Physics 404

Spring 2011

Introduction to High Energy Physics

Instructor: Peter Siegel, Room 8-215,Phone 869-4029,Email: pbsiegel@csupomona.edu, Home Page.

Office Hours: Mon 11-12 and 1-2, Wed 11-12 and 1-2, Fri 1-2

Lecture Hours: Mon and Wed 4-6pm via Elluminate-Web and room 8-210

Textbook: Introduction to Elementary Particles (Second Edition) by David Griffiths. Griffiths book is very good. It is worth buying and keeping as a reference.

Grading:
Homework 50%
Midterm Exam (April 27) 20%
Final Exam (June 6) 30%

Homework: Homework will consist of problems from the text as well as problems and computer programming projects that I will assign. The homework will be posted on my home page. The solutions will be posted on my home page after the due date.

Exams: The midterm exam is worth 20%. It will last one hour, and you may use your textbook (only). The final will be similar in format to the midterm, but will last two hours. (30%). The time for the final is Monday, June 6, from 4:00 - 6:00 pm.

Overview of the Course
The course is designed to give you an introduction to some topics in particle physics, and give you some experience in working with computer codes relevant to particle physics. Particle physics is a broad subject, which requires a strong foundation in relativistic quantum mechanics. We can't cover everything in one semester/quarter, but we will try and treat topics for which undergraduate quantum mechanics is sufficient. With this in mind, I believe chapters 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 in Griffiths' book are best suited for the course. These chapters deal with the fundamental ideas for the electroweak part of the standard model. A good understanding of these chapters will help you understand quantum chromodynamics. The three computer programs that you will work with should assist you in numerical work that you might encounter in a research experience. Below is a rough course outline that I will try and follow. It is flexible, and I can adjust the syllabus if necessary. Enjoy the course!!

Course Outline Phy404 Spring 2011 (Siegel)
Date Sections in textTopic
Mon March 21Ch. 1Review of the Postulates of QM
Wed 23Ch. 2 Review of non-relativistic QM
Mon 28 3.1-3.3 Relativistic Kinematics
Wed 30 3.4-3.5 Relativisitic Collisions
Mon April 4 4.1 Symmetry, Groups and Conservation Laws
Wed 6 4.2 SU(2) Symmetry (Hwk 1 Due)
Mon 11 4.3 Isospin Symmetry
Wed 13 4.4 Parity and CP
Mon 18 6.1 Decays and Scattering Processes(Hwk 2 Due)
Wed 20 6.2 Perturbation Theory, Fermi's Golden Rule
Mon 25 6.2 Feynman Rules for Scattering
Wed 27 6.3 Feynman Rules for Decays (Hwk 3 Due)
Mon May 2 --- Review Exam
Wed 4 7.1 Dirac Equation
Mon 9 7.2 Free Particle Solutions
Wed 11 7.3-7.7 Electron-Muon Scattering
Mon 16 9.1-9.2 Intro to Weak Interaction
Wed 18 9.4 Muon and Pion Decay
Mon 23 9.5-9.7 Neutral Current, Chiral States Hwk 4 Due
Wed 25 9..7 Electroweak Unification
Mon 30 --- Holiday: Memorial Day
Wed June 1 9.7 Local gauge invarience, neutrino oscillations
Fri June 3 --- Hwk 5 Due
Mon 6 4-6pm Final Exam