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October 6, 2009

Master Student Course: Particle Physics 1 - 2009

Particle Physics 1 is a 1-st year master course of 12 lectures during the fall selemester that takes place in the Nikhef institute. The course is mainly based on the book of Halzen and Martin: "Quarks & Leptons: an Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physis". The lecture notes are available as well as the summary slides displayed in the beginning of the lectures. Organizational information about the 2009 course and examination can be obtained via a public google calendar called "Nikhef Particle Physics Master".

Abstract

The course Particle Physics 1 is an theoretical course on quantum electrodynamics and electroweak theory in the experimental master. It contains a single particle quantum mechanics treatment of perturbation theory leading to the Feynman rules of electromagnetic and electroweak interactions. The course starts with a discussion of wave equations for spinless particles followed by a Lorantz covariant description of the electromagnetic field. A recap of non-relativistic perturbation theory leads to Fermi's golden rule, which is extended to the relativistic scattering and an example of an electromagnetic scattering process of spinless particles is calculated.
Example image - aligned to the right The second part of the course treats particles of spin=1/2: the fundamental fermions. The Dirac equation is derived and solutions are studied. The Feynman rules for fermions follow from the wave equations and the annihilation scattering process of an electron pair into a muon pair is calculated.
Subsequently the weak interaction is studied in analogy starting from the 4-point interaction model of Fermi. The V-A structure is discussed as well as the flavour changing aspects of the charged current interaction and the CKM matrix.
The final part of the course contains a discussion of the principle of local gauge invariance for electrodynamics as well as for electroweak interactions resulting from the Standard Model symmetry: SU(2) x U(1). The course concludes with the Born level calculation of the electroweak cross section of e+e- -> mu+ mu-process at the Z-pole and the observation of the number of neutrino generations by LEP-1.

Graduate Student Lectures

I gave the following gradiate student lectures: