Notes on Elementary Particle Physics

Notes of Elementary Particle Physics is a seven-chapter text that conveys the ideas on the state of elementary particle physics. This book emerged from an introductory course of 30 lectures on the subject given to first-year graduate students at the University of Liverpool.
The opening chapter deals with pertinent terminologies in elementary particle physics. The succeeding three chapters cover the concepts of transition amplitudes, probabilities, relativistic wave equations and fields, and the interaction amplitude. The discussion then shifts to tests of electromagnetic interactions, particularly the tests of quantum electrodynamics and electromagnetic form factors. The final two chapters describe the invariance properties and problems in weak and strong interactions.
This book is of value to graduate elementary particle physics teachers and students.

Contenu

Preface

1. Terminology

   1.1. The Major Types of Particles

   1.2. Coupling Strengths

   1.3. Strange Particles

   1.4. The Gell-Mann, Nishijima Scheme

   1.4(a). Isospin and hadrons

   1.4(b). The strangeness quantum number

   1.5. Experimental Techniques

2. Transition Amplitudes and Probabilities

   2.1. Notation

   2.2. The Transition Amplitude

   2.2(a). The S matrix

   2.2(b). Invariance principles and the transition amplitude

   2.2(c). Additional forms of the transition amplitude

   2.3. Transition Probabilities

   2.3(a). Phase space

   2.3(b). Cross-sections

   2.3(c). Decay probabilities

   2.3(d). The relative velocity

   2.3(e). The phase space factor

   2.4. Cross-sections for Two-body Final States

   2.5. Applications of the Phase Space Integral

3. Relattvistic Wave Equations and Fields

   3.1. The Klein-Gordon Equation

   3.2. Particles with Spin

   3.3. Transformations

   3.4. The Pauli-Lubanski Vector

   3.5. Wave Equations for Particles of Non-zero Spin

   3.5(a). The Dirac equation

   3.5(b). Adjoint form of the Dirac equation

   3.5(c). Currents for Dirac particles

   3.5(d). Spin operators for Dirac particles

   3.5(e). Solutions of the Dirac equation

   3.5(f). Dirac equation for m=0

   3.5(g). Projection operators for Dirac spinors

   3.5(h). Sums over spin states

   3.5(i). Spin-one systems

   3.6. Relativistic Fields

4. The Interaction Amplitude

   4.1. The Perturbation Approach

   4.1(a). Introduction

   4.1(b). Application to rho meson decay

   4.2. Invariance Arguments

   4.3. Propagators

   4.4. Feynman Rules

5. Electromagnetic Interactions

   5.1. The Coulomb Scattering of Two Electrons

   5.2. Tests of Quantum Electrodynamics

   5.3. Electromagnetic Form Factors

   5.3(a). Nucléon form factors

   5.3(b). Pion form factors

6. Weak Interactions

   6.1. The Operations P,C,T

   6.1(a). Parity

   6.1 (b). Charge conjugation

   6.1 (c). Time reversal

   6.2. Invariance Properties in Weak Interactions

   6.2(a). Introduction

   6.2(b). Nuclear ß-decay

   6.2(c). µ- and p-decay

   6.2(d). Selection rules for leptonic decays

   6.3. Problems in Weak Interactions

   6.3(a). Intermediate vector bosons

   6.3(b). CP and the K°, K° system

7. Strong Interactions

   7.1. Quantum Numbers of the Resonances

   7.1(a). Introduction

   7.1 (b). Elastic scattering and phase shifts

   7.1(c). Resonances

   7.1(d). Complications

   7.1 (e). Spin-parity analysis for production resonances

   7.2. Internal Quantum Numbers

   7.2(a). Isospin

   7.2(b). Isospin in p-p scattering

   7.2(c). G-parity

   7.2(d). Higher symmetries

   7.2(e). Quarks

   7.2(f). SU3

   7.2(g). Mixing angles

   7.2(h). Summing up

   7.3. Interactions at High Energies

   7.4. Regge Poles

   7.4(a). Crossing symmetry

   7.4(b). Problems with one-particle exchange models

   7.4(c). Regge poles

   7.4(d). Behaviour of the Regge amplitude

   7.4(e). Successes and failures

   7.5. Finite Energy Sum Rules

   7.6. Interference and/or Duality

   7.7. The Veneziano Model

Appendices

A.l. Particle Data

A.2. Units

A.3. Some Points from Quantum Mechanics

A.3(a). Notation

A.3(b). States

A.3(c). Operators

A.3(d). Common situations

A.3(e). Clebsch-Gordan coefficients

A.3(f). Spherical functions

A.3(g). Spherical Bessel functions

A.3(h). Spherical harmonics

A.3(i). Projection operators

A.4. s-functions

A.5. Reference Frames and the Lorentz Transformation

A.6. y-Matrices

A.7. Symmetry Properties for the Decay x - p

References

Index