Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

I had the opportunity to read this book as a longstanding draft before it went into publication (then titled "Patterns and Paradigms"). Shortly afterwards, I opened what turned out to be enjoyable correspondence with the author. He surprised me with the news that this book was recently released and ready for purchase through the publishers. I since then bought the published edition and this review represents an analysis of the released hardback. The fact that the author took more than four years to write and polish this fine book for the general public shows in its tight, cogent and succinct style and content.

Deep Down Things (the Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics) gets its title from a beautiful verse in Gerard Manley Hopkins fitting poem God's Grandeur "And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things"

In the Preface the author explains that the title is meant to convey that "Deep down within the atomic nucleus, deeply within the paradoxical richness of empty space, deep inside the synapses of the great scientific thinkers of the 20th century - this is the territory of particle physics." This book peals back the layers of the atomic and sub-atomic world like an onion ready for investigation. Just for fun, look for the rest of the poem on the Internet.

Schumm says in the Introduction that his book "...represents my attempts to elucidate the currently accepted theory of particle physics...for the interested public." He goes on to say that it's not "...a story about the history of particle physics or of the lives of its protagonists. Nor is it a book of anecdotes about the culture and society..."
Deep Down is categorically non-mathematical and in the spirit of the "popular" vein but with an unusual twist. This is not a superficial pop-science "gee-wiz" book. At the risk of losing some less than serious lay readers, Schumm has wisely sprinkled some important formulas throughout the book and he effectively shows why they are significant. You don't have to be able to see or do the "proofs" in the equations, just the important concepts behind them. Chapter 1 serves as the Introduction and Chapter 2 is a quick account of the four fundamental forces of Nature as by described by the Standard Model. Chapter 3 covers Planck's constant and the revolutionary discovery of quantization, Einstein's Relativity, Wave-Particle Duality (ala de Broglie's matter waves), Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle, and finally Schrodinger's time-independent equation are all brought to light. The book has many diagrams to graphically illustrate various concepts and also a nice Notes section to elaborate on technical details. Chapter 4 "The marriage of Relativity & Quantum Theory" (one of my favorite chapters) is all about Relativistic QFT, Feynman diagrams of fundamental interactions, bosons, antimatter, spin, the virtually active vacuum (Casimir's effect) and ends with a nice treatment of QED. Chapter 5 is about the fundamental building blocks known as the Standard Model: Quarks, Leptons, Bosons, and Fermions & the "particle zoo".

The remaining half of the book (chapters 6 though 10) is my favorite. Here Schumm takes me where I've always wanted to go - right into the heart & depth of the symmetries & abstractions that have only been hinted at in other books. Here, Schumm offers a serious & stimulating challenge for this physics lay-enthusiast. I'm happily compelled to re-read major sections of the book that are indeed deep & abstract - trying to get my mind wrapped around the concepts of SU(2) & SU(3) Lie Algebras, hypercharge, and internal symmetry spaces in gauge theories. I've seen this stuff before in many other popular books but they're usually dumbed down too far with vague or loose analogies (I can't help but feel like some authors are being forced to be less than forthcoming). Some of us don't flee in a blind/frightened panic over alien & abstract mathematical concepts of internal spaces so long as we're not hit with the double barrel of imposing mathematical rigor & proof. You see, I strongly suspect that the majority of popular physics readers are simply interested in sensationalized subjects like Superstring & Theory of Everything stuff - this is what sells in the minds of most publishers after all. So, I appreciate the (too) few authors & publishers that go out on a limb for those of us who're starving for real meat (less the Graduate level rigor however). Incidentally take a peek at Vincint Icke's book: The Force of Symmetry. You'll see a unique approach to fascinating and abstract world of fundamental physics there as well.

One can't help but suspect that there's something to the exquisitely beautiful patterns in the abstract mathematical spaces and Lie groups the author is trying to teach us here. Correspondence between rotation groups in two real dimensions R(2) and those in the complex plane U(1) are presented accessibly. He brings us through Lie Algebras: R(3), U(1), SU(2), & SU(3) and Gauge Theories; spin projections, complex rotations (imaginary numbers) and symmetry transformation operations in Isospin space.

I love this stuff and only wish I had cultivated a discipline of mathematical studies as a young man so that I could fully appreciate the beauty and utility of these methods of understanding the crown achievement of human intellect. In any event, I believe Deep Down Things is written with someone like me in mind (the author agrees) and I hope you find your interest in it as well.

My background: I'm not a physicist. I do like math, but don't necessarily like a narrative flow to be interrupted by alot of math. I have read historical treatments of physics, especially the period since Maxwell. I have read several popular books relating to quantum mechanics, etc.

My problem: I have been frustrated by the absence of a book which can pull everything together and make the details of the Standard Model understandable and enjoyable to read about.

This book's triumph: it has replaced that absence with an excellent presence! This book is extremely lucid, appears to be rigorous (I am not qualified to judge), and goes into far more detail than any other popular treatment I have read or heard about. I really do feel as though a fog is lifting.

I am now on about page 115 (there are about 350 pages of narrative; plus a brief appendix regarding scientific notation; and notes, sometimes humorous but usually serious and helpful, keyed to certain passages of the text; the index appears to be completely adequate).

The chapter titles are:

1. Introduction

2. The True Movers and Shakers: The Forces of Nature

3. The Great Reawakening: The Modern Physics Revolution

4. The Marriage of Relativity & Quantum Theory: Relativistic

Quantum Field Theory

5. Patterns in Nature: The Fundamental Building Blocks

6. Mathematical Patterns: Lie Groups

7. The World Within: Internal Symmetries

8. Physics By Pure Thought: Gauge Theory

9. The Current Paradigm: Hidden Symmetry, The Standard Model &

the Higgs Boson

10. Into the Unknown: What Lies Ahead

This book is a non-mathematical treatment of the subject and it is not too hard for the layman. It does offer a satisfying level of detail and explains matters (no pun intended) in a clear and enjoyable fashion. I will repeat myself and say that it is the best book on its topic that I have ever seen.

Bottom line: Buy it.

If you are tired of books that throw out words like "symmetry" and "gauge theory" without ever explaining (at least conceptually) what these terms mean and how these concepts relate to a deep understanding of particle physics then this is the book to buy.

The author explains the mathematical concepts quite simply and in such a way that if you can read ANY popular book on physics then you can understand how Lie Algebras and Gauge Theories help derive the eightfold way, the charges on some bosons, the probability of the Higgs field/particle, and therefore lead to the Standard Model of particle physics.

Imagine a book which covers these topics (Lie Groups, Lie Algebras and Gauge Theories) without ever seeming mathematically challenging or complex. Here it is.

My only disappointed? It doesn't cover more, because this is the best exposition -- real teaching at a world class level -- of the subjects it does cover. If Schumm ever writes another book I will buy it, sight unseen.

If you have read, or wanted to read "The Road to Reality" by Penrose (which I highly recommend if you have the determination to read it), this will make several sections of that book much easier to understand -- were all of Penrose's explanations as high quality as "Deep Down Things" there would likely never be a better book on these subjects.

For anyone considering this book, the answer is simple: buy it and enjoy reading it.