2 This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-sa/2.0/uk/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, Califor- nia 94105, USA. Nuclear and Particle Physics Niels Walet Last changed on March 23, 2010 2 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 A history of particle physics 3 2.1 Nobel prices in particle physics . 4 2.2 A time line . 8 2.3 Earliest stages . 9 2.4 fission and fusion . 9 2.5 Low-energy nuclear physics . 9 2.6 Medium-energy nuclear physics . 9 2.7 high-energy nuclear physics . 9 2.8 Mesons, leptons and neutrinos . 10 2.9 The sub-structure of the nucleon (QCD) . 10 2.10 The W±and Z bosons . 11 2.11 GUTS, Supersymmetry, Supergravity . 11 2.12 Extraterrestrial particle physics . 11 2.12.1 Balloon experiments . 11 2.12.2 Ground based systems . 12 2.12.3 Dark matter . 12 2.12.4 (Solar) Neutrinos . 12 3 Experimental tools 13 3.1 Accelerators . 13 3.1.1 Resolving power . 13 3.1.2 Types . 14 3.1.3 DC fields . 14 3.2 Targets . 18 3.3 The main experimental facilities . 18 3.3.1 SLAC (B factory, Babar) . 19 3.3.2 Fermilab (D0 and CDF) . 19 3.3.3 CERN (LEP and LHC) . 19 3.3.4 Brookhaven (RHIC) . 19 3.3.5 Cornell (CESR) . 19 3.3.6 DESY (Hera and Petra) . 20 3.3.7 KEK (tristan) . 20 3.3.8 IHEP . 21 3.4 Detectors . 21 3.4.1 Scintillation counters . 22 3.4.2 Proportional/Drift Chamber . 22 3.4.3 Semiconductor detectors . 22 3.4.4 Spectrometer . 23 3.4.5 Cerenkovˇ Counters . 23 3 4 CONTENTS 3.4.6 Transition radiation . 23 3.4.7 Calorimeters . 23 4 Nuclear Masses 27 4.1 Experimental facts . 27 4.1.1 mass spectrograph . 27 4.2 Interpretation . 27 4.3 Deeper analysis of nuclear masses . 27 4.4 Nuclear mass formula . 28 4.5 Stability of nuclei . 30 4.5.1 β decay . 30 4.6 properties of nuclear states . 32 4.6.1 quantum numbers . 32 4.6.2 deuteron . 34 4.6.3 Scattering of nucleons . 36 4.6.4 Nuclear Forces . 36 5 Nuclear models 39 5.1 Nuclear shell model . 39 5.1.1 Mechanism that causes shell structure . 39 5.1.2 Modelling the shell structure . 39 5.1.3 evidence for shell structure . 40 5.2 Collective models . 42 5.2.1 Liquid drop model and mass formula . 42 5.2.2 Equilibrium shape & deformation . 43 5.2.3 Collective vibrations . 44 5.2.4 Collective rotations . 45 5.3 Fission . 46 5.4 Barrier penetration . 47 6 Some basic concepts of theoretical particle physics 49 6.1 The difference between relativistic and NR QM . 49 6.2 Antiparticles . 51 6.3 QED: photon couples to e+e− .................................... 51 6.4 Fluctuations of the vacuum . 53 6.4.1 Feynman diagrams . 54 6.5 Infinities and renormalisation . 55 6.6 The predictive power of QED . 56 6.7 Problems . 56 7 The fundamental forces 57 7.1 Gravity . 57 7.2 Electromagnetism . 58 7.3 Weak Force . 58 7.4 Strong Force . 58 8 Symmetries and particle physics 59 8.1 Importance of symmetries: Noether’s theorem . 59 8.2 Lorenz and Poincare´ invariance . 60 8.3 Internal and space-time symmetries . 60 8.4 Discrete Symmetries . 60 8.4.1 Parity P ............................................ 60 8.4.2 Charge conjugation C .................................... 61 CONTENTS 5 8.4.3 Time reversal T ........................................ 62 8.5 The CPT Theorem . 62 8.6 CP violation . 62 8.7 Continuous symmetries . 62 8.7.1 Translations . ..