Quark Mixing Angles and Weak Decays

This chapter presents the extension of the gauge theory model of the weak interaction to describe the weak interaction decays of quarks. It introduces the Cabibbo angle and the more general scheme of CKM mixing. It describes the realization of parity, CP, and time reversal symmetries in a general theory of quark mixing. Finally, it pulls all of the strands of previous chapters together to write the full set of equations of the Standard Model of particle physics.

Detectors of Elementary Particles

This chapter discusses the detection and measurement of elementary particles. It describes mechanisms of the energy loss of relativistic particles in matter and the use of those mechanisms to create tracking and calorimetric detectors. It then describes detector systems for high-energy particle colliders.

CP Violation

This chapter describes particle reactions that violate CP and T symmetry, the decay of the neutral K meson and the neutral B meson. It presents the Kobayashi-Maskawa model that explains how the Standard Model can provide a theory of CP and T violation and describes experimental tests of that model.

The Current-Current Model of the Weak Interaction

This chapter discusses the representation of the weak interaction as a current-current interaction that violates parity and charge conjugation invariance. It describes the experiments that demonstrate that this violation is maximal. The resulting theory is called the V-A theory of the weak interaction. The chapter works out the predictions of the V-A theory for muon and pion decay and high-energy neutrino scattering and shows the comparison to experiment.

Chiral Symmetry

This chapter introduces chiral symmetry, the extra symmetry that QCD acquires when the masses of quarks are set to zero. It introduces the concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking and explains the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry in QCD. It introduces the concept of a Goldstone boson, a particle that has zero mass as the result of spontaneous symmetry breaking, and explains how this concept explains properties of the pi and K mesons and allows us to determine the underlying values of the quark masses.

Partons and Jets

This chapter discusses the predictions of Quantum Chromodynamics for event shapes in electron-positron annihilation to hadrons, and in for the evolution of parton distributions, and the comparison of these predictions to experiment. It introduces the notion of a jet of hadrons associated with a hard-scattered parton.

Quantum Chromodynamics

This chapter introduces non-Abelian gauge symmetry and the associated field equations for spin-1 particles. It proposes the gauge theory Quantum Chromodynamics as the theory of the strong interaction. It describes the property of asymptotic freedom, which explains a number of mysteries in the experimental results shown in the previous three chapters.

Electron-Positron Annihilation

This chapter works out the theory of electron-positron annihilation to muon pairs as a model for electron-positron annihilation to quarks. It explains that this naive model provides a good description of observed properties of the process of electron-positron annihilation to hadrons.

The Hydrogen Atom and Positronium

This chapter discusses the physics of the hydrogen atom and the electron-positron bound state positronium. It describes the energy levels of these atoms, including the fine structure and hyperfine structure. It discusses the lifetimes of the two species of positronium.

The Higgs Boson

This chapter discusses the Higgs boson, the spin-0 particle in the Standard Model most closely associated with its spontaneous symmetry breaking. It gives the predictions of the Standard Model for the production and decay of Higgs bosons. It describes the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider that test these predictions.