PHYS3C24 – NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE PHYSICS

1. Basic Ideas
1.1 History
1.2 The standard model
1.3 Relativity and antiparticles
1.4 Particle reactions
1.5 Feynman diagrams
1.6 Particle exchange – range of forces
1.7 Yukawa potential
1.8 The scattering amplitude
1.9 Cross-sections
1.10 Unstable particles
1.11 Units: length, mass and energy

2. Nuclear Phenomenology
2.1 Notation
(a) Mass and binding energies
(b) Nuclear forces
2.4 Shapes and sizes
2.5 Liquid drop model: semi-empirical mass formula
2.6 Nuclear stability
2.7 b –decay: phenomenology
(a) Odd-mass nuclei
(b) Even-mass nuclei
2.8 a –decay
2.9 Fission
2.10 g -decay

3. Leptons, Quarks and Hadrons

3.1 Lepton multiplets
3.2 Lepton numbers
3.3 Neutrinos
3.4 Neutrino mixing and oscillations
3.5 Universal lepton interactions; numbers of neutrinos
3.6 Evidence for quarks
3.7 Properties of quarks
3.8 Quark numbers
3.9 Hadrons
3.10 Flavour independence and charge multiplets

4. Experimental Methods
4.1 Overview
4.2 Accelerators
4.3 Beams
4.4 Particle interactions with matter
(a) Short-range interactions with nuclei
(b) Ionization energy losses
(c) Radiation energy losses
(d) Interactions of photons in matter
4.5 Particle detectors

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 (a)Time resolution: scintillation counters
(b) Measurement of position
(c) Measurement of momentum
(d) Particle identification
(e) Energy measurements: calorimeters
4.6 Layered detectors

5. Quark Interactions: QCD and Colour

5.1 Colour
5.2 Quantum chromodynamics (QCD)
5.3 The strong coupling constant
5.4 Asymptotic freedom
5.5 Jets and gluons
5.6 Colour counting
5.7 Deep inelastic scattering: nucleon structure

6. Electroweak Interactions
6.1 Charged and neutral currents
6.2 Symmetries of the weak interaction
6.3 Spin structure of the weak interactions
(a) Neutrinos
(b) Pions and muons
6.4 Neutral kaons
(a) K 0 - K 0 mixing and CP violation
(b) Strangeness oscillations
6.5 W ± and Z 0 bosons
6.6 Weak interactions of hadrons
6.7 Neutral currents and the unified theory
6.8 The Higgs boson

7. Structure of Nuclei
7.1 Fermi Gas model
7.2 The shell model: basic ideas
7.3 Spins, parities and magnetic moments in the shell model
7.4 Excited states in the shell model
7.5 Collective model
7.6 b -Decay
(a) Fermi theory
(b) Electron momentum distribution
(c) Kurie plots and the neutrino mass

8. Fission and Fusion

8.1 Induced fission – fissile materials
8.2 Fission chain reactions
2.11 Power from nuclear fission: nuclear reactors
2.12 Nuclear fusion: Coulomb barrier
2.13 Stellar fusion
2.14 Fusion reactors