Particles, Fields and Forces

Wouter J.M. Schmitz, born 1970, studied physics in Amsterdam. He worked at CERN for an assignment at the Spin Muon Collaboration (SMC) and later as a summer student at a LEP experiment. He graduated at Nikhef Amsterdam in 1994. He has subsequently worked in IT and also holds an MBA degree. Today, Wouter works as a leading digital architect, retaining nonetheless a deep and informed interest in conceptual problems in physics.

lt;p>Introduction.- Particles or waves?.- Fields.- What is a particle if it is a wave?.- A matter of energy exchange.- A wave of relativity.- Quantization of fields.- Energy in waves and fields.- Symmetry and the origin of force.- Propagators and virtual particles.- Renormalisation of fearful infinities.- Spin makes up bosons and fermions.- Conservation of charge and particle number.- Particle zoo.- Electroweak force in the early universe.- The breaking of the world will never be the same.- The strong force: Quantum Chromo Dynamics.- Gravity as a field.- Further reading.- References and sources.

"I know of know of no other book than the present volume by Wouter Schmitz that presents all these topics in one connected story, using a bare minimum of mathematical notation and certainly no calculus. ... The non-specialist who perseveres will be rewarded with a surprisingly complete overview of particle physics ... . The author is to be applauded for his ambitious goals in writing this book, and in successfully providing relatively informal accounts of a remarkable amount of material." (Peter J. Bussey, Contemporary Physics, September 23, 2019)
"This book offers a world of insight into the building blocks of our universe and the forces which govern them. ... Overall a very useful introductory book for particle physicists." (T. C. Mohan, zbMATH 1422.81007, 2019)