PHY 357S

Nuclear and Particle Physics

 Robert S. Orr

(Room 818A, tel. 416-978-6029, orr@physics.utoronto.ca)

Lecture notes for 2009 - Problem Sets and Tests 2009

Problem Sets and Tests 2008  Links

Lecture notes for 2005 - Problem Sets and Tests -Links 

Lecture notes for 2004 - Problem Sets and Tests -Links

 Lecture notes for 2003 - Problem Sets and Tests -Links

NEWS- 2009

 

5th January 2009

An new edition of the book “SubAtomic Physics” used in 2005 was released last year. It has been considerably updated, and looks good (to me, at least). This is the book that we used in 2008, and we will use it again this year. It is published by World Scientific. I have ordered paperback versions for the text book store. It only costs about $60, which is quite reasonable.

NOTE: I notice that there are some copies of the SECOND (Blue) Edition of this book in the bookstore. Don’t buy them! They cost $105 and are not as good as the THIRD Edition (to the left)…which only costs $59. This is a no-brainer.

 

 

 

 

 

21st  December 2006

After a year in Japan, I'm back teaching this course. I hope we can make some changes to the curriculum, which address things that people want to learn about. First of all, I ordered a different text book; Nuclear and Particle Physics by B.R. Martin. It should be in the text book store by the start of classes. At the moment the link to 2007 gives the notes for 2005, which I will up date, and use, this year. I’ll also link to the notes and problems from 2006, when Peter Krieger taught the course.

The book by Martin is up to date. It’s at a somewhat lower level than some of the material I will cover. However, I think it is probably helpful to read about some of this stuff in a simpler form. It covers both nuclear and particle physics. In recent years, I have really not had time to cover much of the nuclear physics. But, since this may be your only opportunity to learn a bit about nuclear physics, we’ll try to cover some of it this year. There is also a chapter on what exciting developments we can look forward to in these fields. There is a chapter on nuclear power, and one on biomedical applications. Even if we don’t cover these in class, I hope your interest is piqued enough to read about some of these topics. 

 

 

 

 

This book  by Povh, Rith, Scholz and Zetsche covers most of the material that I usually go over in this course. When I did the book order, the new edition of this had not yet come out. I thought that the book by Martin would be more readable and up to date, and would be a better accompaniment to my notes. This book is in the library, and it’s probably worth looking at.

 

 

 

 

 

This book by Frauenfelder and Henley was the course text  up until 2005. In it’s day it was a really good book. However, it has got a bit out of date, and is also out of print. Only Xerox copies are available for $100. There is a lot of material that is at a level above this course, and I think some people found that a bit off putting. I eventually came to the conclusion that it is just bad value for money now. Nonetheless, the philosophy of the book is the one that I follow. That is… symmetries of various kinds give us the most important insights into the subatomic world. Since my notes are sort of derived from this book, some of you might want to look at it. Don’t buy it. We have many copies, you can always borrow one if you want to.

 

 

As a matter of fact, I try to keep the course notes completely self contained.

At the time of writing, Lectures are scheduled on Mondays 15:00 in Room 137, and Wednesdays at 11:00, also in Room 137. The tutorial is on Thursday at 09:00 in the same room. 


 

This course is an introduction to subatomic (nuclear and particle) physics

Prerequisites: none

Text: See Above  + Lecture notes

Lectures: Monday at 3pm  (Room MP137), Wednesday at 11am in MP 137.  (All lecture notes available on web in pdf format.)

TA: Sukhpawan Sandhu, rm 815, 416-978-6632, sandhu@physics.utoronto.ca
                 

 

Web Site: This page is up to date as of 5 Jan 2009.

Complete material (including problem sets with answers) from an earlier version of this course can be found at http://faraday.physics.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/DBailey/SubAtomic.htm
 

Marking:

*  5 problem sets 

50% 

 

*  midterm 

10%

 

*  final exam 

40%

Read This Note about Problem Set Submissions -- IMPORTANT: (Provisional Dates for 2009 – I will update later)

Problem Sets: Out (Due) 14 Jan (23 Jan),  30 Jan ( 11 Feb),  13 Feb (Mar 5),  Mar 6 (Mar 25), Mar25 (April 9)
       Late penalty: 1% per working day; not accepted more than 1 lecture late.

Midterm: Wednesday, Feb 25 This will be a Quiz with some simple calculations. The time is too short for a real test. My experience is that a real test in this short time just upsets people (me included) [50 minutes long; calculator recommended, NO AID SHEETS ALLOWED.]

Final Exam: 3 hours long; calculator recommended and ONE handwritten (not copied) letter-sized double-sided aid sheet allowed.