Feynman Diagrams

Lines with arrows represent fermions

You may switch the direction of the arrow, at the
cost of making it an anti-particle
Squiggly lines represent photons
Interactions represented by vertices at
which lines / squiggles come together
Most common convention
Space is vertical, time is horizontal
Examples of Feynman Diagrams
x
Free Particle sitting still
t
Free particle in motion
Electron in motion, e-
emitting a photon e-
e-
Electron-positron
annihilation
Q
e-

e- or P-
p
Fermi four-fermion
theory n
The Standard Model
There are fermions in the world
Electrons, neutrinos (leptons)
Quarks (mesons, baryons)
There are bosons in the world
Photons (aka light)
Gluons
W/Z
There are 3 kinds of interactions in the world
Strong
Electromagnetic
Weak
Recall from QM
An interaction is a perturbation to a free Hamiltonian

Hfree often notated H0

Lifetimes and Decays
Lets remember the worlds simplest system!
Ammonia maser
Mab induces transitions from up to down
If you start with the H atom up, sinusoidal
variation in time to find it up later

Generic feature
If Mab0, then if you start in state A, it will
eventually o B with some characteristic time
Decay and Lifetime
A: some nucleus N
B: another nucleus N and D particle,
AoB is possible, Mab0

The fact that N and D are outgoing is important

Size of matrix element determines transition
rate!