Relativity and Particle Physics

 

Topic #	Old Topic	Old # Hrs	New Topic #	New Topic	New # Hrs
G	Relativity	15/22	D	Relativity and particle physics	15
G1	Introduction	1	D1	Introduction to relativity	1
G2	Concepts and postulates of special relativity	2	D2	Concepts and postulates of special relativity	2
G3	Relativisitc kinematics	5	D3	Relativistic kinematics	5
			D4	Particles and interactions	5
			D.4.1	State what is meant by an elementary particle. Particles are called elementary if they have no internal structure, that is, they are not made out of smaller constituents.
			D.4.2	Identify elementary particles. The classes of elementary particles are quarks, leptons and exchange particles. The Higgs particle could be elementary.
			D.4.3	Describe particles in terms of mass and various quantum numbers. Students must be aware that particles (elementary as well as composite) are specified in terms of their mass and various quantum numbers. They should consider electric charge, spin, strangeness, colour, lepton number and baryon number.
			D.4.4	Classify particles according to spin.
			D.4.5	State what is meant by an antiparticle.
			D.4.6	State the Pauli exclusion principle.
			D.4.7	List the fundamental interactions. Since the early 1970s the electromagnetic and weak interactions have been shown to be two aspects of the same interaction, the electroweak interaction.
			D.4.8	Describe the fundamental interactions in terms of exchange particles.
			D.4.9	Discuss the uncertainty principle for time and energy in the context of particle creation. A simple discussion is needed in terms of a particle being created with energy ΔE existing no longer than a time Δt given by
			D.4.10	Describe what is meant by a Feynman diagram.
			D.4.11	Discuss how a Feynman diagram may be used to calculate probabilities for fundamental processes. Numerical values of the interaction strengths do not need to be recalled.
			D.4.12	Describe what is meant by virtual particles.
			D.4.13	Apply the formula for the range R for interactions involving the exchange of a particle. Applications include Yukawa?s prediction of the pion or determination of the masses of the W ±, Z 0 from knowledge of the range of the weak interaction.
			D.4.14	Describe pair annihilation and pair production through Feynman diagrams.
			D.4.15	Predict particle processes using Feynman diagrams. For example, the electromagnetic interaction leads to photon-photon scattering (that is, scattering of light by light). The particles in the loop are electrons or positrons:
			D5	Quarks	2
			D.5.1	List the six types of quark.
			D.5.2	State the content, in terms of quarks and antiquarks, of hadrons (that is, baryons and mesons).
			D.5.3	State the quark content of the proton and the neutron.
			D.5.4	Define baryon number and apply the law of conservation of baryon number. Students should know that baryon number is conserved in all reactions.
			D.5.5	Deduce the spin structure of hadrons (that is, baryons and mesons). Only an elementary discussion in terms of spin "up" and spin "down" is required.
			D.5.6	Explain the need for colour in forming bound states of quarks. Students should realize that colour is necessary to satisfy the Pauli exclusion principle. The fact that hadrons have no colour is a consequence of confinement.
			D.5.7	State the colour of quarks and gluons.
			D.5.8	Outline the concept of strangeness. It is sufficient for students to know that the strangeness of a hadron is the number of anti-strange quarks minus the number of strange quarks it contains. Students must be aware that strangeness is conserved in strong and electromagnetic interactions, but not always in weak interactions.
			D.5.9	Discuss quark confinement. Students should know that isolated quarks and gluons (that is, particles with colour) cannot be observed. The strong (colour) interaction increases with separation. More hadrons are produced when sufficient energy is supplied to a hadron in order to isolate a quark.
			D.5.10	Discuss the interaction that binds nucleons in terms of the colour force between quarks. It is sufficient to know that the interaction between nucleons is the residual interaction between the quarks in the nucleons and that this is a short-range interaction.