PH3930A/34

Royal Holloway and Bedford New College 2002

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON


BSc and MSci EXAMINATION 2003

For Internal Students of
Royal Holloway


DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL TOLD TO BEGIN


PH3930A: PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS

Time Allowed: TWO hours


Answer THREE questions
No credit will be given for attempting any further questions

Approximate part-marks for questions are given in the right-hand margin

Only CASIO fx85WA Calculators ARE permitted
GENERAL PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
Permeability of vacuum
0
= 4 10
-7
H m
-1

Permittivity of vacuum
0
= 8.85 10
-12
F m
-1

1/4
0
= 9.0 10
9
m F
-1

Speed of light in vacuum c = 3.00 10
8
m s
-1

Elementary charge e = 1.60 10
-19
C
Electron (rest) mass m
e
= 9.11 10
-31
kg
Unified atomic mass constant m
u
= 1.66 10
-27
kg
Proton rest mass m
p
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Neutron rest mass m
n
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Ratio of electronic charge to mass e/m
e
= 1.76 10
11
C kg
-1

Planck constant h = 6.63 10
-34
J s
=h/2 = 1.05 10
-34
J s
Boltzmann constant k = 1.38 10
-23
J K
-1

Stefan-Boltzmann constant = 5.67 10
-8
W m
-2
K
-4

Gas constant R = 8.31 J mol
-1
K
-1

Avogadro constant N
A
= 6.02 10
23
mol
-1

Gravitational constant G = 6.67 10
-11
N m
2
kg
-2

Acceleration due to gravity g = 9.81 m s
-2

Volume of one mole of an ideal gas at STP = 2.24 10
-2
m
3

One standard atmosphere P
0
= 1.01 10
5
N m
-2


MATHEMATICAL CONSTANTS
e 2.718 3.142 log
e
10 2.303
page 1 PH3930A
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1. (a) Briefly describe the most important features of supersymmetry (SUSY).
Give at least one theoretical reason why SUSY is taken seriously.
What are the implications of supersymmetry for the unification of
coupling strengths at high energy?
What does SUSY imply about the fact that proton decay has not been
observed? [8]

(b) At early times the expansion rate of the universe is related to the
temperature by
Pl
2
*
66 . 1
m
T
g H = ,
where
19
Pl
10 2 . 1 = m GeV is the Planck mass and 75 . 106
*
= g is the
effective number of degrees of freedom at high temperature.
Suppose a particular particle type reacts with others with a rate T
2
= ,
where 20 / 1 = is an effective coupling constant. Find the value of
H / at 1000 = T GeV.
Is the reaction rate high enough to maintain thermal equilibrium?
At what time in seconds is the temperature equal to 1000 GeV? (Use
2 . 0 = c GeV-fm and
23
10 3 = c fm/s to get the units right.)
What is the total energy density at this temperature in
3
fm / GeV ? [8]

(c) What is CP violation and why is it a necessary condition for
baryogenesis? [4]
page 2 PH3930A
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2. At early times we have
Pl
2
*
66 . 1
m
T
g H = and
3
2
) 3 (
4
3
gT n

=
for the expansion rate and for the number density of relativistic fermions
of a given type. Here 202 . 1 ) 3 ( ,
19
Pl
10 2 . 1 = m GeV is the Planck
mass, and the rest of the symbols have their usual meanings.



(a)
Relativistic electrons and neutrinos interact by the reaction
+
e e
with a cross section of
2 2
F
T G , where
2 5
F
GeV 10 2 . 1

= G is the
Fermi constant.
Show that the effective number of degrees of freedom for temperatures
around several MeV is 75 . 10
*
= g .
Using the formula for the number density given above, find the reaction
rate per electron as a function of the temperature.
Find the temperature in MeV where the expansion rate H is equal to the
reaction rate.
Show that
2 / 5
t and sketch the expansion rate and reaction rate as a
function of time. Indicate on your sketch the times where thermal
equilibrium does and does not hold. [10]

(b) The CMBR has a current temperature of 2.73 K while the primordial
neutrinos have a temperature of only 1.95 K. Explain qualitatively why
this is so.
Assume that the scale factor continues to evolve as
3 / 2
t R . By what
factor will be the neutrino number density change when the universe is
three times its current age, i.e., at
0
3t t = ?
What will the neutrino temperature be at
0
3t t = ?
Calculate the number density of neutrinos and antineutrinos per
3
cm at
0
3t t = . (Assume three neutrino families and use
14
B
10 6 . 8

= k GeV/K
and 2 . 0 = c GeV fm.) [10]
page 3 PH3930A
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3. (a) State the approximate magnitude of T T / for the dipole anisotropy of
the CMBR and describe briefly its interpretation. [3]

(b) Make a sketch of the CMBR angular power spectrum.
Which of its main features allows one to determine the ratio of the total
energy density to the critical density,
c
/ = ? State the approximate
relation between this feature and .
What does inflation predict for ? What is the basic result of the
measurement of from the WMAP project? Is it consistent with the
prediction of inflation? [5]

(c) Inflation ends when the inflaton field tunnels from the false to the true
vacuum. Explain briefly how the quantum mechanical nature of the
tunnelling could lead to variations in the current observed CMBR
temperature. How are regions of higher than average observed
temperature interpreted in this picture?
State the order of magnitude of the temperature variations that are
observed at small angular separation (less than one degree). [5]

(d) Suppose that the number density of magnetic monopoles at the time
38
GUT
10

= t s is one per horizon volume, i.e.,

3
GUT
M
) 2 (
1
t
n = .
Find the number density of monopoles in
3
m

. (Use
8
10 3 = c m/s.)
Suppose that inflation did not occur and that the monopole mass is
GUT M
10E m = (i.e., the monopoles are always non-relativistic). Show that
the energy density of the monopoles would continue to evolve as
2 / 3
GUT
M
M
) 8(
) (
t t
m
t = .
Describe in what sense this is a problem and state briefly how it is solved
by inflation. [7]
page 4 PH3930A
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4. (a) Describe briefly how measurements related to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
can be used to determine the energy density of baryonic matter,
c
/
B B
= . Illustrate your answer with a sketch of the relevant
observable versus
B
.
[4]

(b) Discuss briefly why non-baryonic dark matter is believed to exist.
What is a neutralino and how can it help explain non-baryonic dark
matter? Describe qualitatively how the abundance of this particle is
determined. [6]

(c) Describe briefly how to search for WIMPs by direct measurement of their
interactions in a detector. In your answer you should include:
What physical processes can be exploited to detect WIMPs?
What considerations determine the optimal use of material for the
detector?
Why are WIMP detectors usually located deep underground? [6]

(d) Recent measurements indicate a ratio of vacuum energy
V
to
c
of
7 . 0 =

. The current critical density is G H 8 / 3

2
0 c
= . Suppose a
quantum field theory predicts
4
V
= , where is a cut-off energy. Find
and evaluate it in GeV for 7 . 0 =

. (You may need the Planck mass,

19
Pl
10 2 . 1 = m GeV, and appropriate factors of 2 . 0 = c GeV fm and
23
10 3 = c fm/s to get the dimension correct. Take
17 1
0
10 5 . 4 =

H s
for the Hubble time.) [4]
page 5 PH3930A
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5. (a) Suppose a high energy cosmic ray proton hits the upper atmosphere.
Draw schematically the important processes that take place. Include in
your sketch (at least) electrons, photons, muons, pions and neutrinos.
Most of the particles from cosmic rays that we detect at the surface of the
earth are muons. Explain briefly why this is so. What particles are
mainly found at the earths surface from ultra-high energy cosmic rays
(
19
10 E eV)? [6]

(b) Describe briefly possible mechanisms that could be responsible for
accelerating cosmic rays to energies in the range (i)
14 12
10 10 eV and
(ii)
19 16
10 10 eV. [5]

(c) A small number of cosmic rays have been observed with energies greater
than
20
10 eV. Explain briefly the difficulty with the hypothesis that the
incident cosmic rays are protons. Mention at least two alternative
hypotheses.
[5]

(d) A high-energy antineutrino
e
will have a large probability to interact
with an atomic electron via the reaction

W e
e
if the centre-of-mass
energy of the

e
e
system is equal to the W bosons mass, 4 . 80
W
= M
GeV. Find the neutrino energy in GeV needed for this reaction to take
place. Use 0.000511
e
= m GeV, treat the neutrino as massless and the
electron as being initially at rest. [4]
page 6 PH3930A
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6. (a) Describe briefly the evidence for neutrino oscillations obtained by the
Super-Kamiokande experiments investigations of atmospheric neutrinos.
Include information on:
how atmospheric neutrinos are produced;
what types of neutrinos are expected and in what ratio;
how the detector is able to find and identify neutrinos;
what the experiment observed and how this was interpreted. [10]

(b)
The B
8
solar neutrino flux follows
24
T , where T is the
temperature of the suns core. Suppose there is a relative uncertainty of
2 . 0 % in the core temperature. Find the corresponding relative
uncertainty in the neutrino flux.
Is this sufficiently large to explain the observed deficit of solar neutrinos?
[5]

(c) Measurements of neutrino oscillations suggest that the heaviest of the
three neutrino types may have a mass around 0.06 =

m eV. The
temperature of primordial neutrinos today is 1.95 K.
Are neutrinos with this mass and temperature relativistic or non-
relativistic? (Use Boltzmanns constant
5
B
10 6 . 8

= k eV/K.)
Find the rms value of c v / = for the neutrinos of this mass and
temperature. [5]