Fall 2015, PHY 362L (Particle and Nuclear Physics)

This course will use Canvas; click here for the Canvas homepage.

Unique Number: 55680

Classroom/Time: RLM 7.104, MWF 1-2 pm

Instructor: Prof. Peter Onyisi (onyisi@physics.utexas.edu).

Required material: 

• Thomson, Modern Particle Physics

• iClicker (either physical or smartphone app)

Recommended texts and other reading:

• Griffiths, Introduction to Elementary Particles: technical nitty-gritty

• Riordan, The Hunting of the Quark: a history of how the quark model was won

• Cahn & Goldhaber, The Experimental Foundations of Particle Physics: key historical experimental papers

• Particle Data Group, Review of Particle Physics: nice and clear review articles on all features of particle physics

Summary and goals: This class will introduce you to the basic concepts of particle physics.  We will cover the basic ideas of relativistic quantum mechanics and the interactions of particles, building up to a survey of the Standard Model of particle physics and the open questions in the field.  We will discuss the experimental techniques that allow us to extract information about the world of the very small.  I hope that by the end of the class you will feel comfortable with the core ideas of how particle physics calculations are done and how we verify those results experimentally. Prerequisite: Physics 373.

Office Hours: Wed 2-3 pm, Thu 11-12 am (or by appointment), RLM 10.211

PHY 362L Clicker Decks