Willibald Plessas - Böcker

This volume contains the edited versions of some selected lectures delivered at the famous "Schladming Winter School", devoted to "Flavor Physics" in the present case. Flavor physics is one of the hot topics in contemporary elementary particle physics, because it relates to fundamental questions like the origin of masses, the size and strength of CP violation and the oscillations between various neutrino species. This volume will be useful for graduate students wishing to get more acquainted with the field as well as for lecturers in search of material for seminars of special lectures and courses in quantum field theory.

This is a comprehensive overview of the information yieldedby electroweak probes about the nuclear- andsubnuclear-scale structure of matter. Lepton-inducedprocesses from low energy through to the highest energiesare considered. The first three lectures reviewelectromagneticprocesses in hadrons; others cover theproperties of partons, the behaviour of the constituents ofthe hadron, muon and neutrino scattering etc. Anintroduction to electroweak theory including the status ofprecision tests and data analyses is given along with areport on the first results from HERA.The lecturers have endeavoured to achieve a balance betweenscientific and didactic aspects thus making the bookaccessible also to students of nuclear and particle physics.

Symmetries and the breaking of symmetries play an important role in particle physics. Several experts in the field give overviews of different symmetry aspects in subatomic physics. Topics like CP violation, chiral symmetry, supersymmetry and spontaneous symmetry breaking are addressed. The articles are the written accounts of lectures given at the 1998 Schladming Winter School and address in particular graduate students. The material is dealt with in a comprehensive and detailed manner and is at the same time pedagogically well devised.