Y2 Neutrino Physics (spring term 2016) Lecture 2 Fundamental particles and interactions Dr E Goudzovski
[email protected] http://epweb2.ph.bham.ac.uk/user/goudzovski/Y2neutrino Previous lecture The natural system of units (ħ=c=1) is used in particle physics: all quantities are expressed in powers of energy (GeV). By the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, momentum required to probe a distance scale is p 1/ (in natural units). Particle accelerators are the most powerful microscopes. Elementary particles often travel at speeds close to c: relativistic (rather than classical) kinematics applies. Lorentz-invariance and conservation of the 4-momenta provide a useful tool to solve simple kinematic problems (reaction thresholds, accelerator energy reach, etc.) 1 This lecture Introduction to particle physics (continued) The fundamental particles: quarks and leptons. Forces, their strengths and ranges. Internal quantum numbers and conservation laws. Feynman diagrams. Examples of electromagnetic processes. Textbooks: B.R. Martin and G. Shaw. Particle physics. Chapters 1, 2, 8. D. Perkins. Introduction to high energy physics. Chapters 1, 2. D. Griffiths. Introduction to Elementary Particles. Chapters 1, 2. 2 Fermions: 1st generation Point-like spin-1/2 fundamental fermions (1) Leptons: Electron (e ) and its neutrino (e). Particle Symbol Electric Type charge (q) (2) Quarks: Electron e 1 Up (u) and down (d). Lepton They form bound states (hadrons), Neutrino e 0 e.g. nucleons (p, n). Up quark u +2/3 Quark Down quark d 1/3 Proton (q=+1) Neutron (q=0) Example: the nuclear beta decay …at the nuclear level: Beta decay …at the nucleon level: …at the fundamental fermion level: 3 Fermions: the 3 generations st nd rd 1 generation 2 generation 3 generation Electrical charge (q) Electron e Muon Tauon 1 Electron neutrino e Muon neutrino Tau neutrino 0 Up quark u Charm quark c Top quark t +2/3 Down quark d Strange quark s Bottom quark b 1/3 Higher generations: Copies of (e , e, u, d).