Particle Physics Advanced Study Group

(February 6 suggested homework is listed below.)

Come join us to study particle physics! We meet for two hours every other week to work through the recently released Phenomenology of Particle Physics by André Rubbia. This book devotes equal attention to both theory AND experiment. We'll learn about the modern mathematical and physical frameworks that are used to make predictions about and analyze the results of real physical experiments, including:

• quantum mechanics
• special relativity
• Lagrangian mechanics
• quantum field theory
• QED, QCD, and gauge field theory
• the Standard Model
• math methods in multivariable calculus, group theory, Hilbert spaces, and more

All of this learning will happen within the context of past and present experiments, so we will also be diving into applied topics that include:

• particle accelerators and detectors
• radioactive decay
• deep inelastic scattering
• hadron-hadron collisions
• solar neutrino oscillations
• cosmic rays
• computational physics

This book includes a healthy dose of Python and Mathematica computer code interspersed throughout the text, so anyone interested in computational physics can jump directly into doing analysis and simulation.

Prerequisites: So long as you have taken college calculus and physics at some point in your life, you should be fine. We run several other active study groups that dive further into the topics mentioned here, including quantum field theory, relativity, math methods, and electrodynamics – please join us in some or all of these other meetups! In addition, we will share with you a number of other useful resources that the group offers to help you through any topics you’re struggling with.

BEFORE COMING to the meeting: Please have a copy of the book available to you in some form. If you aren't ready to buy a physical or digital book, you can download a free sample through Amazon/Kindle and see if you like it.

We maintain a live chat server for staying in touch between meetups. Ask us for a link.

This event joins our other existing collaborative study tracks. Please note that this particular meetup series is a highly mathematical meetup for everyone who is serious about learning advanced physics topics at a graduate or advanced undergraduate level. It is not a general discussion group for popular physics topics or sci-fi tangents. For casual physics chat, please attend our regular Discuss Physics & Make Friends event, held every third Wednesday of the month.

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February 6th suggested homework:

• Write code to perform Monte Carlo simulation of a 3-particle decay, like shown in section 5.21. Optionally, generate a Dalitz plot from your results.
• Solve problems in chapter 5, especially 5.3 and 5.4.
• If you're NEW HERE, just read Chapter 1 and come to the meetup