Particle Physics

Anwar Kamal

Jul 2014 · Springer

About this ebook

This textbook teaches particle physics very didactically. It supports learning and teaching with numerous worked examples, questions and problems with answers. Numerous tables and diagrams lead to a better understanding of the explanations. The content of the book covers all important topics of particle physics: Elementary particles are classified from the point of view of the four fundamental interactions. The nomenclature used in particle physics is explained. The discoveries and properties of known elementary particles and resonances are given. The particles considered are positrons, muon, pions, anti-protons, strange particles, neutrino and hadrons. The conservation laws governing the interactions of elementary particles are given. The concepts of parity, spin, charge conjugation, time reversal and gauge invariance are explained. The quark theory is introduced to explain the hadron structure and strong interactions. The solar neutrino problem is considered. Weak interactions are classified into various types, and the selection rules are stated. Non-conservation of parity and the universality of the weak interactions are discussed. Neutral and charged currents, discovery of W and Z bosons and the early universe form important topics of the electroweak interactions. The principles of high energy accelerators including colliders are elaborately explained. Additionally, in the book detectors used in nuclear and particle physics are described. This book is on the upper undergraduate level.

About the author

Dr. Anwar Kamal (May 1934 – Nov. 2011) graduated from Madras University (1953) and did his post-graduation from Osmania University (1955). He obtained his Ph.D. degree from Bristol, UK (1958), under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Prof. C.F. Powell. His research work was mainly concerned with high energy physics with emulsion technique. He used the facility of Nuclear Science Centre at New Delhi, during his research period. Anwar Kamal served at Osmania University as a lecturer (1958), Reader (1969), Professor (1977-94) and the Head of the Physics Department (1989-92). He was also a Post Doctoral Fellow at Ottawa University (1967-68) and a visiting Professor at University of Tebrez, Iran (1970-73). He was appointed as Chairman, Board of Studies (1979-83). He has authored more than a dozen physics textbooks for different undergraduate and graduate levels. Some of his internationally famous books include “Solutions to Resnick and Halliday Physics”, “1000 Solved Problems in Classical Physics” and “1000 Solved Problems in Modern Physics”. He has also published forty research papers in various Journals of repute and supervised a number of Ph.D. theses.

“Concepts of Nuclear and Particle Physics” was supposed to be Dr. Kamal’s first book and his dream project, but unfortunately it turned out to be his last one, his masterpiece. He passed away in November 2011, before he could see the published work.