This monograph gives a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of soft and hard diffraction processes in strong interaction physics. The first part covers the general formalism (the optical analogy, the eikonal picture, high-energy kinematics, S-matrix theory) and soft hadron--hadron scattering (including the Regge theory) in a complete and mature presentation. It can be used as a textbook in particle physics classes. The remainder of the book is devoted to the "new diffraction": the pomeron in QCD, low-x physics, diffractive deep inelastic scattering and related processes, jet production etc. It presents recent results and experimental findings and their phenomenological interpretations. This part addresses graduate students as well as researchers.

A comprehensive and up-to-date overview of soft and hard diffraction processes in strong interaction physics. The first part covers soft hadron hadron scattering in a complete and mature presentation. It can be used as a textbook in particle physics classes. Chapters 8-11 address graduate students as well as researchers, covering the "new diffraction": the pomeron in QCD, low-x physics, diffractive deep inelastic scattering and related processes.

The revolution in elementary particle physics sparked by the unearthing of the bizarre J/psi particle in 1974, and followed by the discovery of the equally mysterious tau and upsilon particles, led to a beautiful interweaving of theory and experiment culminating in the SalamWeinberg theory of electroweak interactions and the Quantum Chromodynamic theory of strong interactions. The extraordinary prediction of the existence of the W and Z-zero bosons was fulfilled in 1983, and it is now possible to produce Z-zeros in millions. The emphasis today is on fine quantitative detail and, to match this, more sophisticated theoretical calculations are demanded. This book presents a comprehensive and unified treatment of modern theoretical and experimental particle physics at a level accessible to beginning research students. The emphasis throughout, is on presenting underlying physical principles in a simple and intuitive way.

This work presents, in two volumes, a comprehensive and unified treatment of modern theoretical and experimental particle physics at a level accessible to beginning research students. The emphasis throughout is on presenting underlying physical principles in a simple and intuitive way, and the more sophisticated methods demanded by present day research interests are introduced in a very gradual and gentle fashion. Volume 1 covers electroweak interactions, the discovery and properties of the 'new' particles, the discovery of partons and the construction and predictions of the simple parton model. Volume 2 deals at some length with CP-violation, but is mainly devoted to QCD and its application to 'hard' processes. A brief coverage of 'soft' hadronic physics is included. This work will provide a comprehensive reference and textbook for all graduate students and researchers interested in modern particle physics.