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Physics 226
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Winter 2012 |
| Instructor | Toby Burnett tburnett@uw.edu 206 543-8963 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Office, hours | PAB 201 , After class | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TA | Tomasz Sakrejda tomaszs@uw.edu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lectures |
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| Website | http://courses.washington.edu/partsym | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| e-mail list | Phys226a_wi12@u.washington.edu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | This course is an introduction to the fundamental constituents of matter and the symmetries which characterize their interactions. Topics include the fundamental symmetries of nature (such as Lorentz invariance, CPT, and baryon and lepton number conservation), the "building blocks" of the current Standard Model of nuclear and particle physics, the importance of symmetries in characterizing the interactions of particles, and the key experimental evidence on which the Standard Model is based. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Objectives | Acquire practical facility with special relativity and its application to relativistic particle dynamics. Be able to identify various classes of elementary particles and predict the type of interactions responsible for their decays and scatterings. Be able to perform order-of magnitude estimates relevant for interpreting and/or judging the feasibility of a variety of modern physics experiments. In particular, we will attempt to pay close attention to the results now coming from the LHC at CERN. For the latest LHC news go to the LPCC. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Textbooks | The course notes, by Prof. Steve Ellis,
are the primary reference for this class, but these books will also be
used: Introduction to Relativity by John B. Kogut Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics by A. Das and T. Ferbel |
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| Calendar |
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| Class notes |
Chapter 2: Minkowski spacetime Chapter 3: Relativistic dynamics
Supplementary Chapter 10: Intro to Group Theory Chapter 11: Young Diagrams and SU(N) Representations |
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| Grading | There will be weekly homework assignments, one midterm, and a final exam. There may be occasional pop quizzes during lecture. Grades will be based approximately 40% on homework, 20% on the midterm, and 40% on the final. HW must be turned-in by the end of class on the due date, typically a Friday (either in class or in my mailbox). Late HW with a 50% discount in points is allowed if turned-in (in class or in my mailbox) by the end of class on the class-day following the original due date (so typically a Monday—note this does not apply to the last HW as there is no following class-day). Scores on HW assignments and the MidTerm Exam can be seen on the Catalyst web page at https://catalyst.uw.edu/gradebook/tburnett/58921. The column labeled Total Score is calculated assuming that the average (percentage) scores on the remaining HW assignments are identical to those on the previous assignments and that the (percentage) grade on the Final Exam is identical to that on the MidTerm Exam. The Class Grade is currently a “flat” (i.e., not highly curved) mapping of the scores onto the range 0.0 to 4.0 such that the highest score yields a 4.0 grade and that passing (a grade of 2.0) comes from a score just over 40%. The total score and the grading algorithm will “mature” as more information becomes available. It is to everyone’s advantage to learn more from the last HW sets and do well on the Final Exam. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Useful Resources |
Particle Data Group: Constants, Units, Atomic and Nuclear Properties Particle Data Group: Summary Tables of Particle Properties Particle Adventure (a breezy interactive tour from the Particle Data Group) The LHC (introductory videos) Interactive Table of Nuclides from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute Interactive Chart of Nuclides from the National Nuclear Data Center at BNL |
 
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