Introduction to Particle Physics

From atoms to quarks

[email protected]
An elementary historical review of concepts, discoveries,
achievements and future

Recommended reading:
D.H. Perkins, Introduction to High Energy Physics
F. Halzen & A.D. Martin, Quarks and Leptons, An introductory courses in
modern particle physics
 The “elementary particles” in the 19th century:
The Atoms of the 92 Elements
1. Hydrogen Mass MH  1.7  10-24 g
NA 2. Helium
n  3. Lithium 4 3 increasing mass
A ............. V  R
............. 3
92. Uranium Mass  238 MH

Estimate of a typical atomic radius

NA  6  1023 mol-1 (Avogadro constant)
Number of atoms /cm3: 𝒏 =
𝑵𝑨 A: molar mass
𝝆
𝑨 : density
𝟒
Atomic volume: 𝑽 = 𝝅𝑹𝟑 Packing fraction: f  0.52 - 0.74
𝟑

1/ 3
 3f  Example: Iron (A = 55.8 g;  = 7.87 g cm-3)
R 
 4n  R = (1.1 - 1.3)  10 - 8 cm
 Discovery of electron : JJ Thompson 1894 - 1897

Study of “cathode rays”: electric current in tubes at very low

gas pressure (“glow discharge”)

Measurement of the electron mass: me  MH/1836

“Could anything at first sight seem more impractical than a

body which is so small that its mass is an insignificant
fraction of the mass of an atom of hydrogen?” (J.J.
Thomson)
 1897: Discovery of the electron
Atoms are not elementary

Thomson’s atomic model:

 Electrically charged sphere
 Radius ~ 10-8 cm
 Positive electric charge
 Electrons with negative electric charge
embedded in the sphere J.J. Thomson
(1856 – 1940)

1906
1896: Discovery of natural radioactivity (Henri Becquerel)

(1852 – 1908)

In his Nobel lectures in 1903 : “……. there would still be scope to

wonder whether the transmission of the atom comprises a slow,
spontaneous evolution, or whether it is the result of the absorption of
external radiation beyond the range of our sense. If such a radiation
were exist, one could still picture the radioactive substances
transforming it without themselves being altered. So far no experiment
has confirm or invalidated these hypotheses.”
“…it was like firing a cannon at a piece of tissue paper and having
the ball bounce back at you…”
 Expectations for a - atom scattering
a - atom scattering at low energies is dominated by Coulomb interaction
a - particle

Atom: spherical distribution

of electric charges
impact
parameter b

a - particles with impact parameter = b “see” only electric charge within

sphere of radius = b (Gauss theorem for forces proportional to r-2 )

For Thomson’s atomic model

the electric charge “seen” by the
a - particle is zero, independent
of impact parameter
 no significant scattering at large angles is expected
 Observation and Rutherford’s explanation

Significant scattering of a - particles at large angles, consistent with

scattering expected for a sphere of radius  few  10-13 cm and electric
charge = Ze, with Z = 79 (atomic number of gold) and e = |charge of the
electron|
An atom consists of a positively charged
nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons
Nuclear radius  10-13 cm  10-5  atomic radius
Mass of the nucleus  mass of the atom (to a fraction of 0.1% )
 Two questions
 Why did Rutherford need a - particles to discover the atomic nucleus?
 Why do we need huge accelerators to study particle physics today?

Answer to both questions from basic principles of Quantum Mechanics

Observation of very small objects using visible light

opaque screen
with small circular aperture

point-like
photographic
light source
plate
l ~ 0.45 mm
(blue light)

focusing lenses
 Diffraction of light

Aperture diameter:
D = 20 mm
Focal length: 20 cm

y (mm)
Observation of light diffraction, interpreted
as evidence that light consists of waves since
the end of the 17th century
Angular aperture of the first circle,
a = 1.22 l / D
x (mm)

Opaque disk, diam. 10 mm

in the centre

Presence of opaque disk is detectable

 Opaque disk of variable diameter
diameter = 4 mm diameter = 2 mm diameter = 1 mm

no opaque disk
The presence of the opaque disk in the centre
is detectable if its diameter is larger than the
wavelength l of the light
The Resolving Power of the observation
depends on the wavelength l
Visible light: not enough resolution to see objects
smaller than 0.2 - 0.3 mm
 Opaque screen with two circular apertures

aperture diameter: 10 mm
distance between centres: 15 mm
y (mm)

Image obtained by shutting one aperture

alternatively for 50% of the exposure time

x (mm)

y (mm)
Image obtained with both
apertures open simultaneously

x (mm)
 Photoelectric Effect : evidence that light consists of particles
glass tube under vacuum

Cell/
1921
Battery
Current
measurement

Observation of a threshold effect as a function of the frequency of the light

impinging onto the electrode at negative voltage (cathode):
Frequency n < n0 : electric current = zero, independent of luminous flux;
Frequency n > n0 : current > 0, proportional to luminous flux
Interpretation (A. Einstein)
 Light consists of particles (“photons”)
 Photon energy proportional to frequency, n:
E=hn (Planck constant h = 6.626 10 -34 J s)
 Threshold energy E0 = hn0: the energy needed to extract Albert Einstein
an electron from metallic surface (1879 - 1955)
 Dual nature of light

Repeat the experiment with two circular

Apertures using a very weak light source aperture diameter: 10 mm
Luminous flux = 1 photon /second distance between centres: 15 mm
(detectable using modern, commercially
available photomultiplier tubes)
Need very long exposure time

y (mm)
Question: which aperture will photons choose?

Answer: diffraction pattern corresponds

to both apertures simultaneously open,
independent of luminous flux
x (mm)
Photons have both particle and wave properties simultaneously
It is impossible to know which aperture the photon traversed
The photon can be described as a coherent superposition of two states
 1924: De Broglie’s principle
Not only light, but also matter particles possess
both the properties of waves and particles
Inspiration from Einstein’s p.e. effect : It has both
quanta as well as frequency (wave length)
This reason alone renders it necessary in the case of
light to introduce simultaneously the corpuscle concept
and the concept of periodicity.
Louis de Broglie
𝒉 (1892 – 1987)
Relation between wavelength and momentum: 𝝀=
𝒑
h: Planck constant
p = m v : particle momentum
Wavelength of the a - particles used by 1929
Rutherford in the discovery of the atomic nucleus:
h 6.626  10 -34 J s
l  - 27 -1
 6.7  10 -15 m  6.7  10 -13 cm
ma v (6.6  10 kg )  (1.5  10 m s )
7

~ resolving power of
a-particle
mass 0.05 c Rutherford’s experiment
Typical tools to study objects of very small dimensions
𝒉 Resolving
𝝀= power
𝒑

Optical microscopes Visible light ~ 10-4 cm

Electron microscopes Low energy electrons ~ 10- 7 cm

Radioactive sources a-particles ~ 10-12 cm

Accelerators High energy electrons, protons ~ 10-16 cm

 Units in particle physics
• What is the length of your pen ?
• What is the distance of your class room All are length but
from main gate ? in different units
• What is the distance from your home ?
Energy
1 electron-Volt (eV):
the energy of a particle with electric charge = |e|,
initially at rest, after acceleration by a difference
of electrostatic potential = 1 Volt
(e = 1.60  10-19 C)
Multiples:
1 keV = 103 eV ; 1 MeV = 106 eV 1 eV = 1.60  10 -19 J
1 GeV = 109 eV; 1 TeV = 1012 eV,…….
Einstein’s mass energy relation, E = mc2, c = velocity of light in vacuum
Mass of Proton/hydrogen atom : 1.67  10-28 kg  938 MeV/c2
Mass of Electron : 9.11  10-31 kg  0.511 MeV/c2
 Basic principles of charged particle detection
Passage of charged particles through matter
Interaction with atomic electrons ionization
(neutral atom  ion+ + free electron)
excitation of atomic energy levels
(de-excitation  photon emission)

Ionization + excitation of atomic

energy levels  energy loss

Range (mg/cm2)

Kinetic energy of a-particle (MeV)

 Discovery of proton
• Alpha (4.8MeV) source from Radium
(Ag window equivalent to 6cm air)
• Intensity of fluorescence increase after
filling with dry air wrt to empty
chamber (opposite to the expectation)
• The swift atoms carry a +ve charge,
same range and energy as the swift H -----------------------

atoms produced by the passage of a-

particle in H2

• But this anomalous effect is not seen with O2 or CO2

• Final conclusion : If a-particle or similar projectiles of still greater energy
were available for experiment, we might expect to break down the nucleus
structure of the lighter atoms.

Exactly what happened :

Proton from the interaction 14N + 4He →17O + 1H

First (wrong) ideas about nuclear structure : before 1932
Observations • Mass values of light nuclei  multiples of proton mass
(to few %) (proton  nucleus of the hydrogen atom)
•  decay: spontaneous emission of electrons by some
radioactive nuclei

Hypothesis :
• The atomic nucleus is a system of protons and electrons strongly bound
together
• Nucleus of the atom with atomic number Z and mass number A : a bound
system of A protons and (A – Z) electrons
• Total electric charge of the nucleus = [A – (A – Z)]e = Z e

Electron, proton spin = ½ħ (measured)

Nitrogen nucleus (A = 14, Z = 7): 14 protons + 7 electrons = 21 spin ½ particles
Total Spin Must Have Half-Integer Value, But Measured Spin = 1
 Discovery of the Neutron : James Chadwick, 1932

Neutron source in Chadwick’s experiments: a 210Po radioactive source

(5 MeV a - particles ) mixed with Beryllium powder  emission of
electrically neutral radiation capable of traversing several centimetres of Pb:
Solution to the nuclear structure problem:
Nucleus with atomic number Z and mass
number A:
a bound system of Z protons and (A – Z)
neutrons

Neutron : a particle with mass  proton

mass but with zero electric charge 1934
4He + 9Be  12C + 1n
2 4 6 0 (1891 – 1974)
 Antimatter
Predicted “theoretically” by P.A.M. Dirac (1928)
Dirac’s equation : a relativistic wave equation for the electron
Two surprising results:
P.A.M. Dirac
 Motion of an electron in an electromagnetic field:
(1902 – 1984)
presence of a term describing (for slow electrons) the
potential energy of a magnetic dipole moment in a magnetic field
 existence of an intrinsic electron magnetic dipole moment opposite to spin
electron spin
e
me   5.79  10-5 [eV/T]
2me 1933

electron
magnetic dipole
moment me Shared with E. Schrodinger
 For each solution of Dirac’s equation with electron energy E > 0
there is another solution with E < 0
What is the physical meaning of these “negative energy” solutions ?
Antimatter !! Particles having sample properties except charge, 𝒆− ↔ 𝒆+
 Cosmic Rays
 Discovered by V.F. Hess in the 1910’s by the
observation of the increase of radioactivity with
altitude during a balloon flight
 In early 30’s sudden high energy particles were
observed during the study of radioactive materials
Until the late 1940’s, the only existing source of high-
energy particles

1936
First experimental observation 23 MeV positron
of a positron : C.D. Anderson, 1932
15000 Gauss
6 mm thick Pb plate
𝒎𝒗𝟐 Τ𝒓 = 𝒇 = 𝒆 (𝒗  𝑩
direction of 𝑷⊥ [𝑮𝒆𝑽Τ𝒄]
𝑹𝒎 =
high-energy photon 𝟎. 𝟑𝑩[𝑻]
63 MeV positron

(1905 – 1991)

1936
Production of an Cosmic-ray “shower”
electron-positron pair containing several e+ e– pairs
by a high-energy photon
in a Pb plate
 History of accelerators

(1901 – 1958)

 
q (v  B)  mv 2 / r
PT  0.3Br (1905 – 1986)
 Discovery of antiproton
• PAM Dirac’s Nobel lecture in 1933 : If this symmetry is
really fundamental in nature, it must be possible to reverse
the charge of any kind of particle (discovery of Positron in
1932 predicted also an antiproton).
• But, to generate antiproton (conservation of baryon
number, 1.19 GeV/c antiproton in spectrometer), need an
accelerator, which can give about 6.5 GeV proton.

pppppp One in 44000 particles

produced in the
interaction is antiproton Emilio Gino Segrè
(1905 – 1989)

1959

Owen Chamberlain
(1920 – 2006) 26
 History of particle/physics discoveries

Neutral
current

DIS

Already 20 particles
Discovered
…images and logic discoveries X,Y,Z (cc+)
Higgs
Late 1950’s - early 1960’s: discovery of many strongly interacting particles
at the high energy proton accelerators (Berkeley Bevatron, BNL AGS, CERN PS),
all with very short mean life times (10–20 - 10–23 s, typical of strong decays) 
catalog of > 100 strongly interacting particles (collectively named “hadrons”)
 The “STATIC” Quark Model
Are Hadrons (e.g., proton, neutron, pion) Elementary Particles ?
1964 (Gell-Mann, Zweig): Hadron
classification into “families”;
observation that all hadrons could be
built from three spin ½ 1969
“building blocks” (named “quarks” by
Gell-Mann):

quark u d s
Electric charge (|e|) +2/3 -1/3 -1/3
Baryon Number 1/3 1/3 1/3
Strangeness 0 0 -1
and three antiquarks ( 𝒖 ഥ 𝒔ത ) with
ഥ , 𝒅,
opposite electric charge, opposite
baryonic number and also opposite
Murry Gell-Mann George Zweig strangeness
(1929 – 2019) (1937 – 1996)
The Stanford two-mile electron linear accelerator (SLAC)

Jerome I. Friedman
(1930 - )

Henry W. Kendall
(1926 – 1999)

Richard E. Taylor
(1919 – 2018)
 “DYNAMIC” Evidence for Quarks
Electron - proton scattering using a 20 GeV electron beam from the Stanford
two - mile Linear Accelerator (1968 - 69).
The modern version of Rutherford’s original experiment:
resolving power  wavelength associated with 20 GeV electron  10-15 cm
Three magnetic spectrometers to detect the scattered electron:
 20 GeV spectrometer (to study elastic scattering e– + p  e– + p)
 8 GeV spectrometer (to study inelastic scattering e– + p  e– + hadrons)
 1.6 GeV spectrometer (to study extremely inelastic collisions)
1.5o – 25o
~50o – 150o

Dum
p

~12o – 90o
 Interpretation of deep inelastic e - p collisions
Deep inelastic electron - proton collisions are elastic collisions with
point-like, electrically charged, spin ½ constituents of the proton.

1990
 Quarks : constituent of proton/neutron

Hadrons are not, in fact,

simply made from
three/two quarks , e.g.,
proton is actually made
3 “valence” quarks
(uud) + a “sea” of
gluons and short-lived
quark-antiquark pairs
Present knowledge about constituent of matter

Fundamental
Particles

~10 KeV 10 MeV 100 MeV GeV

ℏ Thomson Rutherford Chadwick SLAC

𝝀=
𝒑 1897 1909 1932 1968
Probe smaller distance with higher energy ➔ Newer structure
 The LHC Machine and Experiments
1939 → 2009 pp collisions at 7-14 TeV
Energy ~107 times Pb+Pb at 2.76-5.54 TeV/nucleon
Size is also ~105

4.5”

LHCf

8KM

totem
Collisions at the Large Hadron Collider

24.96ns
Proton

6.5 TeV Proton

colliding beams

Bunch Crossing 28.7410 6 Hz

Proton Collisions 1.410 9 Hz

Parton Collisions

(New) Particle Production

35
(W/Z/Higgs, SUSY, ....)
 High Energy Particle Detector of Today

~4000 scientists
~1500 students
~200 institutes
~50 countries

~77 million electronic channels readout in every 25ns  2 billion channels in 2028
 Comparison with experiments in 1911
First Particle detector : Source, target, observation
 Extract underlying physics
ZnS scintillator, light flashes visible with naked eye (+microscope)
 Present knowledge of particle physics
3  6 = 18 quarks + 6 leptons
= 24 fermions (constituents of
matter)
+ 24 antiparticles
48 elementary particles
consistent with point-like
dimensions within the resolving
power of present instrumentation (
~ 10−16 cm)
12 force carriers (g, W, Z, 8 gluons)

Matter Particles (fermions)

Interactions by exchange
of vector bosons

Scalar boson Provides mass to

other particles
 Present knowledge of particle physics
1957 1962 2000 2012 3  6 = 18 quarks + 6 leptons
= 24 fermions (constituents of
matter)
1897 1937 1975 + 24 antiparticles
48 elementary particles
1983 consistent with point-like
1974 1994 dimensions within the resolving
power of present instrumentation (
1950-60s 1977 1979 ~ 10−16 cm)
12 force carriers (g, W, Z, 8 gluons)

Matter Particles (fermions)

Interactions by exchange
of vector bosons

Scalar boson Provides mass to

other particles
 Nature of interactions
Gravitational --solar system/galaxy Electromagnetic --photon

Weak -- nuclear beta decay (W/Z) Strong (gluon) --binding of nucleus

Steven Weinberg, Nobel lecture 1979 : Our job in physics is to see things
simply, to understand a great many complicated phenomena in a unified
way, in terms of a few simple principles.
 Unification is not new to us
Unification of electromagnetic interactions by Maxwell
  D = 4 Inverse square law

B=0 No magnetic charges

c  E = - B /t Electromagnetic induction

c  H = D /t Ampere’s circuital law

+ 4J + charge conservation

James Clerk Maxwell

(1831 - 1879)

Unified Theory of Electricity and Magnetism

The road to unification

 Unification of fundamental forces

Observation in higher energy  More unification

 Unresolved Fundamental Questions in Particle Physics
• Why are there 3 and only 3 light “generations”?
• Why is charge quantized (charge of electron opposite to proton) ?
• Why is matter (protons) ~ stable?
• Why is the Universe made of matter?
• What is “dark matter” made of ? Is a fundamental particle responsible for it ?

Dark 𝒎𝒗𝟐 𝑮𝑴𝒎

(invisible) =
𝒓 𝒓𝟐
matter!

𝑮𝑴
𝒗=
𝒓

• How does gravity fit in with the strong, electromagnetic and weak forces?
 Future of High Energy collider
100km circular tunnel for future
e+e- as well as hadron collider

First studies on a new 80 km tunnel Expected in 2040

in the Geneva area for linear
collider

e+e-
CERN : Laboratory where the internet is developed

CERN
Geneva

1949 - proposal by Louis de Broglie

1954 - founded
Now called the European Organization for Nuclear
Research - the world's largest particle physics
centre
20 European member states, 39 observer and non-
member states, 9133 registered users
Where the World Wide Web was born !
Tim Berners-Lee
 There is no price of fundamental research
• A new born baby : What is the gain of society ?
• Why do apples fall to the ground ?
• Mysterious light passed though most of the object @Strasbourg : X-ray
• Stimulated emission of light @Burkley : LASER
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance @ Cornel : MRI Scan
• Neutron interaction with heavy atom @Kaiser Wilhelm : Nuclear power
• Connecting few Personal Computers @Geneva : Internet

• A mold that developed on a staphylococcus culture : Penicillin - a

plate@London discovery
changed the
course of
medicine