The presentation is meant for senior physics students since the chapter of particle physics has been added at A level or senior secondary physics course
2. NON-POEM OF PARTICLE PHYSICS
Particle physics or high energy
physics – /
A branch of physics /
That studies the physical nature /
Of the subatomic particles /
Constituting matter and radiation
As well as interaction between them
3. A particle can be viewed from
diverse perspectives such as
◦ A collapsed wave function
◦ A quantum excitation of a field
◦ A vibrating string
◦ An irreducible representation of the Poincaré group
Note: A particle is a physical quantity
detected by and measured in a detector
4. Subatomic particle is a particle that composes
an atom
Standard Model of Particle Physics (SMPP) is
current theory in vogue to describe the most
basic two building blocks of the universe.
◦ Quarks making up protons and neutrons, and
◦ Leptons, including electrons, which make up all
known matter.
5. A composite particle is
◦ composed of other particles, e.g., proton,
neutron, or meson
proton is made of two elementary
particles ‘up quark’ and ‘down quark’
◦ an elementary particle, which is not
composed of other particles, e.g.,
electron, photon, or muon
6. Bose questioned Planck’s radiation formula in terms
of the way particles were being counted
He experimented with his own theories and
documented his work as "Planck’s Law and the
Hypothesis of Light Quanta" which was rejected by
the reviewers of scientific journals
Bose mailed his work to Albert Einstein on June 4,
1924
Einstein found Bose's work of significance and
verified application of Bose’s formula to a wide range
of phenomena to conform it an important finding in
quantum theory
In honour of Bose’s outstanding work, any particle
that conforms with Bose's statistics today is known as
a 'boson'
7. A boson is a particle which
◦ Carries a force / energy
◦ Has whole number spin (spin is a
property of subatomic particles).
A photon is an example of a boson as
it has a spin of 1 and carries
electromagnetism.
Mesons are bosons as they carry
nuclear force
8. The Higgs boson is often called "the God
particle" that caused the "Big Bang" to create
the universe
Any physical quantity which is comprised of
an even number of fermions is a boson
◦ Any particle which is comprised of an odd number
of fermions is a fermion.
◦ A proton is made of three quarks, hence it is a
fermion.
◦ An He4 atom - made of 2 protons, 2 neutrons and
2 electrons - is a boson.