersymmetry, Unification: 1. Before the Standard Model; 2. The Standard Model; 3. Phenomenology of the Standard Model; 4. The Standard Model as an effective field theory; 5. Anomalies, instantons and the strong CP problem; 6. Grand unification; 7. Magnetic monopoles and solitons; 8. Technicolor: a first attempt to explain hierarchies; Part II. Supersymmetry: 9. Supersymmetry; 10. A first look at supersymmetry breaking; 11. The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model; 12. Supersymmetric grand unification; 13. Supersymmetric dynamics; 14. Dynamical supersymmetry breaking; 15. Theories with more than four conserved supercharges; 16. More supersymmetric dynamics; 17. An introduction to general relativity; 18. Cosmology; 19. Astroparticle physics and inflation; Part III. String Theory: 20. Introduction; 21. The bosonic string; 22. The superstring; 23. The heterotic string; 24. Effective actions in ten dimensions; 25. Compactification of string theory I. Tori and orbifolds; 26. Compactification of string theory II. Calabi–Yau compactifications; 27. Dynamics of string theory at weak coupling; 28. Beyond weak coupling: non-perturbative string theory; 29. Large and warped extra dimensions; 30. The landscape: a challenge to the naturalness principle; 31. Coda: where are we headed?; Part IV. The Appendices: Appendix A. Two-component spinors; Appendix B. Goldstone's theorem and the pi mesons; Appendix C. Some practice with the path integral in field theory; Appendix D. The beta function in supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory; References; Index.
