PHYSICS 3

Handout/Homework on Elementary Particles.

Name:
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Date:
Class No.
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y r/Section: -------------------
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Reference:
Chapter 32 of Giancoli
Chapter 46 of Serway
PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
(1) Discuss the role of particle accelerators in the study of elementary particles. Why do particles need
to have very high speeds in order to probe the interior of nuclei?
(2) Cite laboratories/ research institutes which have particle accelerators.
FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES
(3) Enumerate the four fundamental forces in nature.
MEDIATOR PARTICLES
To better perceive how force can act over a distance, without contact, Faraday introduced the
idea of a field. The force that one charged particle exerts on a second can be said to be due to the
electric field set up by the first. Similarly, the magnetic field can be said to carry the magnetic force.
It is also known that electromagnetic radiation can be considered as either a wave or as a
collection of particles called photons. Because of this wave particle duality, it is possible to imagine that
the electromagnetic force between charged particles is due to the EM field set up by one and felt by the
other to an exchange of photons between them. In other words, the photon can be thought of as the
mediator particle for the electromagnetic force.
" By analogy, Hideki Yukawa argued that there ought to be a particle that mediates the force.
This Yukawa particle is predicted to have a mass intermediate between that of the electron and the
proton and was therefore called , which means "in the middle". In the search for the
Yukawa particle in the cosmic rays that enters the earth's atmosphere, a particle having a mass close to
the predicted value but does not interact strongly with matter was discovered. This particle was called
------ The Yukawa particle was finally found in 1947 and was called . The
recent theory of quantum chromodynamics, however, has replaced mesons with as the basic
carriers of this force.
(9) Enumerate the particles presumed to mediate the weak nuclear force.
(10) What is the quantum of the gravitational force, which has not yet been identified/detected?
ANTIPARTICLES
(11) What is an antiparticle?-------------------
(12) When a particle encounters its antiparticle, the two------ each other.
(13) What happens to the energy of their vanished mass?
CONSERVATION LAWS
Conservation laws such as that of energy, momentum, angular momentum, and charge, are found to hold
precisely in all particle interactions. A study of particle interactions has revealed a number of new
conservation laws.
(14) Cite two of such laws.
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PHYSICS 3
Handout/Homework on Elementary Particles.
PARTICLE CLASSIFICATION AND DISTINCTION
Particle Classification 1: Fill up the table.
Category Gauge bosons Lepton
Description Do not interact
via the strong
force
Examples
(18-20) (Cite
4 for each
category)
Hadrons
Can interact via
the strong force
(21) Differentiate between baryons and mesons in terms of baryon#.
(2Z) There are particles referred to as strange particles. What is so strange about these particles? Cite
two peculiar features.
Particle Classification II
leptons and hadrons (25-
27)
QUARKS
(28) What are quarks?--------------
(29) Enumerate the first three quarks. --------------
(30)Differentiate between baryons and mesons in terms of quarks.
(31) What is the fourth quark that was proposed on the basis of symmetry in nature? (Since there are 4
leptons, as was thought in the 1960s, there should be four quarks.)-------
2
(32) What are the other two
(33)The distinction between the six quarks is referred to as . This is the term used to refer to
the various types of quarks.
(34) A quark can have how many colors? __ _
(35) Why is the new theory of the strong force referred to as quantum chromodynamics?
(36) Briefly discuss asymptotic freedom. -----------------------