Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Notation and Constants
- 1 Particle Physics Landscape
- 2 Preliminary Concepts: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Collisions and Decays
- 4 Conservation Rules and Symmetries
- 5 FromWave Functions to Quantum Fields
- 6 A Brief Overview of Quantum Electrodynamics
- 7 From Hadrons to Partons
- 8 Quantum Chromodynamics
- 9 Weak Interaction
- 10 Electroweak Interaction
- 11 Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
- 12 The Standard Model and Beyond
- Appendix A Elements of Group Theory for Particle Physics
- Appendix B Special Unitary Group SU(2)
- Appendix C Special Unitary Group SU(3) and SU(N)
- Appendix D Lorentz and Poincaré Groups
- Appendix E Calculating with the Dirac Delta Distribution
- Appendix F Contour Integration in the Complex Plane
- Appendix G Useful Formulas with γ Matrices
- Appendix H Fermi’s Golden Rule and Time-Dependent Perturbation
- References
- Index
3 - Collisions and Decays
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Notation and Constants
- 1 Particle Physics Landscape
- 2 Preliminary Concepts: Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
- 3 Collisions and Decays
- 4 Conservation Rules and Symmetries
- 5 FromWave Functions to Quantum Fields
- 6 A Brief Overview of Quantum Electrodynamics
- 7 From Hadrons to Partons
- 8 Quantum Chromodynamics
- 9 Weak Interaction
- 10 Electroweak Interaction
- 11 Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
- 12 The Standard Model and Beyond
- Appendix A Elements of Group Theory for Particle Physics
- Appendix B Special Unitary Group SU(2)
- Appendix C Special Unitary Group SU(3) and SU(N)
- Appendix D Lorentz and Poincaré Groups
- Appendix E Calculating with the Dirac Delta Distribution
- Appendix F Contour Integration in the Complex Plane
- Appendix G Useful Formulas with γ Matrices
- Appendix H Fermi’s Golden Rule and Time-Dependent Perturbation
- References
- Index
Summary
The determination of particle properties relies mostly on experimental measurements based on their collisions and decays. This chapter introduces the concepts of reaction cross section and particle decay rate. For unstable particles, the origin of its lifetime as well as the notion of branching ratios is presented. Many formulas involving the reactions between two particles are derived in detail, and phase spaces involving three-body decays are presented with Dalitz diagrams. The notion of cross reactions is also presented.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fundamentals of Particle PhysicsUnderstanding the Standard Model, pp. 79 - 100Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023