Particles and Symmetries

Particle Physics in the News

• Recent results from the Planck space telescope (12/2/14)
• Using muons to study volcanos (12/2/14)
• New baryons found with quark content bds (11/19/14)
• Evidence for primordial gravitational waves? (probably not) (5/29/14)
• New measurement of proton magnetic moment (5/29/14)
• Why particle physics matters (9/10/13)
• Dark Energy Survey (9/7/13)
• AMS: antimatter in space (4/3/13)
• Chasing the Higgs (3/5/13)
• Search for the Higgs boson at the LHC reveals new particle (7/4/12)
• Daya Bay: Neutrino oscillations and ϑ13 (3/8/12)
• Superluminal neutrinos? (not!) (2/22/12)

Overview

This course provides an introduction to the fundamental constituents of matter and the symmetries which characterize their interactions. Topics include 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: quarks, gluons and leptons, the importance of symmetries in characterizing the interactions of particles, and key experimental evidence on which the Standard Model is based.

Course objectives

Like most physics courses, overall objectives of this course are two-fold: acquire knowledge about physical aspects of the universe we live in, and learn to quantitatively analyze physical problems. More specifically, students will acquire practical facility with special relativity and its application to relativistic particle dynamics. They will learn how to recognize various classes of elementary particles and predict the type of interactions responsible for their decays and scatterings. They will practice performing order-of-magnitude estimates relevant for interpreting and/or judging the feasibility of a variety of modern physics experiments.

The course covers material from several different, but related, subject areas. The primary reference is the course notes, accessible below. Students will be expected to master the material in these notes. Carefully studying these notes, including the worked examples at the end of chapters, is essential for success in this class. Read the assigned portions of the notes before class and come prepared to ask questions about any portions which were confusing. There are no other required textbooks, only recommended supplemental texts.

While some homework problems will be typical textbook style problems, focusing on a single concept, many homework problems will focus on analyzing interesting but unfamiliar physical systems using the principles and techniques discussed in this course (and its prerequisites). Every homework assignment should be viewed as providing examples of (often requested) practice exam problems.

• Complete (with table of contents and index)
• Preface
• 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
• Appendix A: Basic mathematics
• Appendix B: Quantum mechanics

There will be weekly homework assignments, one midterm, and a final exam. There will also be frequent clicker quizzes during lecture, designed to encourge you to do the assigned reading before class. Grades will be based approximately 30% on homework, 10% on quizzes, 20% on the midterm, and 40% on the final. The final is a required part of the class.

Homework must be turned in (either in class, or under Prof. Yaffe's office door) by the end of class on the due date, typically a Wednesday. Late homework will be accepted with a 50% discount in points if turned in by the end of class on the class-day following the original due date. (This option cannot be applied to part of an assignment; late submissions will be accepted only when no part of the assignment was turned in on time.) To make grading as efficient and error-free as possible, homework assignments must be submitted on clean 8.5x11 inch paper, stapled in the upper left-hand corner. Writing must be easily legible. Illegible work, or submissions on off-size or ragged-edge paper torn from a spiral notebook, will receive no credit.

Scores on quizzes, homework assignments, and the midterm exam may be seen on the Catalyst gradebook.

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


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

Also useful (or fun) are these websites:

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)
Introductory LHC videos
Interactive Table of Nuclides from the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute
Interactive Chart of Nuclides from the National Nuclear Data Center at BNL
1964 Messenger Lectures by Richard Feynman (requires MS Silverlight)

Homework is due every Wednesday.
New homework assignments, and solutions to the previous assignment, are posted weekly on the Catalyst workspace.