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Physics
Particle Physics
• This is an introduction to the
• Phenomena (particles & forces)
• Theoretical Background (symmetry)
• Experimental Methods (accelerators &
detectors)
of modern particle physics
• That is, it is not a “real” introduction to
particle theory (there are other modules!)
• Rather, it will attempt to give you the
information and tools needed to understand
and appreciate the history and new results
in the field
Particle Physics
• Elementary particle physics is
concerned with the basic forces of
nature
• Combines the insights of our deepest
physical theories
• Special Relativity
• Quantum Mechanics
• Matter, at its deepest level, interacts
by the exchange of particles
Hierarchies of Nature
• Animal Life
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Atomic Physics
• Nuclear Physics
• Subatomic physics
• Invariance under
• Time translation – Energy
• Space Translation – Momentum
• Rotation – Angular momentum
• These quantities are obeyed in any system –
on any level
• Easiest assumption is that they are obeyed
locally!
Waves and Particles
• Electromagnetic forces are
propagated by fields between charges
• Classically characterized by waves that
carry energy & momentum & spin
• Quantum mechanics describes
particles as a wave packet.
• The wave packet carries energy,
momentum, and spin
• The quantum theory of fields
(Quantum Field Theory) describes the
fields which couple to particles as
particles!
Fundamental Matter Particles
LEPTONS QUARKS
What is a Force?
• Every law of physics you have learned
boils down to involving two classes of
phenomena:
• Conserved quantities:
• Mechanical
• Energy, momentum, angular momentum
• Related to time, translation, and rotation
invariance
• Number
• Charge conservation, law mass action in
chemistry
Forces of Nature
• Now we know what there “is”
• How do they talk to each other?
• Thomson identified
the cathode rays as a
new type of matter
• Same charge as a
proton
• Much lighter!
Mesons & The Strong Force
• But what held the nucleus together
• Coulomb forces should repel the
protons
• Something stronger must be present
• Yukawa postulated a force similar to
the photon, but massive
• Strong, but limited in range
• Nuclear size suggested / R ~ m 100 MeV
Particles from the Sky!
• Up in the mountains of
Europe, scientists
detected high-energy
particles in emulsion
and cloud chambers
• Discovered new
particles which were
lighter than nucleons
but much heavier than
electrons
• New particles
• Pion
• Muon
• Similar in mass, but
interacted very
differently
The Muon
• Did not suffer nuclear interactions
• Rather, was quite penetrating
• Like an electron, but slower (more
massive) at the same momentum
m 105.7 MeV
dE Z z 2 (c) 2 2me v 2 2 v 2
4 N A
2
2 ln 2
dx
A m ev I c
Ionization energy loss
of charged particles
The Pion
• Other meson events appeared to show a negative
particle which stopped in the emulsion, was
absorbed by a nucleus, and then “exploded” into
“stars” (D.H. Perkins was one who observed these!)
• The positive particles seemed to stop and then
decay into the previously-seen muons
• These had a similar mass to the mesons, but
clearly had different interactions m 135 MeV
• Recognized as strongly-interacting particles, more
like Yukawa’s predictions!
Antimatter
• As soon as Dirac combined
• Special Relativity
• Quantum Mechanics
in a way that was symmetric in
space & time, he found that his
equation described spin-1/2
particles
• It also predicted negative energy
solutions for fermions
• Predicted “anti-particles” in
nature, with opposite charge but
same mass
• Anti-electron positron was
discovered in cosmic rays
• Anderson’s cloud chamber
• Curvature gives momentum Only consistent with
• Length gives rate of energy loss light positive particle
Accelerators and Detectors
• In order to probe down to smaller distances, you
need large energies
• Development of accelerator technology was rapid in the
first half of 20th century
• Three major types
• Linear accelerators
• Cyclotrons
• Synchrotrons
• With increasing energy,
require increasing
sophistication of tools used
to detect particles
• Detector technology
Accelerators
p n
New law of nature:
Lepton number is
conserved separately
The Later Years
• After the quark model, the zoo reduced to six microbes. Then
it became chase after heavier and heavier particles
Weak and Strong Interactions
• While weak and strong interactions
were now extensively studied, and
theoretical concepts existed for their
deeper structure, experiments were
still limited in energy
• Thus, difficult to probe
• Force carriers of weak interactions
• Substructure of hadrons
Partons
• For a long time, quarks were seen as simply a convenient
mathematical tool to account for quantum numbers
• No evidence for free quarks in nature
• Scattering experiments at SLAC did the same thing as Rutherford
• Found that large momentum transfers were possible – as if the proton has
pointlike consituents
• Measured “structure functions” that characterize the momentum
distributions of the “pieces” of the proton
Electroweak Unification
• Many features of the weak interactions
• Long lifetimes
• Parity violation
• Isotropic decays
• Explained by
• Heavy intermediate bosons (like the Yukawa force, but
much shorter range)
• Coupled to left-handed fermions
• The features were then unified with the
electromagnetic force by Glashow, Salam and
Weinberg – who received the Nobel in 1979
• The weak force is carried by W and Z bosons of M~90 GeV
• The massless photon is induced by the presence of a
condensate of “Higgs” bosons, that spontaneously breaks
the symmetry of the interaction
Charmed Particles
• A case where theory led
experiment K l l
• Weak interactions seemed to K 0 l l
require a change of strangeness
• “Neutral currents” not seen in
decays of kaons to pions Always
a change in charge
• This was explained naturally by
the existence of a fourth quark p p
e
e
M=0 M=m