Particle Physics

ABOUT THE COURSE: To impart the knowledge of fundamental particles and interactions, exact and approximate conservation laws, symmetry principle. To study the physics of elementary particle, through the collisions of fundamental and composite particles at relativistic energies, production and detection of particles, nucleon structure and quark model.Intended audience: B.Sc.(Hons) 4yr FYUP, M. Sc. and Ph. D.(Those who are interested in doing research in the area of particle phvsics)Pre-requisites: Quantum Mechanics at UG levelIndustry support: This is a Basic Course on the Fundamental Physics

Week 1: Classification of interactions: Strong, Electromagnetic and Weak processes, Relative strengths, range and mediating quanta. Classification of particles: Fermions and Bosons, Leptons and Hadrons (Baryons and Mesons), Strange particles.
Week 2: lmportance of symmetry in physics, Various symmetries in nature, Continuous and discrete symmetries. Charge Conjugation (C), Parity(P), Time reversal(T), CP and CpT.
Week 3: lsospin and 3'd component of lsospin. Exact and approximate conservation laws. Parlty of charged and neutral pions, photon, leptons; C-Parity of photon, no, 40 Principle of detailed balance, Spin of the charged pion.
Week 4: Nucleon as a composite particle. Nucleon resonances and hadron spectroscopy, The eightfold way, Quark confinement, Screening, Antiscreening and Asymptotic freedom.
Week 5: The November revolution and its aftermath, Discovery of heavy quarks, Charm, bottom and top quarks. Quarkonium and their spectra. Predicted c-cbar and b-bbar states with principal quantum numbers n= 1 & 2 with their properties. The quark-antiquark potential
Week 6: Quark model of hadrons, spin and flavour wave functions of mesons and baryons. Mass formula for baryons and mesons. Magnetic moments of baryons and mesons.
Week 7: Phenomenology of strange particles and their semileptonic and nonleptonic decays. Cabibbo theory. Neutral kaondecays and CP violation.
Week 8: Lepton-Quark symmetry, Quark mixing, CKM matrix (idea), The quark-gluon plasma.
Week 9: Hypothesis, Discovery, Flavours and Masses; Neutrino mixing and oscillations; Neutrino sources, Current generation neutrino experiments.
Week 10: Relativistic Kinematics, Review of Lorentz transformations for energy and momentum, four-vectors and invariants, Laboratory and Centre-of-momentum systems, calculation of energy, momentum and scattering angle of particles produced in nuclear reactions in Lab. and centre-of momentum frames and their transformations. Calculation of threshold energies for particle production.
Week 11: Experiments - LHC, PANDA, FASER, BaBar, etc.
Week 12: Detectors -- Gaseous ionization detectors, Solid state detectors, Calorimeters, etc.