The electroweak theory unifies two basic forces of nature the weak force and electromagnetism. This achievement is comparable to Maxwell’s unification of electricity and magnetism. The theory made numerous predictions that have been confirmed by experiments.
The Standard Model of particle physics is the mathematical theory that describes the weak, electromagnetic and strong interactions between leptons and quarks, the basic particles of the Standard Model. The new edition of this introductory graduate textbook provides a concise but accessible introduction to the Standard Model.
Physical theories, while devised to model a particular range of phenomena, are evidently linked in a hierarchical fashion. It is this structure which keeps fascinating me. In statistical mechanics, my scientific home-town, the link between atomic and macroscopic properties is one central issue. There we are taught that the emergence of a more restricted theory from a more general one has a rich…
Quantum field theory, our description of the fundamental forces in nature, was originally formulated in continuous space–time, where it leads to embarrassing infinities which have to be eliminated by a process called renormalization. A simple but rigorous formulation can be obtained by replacing continuous space–time by a discrete set of points on a lattice. This clarifies the es…
Moonshine forms a way of explaining the mysterious connection between the monster finite group and modular functions from classical number theory. The theory has evolved to describe the relationship between finite groups, modular forms and vertex operator algebras. Moonshine Beyond the Monster, the first book of its kind, describes the general theory of Moonshine and its underlying concepts, e…
Non-Abelian gauge theories, such as quantum chromodynamics (QCD) or electroweak theory, are best studied with the aid of Green’s functions that are gauge invariant off-shell, but unlike for the photon in quantum electrodynamics, conventional graphical constructions fail. The pinch technique provides a systematic framework for constructing such Green’s functions and has many useful…