Introduction to elementary particle physics / by Alessandro Bettini.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bettini, Alessandro, 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Standard model (Nuclear physics).

Standard model (Nuclear physics)--Problems, exercises, etc.

Genre:

Problems and exercises.

Physical Description:

xiv, 431 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Summary:

The Standard Model is the theory of elementary building blocks of matter and of their forces. It is the most comprehensive physical theory ever developed, and has been experimentally tested with high accuracy.

This textbook conveys the basic elements of the Standard Model using elementary concepts, without theoretical rigour. While most texts on this subject emphasise theoretical aspects, this textbook contains examples of basic experiments, before going into the theory. This allows readers to see how measurements and theory interplay in the development of physics. The author examines leptons, hadrons and quarks, before presenting the dynamics and surprising properties of the charges of the different forces. The textbook concludes with a brief discussion on the recent discoveries in physics beyond the Standard Model, and its connections with cosmology.

Quantitative examples are given throughout the book, and the reader is guided through the necessary calculations. Each chapter ends in exercises so readers can test their understanding of the material. Solutions to some problems are included in the book, and complete solutions are available to instructors at www.cambridge.org/9780521880213. This textbook is suitable for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students.

Contents:

1 Preliminary notions 1

1.1 Mass, energy, linear momentum 1

1.2 The law of motion of a particle 4

1.3 The mass of a system of particles, kinematic invariants 5

1.4 Systems of interacting particles 9

1.5 Natural units 11

1.6 Collisions and decays 13

1.7 Hadrons, leptons and quarks 19

1.8 The fundamental interactions 21

1.9 The passage of radiation through matter 23

1.10 Sources of high-energy particles 28

1.11 Particle detectors 36

2 Nucleons, leptons and bosons 59

2.1 The muon and the pion 59

2.2 Strange mesons and hyperons 62

2.3 The quantum numbers of the charged pion 65

2.4 Charged leptons and neutrinos 69

2.5 The Dirac equation 74

2.6 The positron 76

2.7 The antiproton 78

3 Symmetries 84

3.1 Symmetries 84

3.2 Parity 85

3.3 Particle-antiparticle conjugation 88

3.4 Time reversal and CPT 90

3.5 The parity of the pion 91

3.6 Pion decay 92

3.7 Quark flavours and baryonic number 95

3.8 Leptonic flavours and lepton number 97

3.9 Isospin 98

3.10 The sum of two isospins: the product of two representations 101

3.11 G-parity 104

4 Hadrons 109

4.1 Resonances 109

4.2 The 3/2[superscript +] baryons 113

4.3 The Dalitz plot 119

4.4 Spin, parity, isospin analysis of three-pion systems 122

4.5 Pseudoscalar and vector mesons 126

4.6 The quark model 131

4.7 Mesons 133

4.8 Baryons 136

4.9 Charm 142

4.10 The third family 151

4.11 The elements of the Standard Model 157

5 Quantum electrodynamics 164

5.1 Charge conservation and gauge symmetry 164

5.2 The Lamb and Retherford experiment 165

5.3 Quantum field theory 170

5.4 The interaction as an exchange of quanta 173

5.5 The Feynman diagrams and QED 176

5.6 Analyticity and the need for antiparticles 180

5.7 Electron-positron annihilation into a muon pair 183

5.8 The evolution of a 186

6 Chromodynamics 194

6.1 Hadron production at electron-positron colliders 194

6.2 Scattering experiments 199

6.3 Nucleon structure 203

6.4 The colour charges 213

6.5 Colour bound states 217

6.6 The evolution of a[subscript s] 221

6.7 The origin of hadron mass 226

6.8 The quantum vacuum 229

7 Weak interactions 234

7.1 Classification of weak interactions 234

7.2 Low-energy lepton processes and the Fermi constant 236

7.3 Parity violation 240

7.4 Helicity and chirality 245

7.5 Measurement of the helicity of leptons 249

7.6 Violation of the particle-antiparticle conjugation 256

7.7 Cabibbo mixing 257

7.8 The Glashow, Iliopoulos and Maiani mechanism 260

7.9 The quark mixing matrix 262

7.10 Weak neutral currents 271

8 The neutral K and B mesons and CP violation 276

8.1 The states of the neutral K system 276

8.2 Strangeness oscillations 279

8.3 Regeneration 282

8.4 CP violation 284

8.5 Oscillation and CP violation in the neutral B system 288

8.6 CP violation in meson decays 298

9 The Standard Model 304

9.1 The electroweak interaction 304

9.2 Structure of the weak neutral currents 307

9.3 Electroweak unification 309

9.4 Determination of the electroweak angle 313

9.5 The intermediate vector bosons 320

9.6 The UA1 experiment 324

9.7 The discovery of W and Z 329

9.8 The evolution of sin[subscript 2 theta subscript w] 336

9.9 Precision tests at LEP 338

9.10 The interaction between intermediate bosons 344

9.11 The search for the Higgs boson 347

10 Beyond the Standard Model 354

10.1 Neutrino mixing 354

10.2 Neutrino oscillation 358

10.3 Flavour transition in matter 367

10.4 The experiments 373

10.5 Limits on neutrino mass 379

10.6 Challenges 382

Appendix 1 Greek alphabet 386

Appendix 2 Fundamental constants 387

Appendix 3 Properties of elementary particles 388

Appendix 4 Clebsch-Gordan coefficients 393

Appendix 5 Spherical harmonics and d-functions 395

Appendix 6 Experimental and theoretical discoveries in particle physics 396.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521880213

0521880211

OCLC:

181141296