Page 1 of 8 2011-12

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON


MSci/BSc EXAMINATION 2012



For Internal Students of
Royal Holloway


DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL TOLD TO BEGIN



PH3520 : PARTICLE PHYSICS


Time Allowed: TWO hours


Answer THREE Questions


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


The total available marks add up to 120


No credit will be given for attempting any further questions



College Calculators are provided






Royal Holloway University of London 2012
PH3520

Page 2 of 8
GENERAL PHYSICAL CONSTANTS

Permeability of vacuum
0

= 4 10
-7
H m
-1

Permittivity of vacuum
0

= 8.85 10
-12
F m
-1


0
1/ 4
= 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
e
m
= 9.11 10
-31
kg
Unified atomic mass constant
u
m
= 1.66 10
-27
kg
Proton rest mass
p
m
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Neutron rest mass
n
m
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Ratio of electronic charge to mass
/
e
e m
= 1.76 10
11
C kg
-1

Planck constant h = 6.63 10
-34
J s
/2 h = = 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
A
N
= 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
0
P
= 1.01 10
5
N m
-2


MATHEMATICAL CONSTANTS
2.718 e 3.142 log 10 2.303
e








NEXT PAGE

PH3520

Page 3 of 8

PART
MARKS
1. (a) The tau lepton was discovered at the SPEAR storage ring by observing
events such as
,
where represents unseen particles. For this event type, draw a Feynman
diagram that shows the production of the tau leptons and also diagrams for
their subsequent decays. Label all particles and indicate the coupling
strengths for all vertices. [8]
(b) Show that if the particles are all highly relativistic so that one can neglect
their rest masses, the invariant mass squared of the unseen particles in the
reaction above (the missing mass squared) can be found from
,
where is the centre-of-mass energy, and are the energies of the
electron and muon in the c.m. frame and is the angle between their
momentum vectors.
Describe how the distribution of missing mass in the events observed led one
to conclude that there was more than one unseen particle in the final state. [12]

(c)
The total cross section for the reaction can be written in particle
physics units as
2
tot 2
cm
4
3E

= ,
where is the fine structure constant. Suppose an
accelerator runs at for seconds at an average luminosity
of . Find the expected number of events of this type. Use
.
[6]

(d)
The distribution of the angle between the and the incoming follows
.
Estimate the fraction of events one would expect with the direction more
than 15 degrees from the beam line (i.e., ). [8]

(e)
Explain how by measuring the cross section of the reaction one
can determine the mass of the tau lepton. Illustrate your answer with a
sketch. [6]




NEXT PAGE
PH3520

Page 4 of 8

PART
MARKS
2. (a) Describe the first observation of on-shell Z bosons in proton-antiproton
collisions, including information on the relevant decay modes of the Z and on
how one was able to recognise events of this type experimentally. Sketch a
Feynman diagram that indicates both production and decay of the Z.
What is meant by the term "underlying event"? Indicate in your Feynman
diagram what particles are connected with this. [10]

(b) Sketch the cross section as a function of the centre-of-
mass energy from 10 to 100 GeV. Indicate on the sketch the mass
and total width of the Z resonance.
Draw two lowest-order Feynman diagrams that contribute to
and which contain different intermediate bosons. State for roughly what
energy ranges each of the diagrams makes a significant contribution to the
total amplitude. [8]

(c) The total decay width of the Z is found to be =2.5 GeV. Find the mean
lifetime of the Z in seconds and evaluate numerically. You may use
and .
Describe how a measurement of can be used to determine the number of
light neutrino types .
[10]
(d) Consider the reaction at a centre-of-mass energy .
Suppose the Z is produced on shell and that it decays into a neutrino-
antineutrino pair.
Draw the lowest order Feynman diagram for this reaction, including the Z
decay to .
What would such an event look like in one of the LEP detectors such as
ALEPH?
Show that the energy of the photon in the centre-of-mass frame is
.
[12]








NEXT PAGE
PH3520

Page 5 of 8

PART
MARKS
3. (a) At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), protons collide head-on at a centre-of-
mass energy of 7 TeV.
Suppose one wanted to achieve the same centre-of-mass energy in a fixed-
target experiment. Find the required beam energy and evaluate in GeV. Use
the proton mass and state any approximations made.
[8]

(b)
The LHC is housed in the same tunnel used earlier by the LEP collider.
The LHC collides protons with a beam energy of 3.5 TeV, whereas the beam
energy at LEP was only 100 GeV. The energy emitted as synchrotron
radiation is, however, very low at the LHC, but at LEP it was 3.6 GeV per
electron per turn. Find the energy emitted per proton per turn at the LHC for
a beam energy of 3.5 TeV. Use the electron mass as well as
the proton mass given above. [10]
(c) Explain how a measurement of momentum and ionization energy loss
can be used to distinguish between charged pions, kaons and protons.
Illustrate your answer with a sketch of versus for particles of these
types.
Describe how this method can be used to search for fractionally charged
particles such as quarks with charge . What would one expect for the
minimum produced by such particles relative to the minimum found
for charged pions. Have searches of this type indicated evidence for
fractionally charged particles? [10]
(d) Describe how in a tracking chamber one can measure the momentum of a
charged particle, stating any needed relations between the momentum and
other relevant quantities. State how the relative accuracy of the momentum
measurement depends on the momentum and explain qualitatively why the
accuracy becomes worse for increasing momenta.
Describe how one can measure the energy of a high-energy photon. Draw
Feynman diagrams for the fundamental interactions involved and indicate
with a sketch what happens when a high-energy photon interacts with matter.
State how the relative accuracy of the energy measurement depends on the
photon's energy and explain qualitatively why the accuracy of such a
measurement improves with increasing energy. [12]









NEXT PAGE
PH3520

Page 6 of 8

PART
MARKS
4. (a) Consider the reaction . Draw a Feynman diagram for this decay
indicating all particles (including quarks inside the hadrons) and all coupling
strengths, including CKM matrix elements.
State how the amplitude for the decay depends on the couplings you have
given and on the mass of the W boson.
The maximum invariant mass of the system occurs when, in the rest
frame of the , the meson is also at rest and the emerge back to
back. In this configuration, show that the invariant mass of the system
is equal to the mass difference between the and .
Explain how this fact may be used to express the decay rate in terms of the
Fermi constant, .
[16]

(b) The mean proper lifetime of the meson is 1.64 ps and its mass is 5.3
GeV. Suppose a is produced with a momentum of 100 GeV. Find the
mean distance in mm that it will travel before decaying. [8]
(c) Explain what it means for a jet of hadrons to be "b-tagged". Describe a
method by which b-tagging is done and illustrate it with a simple sketch. [8]

(d) Consider a hadron jet initiated by a b quark from produced at a
centre-of-mass energy , and suppose the b quark hadronizes to
become a meson, which subsequently decays to . Describe how to
find such a decay experimentally, including information on how to
identify the and , making reasonable assumptions about whether and
how these decay. [8]










































NEXT PAGE
PH3520

Page 7 of 8

PART
MARKS
5. (a) At the LEP Collider, an electron and positron could collide to form a quark-
antiquark pair. Make a sketch of roughly what one would expect to see in a
detector for an event of this type.
Describe how events of this type can be used to test the hypothesis that
quarks are spin- particles. [8]

(b) Sketch the strong coupling constant, , as a function of the energy scale, ,
and comment on how this curve suggests that quarks cannot exist as free
particles. [6]

(c) Draw a Feynman diagram for the reaction , where q stands for
any one of the quark flavours g is a gluon. Label all particles and indicate
the coupling strengths for all vertices.
Sketch roughly what an event of this type would look like in a detector,
supposing a centre-of-mass energy near the Z resonance.
Describe qualitatively how events of this type can be used to estimate the
strong coupling constant .
[12]

(d) In reactions such , large numbers of hadrons are produced,
including some mesons. Describe how in practice it is possible to
measure the average number of mesons produced in this reaction by
exploiting the decay .
Describe how one can determine the mean lifetime of the meson.
Draw a Feynman diagram for the decay that includes a single
gluon. Explain why this diagram alone would not be expected to provide an
accurate estimate for the rate of this decay. [14]










































NEXT PAGE
PH3520

Page 8 of 8

PART
MARKS
6. (a) List all of the kinematically allowed decays of a boson to quarks or to
leptons. For the decays to quarks, state for each mode whether it is Cabibbo
allowed, singly Cabibbo suppressed, or doubly Cabibbo suppressed. [8]

(b)
Consider the reaction .
Draw three lowest-order Feynman diagrams for this reaction.
By neglecting Cabibbo suppressed modes, show that the fraction of such
events where both W bosons decay to hadrons is 4/9.
How would an event of this type look in a detector if both W bosons decay to
hadrons? What other type of event in collisions could result in a similar
final state?
Explain two methods by which can be used to estimate the
mass of the W boson. Explain how the decay modes of the W bosons
influence what steps must be carried out to determine the W mass. [12]
(c) Draw one of the important Feynman diagrams for production of the Higgs
boson in a proton-proton collision and its subsequent decay to .
J ustify your choice of particles that participate in the diagram.
Suppose the mass of the Higgs boson is 125 GeV, and suppose we look for
events with with both W bosons decaying leptonically. Discuss
briefly the advantages and disadvantages of this decay mode relative to the
case where both Ws decay to hadrons. [10]
(d) Suppose the mass of the Higgs boson is 125 GeV, which implies that its
branching ratio to is approximately 0.15. The cross section for Higgs
Boson production at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy is 20
pb. For an integrated luminosity of , find how many events of the
type will be produced and evaluate numerically.
[10]





END