Introduction to Elementary Particles, 2nd, Revised Edition

⚠️ A warning follows. This book is wonderful, and does exactly what it intends to do: a broad and detailed (and also historical!) introduction to, and review of, particle physics, WITHOUT going to into field theory. This could be a great read BEFORE studying field theory. Griffiths is a great teacher, and the book is written with the reader in mind. Love it. ⚠️ The warning: my copy, bought on Amazon UK and also printed in the UK, had a printing problem: printed too small, leaving much of the page white, making it a bit strenuous to read. Shame. The paper is of good quality, but printing is tiny.

As the other two books of Griffiths, it's the best book on it's level. Griffiths begins with the interesting History of elementary particles, form the electron to the Standrad Model (I've never read it before), letting you how every kind of particle was discovered. Then it makes a review of the elementary forces and gives a intuitive notion of how their behaviour. Then, it explains the Dirac's equation and explains its solutions. After this, each elementary force (QED, QCD and weak), are explained. It has also has a chapter on gauge freedom, SU(2) group and Higgs mechanism. It aso has a final chapter with the future and the challenges of the Elementary Particles such as String Theory, Dark Matter and Grand Unification Theories. The writing style is mainly fenomenological and one doesn't need high level mathematics. Even though it uses Feynman diagrams (only at first order), it's not explained where they come form and one might think they are pure mathematical stuff, or worst, the lines are the actual paths of the particles. So the diagrams should be covered with a Quantum Field Theory book. It's also remarkable the friendly style that characteristizes Griffiths. So, excellent book to adquire an intuitive idea in the world of the elementary particles and their forces. If you want a formal and rigurous mathematical background you should check a Quantum Field Theory book.

This is a great book for someone taking a course in High Energy Physics. I would highly recommend it. It is quite a nice style to read (think NOT Bourbaki!). I read this alongside the Manchester Series High Energy Physics book, but honestly I think one is better off sticking with Griffiths, I personally found the Manchester to be a bad book with very little content.

Very good explanations. Doesn't require much background, mostly introductory quantum mechanics. Very good for the first course on the subject. But don't expect anything very deep here. For instance, only the idea behind Higgs mechanism is explained, without much detour into Lie groups, or even writing out the Lagrangian for Standard model and deriving Weak interactions theory from symmetry breaking. Anyone looking for deep mathematical insight should consult other books as well. For instance, QFT in a Nutshell is very good and Peskin and Schroeder is a classic. But I would recommend still buying Griffith's Elementary Particles - after the more abstract treatment of other books it's sometimes good to get a refreshing view from the introductory level with a lot of physical insights.

This is on the whole a very good book for those who want to know the development of particle physics and also how to use Feynman diagrams to calculate particle decay rates and scattering cross sections. The explanation of how to calculate color factors in Quantum Chromodynamics is probably one of the clearest in any text book. Anyone who works through this book will have a good knowledge of how to calculate Feynman diagrams for any given Lagrangian (even one you might think of yourself :) ). However the Feynman rules are just handed down from 'heaven' as it were and no attempt is made to show where they come from. This is surprising as there are quite simple derivations using Fermi's Golden Rule which are available and that avoid the complications of quantum Field theory. Such derivations are included in books such as Halzen and Martin and Mark Thomson. For this reason I can only give the book 4 stars

I have three of Griffiths' books...QM, EM and this one. All three have a common theme. Clarity. The explanations are outstanding in this book (like the others); he takes the time to "talk" to the reader and take them through the material. Granted, some of the material in this book ain't easy, but the clarity of his explanations make it much easier that it could be. If you are interested in a mathematical introduction to particle physics or (like me) just wanted to understand some more of the detail around the standard model, the Higgs and all that...then I would recommend. Not cheap...but worth it.

Very good introductory book in particle physics. A must for beginners. Very easy to follow. Classic Griffiths style. Not solutions at the back, but you can easily find them online. A good combination with Halzen and Martin book.

I'm a physics student, and own all 3 books written by Griffiths on Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics. Griffiths unique and informal style of writing is very intuïtive, and is great for any introductionary book. The text doesn't just teach you particle physics, but tries to create a deeper understanding for the subject, by addressing questions you may have and presenting insights which other books neglect. The exercises are also very good, and try to give some history along with insight. In general the book tries to make you grasp the subject fully, instead of just explaining it in a correct formal fashion. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in physics, along with Griffiths' other books.