Nuclear and Particle Physics

Lecture Note: 10
A“we shall overcome” lecture series during COVID - 19 Pandemic.
Module III: Particle Physics
Instructor: Dr. Jimmy Sebastian

Course Code: 19U6CRPHY11 Semester VI

2 Interactions and Particles

The four interactions in nature are the strong, electromagnetic, weak, and
gravitational. These are apparently enough to account for all the physical
processes and structures in the universe on all scales of size from atoms and
nuclei to galaxies of stars. The list of fundamental interactions has changed
over the years. Long ago, the strong and weak interactions were unknown
and it was not even clear that the gravity that pulls things down to the
earth, which we might call terrestrial gravity, is the same as the gravity that
holds the planets to their orbits around the sun. One of Newton’s great ac-
complishments was to show that both terrestrial and astronomical gravity
are the same. Another notable unification was made by Maxwell when he
demonstrated that electric and magnetic forces can both be traced to a single
interaction between charged particles.

The electromagnetic and weak interactions turn out to be different manifes-

tations of a single electroweak interaction. This in turn seems to have links
to the strong interaction, though the details of the relationship are still not
entirely clear.

2.1 Leptons and Hadrons

Elementary particles fall into two classes, leptons and hadrons, depending on
whether they respond to the strong interaction (hadrons) or do not (leptons).

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 Figure 1: The four fundamental interactions

Leptons
The simplest particles are the leptons (Greek: “light,” “swift”), which seem
to be truly elementary with no hint of internal structures or even of extension
in space. Leptons are affected only by the electromagnetic (if charged), weak,
and gravitational interactions. Of the particles to which we have already been
introduced, the electron and the neutrino are leptons. There are six knowns
leptons and their anti particle.

Figure 2: The six leptons and their antiparticle

Antimatter

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The positron is the antiparticle of the electron. All other elementary particles
also have antiparticles; a few, such as the neutral pion, are their own antipar-
ticles. The antiparticle of a particle has the same mass, spin, and lifetime if
unstable, but its charge (if any) has the opposite sign. The alignment or anti
alignment between its spin and magnetic moment is also opposite to that of
the particle.

Neutrinos and Antineutrinos The spin of the neutrino ν is opposite in direc-

tion to the direction of its motion as viewd from behind. the neutrino spins
counterclockwise.
The spin of the antineutrino ν̄, on the other hand, is in the same direction
as its direction of motion; viewed from behind, it spins clockwise.

Other Leptons
The muon, µ, and its associated neutrino νµ were discovered in the
decay of charged pions:

π + → µ + + νµ
(2.1.1)
π − → µ− + ν̄µ

Muon decay:
µ+ → e+ + νe + ν̄µ
(2.1.2)
µ− → e− + νµ + ν̄e

Hardons Hadrons (Greek: “heavy,” “strong”) are subject to the strong in-
teraction as well as to the others. They also differ from leptons in that they
occupy space, rather than being infinitesimal in size: hadrons seem to be a
little over 1 fm (1015 m)across. Hadrons are composed of either two or three
quarks, which, like leptons, are structureless and as close to being point par-
ticles.

Hadrons that consist of three quarks, such as the proton and neutron, are
called baryons; mesons, such as the pion, consist of two quarks. Like nothing
else in nature, quarks have charges of ± 31 e or ± 23 e, and their combination in
hadrons is always such that the hadron charges are either 0 or ±e. Quarks

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have never been observed outside of hadrons. The strong force that acts
between hadrons is the external manifestation of the more basic interactions
among the quarks they contain and is mediated by the exchange of mesons.

Figure 3: The Hadrons and their antiparticle

Mesons
Mesons are bosons and consist of a quark and an antiquark; about 140 types
are known. The lightest meson is the pion, with other meson masses ranging
beyond the proton mass.
Baryons
Baryons are fermions and consist of three quarks; about 120 types are [Link]
lightest baryon is the proton, which is also the only hadron stable in free
[Link] neutron, although stable inside a nucleus, beta-decays in free space
into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino with a mean life of 14 min 49
s. All baryons other than nucleons decay with mean lives of less than 10−9 s
in a variety of ways, but the end result is always a proton or neutron.

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Resonance particles
A large body of experimental evidence also points to the existence of many
hadrons whose lifetimes may be only about 10−23 s. What can be meant by
the idea of a particle that is in being for so brief an interval? Indeed, how can
a time of 10−23 s be measured? Ultra-short-lived particles cannot be detected
by recording their creation and subsequent decay because the distance they
cover in 10−23 s is only 3 × 10−15 m even if they move at nearly the velocity of
light—a length characteristic of hadron dimensions. Instead, such particles
appear as resonant states in the interactions of longer-lived (and hence more
readily observable) particles. a certain reaction is studied, for instance the
the bombardment of protons by energetic π + mesons
π+ + p → π+ + p + π+ + π− + π0 (2.1.3)
The effect of the interaction of the π + and the proton is the creation of three
new pions. If we plot the number of events observed versus the total energy
of the new mesons in each event, we obtain a graph

Figure 4: Resonant states. the ω meson decays to π + + π − + π 0

Evidently there is a strong tendency for the total meson energy to be 783M eV

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and a somewhat weaker tendency for it to be 549M eV . We can say that the
reaction exhibits resonances at 549 and 783M eV or, equivalently, we can say
that this reaction proceeds via the creation of an intermediate particle which
can be either one whose mass is 549 MceV
2 or one whose mass is 783 MceV
2 . From
−19
the graph we get a mean lifetime of 5 × 10 s for the η meson and 7 × 10−25
s for the ω meson.

2.2 Elementary Particle Quantum Numbers

In this section we shall look at some of the quantum numbers other than
charge and spin that have proved useful in understanding the behaviour of
elementary particles.

Baryon and Lepton Numbers

Baryon Number : The baryon number B = 1 is assigned to all baryons, and
B = −1 to all antibaryons; all other particles have B = 0.

Lepton Number : The lepton number Le = 1 is assigned to the electron and the
e-neutrino, and Le = −1 to their antiparticles; all other particles have Le = 0
In a similar way the lepton number Lµ = 1 is assigned to the muon and the
µ -neutrino, and the lepton number Lτ = 1 to the tau lepton and its neutrino.

The significance of these numbers is that, in every process of whatever kind,

the total values of B, Le , Lµ , and Lτ separately remain constant: the number
of baryons and number of each kind of lepton, denoting a particle as + and
its antiparticles as -, never changes.

For example let us consider the neutron decay process.

n0 → p + e− + ν̄e (2.2.1)

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 n0 p e− ν̄e
B : +1 +1 0 0 (2.2.2)
Le : 0 0 +1 −1

Strangeness
A number of particles were discovered that behaved so unexpectedly that
they were called “strange particles.” They were only created in pairs, for in-
stance, and decayed only in certain ways but not in others that were allowed
by existing conservation rules. Thus the Stangeness number S was intro-
[Link] number S is conserved in all processes mediated by the
strong and electromagnetic interactions.

An example is the result of this proton-proton collision

p+ +p+ → Λ0 +K 0 +p+ +π +
(2.2.3)
S: 0 0 −1 +1 0 0

2.3 Symmetries and Conservation Principles

German mathematician Emmy Noether has stated that

Every conservation principle corresponds to a symmetry in nature.

Conservation principle: Conservation of linear momentum

Symmetry: The laws of physics do not depend on where we choose the origin
of our coordinate system to be. That is the invariance of the description of
nature to translations in space.

Conservation principle: Conservation of energy

Symmetry: Laws of physics are invariant under translation in time, which
means that the laws of physics do not depend on when we choose time t = 0
to be.

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Conservation principle: Conservation of angular momentum
Symmetry: Invariance under rotations in space, which means that the laws of
physics do not depend on the orientation of the coordinate system in which
they are expressed.

Conservation principle: Conservation of electric charge

Symmetry: Invariance under Gauge [Link] example the electric
field and magnetic field can be represented in terms of the scalar potential
and the vector [Link]. E = −∇V and B = ∇ × A respectively. we can
add a constant value to V such that the gradient of it is zero and still get the
same electric field. same way we can add a vector quantity to A such that
the curl of it is zero. then also we get the same magnetic field. this is called
gauge transformation.

2.4 Quarks

These are the constituents of the hadrons. Murray Gell-Mann and George
Zweig proposed in 1963 that all baryons consists of still 3 more fundamental
particles called quarks. The original three quarks were called up (u), down
(d), and strange (s). whereas u and d quarks have the strangeness number
S = 0, the s quark has S = −1.

Figure 5: quarks

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Because each baryon B = 1 is made up of three quarks, the baryon number
of a quark must be B = 13 . Antibaryons (B = −1) are made up of three
antiquarks, so the baryon number of an antiquark must be B = 13 . Mesons,
for which B = 0, consist of a quark and an antiquark. Quarks all have spins
of 21 , which accounts for the observed half-integral spins of baryons and the
0 or integral spins of mesons.

In order for hadrons to have charges of 0 or integral multiples of e, the various

quarks must have the fractional charges as shown in the above table.

Figure 6: composition of hadrons

Color of a quark
Since quarks are fermions with spin of 21 . presence of two or more quarks of
the same kind in a particle violates Paulis exclusion principle. To get around
this problem, it was suggested that quarks and antiquarks have an additional
property of some kind that can be manifested in a total of sixdifferent ways
like the electric charge that can be manifested into two different ways called
positive and negative charge. In the case of quarks, this property became
known as “color,” and its three possibilities were called red, green, and blue.
The antiquark colors are antired, antigreen, and antiblue. According to the
color hypothesis, all three quarks in a baryon have different colors, which
satisfies the exclusion principle since all are then in different states.

In hadrons and antihadrons colors of the quarks are such that hadrons and

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antihadrons are colorless

Flavor of a quark
Flavor is the name scientists give to different versions of the same type of
particle. For instance, quarks (which make up the protons and neutrons
inside atoms) come in six flavors: up, down, top, bottom, strange and charm.

Quark Confinement
For all the searching that has gone on since 1963, no quark has ever been
isolated. Their reality is suggested by a wealth of indirect evidence, but
something in their basic character impedes their detection. The explanation
for quark confinement begins with the idea that, as though they were con-
nected by a spring, the attractive force between two quarks goes up as the
quarks move apart from their normal spacing. This means that more and
more energy is needed to increase their separation. But with enough energy
added, instead of a quark breaking free from the others in a hadron, the
excess energy goes into producing a quark-antiquark pair. This results in a
meson that does escape.

2.5 The Higgs Boson

In order for the Standard Model of leptons and quarks to be mathemati-

cally consistent, the Scottish physicist Peter Higgs showed that a field, now
called the Higgs field, must exist everywhere in space. The Higgs field has an
additional significance: by interacting with it, particles acquire their charac-
teristic masses. The stronger the interaction, the greater the mass.

Higgs boson is the particle that mediates the action of the Higgs field. The
mass of the Higgs boson cannot be predicted from the Standard Model, but it
is thought to be substantial, perhaps as much as 1T eV /c2 , a thousand times
the proton mass.

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