Particle Physics (WiSe 2020/21)

Please note that, consistent with our international masters program, this course will be conducted in English.

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Guy Moore

Assistants

Marc Barroso and Jillur Rahman

Contact information

If you are enrolled in the course and you have not done so, please email me your email address. Use my departmental email

guy (dot) moore (at) physik (dot) tu-darmstadt (dot) de

To attend the first lecture please use the zoom link

Meeting ID: 845 6157 1146

Passcode: 825206

I will give out a new passcode in the first meeting, after making sure that precisely the right people are there.

Lectures

Tuesday, 13:30-15:10, Zoom
Friday, 13:30-15:10, Zoom

Questions/Homework help sessions

Wednesdays starting in the second week, there will be questions and homework-help services, led by one of the assistants. Please send your questions by email to the assistants several days prior to the session in order to facilitate more fruitful discussions.

Session Hours:
Wednesday, 16:00-17:00, Zoom

Syllabus

PDF form

Topics

  • Overview of particle physics
  • Relativistic kinematics and Relativity
  • Symmetries
  • Feynman calculus
  • Quantum Electrodynamics (QED)
  • Quarks and Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)
  • Weak Interactions
  • Gauge theories (time permitting)

Course Textbook

David Griffiths, Introduction to Elementary Particles

Please buy the book, or at least get a physical or electronic copy!

Reading in the book will be essential in this course!

Homeworks

Homeworks will be provided here every Friday during the semester.

Please return your solutions electronically (preferrably as a PDF document) directly to Marc Barroso, mbarroso@theorie.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de.

People who average above 60% on their homework, after discarding the lowest-scoring homework, will receive a bonus to the final course grade of 0.3 or 0.4 points.

Solutions

have now been taken down

Exam schedule

Who cares? See below

Note about the exam

By unanimous vote, the students and professor agree that an exam is unnecessary. Instead we will grade solely on homeworks.

That said, there will be a final homework assignment which is in some sense comprehensive over what we have covered.

Lecture schedule

All readings refer to the relevant chapters of the course book by Griffiths.
Date Topic Slides Reading
03.11.2020 Superficial Overview Lecture 1 All of Chapters 1 and 2!
06.11.2020 Special Relativity again Lecture 2 3.1, 3.2
10.11.2020 Special Relativity, Kinematics Lecture 3, also as a Recording 3.3, 3.4
13.11.2020 Symmetries Lecture 4 Partial recording 4.1, 4.2, start 4.3
17.11.2020 Symmetries II Lecture 5 Partial recording 4.3 and 4.4
20.11.2020 Decay rates, cross sections Lecture 6 partial recording 6.1, 6.2
24.11.2020 Feynman Rules Lecture 7, recording 6.3
27.11.2020 Dirac equation Lecture 8 recording 7.1, 7.2
01.12.2020 Dirac and Photons Lecture 9 recording 7.3, 7.4
04.12.2020 QED Feynman rules Lecture 10 recording 7.5, 7.6, start 7.7
08.12.2020 QED example+discussion Lecture 11 recording 7.7, 7.8, 7.9
11.12.2020 QED and QCD Lecture 12 recording 8.1,8.2,8.3
15.12.2020 QCD: Perturbation Theory Lecture 13 recording Rest of chapter 8
18.12.2020 Bound states Lecture 14 recording 5.1 to 5.3
12.01.2021 Mesons Lecture 15 recording 5.4, 5.5
15.01.2021 Group thy review Lecture 16 recording 5.4, 5.5
19.01.2021 Baryons Lecture 17 recording 5.6
22.01.2021 15:30PM!! Weak decays Lecture 18 recording 9.1 - 9.3
26.01.2021 Weak meson decays Lecture 19 recording 9.4, 9.5
29.01.2021 Electroweak interactions Lecture 20 recording 9.6, 9.7
02.02.2021 Gauge theories Lecture 21 recording 10.1 to 10.6
5.02.2021 at 3:30PM Higgs mechanism Lecture 22 recording 10.7 to 10.9
9.02.2021 Neutrino oscillations Lecture 23 recording Chapt. 11, Wikipedia
12.02.2021 Beyond the Standard Model?? Lecture 24 Chapt 12
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