Heavy Quark Physics

This up-to-date review also serves as an introduction to Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) - a new approach to heavy quark physics problems in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The book also contains a detailed discussion of the methods of calculation used in HQET, along with numerous illustrations.

Understanding the physics of heavy quarks gives physicists a unique opportunity to test the predictions of quantum chromodynamics and the Standard Model. This introductory text begins with a review of the Standard Model, followed by the basics of heavy quark spin-flavor symmetry and its application to the classification of states, decays and fragmentation. Heavy quark effective theory is then developed and applied to the study of hadron masses, form factors, and inclusive decay rates. The authors also discuss the application of chiral perturbation theory to heavy hadrons. Written by two world leading experts, the presentation is clear and original, with problems provided at the end of each chapter. This lucid volume is an ideal introduction to the physics of heavy quarks for graduate students and an authoritative reference for more experienced researchers. First published in 2000, this title has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

This book provides a thorough introduction to the phenomenology of heavy flavour physics, those working on the B-factories, LHCb, BTeV, HERA and the Tevatron. It explains how heavy quark theory could be implemented on the lattice, and discusses the status of CP-violation in the neutral kaon system.

This volume covers the main topics in heavy flavour physics in a comprehensive yet accessible way. The material is presented as a combination of extensive introductory lectures and more typical contributions. This book will benefit postgraduate students and reseachers alike.

The present book is not merely an elaboration of the 1982 text Quantum Chromodynamics: An Introduction to the Theory of Quarks and Gluons. In fact, a lot of material has been added: some of which is entirely new, and some of which is an extension of topics in the older text. Among the latter there are two sections dealing with the background field method, and the expansion of the section devoted to processes describable by perturbative QCD (other than deep inelastic scattering) into a whole chapter, containing a detailed description of Drell-Van scattering, jet physics, exclusive processes, QCD sum rules, etc. Besides this, we have added a completely new chapter on constituent models of hadrons, including a derivation of the quark quark potential, and, also entirely new, a half-chapter containing a detailed introduction to lattice QCD. An extra short chapter on the parameters of QCD and an appendix on group integration contribute to making the present book a really new text, sufficiently so to justify the change of title to The Theory of Quark and Gluon Interactions, a change that also emphasizes the consolidation of QCD as the theory of strong interactions. Of course even with the inclusion of the new material there are whole areas of quark and gluon physics not covered at all.

The aim of this book is to offer to the next generation of young researchers a broad and largely self-contained introduction to the physics of heavy ion collisions and the quark-gluon plasma, providing material beyond that normally found in the available textbooks. For each of the main aspects - QCD thermodynamics and global features of the QGP, collision hydrodynamics, electromagnetic probes, jet and quarkonium production, color glass condensate, and the gravity connection - the present volume provides extensive and pedagogical lectures, surveying the present status of both theory and experiment. A particular feature of this volume is that all lectures have been written with the active assistance of selected students present at the course in order to ensure the adequate level and coverage for the intended readership.