Physics 145: Particle Physics

Lecture 9
Being Systematic: Bound States
Were In Trouble
Theres too much going on here
Time to retrench, and go about it all carefully

The story of particles in about 1960 was simply one

of overwhelming confusion

Take our time and do it right

Decays
Cross Sections & Scattering
Bound states
Relativity
 2 Lectures Ago
Feynman diagrams
x vs t picture of particles moving and interacting
The Standard Model
Think of it a little like perturbation theory
H corresponds to free particles
0
H , H
S EM, HWk correspond to perturbations which connect previously
unconnected initial and final states
Three interactions
Strong (hadron initial state, hadron final state)

Electron (hadron / lepton / photon initial, hadron / lepton / photon

final)
Weak (neutrinos in either initial or final)

M >>M
S EM>>MWk (in general, unless M = 0 by selection rules)
Particle content: quarks, charged leptons, neutrinos, photon, gluon, W/Z
Decays
Fermis Golden Rule
From Last Time
Saw examples of cross-sections that
Were equal to geometric cross-section (arrows and locusts)
Varied with energy (moon)
Differed from geometrical cross-section (Thomson)
Varied with angle (hard spheres)
Defined cross section as

As with FGR for decays, we can relate the cross-section for a process to the
matrix element connecting the initial state and final state
1+2 o 3+4 (CM frame)

For fixed incident particle flux

Allowed strong interactions are the most numerous (MS large)
Allowed EM interactions are next most numerous (MEM)
Allowed weak interactions are least numerous (MWk)
Plan for Today
Bound States

Relativistic Kinematics

Will give out next HW on Friday

Bound States
Simplest definition
A pair of constituents which, when brought
together from infinity, emit energetic radiation
quanta as they approach one another
The quanta in question are generally of the form
which constitutes the binding interaction
Pi mesons for strong binding

Photons for EM binding

W/Z for states bound by the weak interaction

(None known)