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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.