SST 2024: Session 2 Links, Materials, Assignment
History of the Standard Model: Part 2
June 25, 2024
7:30pm - 9:30pm Eastern time
Learning objectives:
Understand the driving motivations and important events in the history of particle physics and quantum field theory. Part 2 will cover the history of the quark model, neutrinos, force particles, and the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.
The slides for this week's lecture can be found here or here.
The recording of the session can be found here. The chat transcript (with a lot of useful insights and additional video suggestions) can be found here.
Homework assignment (due June 25):
A. Complete D0 activity. Complete details can be found here and the event displays can be found here.
B. Watch Steven Pollock’s lecture on the 1974 November Revolution in particle physics (30 minutes). Note that the youtube video length is 60 minutes, because for some reason the lecture is repeated twice. The video quality is poor but the pedagogical quality is high.
Reflection questions to think about while you watch (no need to write anything down):
- Why was the discovery of the J/ψ particle in November 1974 so revolutionary? Many hadrons had been discovered by then – why was this one special?
- What does the extremely narrow width of the J/ψ particle’s mass “bump” tell you about its lifetime? (recall last week’s homework assignment)
- How did the results of Nov. 1974 and subsequent discoveries provide evidence for the quark model?
C. Fill out the weekly course survey (link sent via email). Note that this step is required every week in order to self-report the number of hours spent so we can give you professional development credit.
The homework should take approximately one hour to complete. If you finish before one hour, then feel free to explore the additional resources below. If you cannot finish the assignment in one hour, then feel free to stop halfway through.
Additional resources:
SLAC newsletter from 1976 reflecting on the November revolution: https://www.slac.stanford.edu/vault/pubvault/news19721979/bln1976nov.pdf
What is spin? https://gizmodo.com/what-the-hell-is-spin-5713560
Natural units in particle physics: https://indico.cern.ch/event/636519/attachments/1452833/2248541/natural_units.pdf
Overview of the Standard Model:
Interactive view: https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/standard-model/
Article: https://io9.gizmodo.com/where-does-the-standard-model-of-physics-come-from-599641558
Article: https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-ultimate-field-guide-to-subatomic-particles-5639192
Video by Don Lincoln: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYcw8nV_GTs
Particle discoveries
Article about charm quark discovery: https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201711/history.cfm
Article about charm tau neutrino discovery: https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201107/physicshistory.cfm
Article about the history of hadrons: https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/hundreds-of-hadrons
Data portfolio resources:
Full version of ttbar mass activity (basis for the D0 homework activity): https://quarknet.org/data-portfolio/activity/calculate-top-quark-mass
"Shuffling the particle deck", particle cards activity to sort elementary particles and build your own periodic table: https://quarknet.org/data-portfolio/activity/shuffling-particle-deck
Fermilab Tevatron:
Text from exhibit at Fermilab: https://ed.fnal.gov/projects/exhibits/searching/exhibit_home3.html
Official website: https://www.fnal.gov/pub/tevatron/index.html