Everything online: revised slides, movies, notes. SCript frozen until next course.
Previous change: Pions and Nucleons online, but will likely suffer amendments/restructuring.
Watch this space for changes.
PHYS 6610: Nuclear and Particle Physics I
(Dr. Harald W.
Griesshammer)
Lectures: Tuesday, Thursday 14:00 to 15:30 in Corcoran 309. All lectures are 90 minutes, so that there is plenty of time for Q&A; equivalent to 3 credits.
"Snow Days" (possible slots for rescheduled lectures): Fri 12:30 to 14:00 in Corcoran 309, and "Surgery" is bumped to 16:00.
Homework Due: Thursdays at 12:00 sharp
Surgery hours:
Start Fridays at 12:30 in Corcoran 309 (unless "Snow Day lecture; then Surgery at 16:00). Lasts
till all questions are answered.
Additional
office hours
by appointment after 3pm in my office. Email what and when to discuss.
email: hgrie
<at> gwu.edu
Audience
Graduate students above the 3rd semester.
Goals
Introduction to theory and experiment of the standard model of elementary particle physics of strong and electro-weak interactions and survey of Nuclear and Particle Physics from very low energies to its frontiers: Review of experimental and theoretical tools; observed phenomena and evidence for particles, symmetries and interactions; summary of present theoretical understanding in scale-appropriate descriptions. Embedded into the overview, the course addresses topics relevant to research at GW. Focus on skill-building, symmetry principles, controlled approximations and concepts at the fore-front of research. This course will not detail all of Nuclear and Particle Physics but survey the field's breadth such that thoseinterested can delve in more details at their own discretion.
Prerequisites
The core lectures; in particular: The many facets of scattering; special relativity, relativistic classical and quantum field theory (tree-level QED, Feynman rules, etc.). Especially useful to refresh your memory is Dr. Haberzettl's Quantum Mechanics script, whose contents will be taken for granted.Conventions, some Oft-Overlooked Essentials and a Summary of Electron Scattering can be found in this .pdf.
Exams and Grading
The final grade is a sum of:
- Exercises/Homework (40% of total): weekly;
- Mid-Term Exam (30% of total): tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, 21 March XX:XX?????, Corcoran 309, 2 hours;
- Presentation (30% of total): At the end of the semester, each student will give a presentation, followed by questions, about a topic approved by the instructor. I strongly encourage you to make a "dress-rehearsal" with me at least 1 week before the presentation.
separately. In particular, you need at least 50% of all points in all Problem sheets together (not per sheet!). An excellent score usually starts at 80% of all points. Exams are closed-book. A sheet with some possibly relevant mathematical formulae will be provided by me in the days before each exam.
Possible Final Presentation Topics
This is an inclomete list, being augmented as we move along. You can pick your own topic (even when not on the list), but need approval from the instructor. Projects with a "(T)" are already taken.- Your PhD Topic
- Astrophysical origin of cosmic rays at TeV energies and higher
- Explain one accelerator/detector arrangement in detail
- What is Beam Cooling, and how is it done?
- Beam-Beam Interactions
- How can one polarise a target?
- Laser-driven accelerators
- Derivation of the Bethe-Bloch formula (QM)
- Compton scattering off electrons
- magnetic moment of a Dirac particle
- g-2 experiments
- The Fermi Liquid Model of Nuclei
- The Nuclear Shell Model
- Deep Inelastic Scattering with neutrinos
- Drell-Yan process [Chubenko]
- Nielsen-Nishiima No-Go theorem of lattice Physics
- Parity-violating neutron spin rotation (exp or theory)
- The Goldhaber Experiment of Parity-Violating decays of the nucleus
- Neutrinoless double-β decay
- Proton decay
- Path Integral Formulation of Quantum Mechanics
Exercises/Homework
Problem sheets are posted online Thursdays on this web-site (see below).Drop hardcopies in my pigeon-hole in the Physics office, or mail to hgrie <at> gwu.edu .
Graded solutions are returned and discussed during the next Surgery hour.
Handwritten solutions must be on 5x5 quadrille ruled paper; electronic solutions must be in .pdf format.
Use of a "lab-book'' or "journal'' for homework is strongly encouraged.
Contents
- Tools (ca. 10 lectures)
- Phenomena (ca. 6 lectures)
- Descriptions (ca. 12 lectures)
Syllabus: More Information/Bibliography
The only authoritative version of the syllabus contains much more information and is available as as .pdf-file: nupa-18I.information.pdf.Bibliography
You will not be able to find all aspects of the lecture explained well in only one textbook. Moreover, it is an essential part of the learning process to view the same topic from different angles, i.e. using different textbooks. As [J. Nearing: Mathematical Tools for Physics, p. vii] writes: "It is always useful to get a second viewpointbecause it's commonly the second one that makes sense -- in whichever order you read them." Here is a list of those which I found most useful. If you discover others, tell me.
The Class schedule lists for each lecture recommended readings.
An asterisk * indicates titles on Course Reserve at Gelman Library, with max. 3 days for loan. Be social.
Required Reading
GW Lecture Notes Material is prerequisite for this course, but you may be more familiar with other sources.
[MM] H. W. Grießhammer: A Manuscript of the Graduate Lecture on Mathematical Methods of Theoretical Physics; version December 2013. Online at author's website.
[Edyn] H. W. Grießhammer: A Manuscript of the Graduate Lecture on Electrodynamics and Classical Field Theory; version May 2012. Online at author's website.
Books on which the course is (mostly) based: Phenomenology Select at least one; insufficient theoretical concepts for a graduate course.
[HG] E. M. Henley, A. Garcia: Subatomic Physics; 3rd ed., World Scientific 2007, ca. US$70. The "other standard text" for this kind of course. More detailed than [PRSZR] and more for undergraduates.
Books on which the course is (mostly) based: Theory Select at least one; insuficient experimental concepts for a graduate course.
[CL] T.-P. Cheng, L.-F. Li: Gauge Theories of Elementary Particle Physics; Clarendon Press 1988, ca. US$80. Thorough reader of the theory side of the Standard Model. Nothing about Nuclear Physics.
Further books useful for this course: Theory and Phenomenology
[Tho] M. Thomson: Modern Particle Physics; Cambridge University Press 2013, ca. US$75. More tuned to upperlevel undergraduates without QFT knowledge, and for my taste at times somewhat convoluted, but very nice figures and up-to-date. Nothing about Nuclear Physics.
[Ber] C. Bertulani: Nuclear Physics in a Nutshell ; Princeton University Press 2007, ca. US$75. The only halfway decent and acceptably modern book on Nuclear Physics I found (entirely my bias). The biggest probmen is that Nuclear Physics books in general quickly sketch a bit about the few-nucleon system and then turn to the heavy nuclei for the remaining 90%. This one is a rare exception, but still does not cover adequately the modern developments, especially of Effective Field Theory. The reason for that may well be that this is cutting-edge research where much will be outdated in 5 or 10 years, so it is diffcult to condense into textbooks.
[EW] T. Ericson, W. Weise: Pions and Nuclei; Oxford University Press 1988, only used or in libraries. While ignorant of any modern development, this is a very nice source especially of the more traditional treatment of the pion-nucleon interaction. For the specialised reader.
[TW] A. W. Thomas, W. Weise: The Structure of the Nucleon; Wiley-VCH 2001, ca US$140. Possibly the last book without a low-energy treatment based on EFT, this is nonetheless an excellent summary of all known about the nucleon, especially at medium energies. For the specialised reader.
[SS] S. Scherer, M. R. Schindler: A Primer for Chiral Perturbation Theory; Springer 2011, ca. US$70. The first book-form account of chiral Effective Field Theory focuses on the purely mesonic sector, but also talks about the pion-nucleon interaction. Highly pedagogical, plenty of no-too-diffcult exercises with detailed solutions; this is for the motivated self-studier and future low-energy theorist. Schindler was a postdoc in our EFT group.
[TALENT] R. Furnstahl, A. Schwenk: 2013 TALENT/INT Course on Nuclear Forces and Their Impact on Structure, Reactions and Astrophysics, online. Pedagogical INT summer programme of the modern trends in Nuclear Physics. First half focuses on few-nucleon systems at low energies. Online videos, slides, manuscrips, exercises.
Further books useful for this course: Experimental Methods
[Tav] S. Tavernier: Experimental Techniques in Nuclear and Particle Physics; Springer 2010 , ca. US$55. Appears to be a very good update of [Leo].
[Kno] G. F. Knoll: Radiation Detection and Measurement, 4th ed.; Wiley 2010, ca. US$200. Just for looking, not for buying.
Further books useful for this course: Quantum Field Theory Not central to the first semester, but to the second one.
[Ryd] L. H. Ryder: Quantum Field Theory; 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press 1996, ca. US$75. Another, slightly more modern standard text for Quantum Field Theory, covering material in less excruciating detail. Nothing about Nuclear Physics.
[LB] T. Lancaster, S. J. Blundell: Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur; Oxford University Press 2016, ca. US$45. The scope appears to be for people who want to understand and not go into gory details. Tell me how you like it.
Online Resources: Click on Link to Access
[inspire] inspirehep.net: the High Energy Physics information system. Access to pretty much every article since 1980.
[NN] nn-online.org: the Nijmegen PartialWave database and analysis website, mostly for nucleon-nucleon scattering.
[DAC] gwdac.phys.gwu.edu: the Data Analysis Center at GW, maintains the SAID Partial-Wave Analysis Facility and further analyses and databases for mesons, baryons and their interactions.
Further reading as needed and advertised.
Class Schedule (no exact match, but an outline how we hope to progress)
Date | Topics (link to .djvu-file with manuscript) | Suggested Reading | Exercises |
. | Revisit your graduate course notes: scattering; special relativity, relativistic classical and quantum field theory (tree-level QED, Feynman rules, etc.) | reference is to chapter
numbers, e.g. [HM 1] = Halzen/Martin sect.1 |
Syllabus |
16
Jan, Tue lecture 1 |
Syllabus
& Philosophy Part I: Tools Introduction and Basics: historical note; units & conventions; Standard Model building blocks, typical scales, interactions; Beyond the Standard Model |
slides on bureaucracy [HM 1] [HG 1], cursorily: [HG 5] [PRSZR 1] slides, notes Handout: Conventions, Some Bare Essentials and Electron Scattering |
Problem
sheet 1: Warm-Up due 18 Jan (Thu) 12:00 |
18 Jan, Thu lecture 2 |
Particle
Sources: non-accelerator sources (cosmic rays etc); charged particles in electric and magnetic fields; linear accelerators, cyclotrons, synchrotrons, colliders/storage rings; beam stability; secondary beams; beams of the future?; CEBAF@TJNAF, MAMI, HIGS |
[HG 2, 19.5] [PDG 29, 30, 37] slides, HIGS movie |
Problem
sheet 2 due 25 Jan |
23 Jan, Tue lecture 3 |
Detectors: passage of radiation through matter; spectrometers; position measurements (wire chambers etc); calorimeters; Cerenkov counters; Crystal Ball and A-1 at MAMI, CMS at LHC |
[HG
3,4] [PDG 33-35] slides |
|
25 Jan, Thu lecture 4 |
Quantum Field Theory Recap: fields, Lagrangean, Noether Theorem; complex Klein-Gordon field and scalar QED; pragmatic approach to Feynman's perturbation theory |
[HH QM-II] [Edyn Fields] [Ryder 2-4] video of the Coleman course on QFT, Harvard 1975/76 (follow link there for script) slides (just 2 quotes), notes |
Problem
sheet 3 due 01 Feb |
30 Jan, Tue (postponed 2 Feb) |
no lecture (unless inclement weather; Griesshammer on assignment) |
. | |
01 Feb, Thu lecture 5 |
Quantum Field Theory Recap (cont'd): pragmatic approach to Feynman's perturbation theory; massless spin-1 field (electromagnetism); massive spin-1 field; fermionic field (Dirac equation, helicity, QED) |
see above | Problem
sheet 4 due 08 Feb |
02 Feb, Fri 12:30 Cor 309 special date (Surgey at 16:00) lecture 6 |
Quantum Field Theory Recap (cont'd): fermionic field (Dirac equation, helicity, QED); popular interactions and their Feynman rules Discrete Symmetry Operations: parity; charge-conjugation; time-reversal; TCP theorem |
see above Feynman rules of a few popular interactions TCP: [HG 9.1-5] notes |
|
06 Feb, Tue lecture 7 |
Scattering and Decay of Particles: relativistic kinematics, Mandelstam variables; scattering for theorists (luminosity, beam time) |
[HH QM-II] [HM 4.3] slides, notes |
|
08 Feb, Thu lecture 8 |
Scattering and Decay of Particles (cont'd):
scattering for experimentalists (from phase space & transition amplitude to cross section); particle decay; resonances |
see above "canonical" cross section via Golden Rule: [PRSZR 4] decay/resonances: [HG 5.7/12] [HM 2.10, 4.4] [PDG 46, 46.5, 47] |
Problem
sheet 5 due 15 Feb |
13 Feb, Tue lecture 9 |
Theory of
Electron Scattering: as analysis tool; on Coulomb potential and form factor; on spin-0 target (Mott & structure) |
[HM 4, 6.1/3-6/9/11/13, 8] slides, notes |
. |
15 Feb, Thu lecture 10 |
Theory of Electron Scattering (cont'd): on massive point-like fermion; on proton target; inclusive inelastic scattering; crossing symmetry; summary Wrap-Up of Part I: Tools |
see above |
Problem
sheet 6 due 22 Feb |
20 Feb, Tue lecture 11 |
Part II: Phenomena Shapes and Masses of Nuclei: definition rms radius from form factor, converting form factors to charge distributions, Fermi function, numbers; example spin and deformation: the deuteron; inelastic nuclear scattering; Bethe-Weizsäcker (semi-empirical) mass formula/Liquid Drop Model, application: nuclear fission; cursory look at collective models and shell models; first look at the nuclear phase diagram: liquid-gas transition |
[PRSZR 5.4, 2.3, 3.1/3] [HG 6.3/4, (14.5), 16.1] slides cursorily [PRSZR 18, 19] |
|
22 Feb, Thu lecture 12 |
Hadron Form Factors: Breit Frame interpretation; Rosenbluth separation, polarisation transfer method; proton, neutron form factors; meson-cloud "model"; meson form factors; list of accomplishments; proton radius puzzle |
[HM 8.2 (th)] [HG 6.5/6] [Tho 7.5] [Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 54 (2004) 217] slides, notes |
Problem
sheet 7 due 01 Mar |
27 Feb, Tue lecture 13 |
(Nucleon) Resonance Region and Isospin: the Resonance Region; quasielastic scattering in Nuclear Physics; nucleon resonances; isospin in Nuclear Physics/in Particle Physics; coupling isospin multiplets |
[PRSZR 2.4, 6.2, 7.1/4] [HG 6.8, 14.2, 8.4-7] [Per 3.12] [HM 2.6/7] [PDG 47] slides, notes |
. |
01 Mar, Thu lecture 14 |
(Nucleon) Resonance Region and Isospin (cont'd): isospin invariant interactions; photons and isospin; a doublet of "quarks": isospin wave functions, some pitfalls of the Constituent Quark Model (last relevant for midterm) |
see above |
Problem
sheet 8 due 08 Mar |
06 Mar, Tue lecture 15 |
Deep Inelastic Scattering and Partons: experimental evidence for scaling; basics of the parton model; from parton distributions to structure functions; nucleon constituents of the parton model; PDFs in nuclei: EMC effect; quick note on Wigner, Generalised Parton & Transverse Momentum Distributions |
[HM 9] [PRSZR 7.2, 8.1/4-5] [HG 6.8-10] slides |
. |
08 Mar, Thu lecture 16 |
e+ e- Annihilation into Leptons and Quarks: leptoproduction; nonresonant hadron production, with quark picture; resonant hadron production at low energies (vector meson dominance); multiplets, constituent quark model (brief and disparaging); phi-meson and strange quarks; resonant hadron production at high energies: quarkonia Wrap-Up of Part II: Phenomena |
[PRSZR 9.1/3] [PRSZR15/16 (cursorily)] [HG 10.9, 15.1-7] [HM 11.1-3] [Tho 9.6] slides |
Problem
sheet 9 last for Midterm: special due 19 Mar, Mon 08:00 |
13/15 Mar, Tue/Thu |
Spring Break |
||
19 Mar, Mon 10:00 Cor 309 |
Lecturer's
Question Time (please indicate possible topics beforehand) |
||
20 Mar, Tue lecture 17 |
Part III: Descriptions Non-Abelian Gauge Theories: the Abelian case: QED; constructing NAGT: gauge-covariance of the gauge-covariant derivative; non-Abeilan gauge field tensor; Gauß' law and other interpretations; Feynman rules, QCD, Gell-Mann matrices; Historical Notes |
[HM 14.1-4, 2.15] [HG 12.3] [CL 8.1] slides, notes |
|
21 Mar, Wed 10:00 Cor 309 |
Mid-Term Exam: 2:00 hours, closed-book, sheet with mathematical formulae provided. |
||
22 Mar, Thu lecture 18 |
Perturbative QCD: QCD with small coupling as ideal world; QCD colours and inter-quark potentials: white/colour neutral quark states, opposite colours attract, colour flow, potential for white mesons and white baryons; running coupling in QED and QCD: asymptotic freedom and infrared slavery |
group theory: see e.g. this link to the MathMeth script [PRSZR 8.1-3, 14] [HM 2.15, 10.3-9, 11.4/6-7] [Tho 10.7/8] [HG 12.3] [Ryd 3, end of 9.6] [PS 16.7] [Per 6.5] (running coupling draws from [Ryd, end of 9.6] [PS 16.7] [Per 6.5]) slides, notes |
Problem
sheet 10 due 05 Apr |
23 Mar, Fri 12:30, Cor 309 special date lecture 19 |
Perturbative QCD (cont'd): quarkonia and perturbative QCD; QCD-inspired phenomenological potentials; perturbative QCD in e+e- Annihilation (3 and 4 jets); in proton-antiproton collisions (qq-scattering); in PDFs (DGLAP-WW evolution equations) |
see above | |
27 Mar, Tue lecture 20 |
Lattice QCD: Path Integral formulation of QM; PI on a Computer: Wick rotation, interpretation as statistical partition function in 4 spat. dimensions, discretisation, continuum and thermodynamic limits; free scalar and fermion fields, fermion doubling; QCD on the lattice: link variables, plaquettes; outline of lattice computations: ensembles, relaxation, measurements and "plateau plots"; |
path integral: [Ryd 5] [Sakurai: "Modern QM" 2.5] lattice: [CL 10.5] [PDG 18] [Wagner et al. arXiv 1310.1760] [Kenway lectures at CERN] slides, notes |
|
29 Mar, Thu pre-poned to 23 Mar, Fri |
no lecture (Griesshammer on assignment) | ||
03 Apr, Tue lecture 21 |
Lattice QCD (cont'd): heavy-quark potential for strong coupling (confinement); some selected problems of lattice QCD |
see above |
. |
05 Apr, Thu lecture 22 |
Lattice QCD (cont'd): some lattice results: static heavy-quark potential, flux tube movies, spectroscopy of baryons, mesons, glueballs, electic hadro polarisabilities, scattering phase shifts, few-nucleon systems Weak Interaction & Glashow-Salam-Weinberg: Phenomenology and classical experiments: leptonic, semi-leptonic, hadronic; parity violation experiments; |
see above phenomenology: [PRSZR 10,(11),12,18.6] [Per 7.1-6] theory: [Ryd 8.3-5] [CL 11,12] [Per 7, 8, 5.4] most up-to-date: [PDG 10, 12, 14 and reviews inside listings] slides, notes |
Problem
sheet 11 due 12 Apr |
10 Apr, Tue lecture 23 |
Weak Interaction & Glashow-Salam-Weinberg (cont'd):
philosophy of the GSW theory;
Glashow-Salam-Weinberg for 1 lepton family; dynamical mass generation: Higgs-Kibble-Englert mechanism in QED and GSW |
see above |
. |
12 Apr, Thu lecture 24 |
Weak Interaction & Glashow-Salam-Weinberg (cont'd): Higgs status 2018; Low-energy version: Fermi theory/V-A; quark universality: Cabibbo and CKM mixing of weak and mass eigenstates; lepton mixing, neutrino oscillations and neutrino masses, SNO experiment; numbers and features of the GSW theory; differences beyween GSW and QCD; Summary of the Standard Model |
see above | Problem
sheet 12 due 19 Apr |
17 Apr, Tue lecture 25 |
Pions and Nucleons: Low-energy Nuclear Physics: Compexity, Patterns and Bridge to QCD; Effective Field Theories: Weinberg's "Folk Theorem", What is "Low Energy", list of EFTs; Effective Range Theory as Effective Field Theory, residual cutoff dependence; Why the Sky Is Blue; EFT Cookbook, Know You Limits |
Goldstone: [CL 5] [Ryd 8.1-3] chiral EFT: [SS] [EW 9] traditional: [EW 2-4] mixed: [Ber 2,3] lectures 1-6 of Fleming’s EFT online course at MIT more bibliography here (dated) -- or see me slides, notes. |
. |
19 Apr, Thu lecture 26 |
Pions and Nucleons (cont'd): Separation of Scles in Nuclear Physics; Chiral Symmetry and its breaking: pion is special, chiral symmetry in QCD, Nambu-Goldstone spontaneous symmetry breaking in the nonlinear σ-model (in Classical and Quanum Mechanics, and QFT); Nambu-Goldstone Theorem; Chiral Perturbation Theory: mesons in QCD, pion decay constant, explicit breaking, chiral condensate and the Gell-Mann-Oakes--Renner relation, ππ scattering To the left is another illustration of the Higgs and Goldstone principles: The ground state does not have the symmetry of the potential. There clearly is an excitation along the bottom of the valley that needs no effort (massless particle). In the case of a gauge symmetry, one can eliminate the ball by a gauge transformation. |
see above, and see me movie about Nambu-Goldstone spontaneous and explicit symmetry breaking in Classical Mechanics (mp4 with sound) movie about Nambu-Goldstone sonntaneous symmetry breaking in Quantum Mechanics (mp4 with sound) |
Problem
sheet 13 due 26 Apr |
24 Apr, Tue lecture 27 |
Pions and Nucleons (cont'd): Pions and one nucleon ((H)BχPT): Goldberger-Treiman relation, chirally symmetric interactions at LO, Kroll-Rudermann and Weinberg-Tomozawa terms, πN scattering length, nucleon polarisabilities and nucleon Compton scattering, Bayesian estimates of residual theoretical uncertainties (theory error estimates), diffreentce between model and theory |
see above, and see me |
|
26 Apr, Thu lecture 28 |
Pions and Nucleons (cont'd): χEFT in Few-Nucleon Systems: phenomenology of the NN system and potential, deuteron, EFT at nonrelativistic energies, one pipon exchange, unntural scales and short-distance coefficients, statuand critique s of the χEFT potential, cutoff-dependence as guiding principle; Selected (biased) applications: NN phase shifts and observables, 3N system, nucleon polarisabilities and N, d, 3He Compton scattering, lattice results, impact on the Anthropic Principle, starting on spectra of light and not-so-light nuclei, starting on nuclear and neutron-star matter, lattice extrapolations & alternative worlds; Error Bars for Nuclear Physics! (A Polemic) Wrap-Up: A Tour Of Nuclear and Particle Physics |
see above, and see me |
Problem
sheet 14 due 03 May |
01 May 09:00 Tue |
Nuclear Day: Your Presentations |
|