Necessity of Group Theory in Particle Physics

[Marioeden]

So I'm intending to teach myself some Particle Physics and Standard Model type stuff, I was wondering if someone who's already covered this could give me some advice.

I did some Group Theory a few years back and looking over content pages of lecture notes I occasionally spot references to groups like SO(3) and SU(2), Lie Groups, etc.

My question is simply, do I need to learn about Lie Algebras before I start any of the material or does it only involve elementary concepts? Alternatively should I do the conceptual stuff first and then come back to the mathematical approach later? Also I'm still in the early stages of learning QFT, would it be better if I finished that first and then came back to particles or is it fine to do them at the same time?

Thanks

 

[dkotschessaa]

I don't know much from the physics side (I'm a math guy) but, there was a great discussion on this recently:
What's the quickest way to understand group theory in physics?

(In that thread, there's a link to yet another thread.)

-Dave K