Physics of the 21^st Century (PHYS 120) - Section on Hadronic and Nuclear Physics

Announcements

Class sections:

1. Wednesday, September 9^th: What are protons made of? Advance Reading. Lecture Notes.
   
2. Wednesday, September 16^th: Nuclei in the lab and in the cosmos. Advance Reading. Lecture Notes.  NOTE: You must have chosen a topic for your paper/presentation and discussed it with one of us by TODAY
3. Wednesday, September 23^rd: Applications of Nuclear Physics. Advance Reading. Lecture Notes.
   
   

• Physics Department Colloquia and public lectures.
  
• Paper/Presentation Topic ideas
• Study materials

Pre-class assignments

1. Wednesday, September 9^th:  Skim the presentation linked here by P. Reimer and read this writeup (Don't worry if you don't understand everything in there). Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1. What are nuclei made of?
2. What are protons and neutrons made of?
3. What holds the parts of a proton together?
4. What holds the parts of a nucleus together?
   
2. Wednesday, September 16^th: Read the "Nuclear Astrophysics sidebars" in this document. Come prepared to explain at least one of the 3 examples for the application of Nuclear Physics in the cosmos. Also, just for fun: Where does fluoride come from?
   
3. Wednesday, September 23^rd: Take a look at this brochure. Come prepared to discuss at least some of the examples listed there.
   

  Possible topics for class papers/presentations (see me before September 16 to discuss any of these):

1. The eighteen arbitrary parameters of the Standard Model in your everyday life
2. Using cosmic rays to find hidden chambers in pyramids
3. The Super-Kamiokande experiment
4. The SNO experiment and neutrino oscillations
   
5. The LHC at CERN
6. ...or pick any of new or proposed DOE Particle/Nuclear Physics facilities and describe what Physics they are supposed to study, how they will work, etc.. Relevant facilities are:
1. International Torus Experiment ("ITER")
2. Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider  at Brookhaven
3. Joint dark energy mission ("JDEM")
4. Rare Isotope Accelerator ("FRIB")
5. Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility ("CEBAF") 12 GeV upgrade (this is at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab), Newport News)
6. Linear Collider
7. Dark matter underground detector
8. Double beta decay
   
9. Neutrino experiments at Fermilab
   
10. Electron-ion collider EIC

Study material

On the Web:

The Particle Data Group - check out the link "The Particle Adventure"

Nuclear Physics: Exploring the Heart of Matter (2010) (National Academies Report - click on "Download Free PDF")

Elementary Particle Physics (National Academies Report - read online for free)

Also check (some of) the books below:

• Don Lincoln: "Understanding the Universe - From Quarks to the Cosmos", World Scientific 2004.
  
• C. Suplee: "Physics in the 20^th Century", Harry N. Abrams (2002)
• F. Close et al.: "The Particle Odyssey", Oxford Univ. Press (2002)
• B. Green: "The elegant Universe", W.W. Norton (1999) and Vintage Books (2000), and "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality", Alfred A. Knopf, NY (2004)
  
• L Lederman: "The God Particle", Bantam Doubleday Dell Publ. (1994)
• ...and if you get a chance to see the movie "Particle Fever", by all means, go for it!
  

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