Venue: Feynman Lecture Hall
Class Timings: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
First Meeting: 03 June 2024
Course Description: This is a 2-credit reading course, intended as an introduction to basic ideas in particle physics.
Course Evaluation:
• Class presentation, participation/quizzes: 20%
• Assignments: 50%
• Final Exam: 30%
Course Objectives:
At the end of this course, the student should be able to
1. Develop a basic understanding of key concepts and ideas in particle physics to see how the basics of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory apply to particle physics.
2. Describe the role of symmetries in particle physics, including discrete and continuous symmetries, and their connection to conservation laws.
3. Explain the structure and interactions of elementary particles within the framework of the Standard Model, and how it came to be established.
4. Develop a basic understanding of experimental techniques used in particle physics, including accelerators and particle detectors.
Textbook:
The primary texts we will be reading through is
• Concepts of Elementary Particle Physics (Oxford Master Series in Physics) by Michael E. Peskin (See also Peskin’s lectures at PI )
• Modern Particle Physics by Mark Thomson.
Other textbooks we will consult include
• An Introductory Course of Particle Physics by Palash B. Pal,
• Introduction to Elementary Particles by David J. Griffiths
• Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics by Alan Martin and Francis Halzen
Additional Resources:
• Apart from the main textbooks, there are many excellent lecture notes available online. I will recommend the following two notes by David Tong:
– Notes on Particle Physics by David Tong
– Notes on The Standard Model by David Tong
The level of this course will roughly be in between these two notes.
• For up-to-date experimental results, we will refer to the website of the particle data group (PDG). This is an ode to the great experimental achievements of this subject.
• Standard references for experimental particle physics include
– Particle Detectors by Claus Grupen and Boris Shwartz
– The Physics of Particle Detectors by Dan Green
– The Physics of Particle Accelerators: an Introduction by Klaus Wille
- Teacher: Loganayagam R