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    Fundamental Particles, Fundamental Questions: Dean and Professor, Lyman Briggs College

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    Ahilya Gupta
    The document discusses fundamental particles and their interactions. It describes how particle physics studies the smallest building blocks of matter, like quarks, electrons, and neutrinos. It also explains how forces like electromagnetism and the strong force allow particles to interact and bind together. The Higgs boson is proposed to give particles their mass by interacting more strongly with some particles than others. Large particle accelerators like the LHC are needed to collide particles together with enough energy to produce rare particles like the Higgs boson and study fundamental interactions.

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    Fundamental Particles, Fundamental Questions: Dean and Professor, Lyman Briggs College

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    Ahilya Gupta
    30 views25 pages
    The document discusses fundamental particles and their interactions. It describes how particle physics studies the smallest building blocks of matter, like quarks, electrons, and neutrinos. It also explains how forces like electromagnetism and the strong force allow particles to interact and bind together. The Higgs boson is proposed to give particles their mass by interacting more strongly with some particles than others. Large particle accelerators like the LHC are needed to collide particles together with enough energy to produce rare particles like the Higgs boson and study fundamental interactions.

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    The document discusses fundamental particles and their interactions. It describes how particle physics studies the smallest building blocks of matter, like quarks, electrons, and neutrinos. It also explains how forces like electromagnetism and the strong force allow particles to interact and bind together. The Higgs boson is proposed to give particles their mass by interacting more strongly with some particles than others. Large particle accelerators like the LHC are needed to collide particles together with enough energy to produce rare particles like the Higgs boson and study fundamental interactions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    30 views25 pages

    Fundamental Particles, Fundamental Questions: Dean and Professor, Lyman Briggs College

    Uploaded by

    Ahilya Gupta
    The document discusses fundamental particles and their interactions. It describes how particle physics studies the smallest building blocks of matter, like quarks, electrons, and neutrinos. It also explains how forces like electromagnetism and the strong force allow particles to interact and bind together. The Higgs boson is proposed to give particles their mass by interacting more strongly with some particles than others. Large particle accelerators like the LHC are needed to collide particles together with enough energy to produce rare particles like the Higgs boson and study fundamental interactions.

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    of 25

    Fundamental Particles,

    Fundamental Questions

    Elizabeth H. Simmons

    Dean and Professor, Lyman Briggs College

    The smallest pieces of matter…

    •  Nuclear physics and
    particle physics study
    the smallest known
    building blocks of the
    physical universe --
    and the interactions
    between them.

    •  The focus is on single
    particles or small
    groups of particles, not
    the billions of atoms or
    molecules making up
    an entire planet or star.

    particleadventure.org

    … and their large effects …

    … affect us all.

    –  History: alchemy,
    atomic weapons

    –  Astronomy: sunshine,
    “metals”, cosmology

    –  Medicine: PET, MRI,
    chemotherapy

    –  Household: smoke
    detectors, radon

    –  Computers: the World-
    Wide Web

    –  Archaeology & Earth
    Sciences: dating

    Atoms

    Classifying the composition of objects at the
    atomic level is now a familiar process.

    This ring, for example, is made up of only 2


    kinds of atoms:
    gold (Au) and carbon (C)

    Periodic table

    The periodic table lists about 114 atoms with distinct

    properties: mass, crystal structure, melting point…

    The range and pattern of properties reflects:



    the internal structure of the atoms.

    Inside Atoms: neutrons, protons, electrons

    Carbon (C )

    Atomic number Z=6
    (number of protons)

    Gold (Au)

    Mass number A=12
    (number of protons + neutrons)

    Atomic number Z = 79

    # electrons = # protons Mass number A = 197



    (count them!)
    (atom is electrically neutral)

    #electrons = # protons
    (trust me!)

    Properties of nucleons

    Name
    Mass
    Electric Charge

    Proton
    1 GeV
    +1

    Neutron
    1+ GeV
    0

    •  Units:

    –  The electric charge of an electron is -1 in these units.

    –  Mass units are “billion electron volts” where 1 eV is a typical
    energy spacing of atomic electron energy levels.

    •  Question: Why are the masses nearly the same but
    the electric charges so different?

    Further layers of substructure:

    u quark:
    electric charge = 2/3

    d quark:
    electric charge = -1/3

    Proton = uud
    electric charge = 1

    Neutron = udd
    electric charge = 0

    www.cpepweb.org

    If each proton were 10 cm across, each quark would be



    .01 mm in size and the whole atom would be:
    10 km wide.

    Introducing the neutrino

    Another subatomic
    particle, the neutrino,
    plays a crucial role in
    radioactive decays like
    n -> p+ + e- + v-
    e

    The ve (electron-neutrino) is closely related to the electron


    but has strikingly different properties.

    Name
    Mass
    Electric Charge

    electron
    0.0005 GeV
    -1

    electron-neutrino
    < 0.00000001 GeV
    0

    How to detect neutrinos?

    •  Their existence was
    inferred by Pauli in 1930.
    E.g., without neutrinos,
    radioactive decays would
    not conserve energy or
    momentum.

    •  The 2002 Physics Nobel
    prize to Davis & Koshiba
    was for detecting
    neutrinos emitted by
    fusion in our sun.

    www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/2002/press.html

    Exotic Matter Particles

    Other subatomic matter particles are heavier copies of
    those which make up ordinary atoms (u, d, e, ve)

    Sub-atomic interactions

    •  Two familiar kinds of interactions are

    –  gravity
    (masses attract one another)

    –  electromagnetism
    (same-sign electric charges repel,

    opposite-sign charges attract)

    More exotic phenomena hint at new interactions
    peculiar to the subatomic world:

    •  What binds protons together into nuclei ?

    Must be a force strong enough to overcome
    repulsion due to protons’ electric charge

    •  What causes radioactive decays of nuclei ?

    Must be a force weak enough to allow
    most atoms to be stable (long-lived).

    Force
    Strength
    Carrier
    Physical effect

    Strong nuclear
    1
    Gluons
    Binds nuclei

    Electromagnetic
    .001
    Photon
    Light, electricity

    Weak nuclear
    .00001
    Z0,W+,W-
    Radioactivity

    Gravity
    10-38
    Graviton?
    Gravitation

    Subatomic particles interact by exchanging integer-spin


    “boson” particles. The varied interactions correspond
    to exchange of bosons with different characteristics.

    Mass
    Mysteries

    Broken
    Symmetries:

    Flavor

    Why do fermions
    with the same
    charge have
    different masses?

    Electroweak

    Why are the W &


    Z bosons heavy
    while the photon
    is massless?



    e4.physik.uni-dortmund.de/bin/view/ATLAS/Bildergalerie
    Higgs Mechanism

    The Standard Model of particle physics postulates a
    particle called the Higgs boson, whose interactions
    give rise to all mass:

    •  During an earlier epoch of our universe, all the known
    elementary particles were massless.

    •  The Higgs boson triggered a phase transition
    (as when water freezes into ice) which caused all
    particles interacting with the Higgs boson to become
    massive.

    •  The W and Z bosons and the fermions are massive
    because they interact with the Higgs boson.

    •  The photon and gluon remain massless because they
    do not interact directly with the Higgs boson.

    A variety of masses:

    The Higgs field would form a uniform
    background within the universe. Each
    particle would interact with the Higgs
    boson to a different degree.

    The more strongly a particle


    interacted with the Higgs, the
    more mass it would gain and the
    more inertia it would display

    Where is the Higgs Boson?

    •  If this theory of the origin of mass is true, experiment
    should be able to detect the Higgs boson.

    •  The Standard Model does not predict how heavy the
    Higgs boson is, but it does predict how strongly it
    interacts with all the known particles. For fermions,
    the interaction is proportional to mass:

    •  When elementary particles collide, the energy released


    in the collision can re-coalesce as one or more
    elementary particles… and the produced particles
    could include a Higgs.

    •  Experiments observing protons collide
    can create and study Higgs bosons.

    Producing Elementary Particles

    Causing particle collisions powerful enough to
    produce a Higgs boson requires an enormous and
    powerful particle accelerator: the Large Hadron
    Collider (LHC), which started up last fall.

    Acceleration & Steering

    magnets
    Protons are accelerated and
    collided in LHC. Two beams
    or protons travel in opposite
    directions.

    Electric fields accelerate the
    protons because:

    •  like charges repel and unlike
    charges attract each other

    • 

    Magnetic fields steer the beams:



    •  since charged particles move
    in circles when exposed to
    magnetic fields

    • 

    Designing an Accelerator

    magnets

    Equating the magnetic force


    to the centripetal force

    tells us the size of the ring


    required for a given proton
    beam speed

    and the timing of the


    oscillating electric field

    Detection

    At four places around the


    LHC ring, protons from
    the two counter-rotating
    beams will collide.
    ATLAS

    The collision energy


    condenses into
    particles (e-, p, …)

    Layered detectors
    surrounding the
    collision point are
    sensitive to the passage
    of various energetic
    particles.

    Higgs Detection: H

    A Higgs decaying to 2 energetic
    photons would be a striking
    event in the LHC detectors.

    events

    Higgs

    ATLAS
    signal

    The combined energies of the signal


    photons would cluster at the mass of
    the Higgs boson. In contrast, background

    background events include photon
    pairs with a variety of energies.
    energy

    Fundamental questions

    •  How accurate is the Standard Model of the origin of mass?
    e.g., in the SM, the Higgs boson is fundamental (not made of
    any smaller particles).

    •  Could the Higgs boson be composite?

    –  Several theoretical points argue in this direction:

    –  Higgs mass and self-interaction

    •  What would a composite Higgs be made of?



    –  Top quarks? Might explain why top is so heavy!

    –  An entirely new type of fermions? Might require a new force!

    •  If the Higgs is composite, how can we tell?

    –  A composite Higgs could cause processes which are rare in the
    SM to occur more frequently.

    –  A composite Higgs might be part of a larger family of particles,
    analogous to the many states composed of quarks (p, n, π…)

    Conclusions

    Several layers of subatomic structure
    have been revealed in the millennia
    since the “particle quest” began.

    Many questions about the fundamental
    particles and forces - and the origins
    of their masses - remain.

    The joint efforts of theoretical and


    experimental particle physicists will
    begin providing answers in this
    decade as the LHC data emerges.

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