2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Science Undergraduate major in Physics
Elementary Particles
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Physics
- Instructor(s)
- Masahiro Kuze
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Class
- -
- Course Code
- PHY.F351
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 4Q
- Syllabus updated
- Apr 2, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
The lecture is on particle physics, which aims to clarify the fundamental laws of Nature and ultimate constituents of matter. Modern particle physics is described by Standard Model, the development of which will be explained in the lecture based on historical experiments.
It is divided into general introduction to the theory and explanation about detection principles/techniques. Based on such fundamentals, a review of cutting-edge researches in large laboratories will be also given.
Course description and aims
The aim of the lecture is to acquire the methods and knowledge of basic particle physics. Also one aims to learn about the experimental technique and the physics behind by learning about the famous experiments that led to historical discoveries. The lecture will be centered around the Standard Model, including field theory, gauge theory, quark model, electroweak theory, QCD and Higgs mechanism, as well as related experiments.
Keywords
lepton, quark, gauge boson, weak interaction, strong interaction, electroweak unification, Higgs, accelerators, detectors
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
The lecture is given mainly using the black board, eventually using the projector when necessary.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Particles and fields | Explain about wave functions and fields. |
| Class 2 | Relativistic kinematics | Calculate the momentum of the muon from the pion decay at rest. |
| Class 3 | Leptons, quarks and interactions | Explain about the different kinds of particles and interactions |
| Class 4 | Lifetime and conservation laws | Which conservation laws determine the stability of various particles? |
| Class 5 | Resonance width, decay branching ratio, cross section and luminosity | Understand the relation between particle width and its life time. |
| Class 6 | Principle and examples of particle accelerators | Explain the principle of synchrotrons. |
| Class 7 | Interaction of particle and matter | Describe the Bethe-Bloch formula. |
| Class 8 | Basics of particle detection | Describe the principle of charged particle detector using plastic scintillator and PMT. |
| Class 9 | Detectors in action | Understand the structure of collider detectors. |
| Class 10 | Weak interaction and parity violation | Derive the Fermi coupling constant from the muon life time. |
| Class 11 | Neutrino cross-sections | Calculate the mean free path of accelerator neutrinos |
| Class 12 | Quark mixing and GIM mechanism | What is Flavor-Changing Neutral Current? |
| Class 13 | Third-generation fermions and CKM matrix | How are pair-produced top quarks observed in the detector? |
| Class 14 | Neutrino mass and neutrino oscillation | Derive the neutrino oscillation formula. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
Textbook(s)
Not specified.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
M. Kuze et al., "Modern Particle Physics", Morikita Publishing (in Japanese)
O. Jinnouchi and Y. Watanabe, "Introduction to particle physics", Baifukan (in Japanese)
Y. Nagashima, "Fundamentals of particle physics I, II", Asakura Shoten (in Japanese)
D. H. Perkins, "Introduction to High Energy Physics", Cambridge University Press (also in Kindle Store)
Evaluation methods and criteria
Exercise problems and final report
Related courses
- PHY.Q207 ： Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
- PHY.F350 ： Nuclear Physics
- PHY.F352 ： Physics of the Universe
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge on quantum mechanics