Particle Physics: Unit – IV

Waseem Bari
May 20, 2021

In this short lecture note, a couple of topics from Unit – IV has shall be discussed.

Kindly keep in mind that this lecture note is not a substitute for the prescribed text

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books. This is only an attempt to guide the students to handle the course in an easier way.

Contents
1 The Syllabus 1

2 Standard Model 1
2.1 Electromagnetic Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Weak Nuclear Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Strong Nuclear Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Unification of forces 6
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1 The Syllabus
Strong Interactions: the evidence for quarks and colour charge, strange particles, strongly
decaying resonances.
Standard model: particle content of the Standard Model, nature of fundamental interac-
tions, Inadequacies of SM, unification of electroweak and strong interactions

2 Standard Model
The Standard Model of particle interactions contains two ideas: electroweak theory and
quantum chromodynamics (QCD) (the force acting between color charges). Electroweak
theory unifies the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED), the modern equivalent of
classical electromagnetism, and the theory of weak nuclear interactions. The Standard
Model combines the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

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Particle Physics: Unit – IV W. Bari

In the Standard Model, particle interactions occur through the exchange of bosons, the
force carriers. For example, the electrostatic force is communicated between two positively
charged particles by sending and receiving massless photons. This can occur at a theo-
retical infinite range. The result of these interactions is Coulomb repulsion (or attraction).
Similarly, quarks bind together through the exchange of massless gluons. Leptons scatter
off other leptons (or decay into lighter particles) through the exchange of massive W and
Z bosons. A summary of forces as described by the Standard Model is given in (Table 1).
The gravitational force, mediated by the exchange of massless gravitations, is added in
this table for completeness but is not part of the Standard Model.

2.1 Electromagnetic Force

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Table 1 : Four Forces and the Standard Model

The Standard Model can be expressed in terms of equations and diagrams. The equa-
tions are complex and are usually covered in a more advanced course in modern physics.
However, the essence of the Standard Model can be captured using Feynman diagrams.
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A Feynman diagram, invented by American physicist Richard Feynman (1918–1988), is a
space-time diagram that describes how particles move and interact. Different symbols are
used for different particles. Particle interactions in one dimension are shown as a time-
position graph (not a position-time graph). As an example, consider the scattering of an
electron and electron-neutrino (Figure 1). The electron moves toward positive values of
x (to the right) and collides with an electron neutrino moving to the left. The electron ex-
changes a Z boson (charge zero). The electron scatters to the left and the neutrino scatters
to the right. This exchange is not instantaneous. The Z boson travels from one particle to
the other over a short period of time. The interaction of the electron and neutrino is said
to occur via the weak nuclear force. This force cannot be explained by classical electro-
magnetism because the charge of the neutrino is zero. The weak nuclear force is discussed
again later in this section. In this Feynman diagram, the exchange of a virtualZ0 carries
the weak nuclear force between an electron and a neutrino.

According to QED, the electromagnetic force is transmitted between charged particles

through the exchange of photons. The theory is based on three basic processes: An elec-
tron travels from one place to the next, emits or absorbs a photon, and travels from one
place to another again. When two electrons interact, one electron emits the photon and

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Figure 1 : Electromagentic force

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the other receives it (Figure 2). Photons transfer energy and momentum from one electron
to the other. The net result in this case is a repulsive force. The photons exchanged are vir-
tual. A virtual particle is a particle that exists for too short a time to be observable. Virtual
photons may violate the law of conservation of energy. To see this, consider that if the
photon transit time∆t is extremely small, then Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states
that the uncertainly in the photon’s energy, ∆E, may be very large. Feynman diagram of
two electrons interacting through the exchange of a photon.
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Figure 2 : Electrons interacting through the exchange of a photon.

To estimate the range of the electromagnetic interaction, assume that the uncertainty
on the energy is comparable to the energy of the photon itself, written

∆E ≈ E (1)

The Heisenberg uncertainly principle states that

h
∆E ≈ (2)
∆t

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Particle Physics: Unit – IV W. Bari

Combining these equations, we have

h
∆t ≈ (3)
E
The energy of a photon is given by E = hν, so Combining these equations, we have

h 1 λ
∆t ≈ ≈ ≈ (4)
hν ν c
The distance d that the photon can move in this time is therefore
 
λ
d = ct ≈ c =λ (5)
c

The energy of the virtual photon can be arbitrarily small, so its wavelength can be

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arbitrarily large—in principle, even infinitely large. The electromagnetic force is therefore
a long-range force.

2.2 Weak Nuclear Force

The weak nuclear force is responsible for radioactive decay. The range of the weak
nuclear force is very short (only about 10−18 m) and like the other forces in the Standard
Model, the weak force can be described in terms of particle exchange. (There is no simple
function like the Coulomb force to describe these interactions.) The particle exchanged
is one of three bosons: W ± and Z0 . The Standard Model predicts the existence of these
spin-1 particles and also predicts their specific masses. In combination with previous
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experiments, the mass of the charged W ± bosons was predicted to be 81GeV/c2 and that
of the Z0 was predicted to be 90GeV/c2 . A CERN experiment discovered particles in the
1980s with precisely these masses—an impressive victory for the model.

The weak nuclear force is most frequently associated with scattering and decays of
unstable particles to light particles. For example, neutrons decay to protons through the
weak nuclear force. This reaction is written

n −→ p + e− + νe (6)
where n is the neutron, p is a proton, e− is an electron, and overlineνe is a nearly mass-
less electron (anti)neutrino. This process, called beta decay, is important in many physical
processes. A Feynman diagram of beta decay is given in Figure 3(a) . The neutron emits
a W − and becomes a proton, then the W − produces an electron and an antineutrino. This
process is similar to the scattering event

e− + p −→ n + νe (7)

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Particle Physics: Unit – IV W. Bari

Figure 3 : Feynman diagram of particles interacting through the exchange of a W boson:

(a) beta decay; (b) conversion of a proton into a neutron.

The range of the weak nuclear force can be estimated with an argument similar to the

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one before. Assuming the uncertainty on the energy is comparable to the energy of the
exchange particle by E ≈ mc2 , we have

h
∆t ≈ (8)
mc2
The maximum distance d that the exchange particle can travel (assuming it moves at
a speed close to c) is therefore
h
d ≈ c∆t = (9)
mc
For one of the charged vector bosons with mc2 ≈ 81GeV = 1.28 × 1008 J, we obtain
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mc = 4.27 × 10−17 Js/m (10)
Hence, the range of the force mediated by this boson is

1.04 × 10−34 Js
d= ≈ 2 × 10−18 m (11)
4.27 × 10−17 Js/m

2.3 Strong Nuclear Force

Strong nuclear interactions describe interactions between quarks. Details of these inter-
actions are described by QCD. According to this theory, quarks bind together by sending
and receiving gluons. Just as quarks carry electric charge [either + 23 3 or− 13 ] that deter-
mines the strength of electromagnetic interactions between the quarks, quarks also carry
color charge (either red, blue, or green) that determines the strength of strong nuclear in-
teractions. As discussed before, quarks bind together in groups in color neutral (or white)
combinations, such as red-blue-green and red-antired.
Interestingly, the gluons themselves carry color charge. Eight known gluons exist: six that
carry a color and anticolor, and two that are color neutral ( Figure 4(a)). To illustrate the

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interaction between quarks through the exchange of charged gluons, consider the Feyn-
man diagram in Figure 4(a). As time increases, a red down quark moves right and a green
strange quark moves left.

Figure 4 : (a) Eight types of gluons carry the strong nuclear force. The white gluons
are mixtures of color-anticolor pairs. (b) An interaction between two quarks through the

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exchange of a gluon.

As suggested by this example, the interaction between quarks in an atomic nucleus

can be very complicated. Figure 5 shows the interaction between a proton and neutron.
Notice that the proton converts into a neutron and the neutron converts into a proton
during the interaction. The presence of quark-antiquark pairs in the exchange suggest
that bonding between nucleons can be modeled as an exchange of pions. A Feynman
diagram that describes a strong nuclear interaction between a proton and a neutron.

In practice, QCD predictions are difficult to produce. This difficulty arises from the inher-
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ent strength of the force and the inability to neglect terms in the equations. Thus, QCD
calculations are often performed with the aid of supercomputers. The existence of gluons
is supported by electron-nucleon scattering experiments. The estimated quark momenta
implied by these scattering events are much smaller than we would expect without glu-
ons because the gluons carry away some of the momentum of each collision.

3 Unification of forces
Physicists have long known that the strength of an interaction between particles depends
on the distance of the interaction. For example, two positively charged particles expe-
rience a larger repulsive force at a short distance then at a long distance. In scattering
experiments, the strength of an interaction depends on the energy of the interacting
particle, since larger energy implies both closer and stronger interactions.

Particle physicists now suspect that the strength of all particle interactions (the four
forces) merge at high energies, and the details of particle interactions at these energies
can be described in terms of a single force ( Figure 6). A unified theory describes what

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Figure 5 : strong nuclear interaction between a proton and a neutron.

these interactions are like and explains why this description breaks down at low-energy
scales. A grand unified theory is a theory that attempts to describe strong and electroweak
interaction in terms of just one force. A theory of everything (TOE) takes the unification
concept one step further. A TOE combines all four fundamental forces (including gravity)
into one theory. Grand unification of forces at high energies.
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Figure 6 : Unification of forces.

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