521— SYLLABUS, G.Kane

Approximately one bullet per lecture — a * represents additional lectures on a given subject —topics that are mainly experimental are in italics— overall about 40% of the time is mainly experimental —some topics are revised to reflect developments in the field; for example, before the 1997 precision data upper limit on the Higgs boson mass a discussion of W beams and strong WW scattering was included.

• Overview—particle physics course, not field theory or detailed experimental techniques — quarks, leptons, symmetries of the Hamiltonian —the forces—gauge bosons—the Standard Model as an effective theory— brief history— limitations of the Standard Model — natural units
• Relativistic notation — Lagrangians— Euler-Lagrange equations—scalar fields— Noether’s theorem —complex scalars and Abelian global gauge transformations —from the Lagrangian to Feynman rules
• Gauge invariance—in classical electromagnetism—in quantum theory—local gauge invariance requires the presence of a vector field — covariant derivative —general charges
• Some group theory — representations — Lie groups — U(1) — SO(n), SO(3) and rotations — SU(n) — general unitary matrix— SU(2) and physics, Pauli matrices— SU(3), Gell-Mann matrices
• Non-Abelian gauge theories—strong isospin, an internal space—an invariant Lagrangian—combine internal space and non-Abelian phase invariance —for quarks and leptons — no free particle can have non-Abelian local gauge invariance — SU(2) covariant derivative — how W changes under a gauge transformation —full Standard Model covariant derivative
• Dirac equation —massless fermions —general — left- and right-handed — useful relations, chirality change or conservation — Lagrangian
• The Standard Model Lagrangian —the full quark and lepton wave function —the EW and QCD pieces worked out in detail — neutral currents — connections to electromagnetism—connection to ν physics — charged currents, β decay, the connection to parity violation —quark and gluon couplings —the non-Abelian triple and quadratic couplings for W,Z,gluons
• Measurement of the parameters in the Lagrangian —couplings
• Masses are zero —the Higgs mechanism — real scalar— spontaneous symmetry breaking —complex scalar, global symmetry, Goldstone bosons — local, Abelian Higgs mechanism —the Standard Model Higgs mechanism —calculation of W,Z masses— fermion masses—vacuum energy problem — introduction to Higgs boson production and detection at LEP and Tevatron
• Relativistic kinematics—cross sections, decay widths, lifetimes
• W,Z decays —the W and Z width calculations — how to measure them — branching ratios — data, Tevatron and LEP measurements—tests of EW and color predictions
• Muon lifetime —full calculation of 3 body decay— Michel parameters for μ and τ —how to measure muon polarization
• Measurement of sin2θw by a number of methods as a powerful test of the Standard Model —Measurements of a3
• Production of W,Z —what facility is needed—calculation of cross section — introduction to structure functions — determination that the CERN collider (energy, luminosity, detector) could produce enough Ws and Z’s to observe them —how to measure Z and W masses at colliders, Jacobian peak method, transverse mass method
• * Accelerators —parameters — luminosity of a collider — useful energy, fixed target vs. collider —types of beams, kaons, neutrinos —important historical facilities — present facilities —approved and planned facilities —need for electron linear collider
• Low energy and non-accelerator experiments —rare decays, solar neutrinos, dark matter, electric dipole moments, proton decay experiments
• ** Experiments and detectors —what emerges from a collider —detector elements —brief description of bubble chambers, ionization chambers, scintillators, etc. — magnets —tracking — electromagnetic calorimetry —hadron calorimetry, jets — vertex detectors — signatures of electrons, neutrinos, photons, muons, and hadrons in a collider detector —soft vs. hard collisions — triggering — fast computing — major detectors in the past — current major detectors —future major detectors
• Quark and lepton mixing angles— mass eigenstates — symmetry eigenstates —two families, absorbing phases so rotation matrix real, one angle— 3 families, one phase and 3 angles for quarks, three phases for leptons— measuring the angles and phases
• CP violation — basics, original discoveries—in Standard Model—OK for kaons, b-factories [previously a thorough treatment was saved for 541; now with b-factory data emerging I may spend more time on this in 521]
• Color singlet states, quark model, confinement, jets, light mesons, baryons, glueballs —radiative decays, magnetic moments — pion decay, helicity suppression — hadron masses vs. quark masses
• Heavy quarks — discoveries — quarkonium —tests of the theory —charm at SPEAR, b at Fermilab, top at LEP and Tevatron —experimental proof J/v/ has spin 1 —charmonium and bottom spectrum — heavy quark effective field theory
• Deep inelastic scattering and structure functions— parton model — historical importance, discovery of quarks, electron and neutrino beams —measurement of structure functions
• e+ e- colliders and tests of the Standard Model —the point cross section —quarks, leptons, and gluons are point-like —discovery of the ζ, backgrounds, charm + tau needed disentangling and lessons for the future — discovery of gluons
• Coupling strengths depend on momentum transfer or energy scale probed —derivation of one loop effect for a., the fine structure “constant”— how “renormalization” leads to couplings calculable as functions of q2 in terms of their definition at a scale — Lamb shift—test in terms of α(Mz) — extension to QCD and running of the strong coupling — asymptotic freedom —renormalization group equations
• Corrections to precision measurements from virtual particles — “observation” of the top quark at LEP and measurement of its mass— upper limit on Higgs mass in the Standard Model as a function of the top mass — upper limit on Higgs mass from precision data
• Open questions, hints of new physics, explanation of the Higgs mechanism, the hierarchy problem, unification of forces and gauge couplings, the baryon asymmetry cannot be understood in the Standard Model, cold dark matter cannot be understood in the Standard Model, neutrino masses—why we think the Standard Model is right —why we do not think the Standard Model is right