Instructor:
Ana Achúcarro, Oort 269, ext. 5518,
email achucar (at) lorentz.leidenuniv.nl
Assistant:
Pablo Ortiz, Oort 260, ext. 5504
email ortiz (at) lorentz.leidenuniv.nl
Book:
(P) B. Povh, K. Rith, C. Scholz, F. Zetsche "Particles and Nuclei", An introduction to the physical concepts, 6th ed., Springer 2008.
(G) D. Griffiths, "Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics", 2nd revised edition, Wiley 2009
(vH) Prof. J-W. van Holten's notes, included with his permission.
Office hours: to be determined directly with the students
Lectures: Wednesdays, HL214, 11:15 - 13:00, but there are exceptions (see timetable)
Werkcolleges: Thursdays, HL214, 11:15 - 13:00 (also with exceptions).
| Date | Contents (revised Nov. 7) |
| 7/9 | Introduction. Relativistic kinematics.(P ch 1, G ch 3). Mandelstam's variables. Feynman diagrams. |
| 14/9 | No class -- read Griffiths ch. 1 |
| 21/9 | (continued) [see also P 4.4 and G ch 2] |
| 28/9 | An introduction to neutrinos and the phenomenology of the weak interactions, following the announcement of superluminal neutrinos by the OPERA collaboration. Neutrino oscillations. (P ch 10.1, 10.2, 10.5, G ch 11) |
| 29/9 | Properties and stability of nuclei. Alfa and beta decay. (P ch 2, 3.1, 3.2). (read 3.3) [excluded: 3.4, Nuclear Thermodynamics. Particle physics in the early Universe (P 19.1, 19.4)] |
| 5/10 | Dirac equation (G. 7.1, 7.2; bilinear covariants, eq (7.68) -you may want to read the rest of 7.3 but you don't have to know this-) |
| 12/10 | Dirac equation continued (solutions). Helicity and chirality. Discrete symmetries C,P and T. Violation of C, P and CP in the weak interactions (G 4.4, P 10.7). |
| 19/10 | No class |
| 26/10 | Scattering, cross sections. Relation to Fermi's Golden Rule and Feynman diagrams. Rutherford cross section, Mott cross section. Rosenbluth cross section. Nuclear form factors. (vH sec 3,4; P Ch. 4, 5.1 to 5.4, 6.1; G Appendix B2, B3 [if you want to see more details, G 6.1, 6.2] [excluded: P 5.5, 6.2] |
| 2/11 | No class (Read P 9.1, 9.2: Breit Wigner formula. Resonances.) |
| 9/11, 10/11 | An introduction to deep inelastic scattering. Nuclear structure functions. Bjorken Scaling. Callan-Gross relations. Parton model. Quarks and gluons. Asymptotic freedom. (P ch 7, 8.1 to 8.3) [P 8.4 excluded] |
| 16/11 | Weak interactions continued (P 10.3, 10.4) W and Z bosons. Cabibbo angle, Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. [This completes P ch 10, except for 10.6 and 10.8 which are excluded]. The Standard model (P 11, 12) |
pdf files with the problems will be downloadable a few days before the problem sessions.
8/9 No class
15/9 Problem set 1
22/9 Problem set 2
29/9 Problem set 3
6/10 No new problem set - discussion of sets 1, 2 and 3
13/10 Problem set 4
20/10 No new problem set. Discussion of set 4
3/11 No class
10/11 Partly replaced by hoorcollege. Problem set 5
17/11 Problem set 6
21/11 A take-home exam for extra credit can be obtained from Pablo or Ana. It is due on the day of the exam, December 7th.
The final grades for the course can be found here . Please contact me (by email) if you want to check your grading and/or if you are intending to take the resit exam.