Introduction to Particle Physics

Chris Hull

Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces

Imperial College
2010
Contents

1. Introduction to Symmetry and Particles 2

1.1 Elementary and Composite Particles 2
1.2 Interactions 4
1.2.1 The Strong Interaction 4
1.2.2 Electromagnetic Interactions 5
1.2.3 The weak interaction 7
1.2.4 Typical Hadron Lifetimes 9
1.3 Conserved Quantum Numbers 9
1.3.1 Angular Momentum and Spin 10
1.3.2 Isospin 11
1.4 The Quark Model 12
1.4.1 Meson Multiplets 12
1.4.2 Baryon Multiplets 13
1.4.3 Quarks: Flavour and Colour 14

Recommended Books

? G. D. Coughlan, J.E. Dodd and B.M. Gripaios, The Ideas of Particle Physics, an
introduction for scientists, 3rd edition CUP (2006).

• D. H. Perkins, Introduction to High energy Physics, 4th ed., CUP (2000).

• B. R. Martin and G. Shaw, Particle Physics, 2nd ed., Wiley (1998).

• Abraham Pais, Inward Bound: Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World , Claren-
don Press, (1988).

–1–
1. Introduction to Symmetry and Particles

Symmetry simplifies the description of physical phenomena. It plays a particularly impor-

tant role in particle physics, for without it there would be no clear understanding of the
relationships between particles. Historically, there has been an “explosion” in the number
of particles discovered in high energy experiments since the discovery that atoms are not
fundamental particles. Collisions in modern accelerators can produce cascades involving
hundreds of types of different particles: p, n, Π, K, Λ, Σ . . . etc.
The key mathematical framework for symmetry is group theory: symmetry transfor-
mations form groups under composition. Although the symmetries of a physical system are
not sufficient to fully describe its behaviour - for that one requires a complete dynamical
theory - it is possible to use symmetry to find useful constraints. For the physical systems
which we shall consider, these groups are smooth in the sense that their elements depend
smoothly on a finite number of parameters (called co-ordinates). These groups are Lie
groups, whose properties we will investigate in greater detail in the Particle Symmetries
lectures. We will see that the important information needed to describe the properties of
Lie groups is encoded in “infinitesimal transformations”, which are close in some sense to
the identity transformation. The properties of these transformations can be investigated
using (relatively) straightforward linear algebra. This simplifies the analysis considerably.
We will make these rather vague statements more precise in the lectures.
Examples of symmetries include

i) Spacetime symmetries: these are described by the Poincaré group. This is only an
approximate symmetry, because it is broken in the presence of gravity. Gravity is the
weakest of all the interactions involving particles, and we will not consider it here.

ii) Internal symmetries of particles. These relate processes involving different types
of particles. For example, isospin relates u and d quarks. Conservation laws can be
found for particular types of interaction which constrain the possible outcomes. These
symmetries are also approximate; isospin is not exact because there is a (small) mass
difference between mu and md . Electromagnetic effects also break the symmetry.

iii) Gauge symmetries. These lead to specific types of dynamical theories describing
types of particles, and give rise to conserved charges. Gauge symmetries if present,
appear to be exact.

1.1 Elementary and Composite Particles

The fundamental particles are quarks, leptons and gauge particles.

The quarks are spin 1/2 fermions, and can be arranged into three families

Electric Charge (e)

2
u (0.3 GeV) c (1.6 GeV) t (175 GeV) 3
d (≈ 0.3 GeV) s (0.5 GeV) b (4.5 GeV) − 13

–2–
 The quark labels u, d, s, c, t, b stand for up, down, strange, charmed, top and bottom.
These labels are referred to as flavours, so there are six flavours of quark. The quarks
carry a fractional electric charge. Each quark has three colour states. Quarks are not seen
as free particles, so their masses are ill-defined (the masses above are “effective” masses,
deduced from the masses of composite particles containing quarks).
The leptons are also spin 1/2 fermions and can be arranged into three families

Electric Charge (e)

e− (0.5 MeV) µ− (106 MeV) τ− (1.8 GeV) −1
νe (< 10 eV) νµ (< 0.16 MeV) ντ (< 18 MeV) 0

The leptons carry integral electric charge. The muon µ and taon τ are heavy unstable
versions of the electron e. Each flavour of charged lepton is paired with a neutral particle
ν, called a neutrino. The neutrinos are stable, and have a very small mass (which is taken
to vanish in the standard model).
All these particles have antiparticles with the same mass and opposite electric charge
(conventionally, for many particles, the antiparticles carry a bar above the symbol, e.g.
the antiparticle of u is ū). The antiparticles of the charged leptons are often denoted by
a change of − to +, so the positron e+ is the antiparticle of the electron e− etc. The
antineutrinos ν̄ differ from the neutrinos ν by a change in helicity.

Hadrons are made from bound states of quarks (which are colour neutral singlets).

i) The baryons are formed from bound states of three quarks qqq; antibaryons are formed
from bound states of three antiquarks q̄ q̄ q̄
For example, the nucleons are given by
(
p = uud : 938 M ev
n = udd : 940 M ev

ii) Mesons are formed from bound states of a quark and an antiquark q q̄.

For example, the pions are given by



 π + = ud¯ : 140 M ev
π − = dū : 140 M ev
 π 0 = uū, dd¯ superposition

: 135 M ev

Other particles are made from heavy quarks; such as the strange particles K + = us̄
with mass 494 Mev , Λ = uds with mass 1115 Mev, and Charmonium ψ = cc̄ with mass
3.1 Gev.
The gauge particles mediate forces between the hadrons and leptons. They are bosons,
with integral spin.

–3–
 Mass (GeV) Interaction
γ (photon) 0 Electromagnetic
W+ 80 Weak
W− 80 Weak
Z0 91 Weak
g (gluon) 0 Strong
The gluons are responsible for interquark forces which bind quarks together in nucleons.
It is conjectured that a spin 2 gauge boson called the graviton is the mediating particle
for gravitational forces, though detecting this is extremely difficult, due to the weakness of
gravitational forces compared to other interactions.

1.2 Interactions
There are three types of interaction which are of importance in particle physics: the strong,
electromagnetic and weak interactions.

1.2.1 The Strong Interaction

The strong interaction is the strongest interaction.

• Responsible for binding of quarks to form hadrons (electromagnetic effects are much
weaker)

• Dominant in scattering processes involving just hadrons. For example, pp → pp is

an elastic process at low energy; whereas pp −→ ppπ + π − is an inelastic process at
higher energy.

• Responsible for binding forces between nucleons p and n, and hence for all nuclear
structure.

Properties of the Strong Interaction:

i) The strong interaction preserves quark flavours, although q q̄ pairs can be produced
and destroyed provided q, q̄ are the same flavour.
An example of this is:

π
+ u u +
d s K

d s +
p u u Σ
u u

–4–
 The Σ+ and K + particles decay, but not via the strong interaction, because of con-
servation of strange quarks.

ii) Basic strong forces are “flavour blind”. For example, the interquark force between
q q̄ bound states in the ψ = cc̄ (charmonium) and Υ = bb̄ (bottomonium) mesons are
well-approximated by the potential

α
V ∼ + βr (1.1)
r

and the differences in energy levels for these mesons is approximately the same.

The binding energy differences can be attributed to the mass difference of the b and
c quarks.

iii) Physics is unchanged if all particles are replaced by antiparticles.

The dynamical theory governing the strong interactions is Quantum Chromodynamics

(QCD), which is a gauge theory of quarks and gluons. This is well tested in the perturbative
regime; non-perturbative calculations are difficult.

1.2.2 Electromagnetic Interactions

The electromagnetic interactions are weaker than the strong interactions. They occur in
the interactions between electrically charged particles, such as charged leptons, mediated
by photons.
The simplest electromagnetic process consists of the absorption or emission of a photon
by an electron:

This process cannot occur for a free electron, as it would violate conservation of 4-
momentum, rather it involves electrons in atoms, and the 4-momentum of the entire atom
and photon are conserved.
Other examples of electromagnetic interactions are electron scattering mediated by
photon exchange

–5–
 e

and there are also smaller contributions to this process from multi-photon exchanges.
Electron-positron interactions are also mediated by electromagnetic interactions

e+ e
+

e− e−

e
+ e+

γ
+

e− e−

Electron-positron annihilation can also produce particles such as charmonium or bot-

tomonium
+
e H
A
γ
ψ D
R
O
N
e− S

–6–
 The dynamic theory governing electromagnetic interactions is Quantum Electrody-
namics (QED), which is very well tested experimentally.

Neutrinos have no electromagnetic or strong interactions.

1.2.3 The weak interaction

The weak interaction is considerably weaker than both the strong and electromagnetic
interactions, they are mediated by the charged and neutral vector bosons W ± and Z 0
which are very massive and produce only short range interactions. Weak interactions
occur between all quarks and leptons, however they are in general negligable when there
are strong or electromagnetic interactions present. Only in the absence of strong and
electromagnetic interactions is the weak interaction noticable.

Unlike the strong and electromagnetic interactions, weak interactions can involve neu-
trinos. Weak interactions, unlike strong interactions, can also produce flavour change in
quarks and neutrinos.

The gauge bosons W ± carry electric charge and they can change the flavour of quarks.
Examples of W -boson mediated weak interactions are n −→ p + e− + ν̄e :

νe

e−
−
W

d u
n d d p
u u

and µ− −→ e− + ν̄e + νµ :

–7–
 νµ

µ−

−
W
νe

e−

and νµ + n → µ− + p

νµ µ−

+
W

d u
n d d p
u u

The flavour changes within one family are dominant; e.g.

e− ↔ νe , µ− ↔ νµ
u ↔ d, c↔s (1.2)

whereas changes between families, like u ↔ s and u ↔ b are “Cabibbo suppressed”.

The neutral Z 0 , like the photon, does not change quark flavour; though unlike the
photon, it couples to neutrinos. An example of a Z 0 mediated scattering process is ν̄µ e−
scattering:

–8–
 νµ νµ

0
Z

e− e−

In any process in which a photon is exchanged, it is possible to have a Z 0 boson

exchange. At low energies, the electromagnetic interaction dominates; however at high
energies and momenta, the electromagnetic and weak interactions become comparable.
The unified theory of electromagnetic and weak interactions is Weinberg-Salam theory.

1.2.4 Typical Hadron Lifetimes

Typical hadron lifetimes (valid for most decays) via the three interactions are summarized
below:

Interaction Lifetime (s)

Strong 10−22 − 10−24
Electromagnetic 10−16 − 10−21
Weak 10−7 − 10−13

with the notable exceptional case being weak neutron decay, which has average lifetime
of 103 s.

1.3 Conserved Quantum Numbers

Given a configuration of particles containing particle P , we define N (P ) to denote the
number of P -particles in the configuration. We define various quantum numbers associated
with leptons and hadrons.

Definition 1. There are three lepton numbers. The electron, muon and tauon numbers
are given by

Le = N (e− ) − N (e+ ) + N (νe ) − N (ν̄e )

Lµ = N (µ− ) − N (µ+ ) + N (νµ ) − N (ν̄µ )
Lτ = N (τ − ) − N (τ + ) + N (ντ ) − N (ν̄τ ) (1.3)

In electromagnetic interactions, where there are no neutrinos involved, conservation

of L is equivalent to the statement that leptons and anti-leptons can only be created or
annihilated in pairs. For weak interactions there are more possibilities, so for example, an

–9–
election e− and anti-neutrino ν̄e could be created. Lepton numbers are conserved in all
interactions.
There are also various quantum numbers associated with baryons.

Definition 2. The four quark numbers S, C, B̃ and T corresponding to strangeness,

charm, bottom and top are defined by

S = −(N (s) − N (s̄))

C = (N (c) − N (c̄))
B̃ = −(N (b) − N (b̄))
T = (N (t) − N (t̄)) (1.4)

These quark quantum numbers, together with N (u) − N (ū) and N (d) − N (d), ¯ are
conserved in strong and electromagnetic interactions, because in these interactions quarks
and antiquarks are only created or annihilated in pairs. The quark quantum numbers are
not conserved in weak interactions, because it is possible for quark flavours to change.

Definition 3. The baryon number B is defined by

1
B = (N (q) − N (q̄)) (1.5)
3
where N (q) and N (q̄) are the total number of quarks and antiquarks. Baryons therefore
have B = 1 and antibaryons have B = −1; mesons have B = 0. B is conserved in all
interactions.
Note that one can write
1 ¯ + C + T − S − B̃)
B = (N (u) − N (ū) + N (d) − N (d) (1.6)
3
Definition 4. The quantum number Q is the total electric charge. Q is conserved in all
interactions
In the absence of charged leptons, such as in strong interaction processes, one can write

2 1 ¯ − S − B̃)
Q = (N (u) − N (ū) + C + T ) − (N (d) − N (d) (1.7)
3 3
Hence, for strong interactions, the four quark quantum numbers S, C, B̃, T together
¯
with Q and B are sufficient to determine N (u) − N (ū) and N (d) − N (d).

1.3.1 Angular Momentum and Spin

The orbital angular momentum operators La acting on wavefunctions are given by
∂
La = −iabc xb (1.8)
∂xc
These operators satisfy
[La , Lb ] = iabc Lc (1.9)

– 10 –
and hence correspond to a representation of SU (2). Particles also carry a spin angular
momentum S, which commutes with the orbital angular momentum [L, S] = 0. The total
angular momentum is defined by J = L + S. States |j, mi are labelled by the eigenvalues
~m of J3 and ~2 j(j + 1) of J2 .

1.3.2 Isospin
It is observed that the proton and neutron have similar mass, and also that the strong
nuclear forces between nucleons are similar. Heisenberg introduced the concept of a SU (2)
isospin symmetry to systematize this. Particles are grouped into multiplets of isospin
value I (previously called j) and labelled by the weights, which are the eigenvalues of I3 .
Originally, this was formulated for nucleons, but later extended to describe all mesons and
baryons.
Particles in the same isospin multiplet have the same baryon number, the same content
of non-light quarks, the same spin and parity and almost the same mass. Isospin is a
conserved quantum number in all known processes involving only strong interactions: it is
related to the quark content by

1 ¯
I3 = (N (u) − N (ū) − (N (d) − N (d))) (1.10)
2
Isospin symmetry arises in the quark model because of the very similar properties of
the u and d quarks.
Examples:

i) Nucleons have isospin I = 12 ; the proton has I3 = 12 , and the neutron has I3 = − 12 :

1 1
n = | ,− i
2 2
1 1
p=| , i (1.11)
2 2

ii) The pions have I = 1 with

π − = |1, −1i
π 0 = |1, 0i
π + = |1, 1i (1.12)

iii) The strange baryons have I = 0 and I = 1

Σ− = |1, −1i
Σ0 = |1, 0i
Σ+ = |1, 1i (1.13)

– 11 –
 and

Λ0 = |0, 0i (1.14)

1
iv) The strange mesons lie in two multiplets of I = 2

1 1
K0 = | , − i
2 2
+ 1 1
K =| , i (1.15)
2 2

and

1 1
K− = | , − i
2 2
0 1 1
K̄ = | , i (1.16)
2 2

K ± are antiparticles with the same mass, but are in different isospin multiplets
because of their differing quark content.

1
v) The light quarks have I = 2

1 1
d = | ,− i
2 2
1 1
u=| , i (1.17)
2 2

and all other quarks are isospin singlets I = 0.

1.4 The Quark Model

It is convenient to group hadrons into multiplets with the same baryon number and spin.
We plot the hypercharge Y = S +B where S is the strangeness and B is the baryon number
against the isospin eigenvalue I3 for these particles.

1.4.1 Meson Multiplets

The pseudoscalar meson octet has baryon number B = 0 and spin J = 0. The (I3 , Y )
diagram is

– 12 –
 Mass(Mev) 0
Y +
495 K 1
K

1/2

− +
137 π π0 π
I3
549 −1 −1/2 η 1/2 1

−1/2

− −1
0
K K
495

There is also a J = 0 meson singlet η 0 . The vector meson octet has B = 0 and J = 1. The
(I3 , Y ) diagram is

Mass(Mev) 0
∗ Y +∗
892 K 1
K

1/2

770 ρ− ρ0 ρ+
I3
−1 −1/2 ω 1/2 1
783
−1/2

−∗ −1
0∗
K K
892

There is also a J = 1 meson singlet, φ.

1.4.2 Baryon Multiplets

3
The baryon decuplet has B = 1 and J = 2 with (I3 , Y ) diagram

– 13 –
 Y
Mass (Mev)
+
∆− ∆0 1 ∆ ∆++
1235
1/2
−∗ ∗
1385 Σ Σ0 Σ+ ∗
−3/2 −1 −1/2 1/2 1 3/2
I3
−1/2
−∗ 0∗
Ξ −1 Ξ
1530
−3/2

−
1670
−2
Ω

There is also an antibaryon decuplet with (I3 , Y ) → −(I3 , Y ).

The baryon octet has B = 1, J = 21 with (I3 , Y ) diagram

Mass(Mev) Y
1
939 n p

1/2

− 0 +
1193 Σ Σ Σ
0 I3
1116 −1 −1/2 Λ 1/2 1

−1/2

− +
Ξ −1
Ξ
1318
1
and there is also a J = 2 baryon singlet Λ0∗ .

1.4.3 Quarks: Flavour and Colour

√
On making the identification (p, q) = (I3 , 23 Y ) the points on the meson and baryon octets
and the baryon decuplet can be matched to points on the weight diagrams of the 8 and 10
of L(SU (3)).
Motivated by this, it is consistent to consider the (light) meson states as lying within
a 3 ⊗ 3̄; as 3 ⊗ 3̄ = 8 ⊕ 1, the meson octets are taken to correspond to the 8 states, and
the meson singlets correspond to the singlet 1 states. The light baryon states lie within a
3 ⊗ 3 ⊗ 3; the baryon decuplet corresponds to the 10 in 3 ⊗ 3 ⊗ 3 = 10 ⊕ 8 ⊕ 8 ⊕ 1; the
baryon octet corresponds to appropriate linear combinations of elements in the 8 irreps,
and the baryon singlet corresponds to the 1.

– 14 –
 In the quark model, the mesons and baryons area assumed to be bound states of
quarks. The patterns of quantum numbers seen above can be understood as arising from
those of quarks. In this model, the fundamental states are quarks, with basis states u
(up), d (down) and s (strange). The basis labels u, d, s are referred to as the flavours of
¯ s̄. Baryons are composed of bound
the quarks. There are also antiquarks with basis ū, d,
states of three quarks qqq, mesons are composed of bound states of pairs of quarks and
antiquarks q q̄. The quarks have J = 21 and B = 13 whereas the antiquarks have J = 21 and
B = − 13 which is consistent with the values of B and J for the baryons and mesons.
The quark and antiquark flavours can be plotted on the (I3 , Y ) plane:

Y Y
2/3
s
d 1/3 u

−1/2 1/2
I3 −1/2 1/2
I3

−1/3
u d
−2/3
s

Mesons and baryons are constructed from q q̄ and qqq states respectively. But why
do qq particles not exist? This problem is resolved using the notion of colour. Consider
the ∆++ particle in the baryon decuplet. This is a u ⊗ u ⊗ u state with J = 32 . The
members of the decuplet are the spin 23 baryons of lowest mass, so we assume that the
quarks have vanishing orbital angular momentum. Then the spin J = 32 is obtained by
having all the quarks in the spin up state, i.e. u ↑ ⊗u ↑ ⊗u ↑. However, this violates
the Pauli exclusion principle. To get round this problem, it is conjectured that quarks
possess additional labels other than flavour. In particular, quarks have additional charges
called colour charges- there are three colour basis states associated with quarks called r
(red), g (green) and b (blue). The quark state wave-functions contain colour factors which
describes their colour; the colour of antiquark states are the ‘opposite’ of the corresponding
quarks, so that the combination of a quark and the corresponding antiquark is colourless.
The colour is independent of the flavour.
These colour charges are also required to remove certain discrepancies (of powers of
3) between experimentally observed processes such as the decay π 0 → 2γ and the cross
section ratio between the processes e+ e− → hadrons and e+ e− → µ+ µ− and theoretical
predictions. However, although colour plays an important role in these processes, it seems
that one cannot measure colour directly experimentally- all known mesons and baryons
are SU (3) colour singlets (so colour is confined). This principle excludes the possibility
of having qq particles, as there is no singlet state in the SU (3) (colour) tensor product
decomposition 3 ⊗ 3, though there is in 3 ⊗ 3 ⊗ 3 and 3 ⊗ 3̄. Other products of 3 and 3̄
can also be ruled out in this fashion.

– 15 –
 Nevertheless, the decomposition of 3 ⊗ 3 is useful because it is known that in addition
to the u, d and s quark states, there are also c (charmed), t (top) and b (bottom) quark
flavours. However, the c, t and b quarks are heavier than the u, d and s quarks, and are
unstable- they decay into the lighter quarks. The SU (3) symmetry cannot be meaningfully
extended to a naive SU (6) symmetry because of the large mass differences which break the
symmetry. In this context, meson states formed from a heavy antiquark and a light quark
can only be reliably put into 3 multiplets, whereas baryons made from one heavy and two
light quarks lie in 3 ⊗ 3 = 6 ⊕ 3̄ multiplets.

– 16 –