Elementary Particles And Their Interactions Stephen P. Martin , James D. Wells

Just before the preliminary program of Orbis Scientiae 1998 went to press the news in physics was suddenly dominated by the discovery that neutrinos are, after all, massive particles. This was predicted by some physicists including Dr. Behram Kusunoglu, who had apaper published on this subject in 1976 in the Physical Review. Massive neutrinos do not necessarily simplify the physics of elementary particles but they do give elementary particle physics a new direction. If the dark matter content of the universe turns out to consist of neutrinos, the fact that they are massive should make an impact on cosmology.

In this book, the author leads the reader, step by step and without any advanced mathematics, to a clear understanding of the foundations of modern elementary particle physics and cosmology. He also addresses current and controversial questions on topics such as string theory. The book contains gentle introductions to the theories of special and general relativity, and also classical and quantum field theory. The essential aspects of these concepts are understood with the help of simple calculations; for example, the force of gravity as a consequence of the curvature of the space-time.