Symmetry and the Standard Model: Mathematics and Particle Physics

I really like this book. I regularly work with fairly advanced physics-based mathematical functions and do fine with it, but never really know intuitively what is going on. This book really helped with this. It gives clear explanations of what motivated a mathematical concept and provides illuminating examples. The math is somewhat advanced in some sections, but given the clear explanations it's easy to follow everything. The author has an excellent writing style that is easy to read but still accurate and rigourous. The only other book(s) I have read that provided this level of physical insight are the Feynman Lectures on Physics. Highly recommended.

I found the book very readable, well, I have a triple major in Math, Biology and Chemistry, so that helped, but if you're a a "gifted amateur" I say pull the trigger. I'm studying E8 geometry a la Garrett Lisi, and this was a good general text for me. I'm not saying just anybody could do what I did, but if you're interested in hyperbolic and differential geometry, one could do worse. Later 'taters. xxxooo dc

This book is well written in a clear and logical style for the layperson who is interested in learning more about the mathematics and concepts underlying the study of physics. The informally educated will need to do further research on his/her own to fully appreciate the book however. Robinson does a very good job of pointing out many of the little tricks and nuisances associated with the mathematics that one would get from tutored instruction in a classroom, but that many other literature fails to point out. And this book is focused with the physics student in mind so it is a very good source. I will definitely consider another book in his series.

Quick primer on field theory. Probably a little overpriced, but still a good buy. Author provides a lot of little insights into different topics. I agree with the comment that the section on spin 1/2 makes this book worth it by itself. The style of the book and the methods of the author are phenomenal. The meat of this book is in chapters one, three and four with two and five serving as cursory overviews. So this book is very thin and short in terms of actual content. But the content is phenomenal. Chapters one, three and five are among the best chapters that I've came across in my time as a student. But at 90 dollars, it's still hard to swallow. I wish the author would have taken every topic he wrote about and doubled or tripled it.

This is an outstandingly pedagogical book on a difficult subject, and the reader will find his efforts rewarded beyond his most optimistic expectations. In my opinion, a non exhaustive lists of the highlights of this book are: A superb introduction to Lie groups which includes a particularly enjoyable and imaginative section on Cartan Generators and Root Spaces; The chapter on spin 1/2 particles covering a derivation of Dirac's gamma matrices based on Clifford's Algebra; Path integrals, clarified. A marvelous discussion on the masses of the electroweak W, Z bosons; And last but not least, a lucid exposition of symmetry breaking and of the quark sector of the standard model. A must reading for scientists interested in learning about the book's subject.

Highly recommended for senior undergraduate physics student. Read this book before you take any QFT course. Many students struggle with QFT because of a poor background in group theory and relativistic QM. This book will help tremendously in those two aspects. Honestly one of the best physics books I've purchased.

Great book. The author succeeded in writing a text that really helps the serious student learn and understand group theory and spinors as needed by a graduate student in physics. Avoids being cutesy and the use of the proverbial "it can be shown" statement. A solid background in QM such that obtained in a graduate course,agility in index gymnastics and knowledge of special relativity is definitely needed to appreciate the book. I look forward to others in the planned series and hopefully they are all written in the same manner.

Matthew Robinson has equaled or surpassed Landau in both organization and clarity of explanations. Also, like Landau he presents concepts in such a manner as to allow the student to understand the algebraic foundations of Beyond Standard Model physics. I am waiting for his next volume, hopefully it will cover the breadth of modern theoretical physics.

This book is geared toward 3rd/4th year undergrads or 1st year graduate students, which aims to introduce group theory and how it relates to the standard model. I understand that it is supposed to be a maths book, but it would be nice to explain a bit more physics behind these mathematics. It does its job as an introduction, however, for a book that almost costed £50, 300 pages is way too little, especially for a poor student like me. There are numerous small typos in the equations, although I have yet to find any major errors. Also beware they do not have a website for erratum, so you pretty much have to pay extra attention and find the errors yourself. However, I do recommend highly recommend this book! Reading guide: Chapter 1: review of special relativity, classical field theory, mechanics, and introduces the concept of symmetry Chapter 2: qualitative overview of particle physics Chapter 3: introduction to group theory Chapter 4: the standard model from first principles Chapter 5: qualitative overview of more exotic theories Chapter 1, 2 and 3 can be read as it self, but I would recommend you to read chapter 4 as supplementary material to a more "physical book" as this chapter gets a bit dry sometimes. I haven't read chapter 5 yet but I suppose you should read it after the previous chapters.