PHYS-415 Particle physics I

Course summary and goals

This course aims to make you familiar and comfortable with the main concepts of particle physics, providing a clear connection between the theory and relevant experimental results, including the most recent ones from modern particle physics experiments. 

The fall semester is centered on the discussion of the quantum electrodynamics and experiments leading to its development and numerous experimental tests. We will look in more details into the following topics:

  • Particles and interactions in the standard model
  • Particle decay rates and cross sections
  • Interaction by particle exchange
  • Electron-positron annihilation
  • Electron-proton elastic scattering
  • Deep inelastic scattering
  • Symmetries and the quark model

At the end of the course you should be able to operate with the main concepts, describe processes in particle physics with the help of Feynman diagrams and solve related exercises.

Organisation and timing

Each week there will be the following materials and activities:

  • the material to watch or read before the course
  • live/zoom lecture with Q&A and dedicated discussion related to this material
  • live/zoom exercise class with several exercises to solve and to go through with the help of a TA 

Assessment 

At the oral exam you will need to solve a randomly picked exercise (25'), then discuss the solution and related questions with the lecturer (25').

Reading list

The course closely follows the book by Mark Thomson, "Modern Particle Physics" (2013), which is available at EPFL library. 

For the summaries, most recent reviews and technical information, please use the Particle Data Group (PDG) website https://pdg.lbl.gov/.

Other resources

The videos of the lectures and class recordings if necessary will be available on the SWITCHtube channel.