Introduction to Particle Physics and Cosmology

Grant Mathews is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame, USA. His research interests involve the origin and evolution of matter in the universe from the first instants of cosmic expansion in the big bang to the present complex interactions of stars and gas in galaxies. He has developed supernova models and simulations of binary neutron stars to explore effects of the nuclear equation of state at high density. He is also studying inflation models of the early universe and the formaption of primordial black holes. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Guobao Tang is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Her research interests involve the origin and evolution of galaxies as well as models for the influence of dark matter and galaxy environments on properties large-scale structure and galaxy systems.

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Chapter 2: The Standard Model of Cosmology. Chapter 3: Introduction to Special Relativity. Chapter 4: Introduction to General Relativity. Chapter 5: Cosmology Models. Chapter 6: Introduction to Classical Field Theory and the Klein-Gordon Equation. Chapter 7: Introduction to the Dirac Equation. Chapter 8: Introduction to Group Theory. Chapter 9: Summarizing the Standard Model Lagrangian. Chapter 10: Feynman Diagrams, Cross Sections, and Decay Rates. Chapter 11: Big Bang Thermodynamics. Chapter 12: Relic Abundances and Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics. Chapter 13: Inflation, Perturbations, and Structure Formation. References. Index.