Tiago Nunes

Syllabus

This is a mandatory course for senior students in the Bachelor of Physics program. This is a shared course: Profa. Débora Menezes will cover the “Nuclear” part of the course, and I will cover the “Particles” part. The following topics will be covered by me:

• Introduction to the Standard Model
• Review of Special Relativity
• Decays and Interactions
• Introduction to Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
• Interaction Through Particle Exchange and Feynman Diagrams
• Some Processes in QED
• An (brief) introduction to QCD

Main Bibliography

• Mark Thomson – Modern Particle Physics, Cambridge University Press,(2013) [THO]
• I.J.R. Aitchison e A.J.G. Hey – Gauge Theories in Particle Physics – Volume 1, 4a Edição, CRC Press (2013) [AIT]
• D.P. Menezes – Introdução à Física Nuclear e de Partículas Elementares, EDUFSC, 2002.

Auxiliary Bibliography

• M. Srednicki – Quantum Field Theory, Cambridge University Press (2007)
• D. Griffiths  – Introduction to Elementary Particles, John Wiley&Sons, Inc
• Michael E. Peskin – Concepts of Elementary Particle Physics (Oxford Master Series in Physics), Oxford University Press, 2019.

Exercises Lists (In Portuguese only)

• Lista 1: Mecânica Quântica Relativística I
• Lista 2: Mecânica Quântica Relativística II
• Lista 3: Princípio de calibre e diagramas de Feynman em QED
• Lista 4: Seções de choque

Recommended Reading

1. Introduction to the Standard Model: [THO] Chapter 1, [AIT] Chapter 1
2. Special Relativiy (Review): [THO] Section 2.2, [AIT] Appendix D
3. Decays and Interactions: [THO] Sections 3.1, – 3.4
4. The Klein-Gordon Equation: [THO] Section 4.1, [AIT] Section 3.1
5. The Dirac Equation: [THO] Sections 4.2 and 4.3, [AIT] Section 3.2
6. Spin and the Dirac Equation: [THO] Section 4.4, [AIT] Section 3.3
7. Solutions for the Dirac Equation: [THO] Sections 4.6 and 4.7.1, [AIT] 3.4.1 – 3.4.3
8. Interaction through particles exchange and Feynman Diagrams: [THO] Chapter 5
9. Electron-positron annihilation – [THO] Sections 6.1-6.2

Further Reading

1. For an historic overview of the development of the Standard Model of Particle Physics: Chapter 1 from Introduction to Elementary Particles, D. Griffiths;
2. A pedagogical introduction to the Higgs mechanism can be found at the Quantum Diaries blog in this link;
3. Nice article about possible experimental signatures of  grávitons, on Quanta Magazine;
4. Discusion on some of the problems with the Standard Model on Symmetry Magazine
5. Another article from artigo da Symmetry Magazine, discussing the generations of the Standard Model
6. For an extended discussion on spin and helicity: [THO] Seção 4.8
7. Modern interpretation on negative energy solutions of the Dirac Equation: [THO] 4.7.2 e [AIT] 3.4.4
8. A very nice explanation about the gauge principle and minimal coupling can be found on [AIT] in Chapter 2 and Section 3.5
9. A review of the possible polarations of a photon field can be found on [THO] Appendix D