Pierre Ramond

Yoichiro Nambu was one of the giants in the physics of the last century. His profound ideas in fundamental physics are still playing an important role and are being rediscovered over and over again. He preferred to share some of his deepest insights in talks, rather than publications, but Nambu's papers and talks were not easy to understand. Like the Japanese gentleman he was, he did not want to humiliate the reader with obvious statements. Even if it is an interpretation, it fits very well with his character of a very polite and considerate human being with a self-reliance inside him that he did not show on the outside. It is no wonder that many of his breakthroughs were not immediately appreciated by his contemporaries, with a late award of a well-deserved Nobel Prize. He was probably the only one in the highest stratum of physicists who was respected by everybody. The purpose of this book, half-history, half-physics is to trace Nambu's progress formulating some of his greatest ideas. It is structured in seven chapters, describing a paper or a series of papers (or talks) where Nambu's originality and genius emerge. Each chapter begins with a historical background section that sets the physics climate of the time, followed by a somewhat detailed discussion of his papers/talks. This tribute to Nambu hopes that he will be remembered and admired for many years to come.

Yoichiro Nambu was one of the giants in the physics of the last century. His profound ideas in fundamental physics are still playing an important role and are being rediscovered over and over again. He preferred to share some of his deepest insights in talks, rather than publications, but Nambu's papers and talks were not easy to understand. Like the Japanese gentleman he was, he did not want to humiliate the reader with obvious statements. Even if it is an interpretation, it fits very well with his character of a very polite and considerate human being with a self-reliance inside him that he did not show on the outside. It is no wonder that many of his breakthroughs were not immediately appreciated by his contemporaries, with a late award of a well-deserved Nobel Prize. He was probably the only one in the highest stratum of physicists who was respected by everybody. The purpose of this book, half-history, half-physics is to trace Nambu's progress formulating some of his greatest ideas. It is structured in seven chapters, describing a paper or a series of papers (or talks) where Nambu's originality and genius emerge. Each chapter begins with a historical background section that sets the physics climate of the time, followed by a somewhat detailed discussion of his papers/talks. This tribute to Nambu hopes that he will be remembered and admired for many years to come.

Presents recent advances of perturbative relativistic field theory in a pedagogical and straightforward way. For graduate students who intend to specialize in high-energy physics.

Presents recent advances of perturbative relativistic field theory in a pedagogical and straightforward way. For graduate students who intend to specialize in high-energy physics.

Group theory has long been an important computational tool for physicists, but, with the advent of the Standard Model, it has become a powerful conceptual tool as well. This book introduces physicists to many of the fascinating mathematical aspects of group theory, and mathematicians to its physics applications. Designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, this book gives a comprehensive overview of the main aspects of both finite and continuous group theory, with an emphasis on applications to fundamental physics. Finite groups are extensively discussed, highlighting their irreducible representations and invariants. Lie algebras, and to a lesser extent Kac–Moody algebras, are treated in detail, including Dynkin diagrams. Special emphasis is given to their representations and embeddings. The group theory underlying the Standard Model is discussed, along with its importance in model building. Applications of group theory to the classification of elementary particles are treated in detail.