Elementary Particles I, Prof. Dr. Tobias Neumann¶

Through exploring both theoretical and experimental aspects, this course provides a first but comprehensive understanding of the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions.

The course aims to equip you with tools and perspectives essential for navigating research in this field. Learning outcomes:

• Understanding the Standard Model's composition and structure and its phenomenological consequences.
• Preparation for a deeper understanding at a QFT level, ready to contribute to future advancements in the field.
• Learning how experimental techniques like particle detection and collider physics work to probe these fundamental interactions.

Exercises¶

Exercises consist of a mixture of standard training calculations, but also include guided research-oriented tasks involving research papers in the field. You will learn about key experiments and their challenges, learn how to analyze experimental results, and acquire the ability to understand most plots produced by experiments at the LHC. Further research exercises will bring you in contact with cutting-edge open questions.

Exercise sheets are handed out every Thursday and must be returned typically on the following Thursday unless otherwise noted on the exercise schedule page https://www.physics.smu.edu/tneumann/7360_Spring2025/exercises/. Late submissions are typically not accepted unless communicated and justified ahead of the submission deadline.

See exercises for a list of issue and return dates.

Resources¶

This lecture follows "Elementary Particle Physics, An Intuitive Introduction" by Andrew Larkoski, Cambridge University Press, 2019, which is a required book.

Additionally I recommend the following complementary books:

• "Modern Particle Physics" by Mark Thomson, Cambridge University Press, 2013,
• "Concepts of Elementary Particle Physics" by Michael Peskin, Oxford, 2019,
• "Introduction to Elementary Particles" by David Griffiths, Wiley, 2008, pre-Higgs discovery, not necessarily my first choice, but introduces with a more historical perspective.

For those digging deeper a QFT level I strongly recommend: "Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model" by Matthew Schwartz, Cambridge University Press, 2013

To get a thorough understanding of the mathematical structure in particle physics I recommend "Quantum Theory, Groups and Representations: An Introduction" by Peter Woit which is freely available as a PDF.

To catch up or review, consider these books:

• Generally recommended book for an undergraduate electrodynamics course with focus on conceptual understanding: "Introduction to Electrodynamics" by David Griffiths, Cambridge University Press

Class schedule¶

• Tuesdays, Thursdays, 11am to 12:20 pm from 1/21 (including) through 5/6 (including)

Final exam and grades¶

The final grade in this course comes from three parts:

• 40% of the final grade: The final (closed-book) exam which takes place on Saturday May 10., 11:30 am - 2:30 pm.
• 40% of the final grade: Midterm (closed-book) exam (3/13, Thursday before spring break).
• 20% of the final grade from exercises.

Grading in this course is standards based and not rank/percentile based. That is, each deliverable towards the final grade (final exam, midterm, and exercises) has a pre-defined amount of points that can be achieved. The grades are assigned not based on how well you do compared to peer students, but in your mastery of the material against the lectures' material (following the course requirements). Grades are measuring results and not efforts, since we have no way to measure how much effort has been put into each worksheet.

The relative fractional number of points that are given in total and individually for each the exams and the exercises follow the interpretations in the table below: To get an A-level grade you will have to do as well as could reasonably expected. For a B-level grade your submissions have noticeable flaws, but you are well above the minimum standard. A C-level grade signifies minimum requirements. A D-level grade signifies that some aspects have been learned, but the minimum requirements have not been met.

To summarize, the grade numerical score is as follows and translates to the letter grade as in the table below:

We further add one percent so that students just at the margin of a better grade will receive that. Under no circumstances is (additional) grade bumping performed at the end of the semester, and we consider this an unfair preferential treatment.