A short journey to the infinitely small

Fundamentals of
Particle Physics



Stefania Ricciardi
RAL, March 2009
Building blocks: particles and forces
Current areas of research
Warning
This journey may change your vision of the Universe.
What you will hear may alter your perception of reality.

We are entering a Quantum World..
Stay awake and keep an open mind!
We and all things around us are
made of atoms
Human Hair
~ 50 m = 50 10
-6
m
= 0.000050 m
Atom ~ 10
-10
m
= 0.0000000001 m
Magritte
Atoms
Atoms are all similarly made of:
- protons and neutrons in the nucleus
- electrons orbiting around

electron
proton
neutron
Protons,
neutrons are
made up of
quarks
The electron was the
first elementary
particle to be
discovered
(JJ Thomson 1897)
From the atom to the quark
Atoms and sub-atomic particles are much smaller than visible light wave-length
Therefore, we cannot really see them (all graphics are artists impressions)
To learn about the sub-atomic structure we need particle accelerators
How small are the smallest constituents of matter?
~ 10
-10
m
~ 10
-14
m
~ 10
-15
m
<10
-18
m
<10
-1 8
m
Wave-particle duality of Nature
Central concept of quantum mechanics:
all particles present wave-like properties
De Broglie showed that moving particles have an
equivalent wavelength
p
1

So high momentum gives us
short wavelengths so we can
make out small details
Example: electron microscope
Not only light has a dual nature

Electron Microscope Image
Gold atoms
(0.2 nm apart)
Copyright FEI
1911
Rutherford found a nucleus in the
atom by firing alpha particles at gold
and observing them bounce back

Rutherford: atoms are not
elementary particles!
Precursor of modern scattering experiments at accelerator
Quarks detected within protons
Stanford (SLAC), California, late 1960s
Fire electrons at proton: big deflections seen!
2 miles long accelerator
End Station A
experimental area
Freeway 280
Protons and neutrons
in the quark model
proton (charge +1) neutron (charge 0)
u d
d
u u
d
Quarks have fractional electric charge!
u electric charge + 2/3
d electric charge 1/3
( ) 1
3
1
3
2
3
2
+ =
|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|
+
|
.
|

\
|
+ p d u u ( ) 0
3
1
3
1
3
2
n d d u =
|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|
+
Is the whole Universe made only of
quarks and electrons?
No! There are also neutrinos!
Electron, proton and neutrons are rarities!
For each of them in the Universe there is 1 billion neutrinos
Neutrinos are the most abundant matter-particles in
the Universe!








v

v v v v v vvvvvvvv
vv v v vv v vvvvvvv
v vv vv vv v v v v v
vv v v vv v vvvvvv
v vv vv vv vvvvvvv
vv vv v vvv vvvvvvv
vv vv v vvv vvvvvvv

1 cm

Within each cm
3
of
space: ~300 neutrinos
from Big Bang
Neutrinos are everywhere!
in the outer space, on Earth, in our bodies..
1 cm

Neutrinos get under your skin!
Within your body at any instant:
roughly 30 million neutrinos from
the Big Bang


No worries!
Neutrinos do not harm us.
Our bodies are transparent to neutrinos

10
14
neutrinos
per second from Sun
are zipping through you
v
Every cm
2
of Earth surface is
crossed every second by more
than 10 billion (10
10
) neutrinos
produced in the Sun
The particles of ordinary matter


v
e
e
-
u
d
-1/3
+2/3
0
-1
charge
All stable matter around us
can be described using
electrons, neutrinos, u and d quarks

Quarks:
u = up
d = down
Leptons:
v = neutrino
e = electron
3 Families (or Generations)
v

-
c
s
v
t
t
-
t
b
Ordinary matter Cosmic rays Accelerators
1
st
generation 2
nd
generation 3
rd
generation
3 generations in everything similar but the mass
-1/3
-1/3
+2/3
+2/3
v
e
e
-
u
d
-1/3
+2/3
We believe these to be the fundamental
building blocks of matter
-1 -1
-1
0 0 0
Quark masses
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Mass
(GeV)
Quarks
Up Down Strange Charm Bottom Top
0.003 0.006 0.095
1.2
4.5
Top
(discovered 1995)
175 GeV
E= mc
2
1 proton mass ~ 1GeV (10
-27
Kg)
The mass grows larger in each successive family
Anti-matter
For every fundamental particle of matter there is an anti-particle
with same mass and properties but opposite charge

v
e
e
-
u
d
-1/3
+2/3
v
e
e
+
u
d
+1/3
-2/3
+1
0
-1
0
positron
Correspondent anti-particles exist for all three families
Anti-matter can be produced using accelerators
Matter Anti-Matter
Bar on top
to indicate
anti-particle
Matter-antimatter pair creation
Electron-positron pair created out of
photons hitting the bubble-chamber
liquid

Example of conversion of photon
energy into matter and anti-matter

Matter and anti-matter spiral in opposite
directions in the magnetic field due to
the opposite charge

Energy and momentum is conserved
Quarks and colour
All quark flavours come in 3 versions, called colours
u d
+2/3 -1/3
u
u
d
d
up
down
Quarks combine together to form colourless particles
-Baryons (three quarks: red+ green + blue = white)








-Mesons (quark-antiquark pair)
such as red+anti-red u-ubar state
proton
u
u
pion
p
t
Strong forces
glue quarks
together in
bound states
Building more particles
b b
J/
c c
Y
b u
B
-
u b
B
+
b d
B
0
d b
B
0
B mesons (bq)
Many more mesons and baryons
The Particle Physicists Bible:
Particle Data Book
https://pdg.lbl.gov
"Young man, if I could remember
the names of these particles,
I would have been a botanist!
E.Fermi to his student
L. Lederman (both Nobel
laureates)
Most particles are not stable and can decay to lighter particles..
THE WEAK FORCE
Beta Decay
n p
Antineutrino
Electron
Neutron |-decay
A (free) neutron decays after 15 min
u d
d
n
u u
d
p
e
-
d u e
-
v
e

v
e
15 min
At quark level:
Long life time (15min is an eternity in particle physics!) weak




without such weak interactions the Sun would shut down!
The 4 forces of Nature
Weak
Beta-decay
pp fusion
Strong
Quark binding
Electromagnetic
TV, PCs
Magnets

e- e+ creation
Gravity
Responsible of
Keeping us
well-planted on earth

Electric
charge
mass
weak
charge
strong
charge
Electromagnetic force
e
-
e
-
Photon
The repulsive force that two approaching electrons feel
Photon is the particle
associated to the electromagnetic force
smallest bundle of force
Photon exchange
Feynman Diagram
e-
e-
e-
e-

Weak force: W
-
,W
+
,Z
0
|decay
npev
e
Electric charge
conserved at each
vertex
W
-
Strong force: gluons
Gluons interact with quarks
Gluons interact with other gluons
Quark confinement
There are no free quarks, quarks and antiquarks are confined
in colourless doublet (mesons) or triplets (baryons) by the exchange
of gluons
The new quarks bound
to the old quarks
and form new mesons
until the gluon connection
snaps, and other quark-antiquark
pairs are created out of the
energy released
Gluon hold quarks
together as they move
further apart
Z
0
Decay
S.Ward
Force Particles (summary)
Particles interact and/or decay thanks to forces
Forces are also responsible of binding particles together

Strong: gluons
Only quarks
(because of their
colour charge)

Weak: W
+
, W
-
, Z
0
Leptons and quarks (only
force for neutrinos)
Electromagnetic:
Quarks and charged leptons
(no neutrinos)
Gravity: graviton?
Still to be discovered
Negligible effects on
particles
The Standard Model
Matter
6 quarks
6 leptons
Grouped in three generations

Forces
Electroweak:
(photon)
- Z
0
, W

Strong
- g (gluon)
Very successful to describe all observed phenomena in the
subatomic world so far. But there ought to be more..
Framework which includes:
Not gravity! No quantum
field theory of gravity yet..
H= the missing ingredient: the Higgs Boson
Beyond the Standard
Model:Unification of forces







WEAK
STRONG GRAVITY
ELECTRO-
MAGNETIC
UNIFIED
FORCE?
Looking for a simple elegant unified theory
Open question:
Why is the Universe made of
matter and not equally
of anti-matter?
We have seen that for every fundamental
particle there is a corresponding antiparticle.
Where are these anti-particles?

Large amount of matter but no evidence of
large amount of antimatter in the Universe..
Why has all the anti-matter gone?
Anti-matter
The development of the Universe containing
matter and no antimatter requires that
matter and antimatter behave differently
This phenomenon is due to CP violation..
matter
Puff
Good thing for us that there is no antimatter around!
CP Violation
CP = Charge Conjugation (reverse charge) x Parity (reverse spatial
coordinates as in a mirror)
CP
beauty
anti-beauty
B
0
B
0
Nobody
is perfect
CP-Violation: B
0
and B
0
do not behave exactly in the same way
(their decay pattern as a function of time is different)

Discovery of CP violation in the
B-meson system at Babar (SLAC, 2001)
A visible difference is detected, but tiny, not enough
to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe
The CPV quest will go on at LHC
CMS
ALICE
CERN
LHCb experiment:
700 physicists
50 institutes
15 countries
LHCb cavern
LHCb
ATLAS
Recent view of the LHCb cavern
Its complete!
RICH-1
The experiment is fully installed and ready for first collisions
RICH2 RICH1
Muon
detector
Calorimeters
OT
Magnet
VELO
Another open question:
What is the Dark Matter?
Astronomical observations have shown that observable mass
represent less than 4% of the Universe!










What is dark matter? We dont really know
Perhaps partially composed of neutrinos, or possibly neutralinos particles
predicted by super-symmetric theories beyond the Standard Model?
Dark Matter Visible Matter
False-color images
The brightness of
clumps
corresponds to the
density of mass.
Looking for Dark Matter at the
Boulby Underground Laboratory


Neutrinos do matter to us:
If there were no neutrinos
the sun would not shine!

Almost no interactions (only weak)
Can cross light-years of material without being affected
Can travel from the most remote corners of the Universe
bringing information from the origin of space and time
Puzzling neutrinos

R. Davis: measuring the solar neutrino
flux in a gold mine in South Dakota for
30 years (1969-1999)
and observing only 1/3 of the expected flux!! Why?
R. Davis
Solar neutrinos
pioneer
Neutrino oscillations
If you let the neutrino travel enough,
it can change its flavour!
v

v
t

v
e
v

v
t
a huge neutrino detector
in the right place exists!
A detector here
does not see any v

Kamioka Observatory, ICRR (Institute for
Cosmic Ray Research),
The University of Tokyo
a huge neutrino detector
exists!
A detector here
sees all v


in the Kamioka mine in Japan
SuperKamiokande is measuring neutrinos born in the atmosphere
above the detector..
v

flux from below only of flux from above!

..and below the detector (on the other side of the Earth!!)
Total neutrino flux from below = total flux from above _
Discovery of neutrino oscillation
Super-Kamiokande (1998)
Half of the v

are lost!
Oscillated to undetected v
t

2002 Nobel Prize
Koshiba
(superK Spokesman)
shared with Davis
Up-going
Down-going
What have we learnt?
A number of surprising things:
A limited number of forces and matter particles
describe all the Universe we know about;
A theory of the interactions of matter with forces
called the Standard Model describes successfully the
phenomena of the subatomic world;
There are evidences that there is lot more that we do
not know about and our research should find: such as
the missing anti-matter, dark matter, puzzling neutrino
properties, but also the Standard Model key-vault
..the Higgs!



Looking into the future
The Higgs should be found at the
LHCplease be patient for a few more
hours.and you will learn about the
Higgs, the LHC, and much more!
NOT