Corrections to
I hope that you are enjoying my textbook "Concepts of Elementary
Particle Physics". It is meant to explain to students and other readers
what the "Standard Model of Particle Physics" is, where it
came from, and what the underlying principles of this model are.
The
book does not assume prior knowledge of quantum field theory, but many
principles of quantum field theory are discussed in the book using the
easiest examples. The book stresses the point that the ideas of quantum
field theory grew up in a manner intertwined with experimental discoveries
about elementary particles. A full understanding of the fundamental
laws of physics requires knowledge of both the theoretical and the
experimental aspects. I hope that this book will provide an
introduction to both sides of this subject.
Many of the principles, and, especially, the successes of the Standard
Model are quite subtle. If
you are a student and you learn something surprising, quiz your
professors
about it. Everyone can benefit from understanding the Standard Model better.
My textbook is now available in its
2nd printing. If you bought the book new in early 2024 or after, this is the
edition that you will have. The 2nd printing corrects most of the
errors previously listed on this page. I am grateful to many people
for
notifying me of errors,
but I especially thank Andrzej Czarnecki and Samiur Rahman Mir at the
University of Alberta for their very thorough and critical reading.
For those people who have
the first printing, the previous version of this page is
available
at this
link.
No book by a human author is perfect. I am sure that further errors will
require correction. Errors found in the book will be reported on
this page. If you find an error, please email me
(mpeskin"at"slac.stanford.edu),
and I will post the correction here.
I hope that these corrections will
bring the book closer to that level of technical perfection that students
long for but authors find so elusive.
Here are errors reported in the 2nd printing of my textbook. To check
whether you have the 2nd (or later) printing, go to p. 360 and
check the masses of
the rho+ and rho0 mesons. These should be given as 775.11 and 775.26 MeV. In
the 1st printing, these values are listed as 139.570 and 134.977 MeV
-- obviously wrong!
Errors reported since August 2024, plus some remaining uncorrected
errors from the previous list:
- Chapter 1:
- Chapter 2:
- p. 10: The right-hand side of eq. (2.1) should read: "(E_p,
vec p c)". In eq. (2.2), "E" should read "E_p" and "E'" should read
"E'_p". In eq. (2.6) , the right-hand side should read "E_p E_q -
vec p . vec q c^2".
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 3:
- p. 31: In eq. (3.32), the second line should read:
"F^{ij} = del_i A^j - del_j A^i = epsilon^{ijk} B^k".
(Thanks to
Andrzej Czarnecki.)
- p. 32: In Eq. (3.37), "-J^nu" should be replaced by "+J^nu".
In Eq. (3.38), "J^mu" should be replaced by "J^nu".
(Thanks to Andrzej Czarnecki
and Francis Onah.)
- p. 33: The first line of eq. (3.45) would be clearer if the
right-hand side read : (i gamma^mu del_mu + m) (i gamma^nu del_nu
- m) Psi.
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 38: The line above eq. (3.87) should read: "is not
Lorentz-invariant. However, the integral (over positive energies, p^0
> 0)". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 4:
- p. 38: Just below eq. (4.33), "Rydberg" should read
"Rydberg constant". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 5:
- p. 59: In the second line of the figure caption,
"Jpsi" should read "J/psi". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 61: The paragraph beginning "Three intermediate states
..." is confusing. Here is a better explanation: First, please
correct the Fig. 5.6 caption by adding the sentence: The High
Solution gives the correct chi masses. See the text for more
explanation. Then replace the last 2/3 of the paragraph in
question by the following:
" ... Fig. 5.6. The mass values on the horizontal axis are obtained
by combining the momenta of the J/psi and the lower energy photon,
assuming this is the photon emitted by the psi'. Notice that the
spread in mass is narrow in all three cases. This is the correct
solution. The mass values on the vertical axis are obtained by
combininng the
momenta of the J/psi and the higher energy photon. This photon
was omitted in the transition from the chi state to the J/psi.
The broad range of masses is caused by the Doppler shift of the
photon due to the motion of the chi state relative to the lab frame."
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 66: The first two lines on the page should read: "having
strangeness S = +1, their antiparticles having S = -1, and
Lambda^0 having S = -1." Two lines below eq. (5.19), the sentence
should read: "States with strangeness S = -1 will be assigned
one s quark, and states with strangeness +1 will have one sbar
antiquark." (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 69: Eq. (5.39) should read "n -> p e^- nubar".
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 72: In Eq. (5.54), the third term in the second line
should read " - | u(down) d(up) u(up) >". This completes the
pattern correctly. (Thanks to Stanford Broadwater.)
- p. 74: In the first line after eq. (5.60), "meaure" should
read "measure". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 6:
- Chapter 7:
- p. 97: In eq. (7.9), "A_B" should read "a_B" to be consistent
with eq. (7.8). (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p.101: In the first line below eq. (7.39), "andGammais"
should read "and Gamma is". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 8:
- p. 124: Just under the figures, the quantity "sqrt(s)" equals
the center of mass energy of the e+e- annihilation. This is a
standard notation which, excuse me, is not explained until later, on
p. 136. (Thanks to Susan Gardner.)
- Chapter 9:
- p. 146: Please
note that, in the Section 9.5, the momenta k,k' are used for the
incoming and outgoing electrons and p, p' are used for the incoming
and outgoing quarks. I apologize for any confusion. (Thanks to
Andrzej Czarnecki.)
- p. 147: In Exercise 9.2, part (c), line 3. "build" should
read "built". (Thanks to
Andrzej Czarnecki.)
- Chapter 10:
- p. 150: The right hand sides in eq. (10.4) might be
confusing. On p. 133, I defined a pdf f_i(x) as giving the
probability f_i(x) dx of finding a parton i in a small interval of
momentum dx. So you might find it strange that pdfs are not
always normalized to 1. But if there are 2 u quarks in the proton,
these probabilities should actually sum to 2 when summed over all
x. This is the logic behind the normalization integrals given in
eq. (10.4). (Thanks to Andrzej Czarnecki.)
- Chapter 11:
- p. 170: In eq. (11.21), The first words should read "Let Psi
transform". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 173: Just below eq. (11.5), "(i del_mu alpha)" should read
"(i del_mu delta alpha)". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 175: In eq. (11.39), for clarity, the second
"(F^{mu nu a} t^a_R)"
should read "(F^{mu nu b} t^b_R)".
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 175: In the first line below eq. (11.41), "fieldsPsi"
should read "fields Psi". In the third line "ofPsi _i" should
read "of Psi_i". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 12:
- p. 188: On the left-hand side of eq. (12.5), "log Q" should
read "d log Q". The same correction is needed in all three
lines of eq. (12.8). (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 13:
- p. 206: In the first line of eq. (13.22), the term
"(t^b ijt^b kl)" should read "(t^b_{ij} t^b_{kl})". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 207: On the left-hand side of eq. (13.29), the argument in
parentheses should read "(qg->qg)", as in eq. (13.31). (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- Chapter 14:
- p. 219: There is a problem with the typography in
eq. (14.11). This equation should properly read: "Psi -> e^{ i vec
alpha . vec sigma/2} Psi" and "Psi -> e^{ i vec
alpha . (vec sigma/2) gamma^5} Psi". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 223: In eqs. (14.30), the first exponential should read
should read "e^{-i \vec p . \vec x}", with p and x as
3-vectors. The superscript "05a" on j is correct.
- p. 221: In line 4 of the first full paragraph, "LetPhi( x)" should
read "Let Phi(x)". Also in the first line below eq. (14.20),
"operatorPhihas" should read "operator Phi has". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 223: In eq. (14.30), the exponential should read "e^{-i vec p
. vec x}". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 227: It is not obvious why I did not write (14.55)
simply as (md-mu)/(md+mu) = (mK0^2 - mK+^2)/(mpi^2). However, this
equation gives a significantly different answer, 0.2 instead of 0.3.
The explanation is that electromagnetism also affects the
mass difference between K+ and K0. These corrections
are larger for
the K+; electromagnetism gives the charged particle gets a
larger mass than the
neutral particle. This is why the pi+ is heavier than the pi0. It
can be shown that the electromagnetic correction giving (mpi+^2 -
mpi0^2) is equal to the electromagnetic correction to (mK+^2 -
mK0^2).
Then the formula
(14.55) cancels this correction and thus gives a more accurate
evaluation of the quark masses. (Thanks to Jaime Anguiano Olarra.)
- Chapter 15:
- p. 243: On the right-hand side of eq. (15.22),
"p_mu" should read "p_q" and "p'_mu" should read "p'_q".
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 240: In the first line of eq. (15.38), after
"16GF^2", the factor of the muon mass should read "m_mu^4",
not "m_mu^3". Also, the factor "(1-x_{nubar})^2" should be
simply "(1-x_{nubar})".
The second line of this equation is correct as written.
(Thanks to Ruth Britto.)
- p. 243: Eq. (15.50) has a LaTex misprint. I hope you
can read that the ket is "|pi^2(p)>".
- Chapter 16:
- p. 252: In the second line below eq. (16.7), the
equation should read "delta gamma = eta/v". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 256: On the right-hand side of eq. (16.27), the
first exponential should read "e^{i vec alpha . vec sigma/2}".
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 257: In the next to last line of the top paragraph,
"The ratio g'/g is a an" should read "The ratio g'/g is
an". (Thanks to Ruth Britto.)
- Chapter 17:
- p. 264: Just above eq. (17.2), "offthe" should read "off the".
(Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 268: At the end of line 4 below eq. (17.17), "quantity"
should read "quantify". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 269: In the second line below eq. (17.25), "p pbar"
should read "pp". (Thanks to Jaime Anguiano Olarra.)
- Chapter 18:
- p. 284: At the end of the first line on the page,
"dcay" should read "decay". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 286: Two lines below eq. (18.20),
"tnan" should read "than". (Thanks to Wim Cosyn.)
- p. 291: In eq. (18.42), "|V_cb|^2" should read
"|V_cb|^{-2}". (Thanks to Ruth Britto.)
- Chapter 19:
- p. 305: In the 2nd line below eq. (19.57), "the decay the"
should read: "include the decay of the" . (Thanks to Andrzej
Czarnecki.)
- p. 310: In Exercise 19.1, part (b), 2nd line, "direct decay"
should read simply "decay". (Thanks to Andrzej
Czarnecki.)
- Chapter 20:
- p. 314: In eq. (20.3), the prefactor should be
multiplied by (4pi)^2, since we integrate over the angular
variables. (Thanks to Ruth Britto.)
- p. 317: Just below eq. (20.19), there is a small LaTeX
error -- the space should appear before the Delta.
- Chapter 21:
- p. 329: In eq. (21.9), the factor "64" in the
denominator should be "64 pi". (Thanks to Ruth Britto.)
- Chapter 22:
- Backmatter:
- Eq. (A.18) should read: " (sigma^i)^2 = 1, sigma^i
sigma^j = i epsilon^{ijk} sigma^k for i not = j". (Thanks to Ruth Britto.)
M. E. Peskin
SLAC