Introduction to High Energy Physics

Introduction to High Energy Physics by Oxford University professor Donald Perkins has been, since its first publication in 1972, one of those essential textbooks that can be found on the shelf of just about every particle physicist. It holds a unique place in the literature. Many fine texts exist on the elegant mathematics and theoretical implications of quantum field theory (for the Standard Model of particle physics). There also exist many surveys of 20th-century experimental physics ("modern physics"). However, few texts describe at an advanced level (advanced undergraduate or graduate) the messiness of the real world, the plethora of particles, their masses and phenomenology, and the tools and analysis techniques of the experimentalist. Perkins does, and Cambridge University Press has recently released a fourth edition of his classic textbook.

Many exciting discoveries have occurred since the third edition was published in 1987. The most exciting is the growing body of evidence that neutrinos have mass. This discovery has profound implications both for particle theories and for cosmology. The book's first page promises that "this fourth edition includes all recent developments in elementary particle physics, as well as its connections with cosmology and astrophysics," and it fulfills this promise very nicely.

A new chapter on Particle Physics and Cosmology covers Hubble's law, cosmic microwave radiation, nucleosynthesis, matter­antimatter asymmetry, dark matter, and inflation. The material on "Physics Beyond the Standard Model" is also almost entirely new; it covers much of the kind of physics that will be studied in the coming decade. In total, there are approximately 80 pages of material that was not covered in earlier editions. The new edition also updates the material in the earlier chapters to include the many new results in this field since 1987, such as the discovery of the top quark and precision results on the properties of the Z boson. The material has also been reordered to give it a more modern feel.

However, perhaps because the book is such an important one, it is easy to complain about its quirks, all of which are still present in the new edition. Reading Perkins is more like listening to a lecture by a famous professor at one of the world's greatest universities than reading a modern textbook. The explanations often are obviously based on knowledge the author has, feels is too advanced for the text, but cannot resist dangling in front of the reader's nose (for example, "recall that it is the longitudinal components that eat the Higgs," on page 263).

Perkins also often uses words unfamiliar to most undergraduates without defining them in the text: ("Cabibbo-favored" on page 133, for example). And, because he uses only advanced undergraduate-level mathematics, his book does not manage to convey the elegance and beauty of particle theory. Also, strangely, he has moved the chapter "Experimental Methods," which describes in detail the kinds of apparatus used in particle experiments and how they work. It was the second chapter in previous editions; now it is at the end of the book. I don't know what "shower in the electromagnetic calorimeter" on page 218 will mean to a student who hasn't read the detector section first. And a reasonably large fraction of the text consists of detailed descriptions of experiments.

It would probably be impossible to correct many of these faults, as one of the book's biggest shortcomings is also in some ways its biggest strength: It tries to be all things to all people. It is for graduates and undergraduates, and it describes in detail experiment, theory, particle physics, and cosmology. That's a lot of material in one book.

Other popular textbooks do exist that can partially fill this book's niche. The Experimental Foundations of Particle Physics, by Robert N. Cahn and Gerson Goldhaber (Cambridge U. Press, 1989), gives a historical review of pivotal experiments, including reprints of their publications. Introduction to Elementary Particles, by David Griffiths (Wiley, 1987), Modern Elementary Particle Physics, by Gordon L. Kane (Addison-Wesley, 1993), and Collider Physics, by Vernon Barger and Roger Phillips (Addison-Wesley, 1997), all discuss most of the essential phenomenology that a young particle physicist needs to learn, and they all include elementary quantum field theory.

They don't, however, describe experiments in detail. Perkins will thus continue to be a "must-have" for practicing experimentalists. It will also continue as a good choice for advanced undergraduates who have completed a course on quantum mechanics that includes scattering theory (it would be nice if this text reviewed scattering theory), or as part of a graduate course.