Particle physics I

PHYS-415

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Course summary

Course summary and goals

This course aims to make you familiar and comfortable with the main concepts of particle physics, providing a clear connection between the theory and relevant experimental results, including the most recent ones from current particle physics experiments. 

The fall semester is centered on the discussion of quantum electrodynamics and experiments leading to its development and numerous experimental tests. We will look in more detail into the following topics:

  • Particles and their interactions in the standard model
  • Particle detection
  • Particle decay rates and cross sections
  • Interaction by particle exchange
  • Electron-positron annihilation
  • Electron-proton elastic scattering
  • Deep inelastic scattering
  • Symmetries and the quark model

At the end of the course, you should be able to operate with the main concepts, describe processes in particle physics with the help of Feynman diagrams, and solve related exercises.


Organisation and timing

Each week, there will be the following materials and activities:

  • Live lecture with slides shared via moodle. We currently don't plan to record the lectures, but lectures from the previous two years are available via switchtube.
  • Exercise class with several exercises to solve and to go through with the help of a TA.

Course teachers


Course time and location

  • Lecture sessions: Wednesdays 11:15 - 13:00 in BSP 626
  • Exercise sessions : Wednesdays 14:15 - 16:00 in BSP 626

Assessment 

For the written part of the exam, at the last exercises session of the semester, you will be given an exercise sheet that you will have to solve, which will constitute a fraction of your total grade. At the date of the oral exam you will be given time to prepare a randomly selected topic from the lecture material, which you will then discuss the topic you were given together with general topics that were covered in the course with the lecturer.

Reading list

The course closely follows the book by Mark Thomson, "Modern Particle Physics" (2013), which is available at the EPFL library. 

For summaries, most recent reviews and technical information, please use the Particle Data Group (PDG) website https://pdg.lbl.gov/.

September 10: Overview of Particle Physics

September 17: Rutherford Scattering, particle decays and nonelementary particles

September 24: Particle detection

October 1: Particle decay rates

October 8: Cross sections

October 15: Quantum mechanics, the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations

October 29th: Dirac equation continued

November 5: Electron-positron annihilation

November 12: Elastic electron-proton scattering

November 19: Deep inelastic electron-proton scattering (DIS)

November 26: Symmetries and the quark model

December 3rd: Symmetries and the quark model II

December 16: Symmetries and the Quark Model (ctd.); Symmetries C, P, T in particle physics

December 20: Q&A