Particle Physics

Michaelmas Term 2011 Prof. Mark Thomson

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Handout 1 : Introduction
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 1

Cambridge Particle Physics Courses

Particle and Nuclear Physics Prof Ward/Dr Lester
Introductory course

PART II PART III

Major Option Particle Physics Prof Thomson

Minor Option Gauge Field Theory Dr Batley
The theoretical principles behind the SM

Covering most Standard Model physics, both experiment and underlying theory

Minor Option Particle Astrophysics Profs Efstathiou & Parker

The connection between particle physics and cosmology

Prof. M.A. Thomson

Michaelmas 2011

Course Synopsis
Handout 1: Introduction, Decay Rates and Cross Sections Handout 2: The Dirac Equation and Spin Handout 3: Interaction by Particle Exchange Handout 4: Electron Positron Annihilation Handout 5: Electron Proton Scattering Handout 6: Deep Inelastic Scattering Handout 7: Symmetries and the Quark Model Handout 8: QCD and Colour Handout 9: V-A and the Weak Interaction Handout 10: Leptonic Weak Interactions Handout 11: Neutrinos and Neutrino Oscillations Handout 12: The CKM Matrix and CP Violation Handout 13: Electroweak Unification and the W and Z Bosons Handout 14: Tests of the Standard Model Handout 15: The Higgs Boson and Beyond Will concentrate on the modern view of particle physics with the emphasis on how theoretical concepts relate to recent experimental measurements Aim: by the end of the course you should have a good understanding of both aspects of particle physics
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 3

Preliminaries
Web-page: www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/~thomson/partIIIparticles/
All course material, old exam questions, corrections, interesting links etc. Detailed answers will posted after the supervisions (password protected)

Format of Lectures/Handouts:
l will derive almost all results from first principles (only a few exceptions). In places will include some additional theoretical background in nonexaminable appendices at the end of that particular handout. Please let me know of any typos: [email protected]

Books:
The handouts are fairly complete, however there a number of decent books: Particle Physics, Martin and Shaw (Wiley): fairly basic but good. Introductory High Energy Physics, Perkins (Cambridge): slightly below level of the course but well written. Introduction to Elementary Physics, Griffiths (Wiley): about right level but doesnt cover the more recent material. Quarks and Leptons, Halzen & Martin (Wiley): good graduate level textbook (slightly above level of this course). Before we start in earnest, a few words on units/notation and a very brief Part II refresher
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 4

Preliminaries: Natural Units

S.I. UNITS: kg m s are a natural choice for everyday objects e.g. M(Prescott) ~ 250 kg not very natural in particle physics instead use Natural Units based on the language of particle physics From Quantum Mechanics - the unit of action : From relativity - the speed of light: c From Particle Physics - unit of energy: GeV (1 GeV ~ proton rest mass energy)

Units become (i.e. with the correct dimensions): Energy Time Length Momentum Mass Area Simplify algebra by setting: Now all quantities expressed in powers of GeV Energy Momentum Mass
Prof. M.A. Thomson

Time Length Area

Michaelmas 2011

To convert back to S.I. units, need to restore missing factors of and

5

Preliminaries: Heaviside-Lorentz Units

Electron charge defined by Force equation: In Heaviside-Lorentz units set and
NOW: electric charge has dimensions

Since

Unless otherwise stated, Natural Units are used throughout these handouts, , , etc.

Prof. M.A. Thomson

Michaelmas 2011

Review of The Standard Model

Particle Physics is the study of:
MATTER: the fundamental constituents of the universe - the elementary particles FORCE: the fundamental forces of nature, i.e. the interactions between the elementary particles Try to categorise the PARTICLES and FORCES in as simple and fundamental manner possible Current understanding embodied in the STANDARD MODEL: Forces between particles due to exchange of particles Consistent with all current experimental data ! But it is just a model with many unpredicted parameters, e.g. particle masses. As such it is not the ultimate theory (if such a thing exists), there are many mysteries.

Prof. M.A. Thomson

Michaelmas 2011

Matter in the Standard Model

In the Standard Model the fundamental matter is described by point-like spin-1/2 fermions

LEPTONS q m/GeV

QUARKS q 1/3 m/GeV 0.3 0.3 0.5 1.5 4.5 175

The masses quoted for the quarks are the constituent masses, i.e. the effective masses for quarks confined in a bound state

e First Generation Q
1

1 0.0005 d 0 1 0 1 0 0 0.106 0 1.77 0

u +2/3 s c b t 1/3

P Second Generation Q
2

+2/3
1/3

W Third Generation Q3

+2/3

In the SM there are three generations the particles in each generation are copies of each other differing only in mass. (not understood why three). The neutrinos are much lighter than all other particles (e.g. Q1 has m<3 eV) we now know that neutrinos have non-zero mass (dont understand why so small)
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 8

Forces in the Standard Model

Forces mediated by the exchange of spin-1 Gauge Bosons
Force EM (QED) Weak Strong (QCD) Gravity (?) Boson(s) Photon J W / Z 8 Gluons g Graviton? JP 1 1 1 2+ m/GeV 0 80 / 91 0 0

Fundamental interaction strength is given by charge g. Related to the dimensionless coupling constant e.g. QED In Natural Units
(both g and D are dimensionless, but g contains a hidden )

Convenient to express couplings in terms of D which, being genuinely dimensionless does not depend on the system of units (this is not true for the numerical value for e)
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 9

Standard Model Vertices

Interaction of gauge bosons with fermions described by SM vertices Properties of the gauge bosons and nature of the interaction between the bosons and fermions determine the properties of the interaction STRONG q g
Only quarks Never changes flavour

EM q

WEAK CC

WEAK NC u q Z
All fermions Never changes flavour

P+ J

P+

d W

All charged fermions Never changes flavour

All fermions Always changes flavour

Prof. M.A. Thomson

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Feynman Diagrams
Particle interactions described in terms of Feynman diagrams

e.g. scattering

e.g. annihilation

e J

e+ e

P P

IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER: time runs from left right, only in sense that: LHS of diagram is initial state RHS of diagram is final state Middle is how it happened anti-particle arrows in ve time direction Energy, momentum, angular momentum, etc. conserved at all interaction vertices All intermediate particles are virtual i.e. (handout 3)
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INITIAL

FINAL

e+ e

P P
time

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Special Relativity and 4-Vector Notation

Will use 4-vector notation with as the time-like component, e.g. (contravariant) (covariant) with

In particle physics, usually deal with relativistic particles. Require all calculations to be Lorentz Invariant. L.I. quantities formed from 4-vector scalar products, e.g.

Invariant mass Phase

A few words on NOTATION Four vectors written as either: Four vector scalar product: Three vectors written as:
Prof. M.A. Thomson

or or or etc.
12

Quantities evaluated in the centre of mass frame:

Michaelmas 2011

Mandelstam s, t and u
In particle scattering/annihilation there are three particularly useful Lorentz Invariant quantities: s, t and u Consider the scattering process

3 2

(Simple) Feynman diagrams can be categorised according to the four-momentum of the exchanged particle

e+ e

P P

e J e
t-channel

e J

e
u-channel

s-channel

Can define three kinematic variables: s, t and u from the following four vector scalar products (squared four-momentum of exchanged particle)

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Example: Mandelstam s, t and u

Note: e.g. Centre-of-mass energy, s: (Question 1)

e+ e

P P
Lorentz Invariant

This is a scalar product of two four-vectors

Since this is a L.I. quantity, can evaluate in any frame. Choose the most convenient, i.e. the centre-of-mass frame:

Hence
Prof. M.A. Thomson

is the total energy of collision in the centre-of-mass frame

Michaelmas 2011 14

From Feynman diagrams to Physics

Particle Physics = Precision Physics
Particle physics is about building fundamental theories and testing their predictions against precise experimental data Dealing with fundamental particles and can make very precise theoretical predictions not complicated by dealing with many-body systems Many beautiful experimental measurements precise theoretical predictions challenged by precise measurements For all its flaws, the Standard Model describes all experimental data ! This is a (the?) remarkable achievement of late 20th century physics.

Requires understanding of theory and experimental data

Part II : Feynman diagrams mainly used to describe how particles interact Part III: will use Feynman diagrams and associated Feynman rules to perform calculations for many processes hopefully gain a fairly deep understanding of the Standard Model and how it explains all current data

Before we can start, need calculations for:

Interaction cross sections; Particle decay rates;
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 15

Cross Sections and Decay Rates

In particle physics we are mainly concerned with particle interactions and decays, i.e. transitions between states these are the experimental observables of particle physics Calculate transition rates from Fermis Golden Rule

is number of transitions per unit time from initial state to final state not Lorentz Invariant ! is Transition Matrix Element
is the perturbing Hamiltonian

is density of final states Rates depend on MATRIX ELEMENT and DENSITY OF STATES the ME contains the fundamental particle physics
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011

just kinematics
16

The first five lectures

Aiming towards a proper calculation of decay and scattering processes Will concentrate on: e e

e+e P+P e q e q

e+

P

(e qe q to probe proton structure)

Need relativistic calculations of particle decay rates and cross sections:

Need relativistic treatment of spin-half particles: Dirac Equation Need relativistic calculation of interaction Matrix Element: Interaction by particle exchange and Feynman rules + and a few mathematical tricks along, e.g. the Dirac Delta Function

Prof. M.A. Thomson

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Particle Decay Rates

Consider the two-body decay
Want to calculate the decay rate in first order perturbation theory using plane-wave descriptions of the particles (Born approximation):

i
2
as

where N is the normalisation and

For decay rate calculation need to know:

Wave-function normalisation Transition matrix element from perturbation theory Expression for the density of states All in a Lorentz Invariant form

First consider wave-function normalisation Previously (e.g. part II) have used a non-relativistic formulation Non-relativistic: normalised to one particle in a cube of side

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Non-relativistic Phase Space (revision)

Apply boundary conditions ( ): Wave-function vanishing at box boundaries quantised particle momenta: Volume of single state in momentum space:

a
py

Normalising to one particle/unit volume gives number of states in element:

px pz
with

Therefore density of states in Golden rule:

Integrating over an elemental shell in momentum-space gives

Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 19

Dirac G Function
In the relativistic formulation of decay rates and cross sections we will make use of the Dirac G function: infinitely narrow spike of unit area

a
Any function with the above properties can represent

e.g.

(an infinitesimally narrow Gaussian)

In relativistic quantum mechanics delta functions prove extremely useful for integrals over phase space, e.g. in the decay and express energy and momentum conservation
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 20

 We will soon need an expression for the delta function of a function Start from the definition of a delta function

Now express in terms of and then change variables

where

x
From properties of the delta function (i.e. here only non-zero at )

x
Rearranging and expressing the RHS as a delta function

(1)
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 21

The Golden Rule revisited

Rewrite the expression for density of states using a delta-function since Note : integrating over all final state energies but energy conservation now taken into account explicitly by delta function Hence the golden rule becomes: the integral is over all allowed final states of any energy For dn in a two-body decay, only need to consider one particle : mom. conservation fixes the other

i
2

However, can include momentum conservation explicitly by integrating over the momenta of both particles and using another G-fn

Energy cons.
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011

Mom. cons.

Density of states
22

Lorentz Invariant Phase Space

In non-relativistic QM normalise to one particle/unit volume: When considering relativistic effects, volume contracts by

a a

a a/J

Particle density therefore increases by Conclude that a relativistic invariant wave-function normalisation needs to be proportional to E particles per unit volume Usual convention: Previously used Hence

Normalise to 2E particles/unit volume

normalised to 1 particle per unit volume is normalised to per unit volume

, in terms of the wave-functions Define Lorentz Invariant Matrix Element, normalised to particles per unit volume

Prof. M.A. Thomson

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For the two body decay

Now expressing

in terms of

gives

Note:
uses relativistically normalised wave-functions. It is Lorentz Invariant is the Lorentz Invariant Phase Space for each final state particle the factor of arises from the wave-function normalisation
(prove this in Question 2)

This form of is simply a rearrangement of the original equation but the integral is now frame independent (i.e. L.I.) is inversely proportional to Ei, the energy of the decaying particle. This is exactly what one would expect from time dilation (Ei = Jm). Energy and momentum conservation in the delta functions
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 24

Decay Rate Calculations

Because the integral is Lorentz invariant (i.e. frame independent) it can be evaluated in any frame we choose. The C.o.M. frame is most convenient In the C.o.M. frame and

Integrating over

using the G-function:

i
2

now Writing

since the G-function imposes

For convenience, here is written as

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Which can be written in the form where and Note: imposes energy conservation. determines the C.o.M momenta of the two decay products for

(2)

i
2

i.e.

Eq. (2) can be integrated using the property of G function derived earlier (eq. (1))

where

is the value for which

All that remains is to evaluate

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giving:

But from

, i.e. energy conservation:

In the particles rest frame

(3)
VALID FOR ALL TWO-BODY DECAYS !

can be obtained from

(Question 3) (now try Questions 4 & 5)

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Cross section definition

V
=
no of interactions per unit time per target incident flux
Flux = number of incident particles/ unit area/unit time

The cross section, V, can be thought of as the effective crosssectional area of the target particles for the interaction to occur. In general this has nothing to do with the physical size of the target although there are exceptions, e.g. neutron absorption here

V is the projective area of nucleus

or generally

Differential Cross section

dV = no of particles per sec/per target into d: incident flux d:

d

dV

e p
Prof. M.A. Thomson

T
integrate over all other particles
Michaelmas 2011

with

28

example
Consider a single particle of type a with velocity, va, traversing a region of area

A containing nb particles of type b per unit volume

In time Gt a particle of type a traverses region containing particles of type b

va

vb

Interaction probability obtained from effective cross-sectional area occupied by the particles of type b

Interaction Probability =

Rate per particle of type a =

Consider volume V, total reaction rate = =

nb v V

As anticipated:
Prof. M.A. Thomson

Rate = Flux x Number of targets x cross section

Michaelmas 2011 29

Cross Section Calculations

Consider scattering process

3 2

1
Start from Fermis Golden Rule:

where Now

is the transition matrix for a normalisation of 1/unit volume

For 1 target particle per unit volume

the parts are not Lorentz Invariant

Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 30

To obtain a Lorentz Invariant form use wave-functions normalised to per unit volume Again define L.I. Matrix element

particles

The integral is now written in a Lorentz invariant form The quantity can be written in terms of a four-vector scalar product and is therefore also Lorentz Invariant (the Lorentz Inv. Flux)

(see appendix I)
Consequently cross section is a Lorentz Invariant quantity Two special cases of Lorentz Invariant Flux: Centre-of-Mass Frame Target (particle 2) at rest

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22 Body Scattering in C.o.M. Frame

We will now apply above Lorentz Invariant formula for the interaction cross section to the most common cases used in the course. First consider 22 scattering in C.o.M. frame Start from

3 1 4 2

Here

The integral is exactly the same integral that appeared in the particle decay calculation but with replaced by

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 In the case of elastic scattering

e P+

e P+

For calculating the total cross-section (which is Lorentz Invariant) the result on the previous page (eq. (4)) is sufficient. However, it is not so useful for calculating the differential cross section in a rest frame other than the C.o.M:

because the angles in

refer to the C.o.M frame

For the last calculation in this section, we need to find a L.I. expression for Start by expressing in terms of Mandelstam t i.e. the square of the four-momentum transfer

Product of four-vectors therefore L.I.

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Want to express

in terms of Lorentz Invariant

where
In C.o.M. frame:

3 2
z

1 4
giving therefore hence Finally, integrating over (assuming no dependence of

) gives:

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Lorentz Invariant differential cross section

All quantities in the expression for are Lorentz Invariant and therefore, it applies to any rest frame. It should be noted that is a constant, fixed by energy/momentum conservation

As an example of how to use the invariant expression we will consider elastic scattering in the laboratory frame in the limit where we can neglect the mass of the incoming particle E1 m2 e.g. electron or neutrino scattering In this limit

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22 Body Scattering in Lab. Frame

The other commonly occurring case is scattering from a fixed target in the Laboratory Frame (e.g. electron-proton scattering) First take the case of elastic scattering at high energy where the mass of the incoming particles can be neglected:

3 T 4

e.g.

1 e 2

e 3 X 4

X
Integrating over

Wish to express the cross section in terms of scattering angle of the e therefore

The rest is some rather tedious algebra. start from four-momenta so here But from (E,p) conservation and, therefore, can also express t in terms of particles 2 and 4
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 36

Note E1 is a constant (the energy of the incoming particle) so

Equating the two expressions for t gives

so

using gives

Particle 1 massless

In limit
Prof. M.A. Thomson Michaelmas 2011 37

In this equation, E3 is a function of T :

giving

The calculation of the differential cross section for the case where m1 can not be neglected is longer and contains no more physics (see appendix II). It gives:

General form for 22 Body Scattering in Lab. Frame

Again there is only one independent variable, T, which can be seen from conservation of energy

i.e.
Prof. M.A. Thomson

is a function of
Michaelmas 2011 38

Summary
Used a Lorentz invariant formulation of Fermis Golden Rule to derive decay rates and cross-sections in terms of the Lorentz Invariant Matrix Element (wave-functions normalised to 2E/Volume) Main Results: Particle decay:
Where is a function of particle masses

Scattering cross section in C.o.M. frame:

Invariant differential cross section (valid in all frames):

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Summary cont.
Differential cross section in the lab. frame (m1=0)

Differential cross section in the lab. frame (m1 0)

with
Summary of the summary:

Have now dealt with kinematics of particle decays and cross sections The fundamental particle physics is in the matrix element The above equations are the basis for all calculations that follow

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Appendix I : Lorentz Invariant Flux

NON-EXAMINABLE

Collinear collision:

To show this is Lorentz invariant, first consider Giving

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Appendix II : general 22 Body Scattering in lab frame

NON-EXAMINABLE

3 T 4

again But now the invariant quantity t:

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Which gives To determine dE3/d(cosT), first differentiate (AII.1) Then equate Differentiate wrt. cosT to give

Using (1)

(AII.2)

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It is easy to show

and using (AII.2) obtain

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