FU:TFNCF0002 Intro. to Particle Physics II - Course Information

TFNCF0002 Introduction to Particle Physics II

Extent and Intensity

2/2/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).

Teacher(s)

RNDr. Josef Juráň, Ph.D. (lecturer)
prof. Ing. Peter Lichard, DrSc. (lecturer)
RNDr. Josef Juráň, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)

Guaranteed by

RNDr. Josef Juráň, Ph.D.
Institute of physics in Opava

Prerequisites (in Czech)

(FAKULTA(FU) && TYP_STUDIA(N))

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.

fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with

• Particle physics (programme FU, TFYZNM)

Course objectives

This course is focused on physics of strongly interacting particles. An attention is mainly devoted to conservation laws in strong interactions and their violations by electromagnetic and weak interactions. Observed regularities in hadron world and hadron classification are discussed using quark-parton model.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful graduation from the subject, a student will be able to understand hadron composition; to describe structure of nucleons; to characterize basic features of different interactions.

Syllabus

• Main topics:
  •The SU(3) group and its homomorphism into the SO(3) group. The charge independence of strong interactions as an invariance against the SU(2) group, the explanation of the isospin formalism. Relations among the cross sections as implied by the isospin symmetry.
  • Group SU(3) and its representations. Mixing of truly neutral mesons from the octet and singlet representations. Baryon octet and decuplet. The prediction and discovery of the Omega baryon.
  • Fundamental representation of the group SU(3), the three-quark model. Manifestations of gluons. The color of quarks and gluons. Hadrons as singlet states of the group SU(3)c.
  • The discovery of the J/psi. The mesons with hidden and open charm. Charmed baryons.
  • Discovering the third family. The tau lepton, the Upsilon meson, the top quark, the tau neutrino. The generalization of the Gell-Mann—Nishijima relation.
  • The oscillations of neutral kaons and other neutral mesons. The violation of CP parity.
  • The classification of mesons according to their spin and parity, corresponding states of valence quarks. Tetraquarks, hybrid mesons, and gluonia. Three-quark baryons, diquarks. Pentaquarks.
  • The universality of weak interactions. Cabibbo hypothesis. The mixing of the mass eigenstates of quarks. The CKM (Cabibbo, Kobayashi, Maskawa) matrix and its unitarity. The prediction of the third quark family.
  • The BEH (Brout, Englert, Higgs) mechanism of generating masses. The discovery of the Higgs boson, its properties.
  • The sources of neutrinos, neutrino experiments. The mass and flavor eigenstates of neutrinos. PMNS (Pontecorvo, Maki, Nakagawa, Sakata) matrix. The oscillations of neutrinos.
  • Reactions and decays of particles. Kinematics and conservation laws according to the type of interaction.
  

Literature

recommended literature
• Davídek T., Leitner R. Elementární částice. Od prvních objevů po současné experimenty, Matfyzpress, 2014
• Davídek T.-Leitner R. Řešené přiklady z fyziky elementárních částic. Praha, 2014. ISBN 978-80-7378-267-2. info
• Griffiths D. J. Introduction to Elementary Particles, Wiley, 2008
• Veltman M. Fakta a záhady ve fyzice elementárních částic. Academia, 2007. ISBN 978-80-200-1500-6. info
• Kane G. Modern elementary particle physics. Cambridge, 2017
• Close F. - Marten M. - Sutton C. The Particle Odyssey. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0198609438. info

Teaching methods

Monological (lecture, briefing)
Tutorial
Students' self-study
One-to-One tutorial

Assessment methods

homework
random test
written test
oral and written exam

Language of instruction

Czech

Further Comments

The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.

• Enrolment Statistics (summer 2025, recent)
  
• Permalink: https://is.slu.cz/course/fu/summer2025/TFNCF0002