INTRODUCTION TO ELEMENTARY PARTICLES

by David Griffiths

Genres: Textbooks

Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2020

Reviews

[Andrés Gómez · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a fantastic book for an intro to particle physics. For the most part, with this book, you will acquire the language and the basic intuitions of high-energy physics.

Pros:
The book is easy to follow, it presents the fundamental ideas clearly and carefully, and calculations are straightforward to follow.
This book will give you a good overview of how to calculate in quantum field theory.
It does not need a strong background in theoretical physics. The book gives well-placed references for someone that wants to go deeper.
It has several exercises to test your knowledge in each section. With good deliberate practice, this can be very beneficial.
The last chapters added are worthful and motivating.
The chapter on Gauge Theories is easy to follow.

Cons:
You will end up with a set of ideas on your mind, but with no theoretical bases for many of them.

[Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure if the version I read was the kindle edition or not, but it was certainly online; I found it in a google search by accident on an educational .edu site. I have not actually finished it of this writing (my computer is old and kept crashing), and skimmed the sections covering material more familiar to me, but it is definitely a very good book with a nice, clear exposition. Since anyone who really wants to learn quantum physics must read multiple to get a good intuition and coverage, I recommend this as among that number. Like it says, it focuses on particles. It talks about Lagrangians and Feynman diagrams in a way that did not send me to sleep, and struck me as appropriate for undergraduates, not that I am the best judge of such a thing.

[Antonin Sulc · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent and realtively easy to digest book about such interesting topic. I recommend to everyone who is interested in the topic, but some background is definitely needed.