How to get started in HEP as an undergrad?

[Alistarco]

Greetings, im a physics undergrad (7th semester, attending modern physics), i have interest in hep but i dont know how to get started in that topic, i would like to start reading papers on the field but i dont know where to begin. Can any one give me any recommendation ?

 

[ohwilleke]

The first baby step that I'd recommend would be to read "QED" by Richard Feynman. It is short, cogent, and builds good intuition for more advanced treatments. It is also more factually accurate and less speculative than many other popular physics books. Unlike many books that focus on what isn't known, he focuses on what we know already. You could finish it in a weekend (it is basically a transcription, edited, of a four lecture series he presented to educated lay people).

The next intermediate step I'd recommend would be to read to review articles available online from the Particle Data Group and the Wikipedia article related to the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the List of Mesons, the List of Baryons, and all of the articles linked in those articles, which will give you a broader framework of the discipline and its history. Learn the nomenclature for hadrons (which one of the PDG review articles explains). Reading Matt Strassler's blog and website, which also has some progressively more advanced review posts on these issues, would also be a good second step.

After that, I would recommend regularly reading new HEP publications at arXiv in the four categories under that heading (Experiment is the best to start with if you have limited time, and are reading just one), and following the websites of the major particle collider collaborations (like ATLAS, GlueX, and BESIII), and major physics conferences (like Moriond).

The next step woulds be to buy the most relevant textbook you can find at your local college bookstore for self-study and to work through it.

With that under your belt, you'll have a better idea about what you should do next.

 

[Alistarco]

Hi, thanks a lot for your advice, i will definite follow what you say, i thought i would die ignored. im very grateful for your answer

 

[PeroK]

Greetings, im a physics undergrad (7th semester, attending modern physics), i have interest in hep but i dont know how to get started in that topic, i would like to start reading papers on the field but i dont know where to begin. Can any one give me any recommendation ?

Your thread must have gone under the radar. Are you planning to do HEP at graduate level? The obvious question is: if you haven't started the subject formally, how do you know that's what you want to study?

What do your professors say? Have you asked them?

One standard textbook is by Griffiths:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Elementary_Particles_(book)

I would say the main prerequisites are a good understanding of QM, classical EM and the four-vector formulation of SR. It's definitely advanced undergraduate level - and most other textbooks are graduate level.

I'm not sure I understand the point of trying to jump ahead in one particular area. There's a risk that you distract yourself from your course work.