This textbook covers elements of quantum field theory, symmetry principles, gauge field theories and phenomenological descriptions of hadrons, with special emphasis on topics relevant to hadron and nuclear physics. Written at an introductory level, it is aimed at nuclear physicists in general and experimentalists in particular who need a working knowledge of field theory, symmetry principles of elementary particles and their interactions and the quark structure of hadrons. It will also be of benefit to graduate students who need an understanding of the basics of these topics for their work in other fields.

This revised and extended edition of the book Fields, Symmetries, and Quarks, originally published by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Hamburg, 1989, contains a new chapter on electroweak interactions which has also grown out of lectures that I have given in the meantime. In addition, a number of changes, mainly in the metric used, in the discussion of the theory of strong interactions, QCD, and in the chapter on hadron physics, have been made and errors have been corrected. The motivation for this book, however, is still the same as it was 10 years ago: This is a book on quantum field theory and our present understanding of leptons and hadrons for advanced students and the non-specialists and, in particular, the experimentalists working on problems of nuclear and hadron physics. I am grateful to Dr. S. Leupold for a very careful reading of the revised manuscript, many corrections, and helpful suggestions and to C. Traxler for producing the figures and for constructive discussions.

The book provides a simple and appealing overview of second quantisation, of symmetries and their calculation with quantum field theory, and of QED,QFD and QCD, with all facets, such as the Goldstone boson, the Higgs effect, and CP violation. Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt

1. Units and Metric.- 2. Classical Fields.- 3. Free Fields and Their Quantization.- 4. Symmetries of Meson and Baryon Systems.- 5. Quarks.- 6. Chiral Symmetry.- 7. Spontaneous Global Symmetry Breaking.- 8. Gauge Field Theories.- 9. Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Gauge Field Theories.- 10. Weak Interactions of Quarks and Leptons.- 11. Electroweak Interactions of Leptons.- 12. Electroweak Interactions of Quarks.- 13. Electroweak Interactions of Quarks and Leptons.- 14. CP Invariance of Electroweak Interactions.- 15. Quantum Chromodynamics.- 16. Bag Models of Hadrons.- 17. Soliton Models of Hadrons.- VIII. Appendices.- A. Solutions of the Free Dirac Equation.- A.1 Properties of Free Dirac States.- A.2 Massless Fermions.- A.3 Dirac and Majorana Fields.- B. Explicit Quark States for Hadrons.- C. Table of Hadron Properties.- Bibliography by Subject.- References.