From the Preface:
<tions of group and representation theory to particle physics. It provides the
essential notions of relativistic invariance, space-time symmetries and inter-
nal symmetries employed in the standard University courses of Relativistic
Quantum Field Theory and Particle Physics. However, we point out that this
is neither a book on these subjects, nor it is a book on group theory.
Specifically, its main topics are, on one side, the analysis of the Lorentz
and Poincar? groups and, on the other side, the internal symmetries based
mainly on unitary groups, which are the essential tools for the understanding
of the interactions among elementary particles and for the construction of the
present theories. At the same time, these topics give important and enlighten-
ing examples of the essential role of group theory in particle physics. We have
attempted to present a pedagogical survey of the matter, which should be
useful to graduate students and researchers in particle physics; the only pre-
requisite is some knowledge of classical field theory and relativistic quantum
mechanics.>>