Particle Physics (Physics 363)
Sean Carroll, Physics Department, University of Chicago
Spring quarter, 2001
(top quark production and decay from p-pbar collision, from The Particle Adventure)
(top quark production and decay from p-pbar collision, from The Particle Adventure)
Physics 363 will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 to 10:20 a.m. It is the graduate course in particle physics.
Description from the course catalog:
363. Particle Physics. PQ: Phys 237 and 342. This course covers the following topics: the properties of elementary particles; strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions; CPT symmetries; SU(3) symmetry; hadronic structure and interactions in terms of quark and gluon substructure; CP violation and KM mixing of quark fields; introduction to electroweak theory; quark and lepton interaction at high energy; current experiments; and detectors in high-energy physics. Spring.
Grading: The final grade will be based 60% on problem sets and 40% on a final paper. You are encouraged to talk to your fellow students about the problem sets, but make sure that what you hand in is produced by you. The paper will focus on a single experimental result, covering the history, techniques, and physical processes involved.To answer what you really want to know: No, you won't need to know quantum field theory. I will be using results from QFT, but I will go over all of them (minus derivations) in class. For those of you who are already quite familiar with QFT, a little review never hurt anybody.
Important new date information:
We will not have class on Thursday, May 31. Instead, we will
have a one-hour make-up class from 9:00 to 10:00 on Wednesday
May 30. We will meet in Kersten 305.
The final problem set is due at noon on Thursday, May 31. I
won't be around, but you can leave them in Yin-e's mailbox
in Kersten 205.
Final papers will be due at noon on Wednesday, June 6, in my
office (RI262).
Late papers and homeworks will be penalized.
(Sorry, but otherwise there's just not enough time to grade them.)
Sean Carroll, Professor
Yin-e Sun, Grader
Problem sets will be handed out
on Thursdays, due the following Thursday. Check the
messages page to see if there are
corrections or updates to the problem sets between when they are
handed out and when they are due.
Here are suggested paper topics.
Click on the titles to see the
amazon.com
entry for each book. You can even buy them online if you like.
Dates
Personnel
Email: carroll [at] theory.uchicago.edu
Office: RI 262
Office Phone: 773/702-7635
Office Hours: as requested
Email: yinesun [at] midway.uchicago.edu
Office: HEP 309
Office Phone: 834-7358
Outline
Problem Sets
Books
This will be the main text. It needs to be supplemented for some details,
but the explanations are typically clear and correct.
A standard text, which has been used in previous years.
Slightly more advanced, jumps right in to calculating cross-sections.
Presumes you know field theory, but chock full of useful info.
Another standard reference.
This book is intended for undergrads, and doesn't always bother
to get factors of order unity correct in calculations, but is
a very useful resource.
Other Resources
Sean M. Carroll
Enrico Fermi Institute
University of Chicago
5460 S. Ellis Ave.
Chicago, IL 60637
Office: 773/702-7635 Fax: 773/834-2222
carroll [at] theory.uchicago.edu