Download PHYSICS 264, Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics Fall 2016

PHYSICS 264, Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics
Fall 2016
Instructor:
Valeri Kotov
Office:
E-mail:
Phone:
A522 Cook
[email protected]
(802) 656-4548
Lectures:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:50 - 4:05 pm,
Lafayette L307
Office hours:
Textbook:
Wednesdays, 1:30 - 3:30 pm, Thursdays 4:15 - 5:30 pm,
or by appointment
“Nuclear and Particle Physics: an Introduction,”
by Brian R. Martin, 2-nd Edition, Wiley, 2009.
(ISBN-10: 0470742755, ISBN-13: 978-0470742754)
This book reflects the general structure I plan to follow, namely a
course that combines both nuclear and particle physics at upper
undergraduate level. It also contains good amount of material for
reading at home (such as description of nuclear physics applications
in medicine and technology, which we might not have time to cover.)
It is available at amazon.com. (I have posted the first several
chapters on Blackboard).
Other books:
The following two books also cover both nuclear and particle physics
in a combined way, and I find them quite good in certain places. I
could provide sections of those books if/when I follow them heavily in
some of my lectures.
“Introduction to Nuclear and Particle Physics,”
by A. Das and T. Ferbel, World Scientific, 2003.
2-nd edition,
“Particles and Nuclei (an Introduction to the Physical Concepts),”
6-th edition, by B. Povh, K. Rith, C. Scholz, and F. Zetsche,
Springer, 2008.
Quite often Nuclear and Particle physics are covered separately in (at
least) one semester courses, since they are both vast subject areas
(sometimes separated as “low-energy” nuclear, and “high-energy”
elementary particle physics.) There exist numerous in-depth books
on both subjects, and of course there is no such thing as perfect
textbook. If some sections of those texts prove particularly useful for
us, I will share them with you via blackboard.
Prerequisites: Basic undergraduate-level knowledge of modern
physics, i.e. Quantum Mechanics and atomic physics, as well as
basic special relativity (we can review relativity when needed).
General Course Description: This is an introductory nuclear and
elementary particle physics course for physics/astronomy and any
other interested students, i.e. those with upper level basic physics
knowledge (see above).
Since we will cover both nuclear and elementary particle physics
(roughly half and half) in only one semester course, this means that,
inevitably, some topics will be covered more in-depths while others
will be on a level of a sketch.
I am a theorist and tend to emphasize theoretical concepts, but the
book also has plenty of experimental sections. I hope that we achieve
a good overview of the basics concepts in nuclear and elementary
particle physics.
We will cover, in particular, the following topics:
• Introduction to Basic Concepts (particles/antiparticles, types of
forces, Feynman diagrams, units, etc.)
• Basic Nuclear Phenomenology: binding energies of nuclei,
stability, decay, etc.
• Nuclear Models: nucleon interaction potentials, Nuclear shells,
Fermi-gas, theories of alpha and beta decay.
• Nuclear Applications: Reactors, Fission, Fusion, biomedical.
• Elementary Particle Phenomenology: Leptons and Quarks.
Quantum numbers: baryon, lepton, strangeness, etc.
Conservation laws in particle interactions.
• Basic ideas of Strong Interactions between quarks (quantum
chromodynamics). Quark Confinement.
• Weak and Unified Electroweak Interactions (Weinberg-Salam
Standard Model of particle physics). Concept of Symmetry
breaking. Heavy Gauge bosons. The Higgs boson.
Homework/Exams/Grades: Some Homework will be assigned on
a regular basis, with a frequency to be determined. There will be
some exams, possibly take-home (the time will be communicated
well in advance). Grades will be based on the homework (roughly
50%), and the exams (50%). Reading material / research topics
could also be assigned instead of HW or to replace an exam,
especially when I feel that we do not have enough time to cover in
class certain topics that deserve our attention.