Alexander Belyaev - The Basics of Nuclear and Particle Physics

This book is intended to be a first course in nuclear and Particle Physics at an undergraduate level. We discuss the main experimental techniques both past and present for investigating the properties of nuclei and particles as well as describing the enormous progress that has been made in theoretical developments which explain this behaviour. We have described, albeit briefly, the seminal experiments from the end of the nineteenth century right up to the date of publication, which have had significant effect on the development of the subject.

Typically, such a course would be taken by undergraduates in their third year. It is designed to cover all the required core material. There is, almost certainly, more material than would normally be required for a core course. For some chapters, the supplementary material, which could be omitted without damaging the flow of the remainder of the book, appears in the last section. The final chapter is almost certainly outside the scope of a core course and has been added to give the reader a taster of current developments in Particle Physics.

The book assumes that the reader has a reasonable grounding in Quantum Physics, Atomic Physics, Electromagnetism and Thermal Physics. However, we do not expect the reader to remember all that they have learnt in the prerequisite courses, and all results that are used are explicitly displayed in the text. The hope is that once the memory has been jogged in this way, the reader will recall the relevant material sufficiently to be able to follow its usage here.

On the other hand, the book has been designed so that it is possible to follow all the material in the book without having studied relativistic quantum mechanics (e.g. the Dirac equation), quantum field theory or group theory. These are topics which are usually taken only at the postgraduate level and therefore outside the scope of a book designed to cover a first course on nuclear and Particle Physics. There is a brief explanation of the qualitative ideas of quantum field theory, which should be accessible to undergraduates with a basic knowledge of Quantum Physics, and it has been necessary on very few occasions to quote results which can only be derived using quantum field theory. Likewise, no knowledge of formal group theory is required, although it is expected that the reader is familiar with the concept of symmetry and what this implies for quantum states.

We do not use four-vector notation in special relativity. Although many of the expressions would have been simpler using such notation, not all students will have come across this notation in a first course on special relativity.

Needless to say, it is impossible to write a textbook on any branch of physics, without using mathematics and mathematical derivations. In this book, we have limited the mathematical derivations displayed in the main body of the text to those that are essential to be able to follow the development of the theory. Derivations of some of the results appear in appendices to some of the chapters. The reader who does not care to follow such sustained mathematical threads is welcome to skip these appendices entirely, provided they are prepared to accept the relevant results at face value, without understanding where they come from. The appendices are there for readers who are unwilling to accept a result unless they have seen it derived or at least seen an outline derivation. Note that some of the results derived refer more generally to results of quantum or Thermal Physics. These appendices are admittedly rather terse, and the reader may prefer to consult other literature in order to find more detailed and comprehensive derivations of the results.