Introduction to Particle and Astroparticle Physics

Abstract

This book introduces particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology starting from experiment. It provides a unified view of these fields, which is needed to answer our questions to the Universe–a unified view that has been lost somehow in recent years due to increasing specialization. This is the second edition of a book we published only three years ago, a book which had a success beyond our expectations. We felt that the recent progress on gravitational waves, gamma ray and neutrino astrophysics deserved a new edition including all these new developments: multimessenger astronomy is now a reality. In addition, the properties of the Higgs particle are much better known now than three years ago. Thanks to this second edition we had the opportunity to fix some bugs, to extend the material related to exercises, and to change in a more logical form the order of some items. Last but not least, our editor encouraged us a lot to write a second edition. Particle physics has recently seen the incredible success of the so-called standard model. A 50-year long search for the missing ingredient of the model, the Higgs particle, has been concluded successfully, and some scientists claim that we are close to the limit of the physics humans may know. Also astrophysics and cosmology have shown an impressive evolution, driven by experiments and complemented by theories and models. We have nowadays a “standard model of cosmology” which successfully describes the evolution of the Universe from a tiny time after its birth to any foreseeable future. The experimental field of astroparticle physics is rapidly evolving, and its discovery potential appears still enormous: during the three years between the first and the second edition of this book gravitational waves have been detected, an event in which gravitational waves were associated to electromagnetic waves has been detected, and an extragalactic source of astrophysical neutrinos has been located and associated to a gamma-ray emitter.