Nuclear and Particle Physics (U01360)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 9 ? Acronym : PHY-3-NucPart

This course explores the quantum world at the nuclear and particle scales. Basic concepts of nuclear physics are introduced and nuclear properties, structure and decays are discussed. There follows an introduction into the physics of elementary particles. The fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions are described.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Physics 2B: Waves, Quantum Physics and Materials (PHY-2-B); Foundations of Mathematical Physics (PHY-2-FoMP) or Principles of Mathematical Physics (PHY-2-PoMP); prior attendance at Quantum Mechanics (PHY-3-QuantMech).

? Prohibited combinations : U03232 Physics 3

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Undergraduate (School of Physics), (School of Physics, Schedule Q)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	10:00	10:50	KB
Lecture	Thursday	10:00	10:50	KB

? Additional Class Information : Workshop/tutorial sessions, as arranged.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course the student should be able to:
1)Identify the forces which play an important role in the atomic nucleus
2)Demonstrate an understanding of both the external properties of atomic nuclei (eg. mass and charge distributions) as well as internal properties such as angular momentum, spin, parity, magnetic moment and excited states
3)Describe the general properties of the nucleon-nucleon interaction
4)Compare and constrast theoretical descriptions of the atomic nucleus such as the liquid drop model, the shell model and collective models
5)Interpret the semi-empirical mass formula and apply it to estimate binding energies and stability of atomic nuclei
6)Understand the statistical nature of nuclear decay and summarise and account for the various mechanisms
7)Identify the elementary particles of Nature such as quarks, leptons and gauge bosons, and describe their quantum properties, such as spin, mass, charge, isospin, strangeness, ...
8)Identify the fundamental particle interactions and understand how these are described in quantum dynamics using the concepts of Feynman diagrams and virtual exchange bosons
9)Describe composite hadrons using the quark model and to understand their decay modes and lifetime or resonance width
10)Demonstrate an understanding of particle accelerators and detectors and apply symmetries and conservation laws as well as relativistic kinematics to the scattering and decay of particles
11)Describe qualitatively the Standard Model of Particle Physics and illustrate its main features