All reading is from the course textbook,
Particle Physics
by Martin and Shaw,
unless specified otherwise.
| Class | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Wed Jan 17 | Fermions and bosons | None |
| Fri Jan 19 | Intro to the standard model | None |
| Mon Jan 22 | Antiparticles | Sect 1.2, p 2-8 |
| Wed Jan 24 | Feynman diagrams | Sect 1.3, p 8-14 |
| Fri Jan 26 | Forces via particle exchange | Sect 1.4, p 14-18 |
| Mon Jan 29 | Natural units | Sect 1.5, p 18-20 |
| Wed Jan 31 | Leptons: electrons and neutrinos | Sect 2.1, p 22-25 |
| Fri Feb 2 | Leptons: second and third generations | Sect 2.1, p 25-29 |
| Mon Feb 5 | Hadrons and flavor | Sect 2.2, p 30-34 |
| Wed Feb 8 | Lisa Randall's Assembly Series lecture | None |
| Fri Feb 9 | Spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) | not in book |
| Mon Feb 12 | Pions and SSB | Sect 2.2, p 35-37 |
| Wed Feb 14 | Second and third generation hadrons | Sect 2.2, p 37-42 |
| Fri Feb 16 | Experimental methods: accelerators | Sect 3.1, p 45-50 |
| Mon Feb 19 | Experimental methods: detectors | Sect 3.3, p 58-70 |
| Wed Feb 21 | Symmetries and groups | not in book |
| Fri Feb 23 | Symmetries and conservation laws | not in book |
| Mon Feb 26 | Translational symmetry | Sect 4.2, p 80-81 |
| Wed Feb 28 | Rotational symmetry | Sect 4.2, p 82-86 |
| Fri Mar 2 | The spin of hadrons | Sect 4.2, p 86-88 |
| Mon Mar 5 | MIDTERM | |
| Wed Mar 7 | Parity symmetry (P) | Sect 4.3, p 88-94 |
| Fri Mar 9 | The Higgs mechanism | |
| ========== | SPRING BREAK | |
| Mon Mar 19 | Charge conjugation (C) | Sect 4.4, p 95-96 |
| Wed Mar 21 | C and P symmetry examples | Sect 4.4, p 96-98 |
| Fri Mar 23 | Isospin and mesons | Sect 5.1, 5.2, p 106-111, Appendix D |
| Mon Mar 26 | Isospin and baryons | Sect 5.2, p 111-113 |
| Wed Mar 28 | Resonances | Sect 5.3, p 115-122 |
| Fri Mar 30 | Quantum chromodynamics | Sect 7.1, p 149-157 |
| Mon Apr 2 | Isospin breaking | Sect 5.2.4, p 114 |
| Wed Apr 4 | Nuclei: introduction | Handout, p 33-47 |
| Fri Apr 6 | Liquid drop model | Handout, p 50-55 |
| Mon Apr 9 | beta-decay of nuclei | Handout, p 55-58 |
| Wed Apr 11 | alpha-decay and fission | Handout, p 59-61 |
| Fri Apr 13 | Weak interactions of quarks | Sect 8.2 p 190-204 |
| Mon Apr 16 | The Z boson and neutral currents | Sect 9.1 p 218-230 |
| Wed Apr 18 | Parity violation by weak interactions | Sect 10.1.0,10.2.1 p 240-241,248-252 |
| Fri Apr 20 | K-short regeneration | Sect 10.2.4 p 255-257 |
| Mon Apr 23 | strangeness oscillations | Sect 10.2.5 p 257-260 |
| Wed Apr 24 | Neutrino mixing, supersymmetry | Sect 11.1, 11.3 p 262-265,274-276 |
| Fri Apr 27 | Grand Unified Theories, cosmology | Sect 11.2 p 267-273 |