This book introduces readers to the fascinating world of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and
quarks and gluons the elementary constituents of protons neutrons and all hadrons.
Specifically it focuses on the color of quarks and gluons responsible for their mutual
interactions via the strong force. The book provides an elementary introduction to the
birdtrack technique which is a powerful tool for addressing the color structure of QCD in a
pictorial way. The technique shows how quark and gluon colors are combined and mixed in QCD.
The author discusses color conservation shows how to project on color states of systems of
quarks antiquarks and gluons how to derive their color charges. The book is enriched with
many exercises integrated in the text to learn by doing. This book is primarily intended for
particle physics students graduates and researchers working in the field of QCD. However it
requires no specific prerequisites in QCD so it may also be of interest to students of
mathematics as an illustration of the use of the birdtrack pictorial technique in
representation theory.
