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Description
Outline and Aims:
This module aims to:
- introduce the student to the basic concepts of particle physics, including the mathematical representation of the fundamental interactions and the role of symmetries
- emphasise how particle physics is actually carried out with reference to data from experiment which will be used to illustrate the underlying physics of the strong and electroweak interactions, gauge symmetries and spontaneous symmetry breaking.
Teaching and Learning Methodology:
This module is delivered via weekly lectures supplemented by a series of workshops and additional discussion.
In addition to timetabled lecture hours, it is expected that students engage in self-study in order to master the material. This can take the form, for example, of practicing example questions and further reading in textbooks and online.
Indicative Topics:
1. Relativistic Wave Equations without interactions: From Schrodinger to Klein-Gordon to the Dirac Equation; Dirac Matrices; Spin and anti-particles; Continuity Equation; Dirac observables
2. Fermi's Golden Rule: phase space & reaction rates. Reference frames & Mandelstam variables. Interactions, Feynman Diagrams and Rules.
3. Symmetries and Conservation Laws, Lagrangians and Gauge Invariance. Dirac equation + electromagnetism: QED.
4. A QED calculation: angular distributions, helicity and chirality. Higher orders, renormalisation and running coupling constants.
5. Proton structure and deep inelastic scattering. The quark parton model, scaling and scaling violations at DESY, and parton distribution functions.
6. QCD: running of strong coupling, confinement, asymptotic freedom. A simple QCD calculation, and QCD at the LHC.
7. The Weak Interaction: parity violation and the V-A weak current; Pion, Muon and Tau Decay. The gauge theory of the weak interaction.
8. The Quark sector in weak theory; GIM mechanism, CKM matrix; CP-violation.
9. The neutrino sector in weak theory: detecting neutrinos; neutrino oscillations; the PMNS matrix and current experiments.
10. The electroweak model: neutral currents and the Z boson. Experimental tests of the electroweak model. Gauge boson masses and the Higgs mechanism. Discovery of the Higgs.
11. Beyond The Standard Model: limitations of the Standard Model; SUSY. Some current experimental searches and topics.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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