The Building Blocks of Nature

The Standard Model of Particle Physics

by

Moataz H. Emam
Layout:  Talk 2 out of 3
 Quantum Mechanics
 Special Relativity
 Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, a
marriage made in heaven
 No more single particles
 The Quantum Fields
 QED, QCD, and all those acronyms
 The Standard Model
 Higgs
 Mysteries
 Further possibilities …. SUSY?
Quantum Mechanics
 Small scale physics < molecules

 Concepts of position and momentum

of classical mechanics don’t work!

 Replaced by probability distributions

and operators.

 
Quantum Mechanics
 Spurred on mostly by the spectral lines
of atoms

 Here is a modern “photograph” of the

H atom.

 Shows probability clouds, NOT

specific particles

https://physicsworld.com/a/quantum-microscope-peers-
into-the-hydrogen-atom/
Quantum Mechanics
 Non-relativistic. ONLY with slow
moving massive particles

 Photons are extra

 Properties of the particles such as

spin are extra

 The model fits (slow speeds)

experiments perfectly
How do we see these things?
 The modern approach is based on
particle colliders, e.g., LHC

 Collide atoms and study the debris

 Like smashing two cars together to

study their components
How do we see these things?
Special Relativity
 Fast moving classical (non-quantum)
particles

 Treats space and time on EQUAL

footing (QM doesn’t)

 In other words almost the exact

opposite of QM
Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
 Enter P.A.M. Dirac

 Postulates a relativistic quantum

mechanical formula

 The formula fits experiment as well as

PREDICTS the existence of anti-
matter
Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
 Enter P.A.M. Dirac

 Postulates a relativistic quantum

mechanical formula

 The formula fits experiment as well as

PREDICTS the existence of anti-
matter

Big question: Does physics affect one’s hair?

Relativistic Quantum
Mechanics
 Dirac’s equation: there are states of
negative energy particles (Holes)

 It is like the world is made up of zero

energy, positive are ordinary particles,
negative are anti-particles
Relativistic Quantum
Mechanics
 Shortly after, the anti-electron, called
the positron, was discovered.

 Same mass as the electron, same

spin, but positively charged.

 Today we know that EVERY particle

has an anti-particle, even when the
particle is its own anti-particle.
No more single
particles
 The situation at that point was:
 The theory of relativistic quantum
mechanics is not a single particle
theory
 It is NECESSARILY a multi-particle
theory
 We had: the electron, the proton, the
neutron, the photon and their
antiparticles. Quarks were discovered
later.
No more single
particles
 Generally, particles are classified in
terms of

 Bosons: particles with integer spins (0,

1, 2, …) e.g., photons (spin 0)

 Fermions: particles with half integer

spins (½ , 3/2 , 5/2, …) e.g., electrons
(spin ½) and quarks.
No more single
particles
 Other particles were slowly
discovered.

 The muons, the tauons, which seemed

just heavy electrons (who ordered
that?)

 Three types of neutrinos (the sun

produces a LOT of those)
No more single
particles
 More fundamental particles
(fundamental means they don’t seem
to be made up of anything else)

 Two W particles: W+ and W-

 Z0, which seemed like a massive

photon!
The Quantum Fields
 We can’t describe single particles; they must
be studied in droves. Because they can
interact and “transform” into each other.
 Enter: Quantum Field Theory (QFT)
 The universe is filled with quantum FIELDS
The Quantum Fields
 Photon fields (the electromagnetic field),
electron fields, quark fields, positron fields,
etc.

 Observed particles are quantum excitations

of these fields. Funny bit: they act like
harmonic oscillators
Field Quantization
 Start with the relativistic classical field
 Expand the field in an infinite series
 Take the Fourier coefficients and
replace them with operators
(remember those)
 The particles appear!!
Field Quantization
 Problems with QFT:
 All theories are perturbative
expansions, not closed form solutions
 Those infinite series may or may not
get weaker
 If they get weaker, we assume the
series converges
 If they get stronger, we are stuck, but
may still have uses for them
QED

 Quantum electrodynamics
 Maxwell Term: Photons
 Dirac Term: charged Fermions
QCD
 Dirac Term: Quarks
 Gluon field Term: Gluons
Electroweak theory
 Unifies the electroweak force with the
electromagnetic force
Feynman’s Rules
 Every term in the perturbation series
represents a quantum mechanically
“possible” particle interaction
Perturbation theory in comic-
book form
The Standard Model of
Particle Physics
 Bosons make the “force carriers”

 Fermions exchange bosons

 The whole universe is one big

soup of interacting particles who
are themselves quantum
excitations of fields!!
The Standard Model of
Particle Physics
Doesn’t include gravity (GTR)
The Standard Model of
Particle Physics
The last missing piece:
The God particle
 All particles begin their life
completely massless (yes even
electrons)
 The electroweak model predicts that
some will interact with a mysterious
field, named after his discoverer the
Higgs Boson (which is itself massive).
 Predicted in 1964, found in 2012,
Nobel prize in 2013.
It’s complete! Or is it?
 Problems with the Standard Model:
 It doesn’t include gravity! This is
still described by the curvature of
spacetime, no (verified) quantum
gravity theory.
 It has infinities that arise in the
calculations, they are “swept under
the carpet” by a mathematical
procedure called renormalization.
 It doesn’t explain the constants of
nature. Why does the electron has
the mass it does for example.
 It’s complete! Or is it?
 Problems with the Standard Model:
 Why are there six quarks? Why six?
 If the atom is made up of only two of them, why are
“extra” four there?
 Why are there neutrinos, muons and tauons?

 Why are the strengths of the forces the way as they

are? (The Hierarchy problem)
Field Quantization
 Despite these problems, SM is the
most accurate theory of physics yet!

 For example, QED predictions match

experiment to ten parts in a billion or
so!

 That’s unprecedented!
The quest for unification
 The electroweak model showed that
the weak nuclear force and the
electromagnetic force are two sides of
the same coin.
 They “unify” at certain energy
densities.
 Theories where the electroweak force
unifies with the strong nuclear force
have been proposed (GUTs). Not
verified.
Enter: SUSY
 Another question is: why are there
Bosons and Fermions with entirely
different properties?
 Supersymmetry was discovered.
 Provides a model of how every
Fermion actually has a Bosonic
partner.
 They can transform into each other
 They even have names!
SUSY
 Electron  Selectron
 Quark  Squark
 Top quark  Stop quark

 Photon  Photino
 W particle  Wino
 Higgs  Higgsino
 Even the carrier of the gravitational
force the Graviton  Gravitino
SUSY
 Not just a random hypothesis.
 It arises from attempts to generalize
deep symmetries in our theories
(Poincare symmetry for the experts).
 It solves many other problems. For
example, it explains the difference in
the strengths of the three forces:
SUSY
The trouble with SUSY
 It predicts particles that are yet to be
observed in the lab.

 We had high hopes for the LHC in

Switzerland, after all it found the
Higgs.

 Nothing so far.
More hope in SUSY
 Supersymmetry has two varities:

 Global SUSY: That’s what we

discussed so far.

 Local SUSY: when SUSY is made

local (no need to explain) all of a
sudden something weird happens:
More hope in SUSY
 Supersymmetry has two varities:
 Global SUSY: That’s what we
discussed so far.
 Local SUSY: when SUSY is made
local (no need to explain) all of a
sudden something weird happens:
 The curvature of spacetime
EXACTLY per general relativity
predicts POPS out of the equations!
 Literally out of nowhere!
Supergravity
 Are a set of theories where there are
gravitational fields described by GTR
as well as supersymmetric fields
(gravitino fields)
 They arise naturally from making
SUSY local.
 But just like GTR there is no quantum
theory of supergravity.
On the other hand …
 Theorists on the other side of the
building were developing superstring
theory (come to the third talk)
 Promised to be BOTH a theory of
quantum gravity AND a theory that
unifies ALL the four forces and
answers pretty much ALL questions.
 An extra surprise:
On the other hand …
 Supergravity theories were
discovered to be a special case of
the superstring theories!!!
 Everything comes together
beautifully.
 Explains why people like all that
stuff.
 Almost sixty years without
experimentation and we are still
working on the super-stuff.
Thank you very much …