To build on the Year 3 module PHYS377 Particle Physics to give the student a deeper understanding of the Standard Model of Particle Physics and the basic extensions to review the detectors and accelerator technology available to investigate the questions posed by the Standard Model and its extensions.

(LO1) An understanding of the Standard Model and its extensions. This will be placed in context of the understanding of the origin of the universe, its properties and its physical laws

(LO2) An understanding of how present and future detector and accelerator technology will be applied to investigate the development of the Standard Model

(LO2) An understanding of how present and future detector and accelerator technology will be applied to investigate the development of the Standard Model

(LO3) An understanding of the effects of symmetries on particle properties

(LO4) Ablity to caclulate decay rates for particles

(S1) Problem solving skills

(S2) International awareness

(S3) Organisational skills

(S4) Problem solving/ critical thinking/ creativity analysing facts and situations and applying creative thinking to develop appropriate solutions.

Week 1
Relativity and tensor notation, Maxwell’s equations in tensor form, Proca equation.    

Week 2.   
Klein Gordon and Dirac equations, Gamma matrices, solutions for free particles, properties of Dirac spinor

Week 3.   
Parity. Charge Conjugation. Helicity. Chirality.

Week 4.   
Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism.      

Week 5.   
Decay Rates, Cross-sections, Mandelstam variables, Matrix Elements.  

Week 6.   
Feynman Rules for QED. QED matrix element calculations.

Week 7.   
Parity Violation in Weak Interaction. V-A structure. Helicity structure. Pion Decay. Leptonic Weak Interactions. Lepton Universality.       

Week 8.   
W-bosons and their prope rties, weak isospin and elements of flavour physics

Week 9   
Elements of QCD, colour, quark scattering, hadron spectroscopy, deep inelastic scattering, parton distribution functions, discovery of the gluon and the quarks.

Week 10.  
W Boson decay. Electroweak Unification. Z Boson resonance and decay. Precision electroweak measurements.       

Week 11.  
Higgs searches prior to the LHC. Discoveries of gluon, W, Z, top quark, Higgs.       

Week 12.  
Deficiencies of the Standard Model. Possible extensions.                Future prospects. Outline of current/future experiments.

Teaching Method 1 - Lecture
Description:
Attendance Recorded: Yes
Notes: 12 x 3hrs (36 hours)

Teaching Method 2 - Tutorial
Description: 4 hours
Attendance Recorded: Yes
Unscheduled Directed Student Hours (time spent away from the timetabled sessions but directed by the teaching staff): Problem sheets issued for students for completion by and discussion in tutorials.

Self-Directed Learning 110 hours

The module will be delivered in person in 2021. Asynchronous learning materials (notes/videos/exercises etc) will be made available to students through the VLE. The module will have regular synchronous sessions in active learning mode.
We are planning no changes to module content compared to previous years, and expect students to spend a similar amount of time-on-task compared to previous years. These changes will mainly constitute a rebalancing of hours from scheduled directed learning hours to unscheduled directed learning hours as students will have some flexibility as to when they access asynchronous materials.