PHYS 380: Particle Physics Short Course (1hr) - Spring (12) 2011

Instructor: Mark Taylor

Office: Gerstacker 118
Phone: 569-5241
email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Office Hours:

MWF 4:15-6:00, Tues. 2:00-6:00, Thurs. 9:00-12:00, Sunday 3:00-6:00.

Also, feel free to stop by at other times, call me, or send me email.

Meeting Times:

Monday 7:00-8:00, Gerstacker 10

Textbook:

The Ideas of Particle Physics: An Introduction for Scientists, 3rd ed., by Guy D. Coughlan, James E. Dodd, and Ben M. Gripaios (on library reserve)

Other References: The New Cosmic Onion by Frank Close (on library reserve)

Introduction to Elementary Particles by David Griffiths

Sakai Site: https://sakai.hiram.edu/portal

Course Overview:

In this short course we will explore the standard model of particle physics. In this model all matter is built from quarks and leptons which interact via the exchange of gauge bosons. Thus, the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions are mediated by the photon, W and Z, and gluon, (and described by QED, electroweak theory, and QCD), respectively. A unifying theme in the development of the standard model has been the identification of symmetry properties of the microworld, including the identification of certain broken symmetries. Local gauge symmetry and the Higgs mechanism are central to the model. This course presumes exposure to quantum mechanics at the level of PHYS 320. Our focus will be on particle phenomenology as opposed to detailed calculations (i.e., we will learn how to construct Feynman diagrams but we will not actually evaluate them). We will also discuss, to a lesser extent, experimental methods and detector physics. And who knows, perhaps the Higgs boson or some non-standard model supersymmetric particle will be discovered during the course!