PHY401 - Nuclear and Particle Physics

Monsoon Term 2020, IISER Mohali

Instructor: Dr. Anosh Joseph

PHY401: Tutorial 8 Solutions

Friday, November 5, 2020

1. Let us look at the production and decay reactions of hadrons at the quark level.
As an example let us examine the reaction

π − + p → ∆0 → π 0 + n (1)

as a flow of quarks
¯ + (udd)
(dū) + (uud) → (udd) + (dd) (2)

In the first part of the reaction a ū antiquark in the pion annihilates against a u
quark in the proton, leaving a (udd) state in the correct configuration to form a ∆0
baryon. In the decay, a quark-anti-quark pair is created to form a neutral pion and a
neutron. In the quark model, the conservation of baryon number is a consequence of
the conservation of quark number. Each quark has baryon number of 1/3, and each
anti-quark has baryon number of −1/3. This leads to the correct baryon numbers: +1
for qqq baryons, −1 for q̄ q̄ q̄ anti-baryons, and 0 for q q̄ mesons. Since quarks can only
annihilate against antiquarks of the same flavor, quark flavor is conserved throughout
the strong reaction. The quark flow diagram for the process is given in Fig. 1.

π− Δ0 π0

p p

Figure 1: Quark flow diagram for the reaction π − + p → ∆0 → π 0 + n.

Draw the quark flow diagrams for the following reactions.

PHY401: Tutorial 8 Solutions Monsoon Term 2020

(1a.) p + K̄ 0 → π + + Λ0
(1b.) K + + n → K 0 + p

Solution:

(1a.) p + K̄ 0 → π + + Λ0

¯ → (ud)
(uud) + (sd) ¯ + (uds) (3)

The quark flow diagram is given in Fig. 2.

Figure 2: Quark flow diagram for p + K̄ 0 → π + + Λ0 .

(1b.) K + + n → K 0 + p

(us̄) + (dud) → (ds̄) + (uud) (4)

The quark flow diagram is given in Fig. 3.



2. The Z 0 boson mediates the scattering process νµ + p → νµ + p. Draw the scattering

diagram of this process in terms of the leptons, quarks and the Z 0 boson.

Solution:

This process is shown in Fig. 4.



2/5
PHY401: Tutorial 8 Solutions Monsoon Term 2020

Figure 3: Quark flow diagram for K + + n → K 0 + p.

Figure 4: Z 0 boson mediated scattering process νµ + p → νµ + p.

3. Draw the Feynman diagram for the weak interaction process µ− → e− + νµ + ν̄e .

Solution:

This process is shown in Fig. 5.



4. Draw the Feynman diagram for the weak interaction process ∆0 → p + π − .

Solution:

This process is shown in Fig. 6.



3/5
PHY401: Tutorial 8 Solutions Monsoon Term 2020

Figure 5: Muon decay through the reaction µ− → e− + νµ + ν̄e .

Figure 6: Decay of ∆0 through the weak interaction process ∆0 → p + π − .

4. Draw the Feynman diagram for the strong interaction process ∆0 → p + π − .

Solution:

This process is shown in Fig. 7.



4/5
PHY401: Tutorial 8 Solutions Monsoon Term 2020

Figure 7: Decay of ∆0 through the strong interaction process ∆0 → p + π − .

5/5