8.811 Fall 03: Particle Physics II Syllabus

Preliminary

Wednesday September 3: Introduction.

Wednesday September 10: RQM Review: Dirac Equation, the Photon. EOI due.

Tuesday September 16: Bilinear Covariants, Lagrangian Formalism, Gauge Invariance.

Thursday September 18: Calculation of Decay Rates and Cross-sections: Fermi's Golden Rule, the Feynman Rules.

Tuesday September 23: Feynman Rules, Lagrangians & Symmetries Pset #1 due.

Wednesday September 24 (MAKEUP): Symmetry Breaking and the Higgs Mechanism. LOI due.

Thursday September 25: No class.

Tuesday September 30: Weak Interactions of Leptons and Quarks.

Thursday October 2: Electroweak Unification. Pset #2 due.

Tuesday October 7: Quantum Chromodynamics.

Thursday October 9: Non-Abelian Gauge Invariance I: Yang-Mills Theory

Tuesday October 14: Local SU(3) Invariance and QCD; the Higgs Revisited.

Thursday October 16: Higgs Part III; Grand Unification. Pset #3 due.

Tuesday October 21: Particle Detection I: Energy Loss.

Thursday October 23: Particle Detection II: Detectors. Proposal draft due.

Monday October 27 (MAKEUP): Particle Detection III.

Tuesday October 28: No class.

Thursday October 30: Guest Lecturer Ken Lane at BU on Technicolor: 11:30-1 pm. Free lunch included!.

Tuesday November 4: Monte Carlo Simulations. Pset #4 due.

Wednesday November 5 (MAKEUP): A Case Study.

Thursday November 6: No class.

Tuesday November 11: Veteran's Day Holiday.

Thursday November 13: No class.

Tuesday November 18: No class.

Thursday November 20: No class.

Tuesday November 25: No class. Pset #5 due.

Wednesday November 26: Available for practice talks.

Thursday November 27: Thanksgiving Holiday.

Tuesday December 2: Presentations 9 am-noon: Lashkar Kashif (Higgs), Conor Henderson (pentaquark).

Wednesday December 3: Presentation 10:30-noon: Siarhei Vaurynovich (CP violation)

Thursday December 4: Presentations 9 am-noon: Tai Sakuma (SUSY), Jay Kane (extra dimensions).

Tuesday December 9: Presentations 9 am-noon: Yi Zheng (neutrinos), Michael Spitznagel (dark energy). Final proposal due.