Page 1 of 8

2008-09
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

MSci/BSc EXAMINATION 2009



For Internal Students of
Royal Holloway



DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL TOLD TO BEGIN




PH3930A: PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS


Time Allowed: TWO hours
Answer THREE questions


Please answer each question on a separate page.
Approximate part-marks for questions are given in the right-hand margin.
No credit will be given for attempting any further questions.


College Calculators are provided.





Royal Holloway University of London 2009
PH3930A
Page 2 of 8
2008-09


GENERAL PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
Permeability of vacuum
0
= 4t 10
-7
H m
-1

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

1/4tc
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/2t
= 1.05 10
-34
J s
Boltzmann constant k = 1.38 10
-23
J K
-1

Stefan-Boltzmann constant
o
= 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 t ~ 3.142 log
e
10 ~ 2.303
PH3930A
Page 3 of 8
2008-09


PART
MARKS
1. (a) Write down the 15 matter particles that make up the first generation in the
standard model, including their helicity and electric charges. Explain how
the quantum numbers of these particles can be classified within the
standard model SU(3)
C
SU(2)
L
U(1)
Y
.




[5]
(b) What is meant by the term running when applied to the coupling
constants of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions? Sketch a
graph that demonstrates how the couplings evolve in the standard model
up to energies of about 10
15
GeV.




[3]
(c) Describe what is meant by the terms Grand Unified Theory (GUT) and
unified coupling
U
g ? Illustrate your answer with the SU(5) model and
describe how this model predicts the existence of X and Y bosons. Show
how this theory implies proton decay with a rate I given by:
4 5
4
GUT

U p
g m
m
~
where
p
m is the proton mass and
GUT
m the GUT scale.










[4]
(d) What is meant by supersymmetry ? Explain briefly how supersymmetry
could increase the predicted proton lifetime. Sketch a Feynman diagram
that could account for squark production at the LHC.



[3]
(e) What is meant by missing transverse energy at a particle collider and why
is it useful in detecting supersymmetric particles at the LHC?
A squark of mass 300 GeV/c
2
is produced at the LHC with its momentum
pointing along the beam direction. If the neutralino mass is 100 GeV/c
2
,
what are the maximum and minimum contributions to the missing
transverse energy that could arise from the decay of the squark?







[5]






TURN OVER
PH3930A
Page 4 of 8
2008-09


PART
MARKS
2. (a) What are the primary components of cosmic rays? Sketch the spectrum of
the primary cosmic rays, indicating any key features and approximate
energy scales at which they occur.



[4]
(b) Describe briefly possible mechanisms that could be responsible for
accelerating cosmic rays to energies in the ranges:
(i) 10
12
-10
14
eV
(ii) 10
16
-10
18
eV.






[4]
(c) What is the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)? Sketch
its energy spectrum, indicating the approximate wavelength (in m) at
which any peak occur, given that its current temperature is 2.73 K.



[3]
(d) Give a short description of the high energy positrons recently detected by
the PAMELA experiment. What are the possible origins of these
positrons?



[3]
(e)
Consider the reaction p
+
+ , where the photon is from the CMBR
and the
+
is a particle of mass

m
.
Assuming a head-on collision, show
that the minimum proton energy E
p
in order for this reaction to be
kinematically allowed is
2 2

4
p
p

m m
E
E

~ where

E is the energy of the

CMBR photon.
Evaluate this numerically in eV, making a reasonable estimate for the
energy of a CMBR photon. (Boltzmanns constant is k=8.610
-11
MeV
K
-1
, the proton masses are m
p
=938 MeV/c
2
and

m =1232 MeV/c
2
.)











[3]
(f) A small number of cosmic rays have been observed with energies greater
than 10
20
eV. Explain briefly the difficulty with the hypothesis that the
incident cosmic rays are protons. Mention an alternative hypothesis.



[3]





TURN OVER
PH3930A
Page 5 of 8
2008-09


PART
MARKS
3. (a) Explain how atmospheric neutrinos are produced in the upper atmosphere
and show that the total flux of muon type neutrinos plus anti-neutrinos is
expected to be twice that of electron type neutrinos plus anti-neutrinos.



[4]
(b) Describe briefly how a water Cherenkov detector such as Super
Kamiokande is used to detect electrons and muons. Show that there is a
minimum threshold energy to detect these particles and estimate this
energy for electrons. (The refractive index of water is 1.33).




[5]
(c) The number of upward going muon-type neutrinos observed at Super
Kamiokande is approximately half that expected, whereas the electron-
type neutrino flux has the expected value. One possible explanation for
this could be that muon-neutrinos decay into something undetected; how
does the heavy-water based SNO experiment rule out this explanation?
Include the following in your answer:
i) An explanation of how neutrino oscillations can provide an explanation
for the observed fluxes of both electron- and muon-type neutrinos at
Super Kamiokande.
ii) The Feynman diagrams for the relevant processes at SNO.












[5]
(d) In the hypothesis that neutrinos can oscillate between two states of
different lepton type, the probabilityP for a

v created at time 0 = t to
be detected as a

v at a later time t is given by

(

A
=
E
t m
P
4
sin 2 sin 1
2
2 2
u
State the meaning of all the terms in this expression forP , and write
down the relevant mixing matrix that underlies the theory of oscillation.










[3]
(e)
For E =3 GeV,
2 2
01 . 0 eV m = A and 8 / t u = , sketch P as a function of
the distance between the points of neutrino production and observation,
indicating the scales on both axes. (You are reminded that
197 . 0 = c GeV fm.).




[3]



TURN OVER
PH3930A
Page 6 of 8
2008-09


PART
MARKS
4. (a) The energy density for relativistic particles in thermal equilibrium at
temperature T is given by
4
*
2
30
T g
t
=
Explain what is meant by
*
g and show that at 30 = T GeV,
*
g =86.25.







[4]
(b) The Friedmann equation is given by:
3 3
8
2 2
2
A
+ = +
t
G
R
k
R
R

What is the meaning of each of the terms in this expression? For the case
when 0 = A , sketch the behaviour of R as a function of time t for 0 = k , 1
and -1.








[4]
(c) Starting from the First Law of Thermodynamics: PdV TdS dU = derive
the fluid equation:
( ) 0
3
= + + P
R
R



where P is the pressure and is the energy density.
For highly relativistic particles you are given that
3
1
= P . Use this result
to show that at early times
4
R .
How does depend on R during the matter dominated era?










[4]
(d) Assuming 0 = A and k =0, use the previous results to show that during
the radiation dominated era:
t R
R
2
1
=

.
Hence show that during this era:
2
PL
2
3 1
32
M

t
= , where
1
2
PL
M G

= .






[4]
(e) At what age in s was the universe when its energy density was the same
as that within a proton? [
19
PL
1.2 10 M = GeV and 197 . 0 = c GeV fm.
The mass of the proton is about 1 GeV

and its radius is about 1 fm].
What happens to the quark-gluon plasma at about this time?





[4]

TURN OVER
PH3930A
Page 7 of 8
2008-09


PART
MARKS
5. (a) State Sakharovs three conditions to obtain a universe with non-zero
baryon number.
For the case of the Grand Unified Theory (GUT) SU(5), X bosons are
predicted to exist and to decay via X u u or d e X

. Use this case
to illustrate how each of the Sakharov conditions might be met for GUTs
in the very early universe.







[6]
(b) What is meant by the freeze-out temperature for a reaction?
Given that the freeze-out temperature for the reaction

pe n
e
v is
approximately 0.7 MeV and neglecting neutron decay, show that the mass
fraction of helium produced in big bang nucleosynthesis is approximately
0.16.
[The mass of the proton is 938.3 MeV/c
2
and the mass of the neutron is
939.6 MeV/c
2
].








[4]
(c) The reaction d np is the process for deuterium (d) production and
releases 2.2 MeV of binding energy. However deuterium does not freeze
out until the temperature falls below about 0.085 MeV. Explain why this
is so.




[3]

(d) Given that it takes about 180s for the temperature of the universe to fall to
0.085 MeV, show that, at the time of deuterium freeze-out, the neutron to
proton ratio is
13 . 0 ~
p
n
n
n
.
Hence show that the He
4
mass fraction in the universe is predicted to be
about 0.23, stating any assumptions you make.
[The neutron lifetime is 887s].








[3]
(e)

Sketch a graph of how the abundances of the lightest elements depend on
q , the ratio of the number of baryons to the number of photons in the
universe and explain how this enables q to be determined.
What is the problem with the observed abundance of Lithium and how
might it be resolved?





[4]



TURN OVER
PH3930A
Page 8 of 8
2008-09


PART
MARKS
6. (a)
Show that the velocity
c
v at which a star circulates at distance r around
the centre of its galaxy is given by:
r
r GM
v
c
) (
=
where M(r) is the total mass of the galaxy contained within a sphere of
radius r from the galactic centre. Sketch the rotation curve of
c
v against
r that would be expected from the luminous matter in the galaxy alone
and, on the same diagram, sketch the observed rotation curve. How can
dark matter account for the difference?











[3]
(b) What is meant by the cross section (o ) of a particle interaction? If there
are n particles per unit volume in the early universe, moving with speed v,
show that the rate of reaction per particle is o v n = I , where angular
brackets denote the mean value




[3]
(c) Describe how to search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles
(WIMPs) by direct measurement of their interactions in a detector,
mentioning the main backgrounds and how they can be minimised.
Explain how the flux of WIMPs through the detector is expected to vary
with time.




[6]
(d) Using simple dimensional arguments, show that the cross section for the
scattering of a WIMP of mass M and speed v c = off a nucleus
containing A nucleons is given by ( )
2
F
AG M ~ .
Hence show that a typical cross section for the detection of a WIMP of
mass 80 GeV/c
2
and speed 200 km/s, in a laboratory detector is of order
41 2
8.7 10 m

~
[You are given that
5
10 17 . 1

=
F
G GeV
-2
and 197 . 0 = c GeV fm].









[4]
(e) If WIMPs of mass 80 GeV/c
2
are present in our region of our galaxy with
an energy density of 0.3 GeV/cm
3
and mean drift velocity with respect to
the earth of 200 km/s, estimate how many interactions can be expected
per day in a detector consisting of 10 kg of
76
Ge, assuming that the cross
section for interaction is
41 2
8.7 10 m

~ .
Why is a nucleus with atomic number 76 a good detector material in this
case?







[4]


END