Supersymmetry and String Theory
Beyond the Standard Model

This Open Access text is an introduction to the fields of experimental and theoretical particle physics and cosmology.

Michael Dine (Author)

9781009290890, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 February 2023

608 pages
25.4 x 17.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.96 kg

This text is an introduction to the fields of experimental and theoretical particle physics and cosmology. The book focuses on three principal areas: supersymmetry, string theory, and astrophysics and cosmology. The chapters on supersymmetry introduce the basics of supersymmetry and its phenomenology, and cover dynamics, dynamical supersymmetry breaking, and electric–magnetic duality. The book then introduces general relativity and the big bang theory, and the basic issues in inflationary cosmologies. The section on string theory discusses the spectra of known string theories, and the features of their interactions. Material added in the second edition includes the pivotal Higgs discovery and the results of the WMAP and Planck experiments. This book will be of great interest to graduates and researchers in the fields of particle theory, string theory, astrophysics, and cosmology. It has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

Preface to the first edition
Preface to the second edition
A note on choice of metric
Text website
Part I. Effective Field Theory: The Standard Model, Supersymmetry, Unification: 1. Before the Standard Model
2. The Standard Model
3. Phenomenology of the Standard Model
4. The Standard Model as an effective field theory
5. Anomalies, instantons and the strong CP problem
6. Grand unification
7. Magnetic monopoles and solitons
8. Technicolor: a first attempt to explain hierarchies
Part II. Supersymmetry: 9. Supersymmetry
10. A first look at supersymmetry breaking
11. The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
12. Supersymmetric grand unification
13. Supersymmetric dynamics
14. Dynamical supersymmetry breaking
15. Theories with more than four conserved supercharges
16. More supersymmetric dynamics
17. An introduction to general relativity
18. Cosmology
19. Astroparticle physics and inflation
Part III. String Theory: 20. Introduction
21. The bosonic string
22. The superstring
23. The heterotic string
24. Effective actions in ten dimensions
25. Compactification of string theory I. Tori and orbifolds
26. Compactification of string theory II. Calabi-Yau compactifications
27. Dynamics of string theory at weak coupling
28. Beyond weak coupling: non-perturbative string theory
29. Large and warped extra dimensions
30. The landscape: a challenge to the naturalness principle
31. Coda: where are we headed?
Part IV. The Appendices: Appendix A. Two-component spinors
Appendix B. Goldstone's theorem and the pi mesons
Appendix C. Some practice with the path integral in field theory
Appendix D. The beta function in supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Particle & high-energy physics [PHP], Nuclear physics [PHN], Physics [PH], Mathematics & science [P]