Table of Contents

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.

Promotional Information

This book offers a comprehensive discussion of developments at the interface of particle physics, supergravity, and cosmology, for graduates and researchers.

About the Author

Pran Nath is Matthews University Distinguished Professor of Physics at Northeastern University, Boston. He has made pioneering contributions to the development of supergravity theory and its applications to particle physics, including the mSUGRA model. He has also contributed to the development of effective Lagrangian methods, pion physics, current algebra, solving the U(1) problem, dark matter and proton stability in unified models. He is the Founding Chair of the Conference on Supersymmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY) and the Symposium on Particles, Strings and Cosmology (PASCOS). He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a recipient of the Humboldt Prize in Physics.

Reviews

'It is a comprehensive review of the subject for advanced graduate students. The book provides a broad overview of the field with detailed background information on group theory, field theory and notation. It covers everything from the Standard Model to supersymmetry, grand unification, supergravity and cosmology, including detailed phenomenological calculations and problems. It also introduces the extension of these theories to extra dimensions and string theory. It should be a useful tool for every student who wishes to learn this material.' Stuart Raby, Ohio State University, Columbus

'The book can be considered as a valuable and updated addition to Steven Weinberg's third volume on supersymmetry in The Quantum Theory of Fields series (2000, Cambridge University Press). The author is a world expert on supersymmetry and supergravity phenomenology, who has contributed to the field with many original and outstanding works. Certainly useful to graduate students in physics, the book could also prove to be a resource for advanced graduate courses in experimental high-energy physics.' Sergio Ferrara, CERN Courier

'This book provides a clear, pedagogical and thorough treatment of supersymmetry, supergravity and applications in the context of unification. … All in all, this is an excellent book on applications of supersymmetry and supergravity in the context of unification. Students and researchers with some working knowledge of general relativity, quantum field theory and related mathematical concepts could benefit from this book. As a final comment, the book contains a large number of exercises, a student favorite.' Parinya Karndumri, Mathematical Reviews