Introduction to Particle Physics

Course overview

Jørgen Beck Hansen

Autumn 2006

About me

• 9 years research fellow and staff at CERN, Switzerland

• Worked on Large-Electron-Positron (LEP) and Large-Hadron-Collider(LHC)

• Started as research associate professor @ the NBI Particle Physics group (HEP) this year

• Office: Blegdamsvej 21 (building M) mc-8• Email: Beck@nbi.dk

Course synopsis1. Basic concepts 2. Leptons, quarks and hadrons 3. Experimental methods 4. Space-Time Symmetries 5. Hadrons: quantum numbers and excited states 6. Hadrons: quark states and colour 7. QCD, jets and gluons 8. Weak interactions: W and Z bosons 9. Weak interactions: electroweak unification 10. Weak interactions: charge conjugation and parity 11. Beyond the standard model

Crash course: ~200 pages in 7 weeks

Practicalities • Litterature: B.R. Martin & G. Shaw, ”Particle

Physics”(2nd edition), 1997, publ. John Wiley & Sons Ltd

• Strongly recommended to look at the course web-page– Lots of additional information– Points to several GOOD introductionary sites

• Credits to former teacher: Mogens Dam for slides etc.

• Non-trivial timetable since both Jens-Jørgen Gårdhøje and I have to travel during the course

Painless Particle Physics: ParticleAdventure.org

Course Schedule (preliminary)

Week Monday Thursday

28/8-1/9 14:00-16:00: Particle PhysicsChapter 1 + appendix A

9:00-12:15: Particle Physics - Chapter 2 + appendix B, Exercises: Ch 1: 1-3+5

13:00- 16:00: Particle Physics - Chapter 3 + 4 (part)

4/9-8/9 13:00-16:00: Particle PhysicsChapter 4 (rest) + 5, Exercises: Ch 2+4

9:00-12:15: Particle Physics - Chapter 6, Exercises: Ch 4+513:00- 16:00: Particle Physics - Chapter 7 + 8 (part)

11/9-15/9 14:00-16:00: Nuclear Physics 9:00-11:00: Nuclear Physics11:15-12:15: Particle Physics - Chapter 8 (rest)13:00-16:00: Particle Physics - Chapter 9, Exercises: Ch 6+7

18/9-22/9 14:00-16:00: Nuclear Physics 9:00-11:00: Nuclear Physics11:15-12:15: Particle Physics - Chapter 10 (part)13:00-16:00: Particle Physics - Chapter 10 (rest), Exercises: Ch 8+9

25/9-29/9 14:00-16:00: Nuclear Physics 9:00-11:00: Nuclear Physics11:00-13:00: Nuclear Physics14:00-16:00: Nuclear Physics

2/10-6/10 14:00-16:00: Nuclear Physics 9:00-11:00: Nuclear Physics11:00-13:00: Nuclear Physics14:00-16:00: Nuclear Physics

9/10-13/10 14:00-16:00: Nuclear Physics 9:00-11:00: Nuclear Physics11:15-12:15: Particle Physics - Chapter 1113:00-16:00: Particle Physics - Review of main topics, Exercises: ch 10

Where to go from here?

• This course give you the first peak into the wonderful world of particle physics

• Explain you how to “navigate and swim” in the shallow end of the pool

• Particle physics ”fag-pakke”:

1. Theory: General reletivity – Poul Olesen2. Theory: Particle physics – Poul Henrik Damgaard3. Experiment: Experimental methods – Peter Hansen4. Experiment: High Pt physics at the frontier -- JBH

Teach you to swim in deep unknown waters

CERN Summer Student Programme

• A unique opportunity to enjoy a summer in Switzerland, learning bleeding-edge science and technology and meeting new friends from all over the world

• •Google “CERN Summer Student”, or go directly to http://humanresources.web.cern.ch/HumanResources/external/recruitment/Students/students.asp

• 2-3 months of training at CERN: work in a research group, lectures, student sessions, visits to experiments, workshops,…

Particle Physics in a nutshell?

• Formalism is 4-vectors (“kinematics”)

• Physics content is quantum mechanics

• Plus a big bag of new particles and concepts

Special relativity Quantum mechanics+

APPLIED special relativity and quantum mechanics

The MAGIC key

• Natures deepest secret (and we cannot directly see deeper)

• Gives us quantum mechanics and string theory• Add the “de Broglie” relation: h/p• Re-define units: h=c=1

The intuitive understanding of particle physics and its numerical mechanics