Supersymmetry, Supergravity, and Unification

Description

This unique book gives a modern account of particle physics and gravity based on supersymmetry and supergravity, two of the most significant developments in theoretical physics since general relativity. The book begins with a brief overview of the history of unification and then goes into a detailed exposition of both fundamental and phenomenological topics. The topics in fundamental physics include Einstein gravity, Yang-Mills theory, anomalies, the standard model, supersymmetry and supergravity, and the construction of supergravity couplings with matter and gauge fields, as well as computational techniques for SO(10) couplings. The topics of phenomenological interest include implications of supergravity models at colliders, CP violation, and proton stability, as well as topics in cosmology such as inflation, leptogenesis, baryogenesis, and dark matter. The book is intended for graduate students and researchers seeking to master the techniques for building grand unified models Content: Dedication Preface 1. A brief history of unification 2. Gravitation 3. Non-abelian gauge theory 4. Spontaneous breaking of global and local symmetries 5. The Standard Model 6. Anomalies 7. Effective Lagrangians 8. Supersymmetry 9. Grand unification 10. MSSM Lagrangian 11. N = 1 supergravity 12. Coupling of supergravity with matter and gauge fields 13. Supergravity grand unification 14. Phenomenology of supergravity grand unification 15. CP violation in supergravity unified theories 16. Proton stability in supergravity unified theories 17. Cosmology, astroparticle physics and SUGRA unification 18. Extended supergravities and supergravities from superstrings 19. Specialized topics 20. The future of unification 21. Appendices 22. Notations, conventions, and formulae 23. Physical constants 24. List of books and reviews for further reading Index.