🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct2.230447.25257@access.usask.ca> choy@skorpio.usask.ca (I am a terminator.) writes:
>What do we know for closed form equations describing or modelling
>the activity experienced by subatomic particles? How about recursive

Unclear if you are asking about nuclear physics (i.e. the behavior 
of quarks and gluons when they are mainly color singlets in the 
form of protons and neutrons effectively exchanging mesons) or 
particle physics (i.e. the behavior of what used to be called 
"elementary" particles). 

>equations or series? Do we tend to talk about collections of
>particles or can we talk about each individual particle as it
>interacts with other particles? Can we predict what happens at
>a particular point in space as time passes? I'm wondering about the
>extent of any generalization that has been done from experimental
>results. Is there a handbook of formulas available? in the works?
>Anyone interested in compiling one?

There is a "standard model" for particle physics described in all 
recent particle physics text books.  Which one you like is a 
matter of taste.  A working knowledge of quantum field theory is 
needed to appreciate this model. Its predictive power is outstanding 
as long as the energy of the interactions is high enough that one 
can calculate an answer.  It has yet to be able to calculate the 
mass of a proton; the low energy sector is really untested.  

Nuclear physics is basically the low energy sector of QCD, with 
the complication of having lots of particles interacting with 
one another.  The most complete description of the field is 
probably a pair of massive (and expensive) tomes: deShalit and 
Feshbach (Theoretical Nuclear Physics Vol. I, Nuclear Structure) 
and a new book by Feshback (basically vol. II on reactions, but 
I do not think it is called volume 2).  This material requires a 
good working knowledge of quantum mechanics with more of an 
emphasis on many-body theory than field theory altho the latter 
is helpful at times.  It is an intense book. 

--
J. A. Carr                                    |  "The New Frontier of which I  
jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu                           |  speak is not a set of promises
Florida State University  B-186               |  -- it is a set of challenges."
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute |   John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)