Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Recitations: 2 sessions / week, 1 hour/session
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites, but 8.321 Quantum Theory I is a corequisite (must be taken at the same time).
Course Description
This is an introductory graduate-level course on the phenomenology and experimental foundations of nuclear and particle physics, including the fundamental forces and particles, as well as composites. Emphasis is on the experimental establishment of the leading models, and the theoretical tools and experimental apparatus used to establish them.
The course follows the textbook Introduction to Elementary Particles by David Griffiths to week 8, continues with 2 weeks of basics in nuclear physics and 2 weeks of experimental methods, and ends with a look beyond the Standard Model and the connection to cosmology.
Format
This course is taught remotely, using the flipped classroom format. Students watch videos and read the textbook at home. They also look at problems at home to check their understanding. They bring their questions to the online class sessions and attempt problems together in the group meeting.
Lectures are organized in short videos discussing specific concepts or methods. Each video is supplemented with slides, text, and a few short questions for your own evaluation. Recitations sessions are for to discussing (Q&A) the content of the lectures, showing examples, and discussing homework.
Recommended Textbooks
Perkins, Donald H. Introduction to High Energy Physics. Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN: 9780521621960
Wong, Samuel S. M. Introductory Nuclear Physics. Prentice-Hall, 1990. ISBN: 9780134715667
Griffiths, David J. Introduction to Elementary Particles. Wiley-VCH, 2017. ISBN: 9783527406012
Alternative Books and Reading
Krane, Kenneth. Introductory Nuclear Physics. Wiley, 2008. ISBN: 9788126517855
Donnelly, Thomas W., Joseph A. Formaggio, Barry R. Holstein, Richard Gerard Milner, and Bernd Surrow. Foundations of Nuclear and Particle Physics. The MIT Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780521765114
Leo, William R. Techniques for Nuclear and Particle Physics Experiments. Springer, 1994. ISBN: 9783540572800
Thomson, Mark. Modern Particle Physics. Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9781107034266
Grading
Homework (50 points) includes reading assignments and problem solving. Feel free to work in groups. Identify all contributors and submit your own work, i.e. not copies. One of 6 problem sets will be forgiven (5 count 10 points each).
The paper presentation (20 points) requires that you make a 20-minute presentation of a paper of your choice (with instructor approval), plus allow for 10 minutes of Q&A (in groups of two).
There are two oral exams (30 points total), each of which will be a 20-minute Q&A with the teaching staff.
Calendar
This course is organized around the following content chapters.
| CHAPTER # and TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|
| Chapter 0. Introduction | |
| Chapter 1. Fermions, Bosons, and Fields | Problem set 1 posted |
| Chapter 2. Symmetries | |
| Chapter 3. Feynman Calculus |
Problem set 2 posted Problem set 1 due |
| Chapter 4. QED | |
| Chapter 5. QCD |
Problem set 3 posted Problem set 2 due |
| Chapter 6. Weak Interactions |
Problem set 4 posted Problem set 3 due |
| Oral exam 1 | |
| Chapter 7. Higgs Physics | |
| Chapter 8. Neutrino Physics |
Problem set 5 posted Problem set 4 due |
| Chapter 9. Nuclear Physics |
Problem set 6 posted Problem set 5 due |
| Chapter 10. Instrumentation | Problem set 6 due |
| Oral exam 2 |
