F. J. YndurAin's book on Quantum Chromodynamics has become a classic among advanced textbooks. First published in 1983, and translated into Russian in 1986, it now sees its fourth edition. It addresses readers with basic knowledge of field theory and particle phenomenology. The author presents the basic facts of quark and gluon physics in pedagogical form. Theory is always confronted with experimental findings. The reader will learn enough to be able to follow modern research articles. This fourth edition presents a new section on heavy quark effective theories, more material on lattice QCD and on chiral perturbation theory.
It has been almost thirty years since Yang and Mills (1954) performed their pioneering work on gauge theories, and it is probably safe to say that we have in our hands a good candidate for a theory of the strong interactions, based precisely on a non-Abelian gauge theory. While our understanding of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is still incomplete, there have been sufficient theoretical developments, many of them enjoying a degree of support from experimental evidence, to justify a reasonably systematic treatise on the subject. Of course, no presentation of QCD can claim to be complete, since the theory is still in the process of elaboration. The selection of topics reflects this: I have tried to discuss those parts of the theory that are more likely to endure, and particularly those developments that can, with a minimum of rigor, be derived from "first principles." To be sure, prejudice has also influenced my choice: one necessarily tends to give more attention to subjects with which one is familiar, and to eschew unfamiliar ones. I will not pause here to point out topics which perhaps should have been included* (see, however, Section 46); the list of references should fill in the gaps. "The one I regret most is lattice QCD. At the time I wrote the first draft of this book, lattice QCD had not undergone the spectacular development we have recently witnessed.
The present book is not merely an elaboration of the 1982 text Quantum Chromodynamics: An Introduction to the Theory of Quarks and Gluons. In fact, a lot of material has been added: some of which is entirely new, and some of which is an extension of topics in the older text. Among the latter there are two sections dealing with the background field method, and the expansion of the section devoted to processes describable by perturbative QCD (other than deep inelastic scattering) into a whole chapter, containing a detailed description of Drell-Van scattering, jet physics, exclusive processes, QCD sum rules, etc. Besides this, we have added a completely new chapter on constituent models of hadrons, including a derivation of the quark quark potential, and, also entirely new, a half-chapter containing a detailed introduction to lattice QCD. An extra short chapter on the parameters of QCD and an appendix on group integration contribute to making the present book a really new text, sufficiently so to justify the change of title to The Theory of Quark and Gluon Interactions, a change that also emphasizes the consolidation of QCD as the theory of strong interactions. Of course even with the inclusion of the new material there are whole areas of quark and gluon physics not covered at all.
The present book is not merely an elaboration of the 1982 text Quantum Chromodynamics: An Introduction to the Theory of Quarks and Gluons. In fact, a lot of material has been added: some of which is entirely new, and some of which is an extension of topics in the older text. Among the latter there are two sections dealing with the background field method, and the expansion of the section devoted to processes describable by perturbative QCD (other than deep inelastic scattering) into a whole chapter, containing a detailed description of Drell-Van scattering, jet physics, exclusive processes, QCD sum rules, etc. Besides this, we have added a completely new chapter on constituent models of hadrons, including a derivation of the quark quark potential, and, also entirely new, a half-chapter containing a detailed introduction to lattice QCD. An extra short chapter on the parameters of QCD and an appendix on group integration contribute to making the present book a really new text, sufficiently so to justify the change of title to The Theory of Quark and Gluon Interactions, a change that also emphasizes the consolidation of QCD as the theory of strong interactions. Of course even with the inclusion of the new material there are whole areas of quark and gluon physics not covered at all.
It has been almost thirty years since Yang and Mills (1954) performed their pioneering work on gauge theories, and it is probably safe to say that we have in our hands a good candidate for a theory of the strong interactions, based precisely on a non-Abelian gauge theory. While our understanding of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is still incomplete, there have been sufficient theoretical developments, many of them enjoying a degree of support from experimental evidence, to justify a reasonably systematic treatise on the subject. Of course, no presentation of QCD can claim to be complete, since the theory is still in the process of elaboration. The selection of topics reflects this: I have tried to discuss those parts of the theory that are more likely to endure, and particularly those developments that can, with a minimum of rigor, be derived from "first principles." To be sure, prejudice has also influenced my choice: one necessarily tends to give more attention to subjects with which one is familiar, and to eschew unfamiliar ones. I will not pause here to point out topics which perhaps should have been included* (see, however, Section 46); the list of references should fill in the gaps. "The one I regret most is lattice QCD. At the time I wrote the first draft of this book, lattice QCD had not undergone the spectacular development we have recently witnessed.
F. J. YndurAin's book on Quantum Chromodynamics has become a classic among advanced textbooks. First published in 1983, and translated into Russian in 1986, it now sees its fourth edition. It addresses readers with basic knowledge of field theory and particle phenomenology. The author presents the basic facts of quark and gluon physics in pedagogical form. Theory is always confronted with experimental findings. The reader will learn enough to be able to follow modern research articles. This fourth edition presents a new section on heavy quark effective theories, more material on lattice QCD and on chiral perturbation theory.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.