Particle Physics PHYS 3

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
SCHOOL OF PHYSICS
PHYS3936/PHYS3036/PHYS4036
SEMESTER 1 2021
PARTICLE PHYSICS
ASSIGNMENT 1
To be submitted by Friday 26th March

This assignment is common to all students in the units of study above.

Questions have equal weight.

Discussion between students is encouraged, but the final submission

should represent the student’s own writing and understanding.

If you require data on any particles in this assignment, refer to the lecture notes or slides
or else (preferred) visit the Particle Data Group (PDG) pages described in Question 1.
Particle Physics PHYS 3

QUESTION 1:

An introduction to the PDG resources and how to retrieve information from them.

Every two years, the Particle Data Group (PDG) publishes “The Review of Particle
Physics”, listing a wealth of information on particle properties. It is in some sense the
“bible” of particle physics. There is a web site containing the same information, http:
//pdg.lbl.gov/.
Much of the information contained in this site is beyond the scope of this course, although
some of the things listed that do not make any sense now will make some more sense as we
progress through the lectures. With this in mind, this question is designed to encourage
you to visit the site and to give you some practice at obtaining information from it.
Use the pdgLive or Summary Tables section of the website to answer the following ques-
tions. If you quote a value, say for a lifetime, branching fraction etc, also quote the
uncertainty.

(a) What is the mean lifetime of a muon, and how is it known to decay? Quote the
branching fractions for the known decay modes.

(b) What is the lightest hadron that contains more than one charm and/or anticharm
quark? What is its mass and spin, and what is its most common decay mode?

(c) What is the mass of the heaviest pentaquark quoted in the listings, and how does
it decay? What is its likely quark content?

(d) What is the best direct constraint we have on the mass of a tau neutrino? Briefly
describe how the measurement was made.

(e) Which Higgs boson decay modes have definitely been observed to date? Note: Higgs
boson information is often reported in terms of signal strength rather than branching
fraction. See Section 8.6 of the course notes for an explanation of signal strength.

Notes:

• The “branching fraction” for a decay, denoted “Fraction (Γi /Γ)” in the listings, is
defined in Chapter 4 of the course notes. If a branching fraction is quoted as < (some
value), this is an upper limit on the branching fraction, at the stated confidence level,
and means that that decay mode has not yet been firmly established.

• Quote masses in MeV/c2 or GeV/c2 , not in SI units (the PDG quotes masses in MeV
or GeV i.e. the rest mass energy - they don’t show the /c2 ). For a very short-lived
particle, often rather than quoting the mean lifetime τ the so-called “width” Γ is
quoted instead. These are related by Γ = h̄/τ .
Particle Physics PHYS 3

QUESTION 2:

A little practice with calculations using special relativity.

(a) Here is the main decay mode of a charged pion:

π + → µ+ + νµ

If the pion decays at rest, calculate at what fraction of the speed of light the muon
would be travelling.

(b) From particle collider experiments, it is known that one of the ways that a W boson
decays is as follows:

W − → e− + ν̄e

The following paper was published in Nature this week by the IceCube
Collaboration: M. G. Aartsen et al., “Detection of a particle shower
at the Glashow resonance with IceCube.” Nature 591 (2021) 220-224.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03256-1. It describes the production
of a W boson via the inverse process to the above

ν̄e + e− → W −

with the electron at rest and the antineutrino a very high energy particle of
astrophysical origin. The W decays quickly to a shower of hadrons which IceCube
can detect.

Show that the estimated energy of the antineutrino obtained by IceCube, 6.32 PeV,
is consistent with the above production mechanism.

Note: In answering the above questions, it should not be necessary to substitute for the
speed of light c in SI units at any point.

Note: 1 PeV = 106 GeV.

Particle Physics PHYS 3

QUESTION 3:

Some practice drawing Feynman diagrams.

Draw a valid Feynman diagram for each of the following interactions. If you can find
more than one, try to draw the one that you think is the most probable. Appropriately
label and arrow all fermions in the diagrams. State the nature of the interaction (strong,
weak or electromagnetic) and label the appropriate exchange boson or bosons.

(a) ∆− → π − + n

(b) B + → J/ψ + K +

(c) π − + p → π 0 + n

(d) ν̄e + p → e+ + Λ

(e) B 0 → K 0 + µ+ + µ−

QUESTION 4:

Further practice with Feynman diagrams and exploring quark transitions with the weak force.

The Λ+
c was the first charmed baryon to be observed.

(a) Explain, with the aid of Feynman diagrams and the properties of weak transitions
between quark flavours, which of the following two decays is more likely:

Λ+
c → p + K − + π+
Λ+
c → p + K + + π−

(b) Calculate, showing your working, a prediction for the ratio of probabilities of the
two decays.

END OF ASSIGNMENT