This is the first quarter of a two-quarter survey course in particle phyiscs for graduate students. In this quarter we will focus our attention on phenomenology, especially that related to the search for CP violation in B meson decays. Students are expected to have had a standard course in non-relativistic quantum mechanics, a working knowledge of special relativity, and some familiarity with relativistic quantum mechanics and Feyman diagrams. In the second quarter of the sequence we will study topics in gauge theories that relate to the phenomenology discussed this quarter and which define physics questions being addressed in forthcoming experiments.
We will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 AM - 10:50 AM in room 325 Braunstein. The textbook this quarter will be Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics by David Griffiths. I also recommend that you obtain The Review of Particle Properties from the Particle Data Group. The full biennial review and a pocket-sized booklet are availabe from their web site at no cost to you. The ordering information link will take you to a page with detailed instructions for ordering these items. The lecture notes from the course given last year are on the web. Although attendance is not mandatory, you are responsible for all material presented in class, and for all changes to the schedule or plans which are announced in class. The final exam is scheduled for Tuesday, March 12 from 1:30 - 3:30 PM. The take-home final will be due at the beginning of this period.
My office at UC is room 411 in the Geology/Physics Building. My office phone number is 556-0533. My e-mail address is sokoloff@physics.uc.edu .
The final letter grade for this course will be my best
estimation of your mastery of the material. I
expect to base it on
weekly homework assignments and a take-home final
examination.
At the moment (January 2, 2002), my plan is
to use the following:
| weekly homework | 240 |
| final examination | 160 |
| TOTAL | 400 |
The exact schedule for lectures, homework, etc.,
will depend on how long it takes to cover the material, whether there are
any school closings due to inclement weather, etc.
I will try to keep the best-guess
schedule
up to date.
However, you are responsible for all changes announced in class.
Homework
Homework will be due Wednesdays at 5:00 PM in
Yong Song's
mailbox. In general, late homework will not be accepted. Approximately
half of the problems will be selected randomly for grading, and each problem
will be graded on a scale from 0 to 20. At the end of the quarter, there
will be approximately 15 graded problems. I plan to use the best 12 in
computing your homework score. If there are fewer graded homework problems
for any reason, I will discard at least the lowest three scores. I encourage
you strongly to work with other students doing the assigned problems, and
to talk to me about how to do the problems.
However, all work you submit
must be work that you have done yourself.
Final Exam
Last year's
final exam
is on the web in
postscript format
and in PDF format.
Homework assignments will be posted
no later than Thursday night the week before they are due.
This year's final exam is now ready.
The first two problems
are problems #2 and #3 from last year's final exam, the links for which
are given above.
March 7:
The new problems are available
in
postscript format
and in PDF format.
Note that the problems range from 40 points to 10 points.
This primarily reflects the number of questions asked
within a problem.
I recommend that you look over all parts of all of the problems
as soon as possible to identify those which seem least obvious.
You may use your textbook, the notes I distributed, any notes you
took in class, your homework sets,
and anything else you have
written yourself.
You may use any publicly distributed materials: books, material
on the web, etc.
All such materials used should be explicitly acknowledged.
You may not consult with anyone other than me, and you may not use any material
that is not publicly available.
For example, you may not use exam papers from students in last year's
class.
If you are not sure whether a particular source is acceptable,
ask me.
Be sure to show your work; credit will be given only for solutions
and explanations,
not for answers alone.
I will be happy to talk to you about any of the problems before they
are due as long as you have made a good faith effort to get started
on your own.
You may stop by my office, send me e-mail, or give me a call.
Feel free to call me at home between 8:00 AM and 10:00 PM, even over
the weekend.
I expect to spend time in my office over the weekend, and can
arrange my schedule to accomodate yours if you want to meet in
person.
last modified March 7, 2002