Griffith's Introduction to Elementary Particles

GleasSpty

I was thinking about sitting in a course next quarter that used this textbook, and no prerequisites are listed, so I was wondering what kind of things should I know to get through the text.
The thing I am most worried about is my knowledge of QM. I only know the little QM I have studied independently and what we did in an intro. modern physics course. I will be taking a full blown QM course concurrently with the Particle Physics course, but am unsure if this will be enough.

After flipping through the text for about an hour or so, I haven't found anything he supposes you to know but don't, i.e. everything I didn't understand he appeared to expalin in the text.

I'm still a little worried though: if I only know very little QM, will I be completley lost with this text?

malawi_glenn

You will be little confused, the things you need to know are also presented in his book. But the basic stuffs like wave-functions and states, orbital angular momentum, spin, and addition of angular momentum must be known quite well. Although some things are recapitulated for you in his particle physics book.

So I would not recommend going through a course in particle physics without quantum mechanics, at the level of Griffith's textbook in quantum mechanics.

neu

Griffith's is an amazing book though. I don't think it would be a huge undertaking to tackle most of the book with just a single course taken on QM, as it's so well written; but you would definately need at least 1 formal course on QM, and it might take you a while longer than average.

Definately worth the effort

blechman

assuming this is at a university where you are a student, my advice to you is to ask your instructor. Many instructors use a book only as a guide, but fill in many details in lecture. others do exactly the opposite! so you should talk to him or her and find out what is expected of you.

QM is vital for particle physics (as you might imagine!). but if the course is taught correctly, you might be okay. No one here can answer that for you.

Good luck!

ptsintzo

thank's

ptsintzo

thank's this book is that what i need for my university