2 comments about Weak Scale Supersymmetry: From Superfields to Scattering Events.

1. I think, without any doubt, that this is the best introductory textbook on supersymmetric particle theories. There are a number of textbooks on supersymmetry that were published during the last 15 years. Many of them are much more formal and mathematical and not adequate for a first introduction to this subject. For instance you can check Wess-Bagger, Freund, P.C. West. This textbook has been carefully written and edited by Cambridge Univ. Press. The notation used is very consistent from beginning to end. The textbook is perfect as a continuation of a course on quantum field theory. The book is very complete and it covers from an order zero introduction to the subject to the most recent phenomenology. The authors are world leading experts on the collider phenomenology of supersymmetric field theories and this subject receives special attention. There are a couple of textbooks that attempted to publish some basic introduction to the phenomenology of supersymmetric theories, see for instance the S.Weinberg or the Mohapatra textbooks. On the other hand, none of them presents an introduction so extensive and careful to the topic as the Baer-Tata textbook. I strongly recommend this textbook to any graduate student of particle physics. I wish this textbook had been available when I first attempted to understand supersymmetric field theories. If you have read this textbook and are interested in more formal aspects of supersymmetry I recommend to continue your studies with another recent textbook by J.Terning.



2. I used this book to teach a one-semester course on Supersymmetry to physics graduate students who had completed a course in Particle Physics and/or Quantum Field Theory. I like this book a lot. It is very pedagogical, giving good examples to demonstrate general ideas. It is geared towards those of us who in interested in the search for Supersymmetry in particle physics experiments (present and future), and teaches you how to calculate cross sections and decays. The discussion of the variety of Supersymmetry models is done in a succinct manner, giving you the concepts and results you need without going into unnecessary details. When I wanted to delve into a topic further, I often found S. Weinberg's "The Quantum Theory of Fields III: Supersymmetry" to be useful. There are now a variety of good books on Supersymmetry on the market, but I think this one does the best job of preparing the reader for the search for Supersymmetry in particle physics experiments. The book uses the four-component spinor notation throughout (as does Weinberg's book), which is more familiar for practical calculations than the two-component notation found in most other Supersymmetry books. I found this to be an asset.

3 comments about Astronomical Spectrosc An Introduction to the Atomic and Molecular Physics of Astronomical Spectra (Imperial College Press Advanced Physics Trends, Vol. 2).

1. It comes as a surprise to most people when they learn that rarely does a professional astronomer actually look through a telescope. Most of the time, in fact, he isn't interested in the appearance at all. What he actually wants (usually) is a spectroscopic analysis of the light coming from the object being observed.
   
   The biggest telescope cannor resolve a star into anything but a point of light. The information contained in that point of light can tell you a lot about that star. The composition of its atmosphere, its motion, its temperature and more can all be determined by analyzing the light beam.
   
   This book was developed for a third year undergraduate level course. It presumes that the student had a prior course in Quantum Mechanics which covered the Hydrogen Atom, but no further atomic physics or spectroscopy.



2. This is a good introduction to the topic but its a little thin weighing in at a little less than 200 pages. The book is very compact and written at the college level. It stresses the connection between spectra and quantum mechanics [of course]. The book would make a good college or graduate level textbook as a course in itself or an adjunct to physics or quantum mechanics.
   
   The Table of Contents:
   1. Why record spectra of Astronomical Objects
   2. The nature of Spectra
   3. Atomic Hydrogen
   4. Complex Atoms
   5. Helium Spectra
   6. Alkali Atoms
   7. Spectra of Nebulea
   8. X-ray Spectra
   9. Molecular Spectra
   10. Solutions to Problems
   11. Bibliography



3. I have a BSci in Astronomy and have not yet attended grad school. I work for a world class observatory that uses spectroscopy of some sort in almost all of the science we do. Having only had brief overviews as an undergrad, this book was a perfect next step allowing me to gain a more thorough understanding the science that I am part of. Some prior knowledge of atomic physics is very helpful.
   The problems at the end of the chapters are useful to verify understanding of the material.

2 comments about Superstring Theory: Volume 2, Loop Amplitudes, Anomalies and Phenomenology (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics).

1. Volume I of "Superstring theory" presented the fundamentals of string theory. This book builds on those fundamentals and explores the possible observable consequences of string theory. The subtitle "Loop amplitudes, anomalies and phenomenology" provides a good high level view of the content.
   
   While the first volume demonstrated that string theory gives general relativity in the low energy limit, this volume explores some of the possible string theory implications in particle physics and how six of ten dimensions get compactified leaving the familiar four spacetime dimensions.
   
   The first two chapters cover one-loop diagrams in bosonic and superstring theories. The tone is similar to the tree level scattering amplitudes calculations done in volume I. The amplitudes are calculated for both open and closed strings (which of course must be included when you have open strings that interact), the important concepts of moduli space and orbifolds are introduced here. Among the interesting results for the bosonic string are an additional argument for D = 26 and the appearance of an ultraviolet cutoff for the cosmological constant.
   
   Following this is a lucid discussion of anomaly cancellation in Type I theory and path integral methods. Anomaly cancellation in Type IIB theories is considered later in the book, the subject of anomalies reappears throughout the remainder of the book.
   
   The phenomenology discussion starts by studying the low energy effective action. The supersymmetric gauge fields are examined for various string symmetry groups. The background in differential geometry needed to understand gauge theory, as expressed in the language of forms, is presented in an earlier chapter. The gauge fields that arise from compactification are treated in the next chapter, along with anomaly cancellation in four dimensions.
   
   This is followed by a very good, albeit brief, chapter on algebraic geometry. This is obviously not a comprehensive introduction, it sticks to the aspects that are relevant for string theory, for example Calabi-Yau spaces and Hodge numbers. The final chapter uses this mathematical machinery to explore the consequences of geometry of the compactified space may have for particle physics in our four spacetime dimensions.
   
   In my opinion this book holds up even better than volume I, no small feat, especially the latter parts of it. I think anyone specializing in string theory should still consider this required reading. If their emphasis is on string theory as a grand unified theory, or other implications of the low energy limits of string theory, then there's likely little doubt this is required reading.



2. This is a quintessential text for anyone who wishes to master the area of String Theory. I would say however it is not an introductory text but something one refers to after one has a rudimentary background in Quantum Field Theory as well as string theory; it is well written and contains a very thorough treatment of the modern knowledge we have about String Theory.

1 comments about Radiation Protection: A Guide for Scientists, Regulators and Physicians.

1. I am a Medical Physicist and I found this book to be an excellent review and have recommended it to our Cheif Radiology Resident for the Radioloy Residents for Physics review. This would be an excellent addition to any Health, Medical Physicists resources as well as the mentioned Scientist, Regulators and Physicians of the title.

2 comments about Introduction to High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions.

1. There are not many books on relativistic heavy ion collisions and this is a very good one among them. It covers a lot of stuff with details, although not very deeply. You can learn the basic concepts in heavy ion physics from this book. A lot of thoroughly worked examples will help you understand. The context is easy to understand. But it's somehow outdated because new experiments and theories haver emerged since its published year (1994). Many new signatures for QGP should be covered if there would be a new edition.



2. This is a very nice introductory text for those interested on accelerator high-energy nuclear and particle physics. The chapters dealing with Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) theory may be somewhat obsolete, but their main ideas are a good start on the QGP discussion. And all the previous chapters, like "2D-QED", "kinematical variables", etc., are still updated and the way the author wrote them is a really good approach.

1 comments about Supersymmetry in Particle Physics: An Elementary Introduction.

1. If you are a physics student with good knowledge of quantum field theory or an experimentalist working on high-energy physics, and need a quick reference on supersymmetry (SUSY) on which you can find the rationale behind it, in addition to the most useful cross-section formulae, then the book by Ian Aitchison is probably the best choice for you. If you have no idea about SUSY but want (or need) to learn its basics, again this is a very good choice. On the other hand, if you already know SUSY quite a bit, and want to go into deeper details, this is probably not the best book for you, but I'm sure you would enjoy reading it.
   
   Actually, the SUSY case is a very peculiar one: even though no experimental evidence has yet been collected in favor of this model, theoreticians consider it so "natural" that most extensions of the standard model (SM) of particle physics include SUSY. Even more, nowadays SUSY is considered standard material for (advanced) courses in the physicist's curriculum, so that a few textbooks exist.
   
   The Aitchison's textbook has its strongest point in the author's effort to provide a smooth transition between the mathematical tools used to build the SM and the SUSY technicalities. This implies a choice over the formalism, which is similar to what one can find in the well known (and publicly available) "Supersymmetry Primer" (arXiv: hep-ph/9709356), by Stephen P. Martin: two-component Weyl spinors are used in place of four-component Dirac or Maiorana spinors, to describe the fields associated with matter particles. However, in order to make relatively easy to cross-check other references (as other textbooks or review papers), Aitchison also explains how to switch between the three formalisms just mentioned, making the book a really precious reference.
   
   Perhaps, this is not the only book on SUSY one should buy, but it is probably the first. The author has explicitly decided to avoid explaining several things about SUSY, as the introduction of fermionic dimensions in addition to the normal (bosonic) ones, i.e. the "superspace" formalism (but chapter 6 is nevertheless devoted to superfields). In addition, Aitchison sometimes relies on the books on the SM he wrote together with Hey Gauge Theories in Particle Physics, 2 Volume Set, so that learning SUSY is smoothest for people having studied quantum field theory on that books. Aitchison tried to mention everything which is necessary to understand his explanations about SUSY, so to have a self-contained book, but sometimes I felt a bit disappointed because I did not have the chance to check his books on SM while reading that on SUSY. However, this does not mean that one can not follow the explanations. Rather, one simply has to accept that some relation holds, just to be able to use it in the computation. Not a big problem, at the end of the day. In conclusion, I warmly recommend this book.

No comments about Insertion Devices for Synchrotron Radiation and Free Electron Laser (Series on Synchrotron Radiation Techniques and Applications).

1 comments about Methods of X-ray and Neutron Scattering in Polymer Science (Topics in Polymer Science).

1. Ryoung-Joon Roe presents a handy reference and introduction to x-ray and neutron scattering, where emphasis is placed on using a terminology that helps the reader learn about both the techniques simultaenously. Scattering has served as one of the most important characterization tools for polymer community. This book outlines the basic mathematics and experimental details required to understand the structure and properties as revealed by these scattering methods in: crystalline and amorphous polymers, polymer solutions and blends, polymer dynamics and block copolymers. While emphasis is placed on demonstrating how all scattering shares similar theories and philosophy, the choice of several examples and applications of either techniques is used to remark on aspects peculiar to either X-ray studies or Neutron Scattering.
   
   Since most serious students of polymer science are familiar with light scattering, the book would appeal them as perfect guide to familiarize themselves with limits and use of neutron and X-ray scattering. A more detailed discussion on Polymers and Neutron Scattering is found in the classic text by Julia S. Higgins and Henry C. Beno^it, while for Light Scatttering texts by Pecora & Berne and by Wyn Brown are essential references. Compared to those classic references, Roe's text will appear as more accessible to people seeking introduction to scattering methods. By the same token, it contains only the essence, the flavor of aspects of polymer behavior, say crystallization, surface studies or dynamics, and one will need to delve into the other texts if he seeks exhaustive discussion.

No comments about Proton Radiotherapy Accelerators.

No comments about Introduction to Quantum Information Science (Oxford Graduate Texts).