Class #5 (Jan. 22) Reading Questions - The Particle Odyssey


Chapter 8


1.  Explain the roles of an electromagnetic calorimeter, hadron calorimeter, multi-wire tracking chamber, and vertex detector in a modern particle detector such as the CDF detector at Fermilab?


Chapter 9


2.  According to the standard model of particle physics, the fundamental constituents of matter are particles known as quarks and leptons.  Make a list of the six known quarks and six known leptons, grouping them into three generations. Which quarks and leptons can be found in cosmic ray particles?


3. According to the standard model of particle physics, the fundamental forces of nature are transmitted by force carrying particles known generically as "gauge bosons".  What are the gauge bosons associated with the electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces?


4. What role did the discoveries of the J/psi and upsilon particles play in the development of the standard model of particle physics?


5. Fig. 9.28 provides evidence that there are in fact only three quark/lepton generations.  Explain what is shown in this figure and in what way it rules out additional quark/lepton generations.


6. Explain why a "3-jet" event provides evidence for the existence of gluons.


7. When I was a graduate student at Brandeis in the late 1980's two of my fellow graduate students (and rock climbing partners) were working on the CDF project at Fermilab. Among other things, they were working on software used to analyze candidate top quark events.  What were the two "signature" top quark decay modes that were searched for in the CDF experiment.


