Physics 424: Particle Physics (undergraduate)

Winter 2009

Course meets:
Mondays and Thursdays 10-11:30 am in Elliott 160

Da man: Justin Albert
Office: Elliott 213
Office Phone: (250) 721-7742
Cell Phone: (250) 661-7066
E-mail: jalbert AT uvic DOT ca

Office hours: Come by anytime! I will stay in my office for an hour after each class, but please send e-mail or call if you want to be absolutely sure I will be in my office/available at any given time. If I'm in my office but busy I'll let you know a time to come back. Feel free to always try my office though, or phone, or e-mail. Cell phone is (250) 661-7066, feel free to call!

Course homepage: https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~jalbert/424/index.html

Text (required): D. Griffiths, Introduction to Elementary Particles, J. Wiley & Sons Press, 1987. Please read the sections assigned on the syllabus before the indicated lecture.

Some other sources that I use:
Perkins, Introduction to High Energy Physics, Cambridge U. Press, 2000.
Halzen + Martin, Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics, Wiley, 1984.
Itzykson + Zuber, Quantum Field Theory, Dover Publications, 2006.
Peskin + Schroeder, Introduction to Quantum Field Theory, Addison-Wesley, 1995.
Michel Lefebvre's notes from PHYS506B in years past.
My PhD thesis (.pdf).

Prerequisites: Undergraduate-level quantum mechanics, special relativity, tensor notation.

Schedule
This syllabus is incomplete and tentative, and will be superseded by later versions as the course evolves.

Midterm Solutions

Lecture	Topic	Sections	Homework (and solutions)
1	Intro. and history of particle physics (.pdf) (.ppt -- Mac format)	1	----
2	Relativistic kinematics (.pdf) (.ppt -- Mac format)	2,3	Assignment 1 Solutions
3	Symmetries (part 1 .pdf) (part 1 .ppt -- Mac format) (part 2 .pdf) (part 2 .ppt -- Mac format)	4	----
4	Detectors (.pdf)	handouts	Assignment 2 Solutions
5	Accelerators and facilities (.pdf)	handouts	Assignment 3 Solutions
6	Strange quarks, quark model (.pdf #1) (.pdf #2)	5
7	More quark model, heavy quarks (.pdf)	5	Assignment 4 Solutions
8	Feynman calculus part 1 (.pdf) part 2 (.pdf)	6	Assignment 5 Solutions
9	Quantum electrodynamics part 1 (.pdf) part 2 (.pdf) part 3 (.pdf) part 4 (.pdf)	7	Assignment 6 Solutions
10	Probing the proton with QED part 1 (.pdf) part 2 (.pdf)	8, 10	----
11	Electroweak interactions part 1 (.pdf) part 2 (.pdf)	9, 10	Assignment 7 Solutions
12	The Higgs mechanism part 1 (.pdf) part 2 (.pdf) part 3 (.pdf)	11	----
13	Neutrino physics part 1 (.pdf) part 2 (.pdf)	12	Assignment 8 (last one!) Solutions
14	Beyond the SM Neutrinos beyond SM (.pdf) Supersymmetry (in the second half of these slides) (.pdf)	handouts

Grade will be based 35% on weekly problem sets, 25% on a 1-hour midterm exam, and 40% on the final exam.
Your lowest problem set score will be dropped.

Problem sets: Problem sets are due at the beginning of class on Monday (first one due the second Monday). Answer keys will be handed out the following Monday.

You are allowed one late homework without penalty, up to a week late (together with the lowest problem set score that is dropped). All other late homeworks count 50% if completed before the answer key is handed out the following week. Afterwards, it counts 10% (there is still a little bit of value in copying over the answers to better understand them). No exceptions (other than death in the immediate family, signed doctor's note). Note that the lowest homework score is dropped, and another homework can be a week late, so that covers usual cold/flu issues.

Collaboration on the homework is at your discretion. Each person is responsible for doing his/her share of the work, writing up her/his own solutions and for listing his/her collaborators on each set.

Exams are closed book, closed notebook. You will be allowed to bring a 3-by-5 index card to each exam. At least one problem on the midterm will be taken from the homework with minimal modification.

The midterm exam will be held in class. No makeups will be given (other than the above death in the immediate family, signed doctor's note).

Please let me know if you have any questions!!!