'The book contains a lot of examples, a lot of non-standard material which is not included in many other books. At the same time the authors manage to avoid numerous cumbersome calculations … It is a great achievement that the authors found a balance.'zbMATHThis book presents the study of symmetry groups in Physics from a practical perspective, i.e. emphasising the explicit methods and algorithms useful for the practitioner and profusely illustrating by examples.The first half reviews the algebraic, geometrical and topological notions underlying the theory of Lie groups, with a review of the representation theory of finite groups. The topic of Lie algebras is revisited from the perspective of realizations, useful for explicit computations within these groups. The second half is devoted to applications in physics, divided into three main parts — the first deals with space-time symmetries, the Wigner method for representations and applications to relativistic wave equations. The study of kinematical algebras and groups illustrates the properties and capabilities of the notions of contractions, central extensions and projective representations. Gauge symmetries and symmetries in Particle Physics are studied in the context of the Standard Model, finishing with a discussion on Grand-Unified Theories.

'The book contains a lot of examples, a lot of non-standard material which is not included in many other books. At the same time the authors manage to avoid numerous cumbersome calculations ... It is a great achievement that the authors found a balance.'zbMATHThis book presents the study of symmetry groups in Physics from a practical perspective, i.e. emphasising the explicit methods and algorithms useful for the practitioner and profusely illustrating by examples.The first half reviews the algebraic, geometrical and topological notions underlying the theory of Lie groups, with a review of the representation theory of finite groups. The topic of Lie algebras is revisited from the perspective of realizations, useful for explicit computations within these groups. The second half is devoted to applications in physics, divided into three main parts - the first deals with space-time symmetries, the Wigner method for representations and applications to relativistic wave equations. The study of kinematical algebras and groups illustrates the properties and capabilities of the notions of contractions, central extensions and projective representations. Gauge symmetries and symmetries in Particle Physics are studied in the context of the Standard Model, finishing with a discussion on Grand-Unified Theories.

This book is devoted to a pedagogical introduction to supergravity from a practical perspective. As a particular feature of the book, the authors provide explicit details, which makes the computations easier to follow for the interested reader. Each chapter has summary tables, which contain the main results and, in addition, we have collected important or additional material in the appendix.In the first part of the book, the N=1 supergravity Lagrangian in four spacetime dimensions is derived. Closely following the reference of Wess and Bagger, we use the superspace approach. All steps, from the geometric principles of curved superspace to the field redefinition necessary to obtain a correctly normalised Lagrangian, are carefully analysed. Comparisons with other methods, such as conformal supergravity, are also given.In the second part of the book, we address more phenomenological aspects of supergravity such as supersymmetry breaking, no-scale supergravity, super-Higgs mechanism, etc. Finally, the relationship between supergravity and particle physics, and cosmology are analysed.