Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty Of Particle Physics

From Book News, Inc.
Schumm (physics, U. of California-Santa Cruz) sets out the Standard Model of particle physics as attested to by members of the discipline, for readers with no more mathematical background than basic notions of algebra and the concept of orders of magnitude. He also traces the development of the Model since the late 19th century.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


New Scientist, January 15, 2005
Quantum field theory, group theory, Lie algebras... [Schumm] does a remarkably good job ... with a style that is mercifully plain.


Review
"I expect that any physics undergraduate, bewildered by textbooks and lectures, would find this a delight."--Stephen Battersby, New Scientist


Review
"The Standard Model is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the twentieth century. Everything around us is made of particles called quarks and leptons influencing one another by exchanging bosons. Readers who want more than a surface treatment of this modern paradigm of particle physics should turn to Bruce Schumm's fine book on the topic."--Michael Riordan, author, The Hunting of the Quark


Book Description
A useful scientific theory, claimed Einstein, must be explicable to any intelligent person. In Deep Down Things, experimental particle physicist Bruce Schumm has taken this dictum to heart, providing in clear, straightforward prose an elucidation of the Standard Model of particle physics -- a theory that stands as one of the crowning achievements of twentieth-century science. In this one-of-a-kind book, the work of many of the past century's most notable physicists, including Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, Feynman, Gell-Mann, and Weinberg, is knit together in a thorough and accessible exposition of the revolutionary notions that underlie our current view of the fundamental nature of the physical world. Schumm, who has spent much of his life emmersed in the subatomic world, goes far beyond a mere presentation of the "building blocks" of matter, bringing to life the remarkable connection between the ivory tower world of the abstract mathematician and the day-to-day, life-enabling properties of the natural world. Schumm leaves us with an insight into the profound open questions of particle physics, setting the stage for understanding the progress the field is poised to make over the next decade or two.Introducing readers to the world of particle physics, Deep Down Things opens new realms within which are many clues to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.


About the Author
Bruce A. Schumm is a professor of physics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.


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In Deep Down Things, experimental particle physicist Bruce A. Schumm provides an elucidation of the Standard Model of particle physics - a theory that stands as one of the crowning achievements of twentieth-century science.


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