The following information is available for this Level Three course:
General description
Recommended books Syllabus & Handouts
Exam paper, answers and feedback Material displayed in lectures
Course Aims: To provide an introduction to the field of modern particle physics, incorporating a description of the fundamental particles and their interactions, with the tools to perform kinematic calculations in simple situations.
Objectives: On successful completion of this course, you should:
Handouts: A course handbook is provided,
consisting of a summary of key points and definitions, diagrams and other
information.
Assessment: This has two components, homeworks and the end-of-semester examination.
The purpose of the six exercises is to help with revision of the lecture material and to give practice in problem solving. Three homeworks will be marked and returned, with feedback. The total homework mark counts 15% towards the module. (Although the other three exercises will not be assessed, they still form an important part of the course and should be attempted seriously. Solutions to these exercises will be handed out no later than two weeks after they are set.)
The two-hour examination has one compulsory short-answer question, and a choice of 2 other questions from a selection of 4. The compulsory question is marked out of 20 and the others out of 15; together they count 85% towards the module.
Context: PHY304 is part of the core of all BSc and MPhys
single honours and dual degrees, including Chemical Physics.
Text Book: | Introduction to Elementary Particles - David Griffiths | |
Highly recommended for background reading: | ||
Ideas of Particle Physics - G.D. Coughlan, J.E. Dodd & B.M. Gripaios | ||
(Sections of Ideas of Particle Physics will be recommended throughout the course.) | ||
Further Reading: | Introduction to High Energy Physics - Donald H. Perkins |
Click on the link to see the booklet and supplementary material for that unit on the screen. For PDF versions of handouts (more suitable for printing), use the list below the syllabus. The PowerPoints displayed in lectures are here.
PDF versions of handouts:
Introductory Notes
Scattering & Form Factors
Fermions & Bosons
Interactions & Fields
Yukawa Potential & Invariance Principles
Quantum ElectroDynamics
Weak Interaction
Strong Interaction
Properties of Quarks
Evidence for Quarks
It is not departmental policy to provide complete specimen answers to past examination papers. However, to help you in revision, numerical values and similar information are given below for recent papers so that you can check your attempts. If you have attempted past questions and wish to discuss the descriptive questions or the details of your calculations, please see me!
Feedback on recent examination performance is also available.
Numerical Answers | Examination Feedback | |
January 2019 | ||
January 2018 | ||
January 2017 |
If you have any queries about this course, please e-mail me at C.Booth@sheffield.ac.uk