Phys 8902.001

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA School of Physics & Astronomy

Physics 8902 – Elementary Particle Physics II (Spring 2012)

Instructor: Arkady Vainshtein
Office: Physics 440

E-Mail: vainshte@umn.edu

Office Hour: M 14:00. Additional office hours can be scheduled by appointment. Class Times and Place: M W 16:40 in Physics 236A

Class Webpage

Can be found at http://www.physics.umn.edu/courses/ Official announcements will be posted there (you are required to check this page regularly).

Textbook Quang Ho-Kim and Pham Xuan Yem “Elementary Particles and Their Interactions”,

Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1998 ISBN 3-540-63667-6

Open-Door Policy If any difficulties or issues arise in this course, do not hesitate to contact the instructor.

Topics This is a one semester course, focused on the theory and the phenomenology of the weak interactions and of the Standard Model. Topics discussed at lecture include: weak interaction in the four–fermion limit, muon and neutron decay, semileptonic decays, oscillations of neutral kaons, Standard Model, mixing between 3 generations, spontaneous symmetry breaking and higgs mechanism, properties of electroweak bosons, neutrino masses, grand unified theories.

Homework The grade for the class is based on successful completion of the homework assignments. Homeworks will be assigned each Wednesday at lecture and they are due by the next Wednesday. If you cannot come to class, please return the homework to the instructor before that class. No late homework will be accepted. Homeworks will be also posted on the class website. Since your grade is based on the homeworks, you are expected to solve them on your own. However, if occasionally you do them in team, it is ok. If you solve a homework with someone else, please indicate this in the homework.