Cloud chamber activity - seeing particle tracks in a petri dish

tracks from alpha particles in a cloud chamber

PHYS694 Particle Physics

Spring 2004

Instructor: Prof. von Toerne

 

Particle Physics deals with the smallest building blocks of our universe. The questions raised in this field can be pretty deep and almost philosophical and pretty exciting. In the approximately 100 years of experimental particle physics (and theoretical too) we have accumulated a vast amount of knowledge about the sub-atomic world, culminating in the Standard Model of particle physics, our current view of particle physics.

Exciting new theories like supersymmetry and strings are now being discussed and physicists are preparing new experiments to solve the deepest puzzles in particle physics.

Syllabus

Homework

Required book for the lecture: ‘Introduction to Elementary Particles’ David Griffiths, John Wiley&Sons, ISBN 0-471-60386-4
Required reference: ‘Particle Physics Booklet’ The booklet can be ordered for free from http://pdg.lbl.gov.THIS IS ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED REFERENCE MATERIAL! The information in the booklet will be constantly used in class and is also necessary for the homework.

Alternative Reading:  

Course Material             

 

Cosmic Gall

Neutrinos, they are very small.
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.

The earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass,
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.

They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall.

And, scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me! Like tall
And painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass.

At night, they enter at Nepal
And pierce the lover and his lass
From underneath the bed—you call
It wonderful; I call it crass.

John Updike
Telephone Pole and Other Poems, 1963

 

 

Course demonstrations

Particle Physics Resources