Particle physics Definition and 537 Threads

Currently, I am doing a master in mathematical physics. I am interested in particles& field theory and want to apply a PhD in this field. But I am not sure whether I can... I just learned a little high energy physics from Griffth and Peskin' book on elementary particles and QFT. Recently, I...

I am learning for my exam in particle physics. One topic is statistical physics. There I ran into this question: Consider an atom at the surface of the Sun, where the temperature is 6000 K. The atom can exist in only 2 states. The ground state is an s state and the excited state at 1.25 eV is a...

Hi. I'd like to ask what are the differences between Particle Physics, Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model. I see these names of physics courses but I want to confirm if I understand the difference. My understanding is that when students learn particle physics in their undergraduate...

I am reading Carroll’s Spacetime and Geometry, and I have seen the word “coupled” used multiple times in seemingly different ways. I have gotten the sense that it means some sort of interaction between particles, but Carroll refers to coupling between matter fields and the curvature of...

I have been interested in particle physics since I was in High School, but I have struggled to keep my GPA high enough to get me into grad school and I want to serve my country. I decided that the military was the best route to get the experience I needed. I would like to work with lasers to...

Homework Statement We are given the Lagrangian density: $$ \mathcal{L}=\partial^\mu \phi ^* \partial_\mu \phi - m\phi^* \phi +\sum_{\alpha =1} ^2 ( \overline{\psi}^\alpha (i\gamma^\mu \partial_\mu -m)\psi^\alpha -g\overline{\psi}^\alpha\psi^\alpha \phi^* \phi) $$ , where ##\phi## is a complex...

When learning about chirality I was very surprised to find that for QED and QCD the decay modes that would produce 2 particles with the same chirality had a Matrix Element of 0, which I took to mean that angular momentum was being conserved. Even the W only decay into RH antiparticles and LH...

Suppose some protons are impacted on a Lithium target to produce neutrons with energies close to the proton energy. If one considers Energy-loss due to proton-target collision (ionization of the target atoms), will this kind of energy loss influence neutron energy spectrum? I am asked by my...

Homework Statement Homework Equations (1) E2 = p2c2 + m02c4 (2) E = γm0c2 (3) E = Eγ1 - Eγ2 (4) p = E / c (5) E = hf (6) λ = c / f The Attempt at a Solution a) Using eqn (1), rearranged p = (E - m0c2) / c , I obtained 2.9 MeV c-1. Not sure if I have the right answer here as I...

Homework Statement I would like to compute the total cross section of a lepton pair production using parton distribution functions. The main problem I am having is the numerical computation and the order of magnitude I am getting as a final answer, which so far definitely indicates that...

I'm reposting this thread with some editing suggested by fresh_42: 1. Homework Statement Calculate the mass, velocity and the de Broglie wavelength of an electron and an alpha particle, given the kinetic energy K = 2MeV Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution please find attached![/B]...

Homework Statement I'm considering a non-linear chiral theory where the Lagrangian is in terms of the field #\Sigma = e^{\frac{2i\pi}{f}}# where #\pi# is my pion matrix containing pion, kaon, and #\eta#. I need to calculate the transformation of #\pi# up to order #\pi^2# under an axial...

Homework Statement I'm trying to solve problem 3 from http://www.ictp-saifr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/hw_ICTP-SAIFR-2.pdf The problem is as follows: Assume that solar neutrinos arrive at the surface of the Earth in the ##\left| \nu_2 \right>## state (a mass eigenstate). Assume this...

The Compton wavelength of a particle is given by $$\lambda=\frac{h}{mc}.$$ One can construct an expression for the energy density ##\rho## of a particle of mass ##m## given by $$\rho = \frac{mc^2}{\lambda^3}=\frac{m^4 c^5}{h^3}.$$ What is the physical significance of the mass scale ##m## in the...

Homework Statement Consider solar neutrinos of energy 1 MeV (EDIT: 10 MeV not 1 MeV) which are formed at the center of the sun in the ##\nu_2## eigenstate. What fraction of it do you expect to arrive at Earth as ##\nu_\mu## and what fraction as ##\nu_\tau##? Assume that it evolves adiabaticaly...

Just a quick query here: Is the outline of particle physics at the link below right? I have found it very helpful in a general way, but I am only just learning this stuff and don't want to be misled. https://physics.info/standard/concept-map.pdf Thanks!

Hello everybody, I need a help, primarly a confirmation about my reasoning. I have data from a MonteCarlo simulation of collisions between particles at LHC (made with Madgraph). I have plotted some variables, for example the angle between two final leptons. Then I have normalized the plot to a...

I am trying to compute the cross-section for the diagram below with a divergent triangle loop: where ##X^0## and ##X^-## are some fermions with zero and negative charge respectively. I am interested in low energy limits, so you can consider W-propagator as ##\frac {i\eta_{\mu\nu}} {M_w^2}##...

I was recently reading about annihilation and creation operators in particle physics using the model of an harmonic oscillator, and then quantizing it. This is fine. I can understand it. But how does this quantization of the energy of the harmonic oscillator manifest physically? Is it that only...

Consider a three dimensional representation of ##U(1)\times SU(2)## with zero hypercharge ##Y=0##: $$ L= \begin{pmatrix} L^+ \\ L^0 \\ L^- \end{pmatrix} $$ Then the mass term is given by [1]: $$ \mathcal{L} \supset -\frac m 2 \left( 2 L^+ L^- +L^0 L^0 \right) $$ I am wondering where the...

Hey! I will start my third year on the theoretical physics program. I have taken an introduction course in particle physics, just the basics, not much math. (quark and Feynman diagrams the forces and interaction , CRM matrix and cabibbo angle etc. ) Now I'm choosing between relativistic...

Hello! I am not going to give details about the situation (for obvious reasons) but here it is: I got accepted for PhD to a very good American university, in experimental particle physics and I met a famous professor here who is willing to be my mentor. I talked to some of his old students and...

What do you think about the article Exceptional Quantum Geometry and Particle Physics Posted by John Baez https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2018/08/exceptional_quantum_geometry_a.html and the following discussion? It also includes links to the original papers. Exceptional quantum geometry...

I'm trying to figure out how to arrive at the final expression, as given in the lecture notes. I tried to work this out by myself but getting different figure and units. I've considered the followings, normalize the equation from its values e.g. spins and x parameter, as g~100, x~10(m/t~10)...

Bosons are described as force carrier particles and, as I understand it, the Higgs mechanism explains why photons are massless, just as all the carriers of the strong nuclear force, the gluons, whereas the weak force bosons have mass. A peculiar type of field is postulated, the ‘Higgs field’. It...

So I read a couple of explanations of how night-vision equipment works. Unfortunately I don't remember the sources but my recollection/understanding is that infrared light is converted into electrons and then into visible light. So my question is how does the information by which I mean (the...

How could electrically charged particles be massless before the symmetry breaking? Wouldn't the energy stored in the electric field contribute to particles mass?

Please can someone help explain these to me? I have completed a-d but I'm not how e works. I thought gamma was an exchange particle so should it then decay further?

Hi to all, I have a random number generator in FORTRAN, which gives a random numbers to my particles initial velocity in three dimension (vx,vy,vz). If, I want to make my particles to embark to move with a specific weight (eg. Maxwellian), what should I do? absv = sqrt(vx*vx+vy*vy+vz*vz) wt=...

I’m having a hard time, as I begin learning QM, knowing what it applies to, if I can put it that way. Is QM the rules that describe how the particles of the Standard Model interact with each other? Or what is the best way to understand the relationship between what one studies when one studies...

Greetings! This is probably the most simplest of questions but I wanted to ask that which particle carries most of the energy of an electron-proton collision (as in p + e− → n + νe), the neutron or the neutrino? What happens if we use a higher energy proton or electron? For example we use...

Consider the following reaction of strong interaction (in a scattering process) $$n+\pi^+\to \Lambda_0+K^+\tag{1}$$ Then the particle ##\Lambda_0## formed decays with weak interaction $$\Lambda_0\to \pi^+ +p\tag{2}$$ For each decay process I measure the four momenta of ##K^+##, ##\pi^+##...

In particle phyisics four-momentum is used and De Broglie relation is used to understand what lenghts can be "seen" in an experiment. Here (page 6) https://people.phys.ethz.ch/~pheno/PPP/PPP2.pdf it is claimed Where ##Q^2## is not actually "momentum" but its the square of the four momentum...

The deuterium exists only with the proton and neutron of aligned spin, which suggests that the residual strong force is greated with aligned spins, i.e. the binding energy is greater if the spins are aligned. On the other hand the mass of ##\Delta^{+}## is greater than the mass of proton ##p##...

I am trying to work through a problem in the textbook "Particle Physics in a Nutshell." However, I am realizing how little I actually understand about working through problems involving quark color pairs. Given in the problem is the meson color singlet 1/\sqrt{3}(r\bar{r}+g\bar{g}+b\bar{b})...

Greg Bernhardt submitted a new PF Insights post Interview with Niels Tuning, LHCb Run Coordinator Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

I have thought about taking the enterence exam for theoretical particle physics at SISSA this coming July. I was hoping someone here took it in a previous year and could give me some advice. By looking at the old written exams, it seems they are mainly made up from QFT and QM. So my plan was...

If atom are invisible then how can one say that atoms are made up of electrons nucleus and quasi particles.

I'm already aware that deep inelastic scattering, when an electron of high energy is scattered from a proton, shows us that the proton consists of point-like particles (quarks). However, what does elastic electron proton scattering tell us about the proton? Presumably elastic proton scattering...

Hi there, my name is Leon and I am a physics undergraduate. Recently I decided to dig into the field of particle physics by getting some related books. I definitely will get some books on quantum field theory (Peskin, Scrednick, mandl and shaw...etc), since qft is a framework of particle...

Homework Statement a) [Solved] What is the threshold energy in the center of mass for production of an antiproton in a proton-proton collision? Make sure quantum numbers are conserved. (This one was easy and I manage to solve it) b) In a fixed target experiment calculate the proton beam energy...

I've always loved physics, since my first science fiction novel in 1971. I won a scholarship to do a Math-Physics double honours program at University of Waterloo in 1977, but was immediately seduced into computer science by the promise of being paid big bucks to play with computers all day...

Homework Statement A Sigma^+ decays at rest into a neutron and a pion^+ meson, i.e. according to the reaction $$\Sigma \rightarrow n + \pi$$ The n and π masses are assumed known. The kinetic energy of the π + is measured to be 92 MeV. Determine the momentum of the pion. Homework Equations...

Hi everyone, I'm a senior undergrad in an Astrophysics BSc, and I just started my first course in Particle and Nuclear Physics. Our teacher didn't suggest anything as a textbook, and on my own I couldn't find any really relevant/useful book for my course type, and now I'm here, hopefully having...

I would likr to know what would happen if two beta particles were too collide with each other

Homework Statement A Higgs particle of mass M is moving in the z-direction with speed $\Beta_H$c compared to the lab system. It decays to a b-quark ans anti-b quark, each of mass m. What is the speed and direction of the b-quark compared to the lab-system, if the Higgs system, (a) it is emitted...

So I need some advice of someone professional and experienced. I’m 16 just about to sit my GCSEs soon and I’ve got a plan of what I want to do in the future. I reckon for my age I know quite a lot about high end things in Physics to do with quantum physics, special relativity, string theory...

I will soon start with the course introduction to QFT and are hence an amateur on the subject. However I could not help but wonder, If particles are describes by oschlliations in a field, how can a "bigger body" be made up of several such oscillation? (A bigger particle is made out of several...

The composition of the π0 is (uu_bar - dd_bar/√2; while the composition of the η meson is (uu_bar + dd_bar)/√2. Why is there a - sign in π0 while is there a + sign in η? How are the signs determined? By the way, can I type Latex symbols on this site? I tried to type the anti up quark by typing...

Hi everyone, I have a question about the ##q_{1}\bar{q_{2}}## to vacuum : $$ \langle 0 |\bar{q_{2}}\gamma_{\mu}\gamma_{5}q_{1}| q_{1}\bar{q_{2}}\rangle$$ That is the first time I try to solve the question like this. How do we calculate the matrix about this question ? Thank you so much!