This is a course on modern particle physics. We will focus on experimental and theoretical aspects of the standard model. This includes the theory of the strong interactions and confinement, the SU(2)xU(1) theory of the weak interactions and electroweak symmetry breaking via the Higgs mechanism. We will also explore what is observed in collider experiments such as ATLAS or CMS at the LHC. A special emphasis of the course will be on experimental tests of the standard model and the physics of the Higgs boson. If there is sufficient demand the course will continue in the spring (PY752) with special topics in standard model physics and physics beyond the standard model. The syllabus.
We will be using Michael Peskin's book on ``Concepts of Elementary Particle Physics" (Oxford University Press, 2019). The Appendix of Peskin's QFT book which contains the Feynman rules and useful formulae for Feynman diagram calculations is here.
Peskin's notes, Summer School lectures given at CERN by Prof Peskin, these notes are the basis for this course and for Peskin's book. Unfortunately, they are hand-written and not always very legible.
Particle chart, traditional particle table, particle disk from the 2013 documentary Particle Fever.
Complete 2013 PY751 lecture notes.
Mathematica commands for analyzing the .lhe files which MadGraph produces are defined in this mathematica package. To learn how to use them to extract particle momenta, energies, angles, etc and make histograms with them see this mathematica example notebook which goes hand in hand with these summer school tutorial instructions by Maxim Perelstein.
Url: http://physics.bu.edu/~schmaltz/PY751
