Undergraduate Course: Particle Physics (PHYS11042)
Course Outline
School |
School of Physics and Astronomy |
College |
College of Science and Engineering |
Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Available to all students |
Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 11 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits |
10 |
Home subject area |
Undergraduate (School of Physics and Astronomy) |
Other subject area |
None |
Course website |
None
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Taught in Gaelic? |
No |
Course description |
Particle physics studies the interactions of the fundamental constituents of matter, quarks and leptons.
This course is primarily an introduction to the experimental study of particle physics, but it also aims to give a basic understanding of the theoretical description of particle physics known as the Standard Model.
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Entry Requirements
Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites |
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Prohibited Combinations |
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Other requirements |
At least 80 credit points accrued in courses of SCQF Level 9 or 10 drawn from Schedule Q.
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Additional Costs |
None |
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites |
None |
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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Delivery period: 2010/11 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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WebCT enabled: No |
Quota: None |
Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
King's Buildings | Lecture | | 1-11 | | 12:10 - 13:00 | | | | King's Buildings | Lecture | | 1-11 | | | | | 12:10 - 13:00 | King's Buildings | Tutorial | | 1-11 | | | | 09:00 - 09:50 | |
First Class |
Week 1, Tuesday, 12:10 - 13:00, Zone: King's Buildings. JCMB |
Additional information |
Workshop/tutorial sessions, as arranged. |
Exam Information |
Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours:Minutes |
Stationery Requirements |
Comments |
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | 12 sides | |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course the student should be able to:
1) Describe particle physics interactions through the use of Feynman diagrams; understand the role of elementary bosons (photon, W and Z) as exchange particles in the electromagnetic and weak interactions, and be able to write down simple amplitudes;
2) Have a basic understanding of the Dirac equation and the use of its solutions as spinors to describe the states of elementary fermions (quarks and leptons);
3) Understand the concept of a renormalizable gauge theory through the example of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED);
4) Describe the role of discrete symmetries, and in particular parity violation in weak decays;
5) Describe the parton structure of the nucleon as deduced from deep inelastic scattering experiments; including the ideas of Bjorken scaling and scaling violation; draw the parton density functions for valence quarks, sea quarks and gluons;
6) Describe strong interactions in terms of gluon exchange between quarks; including the ideas of confinement and azymptotic freedom; have a basic knowledge of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) including the symmetries of SU(3) color and SU(3) flavor in the quark sector;
7) Categorize hadrons according to their quark content, spin and isospin; know the selection rules for strong, weak and electromagnetic decays of hadrons;
8) Describe the properties of heavy quarks, including their decays to light quarks; know the form of the CKM quark-mixing matrix and understand its role in CP violation in K and B meson decays;
9) Describe the properties of neutrinos, including recent experimental results on solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations;
10) Describe the electroweak theory and have a knowledge of the experimental tests of the theory; understand the idea of spontaneous symmetry breaking and be able to describe the Higgs mechanism. |
Assessment Information
Degree Examination, 100% |
Special Arrangements
None |
Additional Information
Academic description |
Not entered |
Syllabus |
Not entered |
Transferable skills |
Not entered |
Reading list |
Not entered |
Study Abroad |
Not entered |
Study Pattern |
Not entered |
Keywords |
ParPh |
Contacts
Course organiser |
Prof Stephen Playfer
Tel: (0131 6)50 5275
Email: S.Playfer@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Miss Paula Wilkie
Tel: (0131) 668 8403
Email: paw@roe.ac.uk |
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copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh -
31 January 2011 8:14 am
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