Elementary Particle Physics I
Physics 880.02, Winter 2009
Instructor: Yuri
Kovchegov
Office: M2042 Physics Research Bldg
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 2:00 - 3:00 pm
Course Meets: Tuesdays Thursdays 12:30 pm - 2:18 pm, Aviation Building , room 0115.
Grader: Anastasios Taliotis
*** First Class Meets January 6, 2009 ***
*** There will be no classes on Tuesday, March 10, and on Thursday, March 12, 2009 - I'll be out of town. Instead we will have a class on Friday, March 13, 1:30 - 3:18 pm in the usual location (Aviation room 115). ***
Brief Syllabus (for both quarters):
- Brief introduction to Field Theory: scalar, Dirac and gauge fields, Feynman diagrams.
- Elements of Group Theory and Constituent Quark Model: groups, representations, Young tableaux, product representations; the Eightfold way, QCD lagrangian, SU(3) flavor, SU(3) color.
- Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking: Landau-Ginzburg theory, the Goldstone theorem, sigma-model, pion as a Goldstone boson.
- Electroweak (EW) Interactions: Fermi theory of weak interactions, EW SU(2) x U(1) lagrangian, Higgs boson and spontaneous EW symmetry breaking, CKM matrix,
e^+e^- annihilation, Z-boson decay and neutrinos.
- Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD): running coupling and asymptotic freedom, renormalons.
- Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) and parton model, DGLAP evolution equation, operator product expansion, hadron scattering and jets.
- Axial anomaly, instantons and the U(1) problem.
- Small-x physics and parton saturation.
Textbook:
- T.-P. Cheng and L.-F. Li - Gauge Theory of Elementary Particle Physics
Recommended Reading :
Here's a list of books to complement Cheng and Li. The books are listed in the order of
increasing difficulty (more or less).
- D. Griffiths - Introduction to Elementary Particles (this book is more of a prerequisite, as it is at a less advanced level than the course, but is a good introduction to some topics)
- D. H. Perkins - Introduction to High Energy Physics (also an introductory-level text)
- F. Halzen, A. D. Martin - Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics
- H. Georgi - Lie Algebras in Particle Physics (an excellent source on Group theory for particle physicists)
- M. E. Peskin, D. V. Schroeder - An Introduction To Quantum Field Theory (mostly Part III)
- J. F. Donoghue, E. Golowich, B. R. Holstein - Dynamics of the Standard Model
- E. Leader, E. Predazzi - An Introduction to Gauge Theories and Modern Particle Physics
- C. Burgess, G. Moore - The Standard Model: A Primer
- S. Weinberg - The Quantum Theory of Fields, Vol. 2: Modern Applications
Lecture Notes:
- Free Scalar, Dirac and Gauge Fields
- Quark Model and Group Theory
- Spontaneous Chiral Symmetry Breaking
- The Electroweak Theory
Homework Assignments:
Grading will be based on the HW's.
Yuri Kovchegov