[alanbernstein]

I, as a layman with basic college physics knowledge, and passing knowledge of the standard model, want to understand the meaning of those terms. Do you know how I can go about that? Ideally, with something a little less dense than a textbook.

[drauh]

I have a PhD in physics, though not particle physics. QFT was required, since the methods appear all over in condensed matter physics.

Unfortunately, there is no real shortcut to being able to understand those terms except by studying one of the standard texts. And, physics being what it is, you can expect a pretty hard slog because the texts will assume you know first quantization back and forth. Add to that, it's not just QFT but the domain-specific standard model knowledge.

Dealing with QM requires PDEs, linear algebra, a fair bit of applied analysis (real and complex). Dealing with QFT requires that, plus learning a bunch of new techniques with the typical hand-wavy rigor of physics. (Hand-wavy compared to math.)

If you want to get a feel of the Standard Model without knowing QFT, the text I used when I took senior-level particle physics is great: Introduction to Elementa Particles, by David Griffiths. (He's an excellent writer, btw; I recommend any of his physics books).

As for the standard texts for particle physics, I'm afraid I've been out of the loop for too long to remember what books were used.

[abecedarius]

A related question: Feynman's popular book QED claims to explain quantum electrodynamics enough that you could almost do calculations with it, just ridiculously inefficiently. After reading it, I can't: the details left out, I can't easily fill in from the grad-level texts, even with a pretty decent undergrad physics background. Shouldn't it be possible to explain QED to a programmer using a literate program? (Again, an inefficient one.) Was Feynman exaggerating? Or is it just the tininess of the market of programmers who want to understand what QED is really about who aren't out to become professional physicists?

(For others, QED is the part of the standard model about electrons and light -- the most relevant part for everyday physics and apparently the simplest part too.)

[namin]

Apart the character of physical laws and the easy pieces, what's the gateway book to understand feynann more advanced work?

[abecedarius]

I don't really know, because I don't understand the more advanced work like QED. But http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_toc.html is one of my favorite books ever.

[ars]

If you are looking for the book, the name is "Introduction to Elementary Particles" (not Elementa which is a typo).

[tgb]

I was going to recommend the Griffiths book as well. The first two chapters are readable without any demanding mathematics. The latter ones require more work, but build up nicely.

[donovanr]

Zee's QFT in a Nutshell is a very readable, high-level view of what's going on in QFT. Griffiths' book is his one text I haven't read, but I love his others so much I can't help but second the recommendation.

[andrepd]

I'm afraid there really isn't another way around. This stuff is just very difficult. If you want to understand the standard model you need to understand Quantum Field Theory, and to understand Quantum Field Theory you need to understand Quantum Mechanics, and to understand that you need to understand classical hamiltonian and lagrangian mechanics, etc etc, and to understand all that you need lots of mathematical notions, so... There really isn't a fast way but to study the standard texts.