Particle Physics

Instructor: Mark Taylor

Office: Gerstacker 118
Phone: 569-5241
email: taylormp@hiram.edu

Office Hours:

MWF 4:15-6:00, Tues. 9:00-12:00, Thurs. 1:00-2:00, 4:00-5:00, 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 123

Textbook:

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

Other References:

• Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close
• Introduction to Elementary Particles by David Griffiths

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 patterns or symmetries in the microworld, including the identification of certain broken symmetries (of which the Higg’s mechanism is an example). Although theoretical particle physics requires the full machinery of relativistic quantum mechanics, this short course will be accessible to anyone with some exposure to physics. 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 some non-standard model supersymmetric particle will be discovered during the course! So, as James Joyce says, “Three quarks for Muster Mark!”.