By Pierre Ramond - Journeys Beyond the Standard Model: 1st (first) Edition

by Pierre Ramond

This book should be at the side of every particle and nuclear physics graduate student and professional. Journeys Beyond the Standard Model starts with a detailed and modern account of the Standard Model of elementary particle physics, the paradigm of particle physics for the last twenty years. Its timely release coincides with the recent dramatic discovery that the neutrino has a finite mass, which is the first indication that the Standard Model is an incomplete description of fundamental physics at short distances. This book presents in detail three possible generalizations of the Standard its extension to accommodate neutrino masses; its extension to avoid CP violation in the strong interactions by introducing a new particle, the axion; and finally, its generalization to low-energy supersymmetry, which provides a link between the standard model and Einstein's theory of general relativity.This graduate text complements the author's previous book, Modern Field A Primer , which focuses on the methodology of particle physics. Its aim is to give students and professional physicists alike a thorough understanding of the phenomena described by the Standard Model, while keeping track of the most recent and cutting-edge principles of elementary particle physics.

Unknown Binding

First published February 28, 1998

About the author

Ramond played a major role in the development of superstring theory. In 1971, Ramond generalized Dirac's work for point-like particles to stringlike ones. In this process he discovered two-dimensional supersymmetry and laid the ground for supersymmetry in four spacetime dimensions. He found the spectrum of fermionic modes in string theory and the paper started superstring theory. From this paper André Neveu and John Schwarz developed a string theory with both fermions and bosons.

According to quantum mechanics, particles can be divided into two types: bosons and fermions. The distinction between bosons and fermions is basic. Fermions are particles which have half integer spin (1/2, 3/2, 5/2 and so on), measured in units of Planck's constant and bosons are particles which have integer spin (0, 1, 2 and so on), measured in units of Planck's constant. Examples of fermions are quarks, leptons and baryons. Quantum of fundamental forces such as gravitons, photons, etc. are all bosons. In quantum field theory, fermions interact by exchanging bosons.

Early string theory proposed by Yoichiro Nambu and others in 1970 was only a bosonic string. Ramond completed the theory by inventing a fermionic string to accompany the bosonic ones. The Virasoro algebra which is the symmetry algebra of the bosonic string was generalized to a superconformal algebra (the Ramond algebra, an example of a super Virasoro algebra) including anticommuting operators also.