Physics 226

Particles and Symmetries

Spring 2013

Instructor:	Stephen D. Ellis (mailto:sdellis@uw.edu)
Office:	PAB B401
Office hours:	Final Office hours - Tuesday 6/11/13 10:30 AM —2:30 PM
TA:	Heather Russell, heathrus@uw.edu Akshay Ghalsasi, aghalsa2@uw.edu, B427 Office Hours: B305, Wednesday 3:30 – 5:30 PM B405, Thursday 1:30 – 4:30 PM
Lectures:	9:30-10:20 AM, MWF, room PAA 118
Webpage	http://courses.washington.edu/partsym
Email list	Phys226a _sp13 @u.washington .edu

Clicker registration here

Particle Physics in the News

Recent particle physics related articles:
AMS press release (4/3/13)
Two Higgs (April Fool?, 4/1/13)
Chasing the Higgs (3/5/13)
All Signs Point to Higgs Boson (3/5/13)

A video of the UW HEP Group’s presentations at the “Higgs Night Out” held at T.S. McHugh's
on the evening of 7/3/12 can be found at http://kcts9.org/education/science-cafe/higgs-boson-explained

Here is a talk introducing the LHC and the Higgs boson.

Class Overview

This course provides 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 (for example, quarks, gluons and leptons), the importance of symmetries in characterizing the interactions of particles, and the key experimental evidence on which the Standard Model is based.

Course Objectives

Like most physics courses, the “big picture” goal in this course is to learn to quantitatively analyze physical systems, i.e., solve problems. More specifically, we will acquire practical facility with special relativity and its application to relativistic particle dynamics. We will learn to be able to identify various classes of elementary particles and predict the type of interactions responsible for their decays and scatterings. We will practice performing order-of magnitude estimates relevant for interpreting and/or judging the feasibility of a variety of modern physics experiments. Along the way, we will attempt to pay close attention to the results now coming from the LHC at CERN, e.g., the results on the candidate Higgs boson. (For the latest LHC news go to the LPCC.) Note that we will use material from several different subject areas and there are only “recommended” (not required) text books. On the other hand, you will be expected to master the material in the lecture notes (and the quizzes are intended to encourage you to stay up-to-date). While some of the homework exercises are from the text books, they are generally not of the variety “plug these numbers into Equation 6”, but rather the homework exercises focus on analyzing interesting, but often unfamiliar, physical systems. Note that the lecture notes included worked examples. Studying these examples is part of the learning process and is good preparation for the assigned HW and for the quizzes and exams.

2013 Tentative syllabus

Week 1:   Special Relativity
Week 2:   Spacetime physics
Week 3:   Relativistic dynamics

Week 4: Known particles and interactions
Week 5: Quarks and mesons

Week 6: Baryons

Week 7: Symmetries

Week 8: Isospin

Week 9: Discrete symmetries
Week 10: Force carriers and the Standard Model

2013 (Spring) Class notes (link for the complete set with table of contents and index)

Chapter 0: Introduction

Chapter 1: Special relativity

Chapter 2: Minkowski spacetime
Chapter 3: Relativistic Dynamics
Chapter 4: Known particles
Chapter 5: Quarks and hadrons
Chapter 6: Symmetries

Chapter 7: Weak Interactions

Supplementary

Chapter 10: Intro to Group Theory

Chapter 11: Young Diagrams and SU(N) Representations

2012 (Spring) Class notes (link for the complete set with table of contents and index)

Chapter 0: Introduction

Chapter 1: Special relativity

Chapter 2: Minkowski spacetime

Chapter 3: Relativistic dynamics

Chapter 4: Known particles

Chapter 5: Quarks and hadrons
Chapter 6: Symmetries
Chapter 7: Weak Interactions

Supplementary

Chapter 10: Intro to Group Theory

Chapter 11: Young Diagrams and SU(N) Representations

2012 (Autumn) Class notes (using East Coast metric!)
Chapter 0: Introduction

Chapter 1: Special relativity

Chapter 2: Minkowski spacetime

Chapter 3: Relativistic dynamics

Chapter 4: Known particles

Chapter 5: Quarks and hadrons

Chapter 6: Symmetries

Chapter 7: Weak Interactions

Grading

There will be weekly homework assignments, one midterm, and a final exam. There will also be regular “clicker quizzes” during lecture. Grades will be based approximately 30% on homework, 10% on quizzes, 20% on the midterm, and 40% on the final.

HW must be turned-in (either in class or in my mailbox) by the end of class on the due date, typically a Friday (except for HW #1 that is due on the second Monday). 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 here. The column labeled Projected 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 Projected Grade is 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 of about 35%. This is just an estimate of the Final Grade. The total score and the grading algorithm will “mature” as more information becomes available. It is to everyone’s advantage to learn from the HW sets and do well on the Exams and quizzes.

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Prerequisites – Phys 121-3, 225 (Quantum I), 227 (Elementary Mathematical Physics I), Phys 228 is recommended

It is expected that students entering Phys 226 have some working knowledge of special relativity and quantum mechanics. Some facility with the following is assumed: complex variables, harmonic (sines & cosines) and hyperbolic (sinh & cosh) functions, simple transformations represented by matrices operating on vectors or state vectors, quantum numbers, eigenvalues and eigenstates (in the context of quantum mechanics, quantized spin in simple systems, symmetries and conserved quantum numbers.

Textbooks

The course notes are the primary reference for this class, but these books may also be useful:

Introduction to Relativity by John B. Kogut
Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics by A. Das and T. Ferbel

Reading Assignments

Please read prior to the indicated week: (Note Monday May 27 is a holiday)

Week	Course notes	Textbooks
Apr 1 - 5	chapter 0 & 1	Kogut: chapter 1 & 2
Apr 8 - 12	chapter 2	Kogut: chapter 3 & 4
Apr 15 - 19	chapter 3	Kogut: chapter 4
Apr22 - 26	chapter 4	Kogut: chapter 6, Das & Ferbel: sections 4.1-4.4 (don't worry about last 1.5 pages)
Apr 29 - May 3	chapter 5	Das & Ferbel: sections 9.1 - 9.4.3
May 6 - 10	Continue & Midterm
May 13 - 17	Finish chapter 5	Das & Ferbel: sections 9.4.4 - 9.8, 10.4
May 20 - 24	chapter 6	Das & Ferbel: section 10.5, chapter 11
May 29 - 31	finish 6 and start 7	Das & Ferbel chapter 13
Jun 3 - 7	chapter 7	Das & Ferbel: sections 13.1 - 13.9

Homework Assignments (assignments and solutions posted on Catalyst)

Problem Set #1 (Due Monday 4/8/13)	.
Problem Set #2 (Due Friday 4/12/13)	.
Problem Set #3 (Due Friday 4/19/13)	.
Problem Set #4 (Due Friday 4/26/13)	.
Problem Set #5 (Due Friday 5/3/13)	.
Problem Set #6 (Due Monday 5/13/13)	.
Problem Set #7 (Due Friday 5/17/13)	.
Problem Set #8 (Due Friday 5/24/13)	.
Problem Set #9 (Due Friday 5/31/13)	.
Problem Set #10 (Due Friday 6/7/13)	.

Exams

· Midterm: Wednesday, May 8, 2013, in class (A118);

· Final: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 , 8:30 to 10:20 AM in A118;

Exams will be closed book, closed notes, but a summary sheet will be provided.
The final summary sheet is here. Calculators (but not cellphones) allowed.