Particle Physics A Brief Overview - Princeton University Press 粒子物理学的一个简短的概述-普林斯顿大学出版社.pdfVIP

Copyrighted Material 1 Particle Physics: A Brief Overview Particle physics is as much a science about today’s universe as it is of the early universe. By discovering the basic building blocks of matter and their interactions, we are able to construct a language in which to frame questions about the early universe. What were the first forms of matter created in the early universe? What interactions were present in the early universe and how are they related to what we measure now? While we cannot return space-time to the initial configuration of the early universe, we can effectively turn back the clock when it comes to elementary particles by probing the interactions of matter at high energy. What we learn from studying high-energy interactions is that the universe is much simpler than what is observed at “room temperature” and that the interactions are a reflection of fundamental symmetries in Nature. An overview of the modern understand- ing of particle physics is described below with a more quantitative approach given in sub- sequent chapters and finally with a review of measurements, discoveries, and anticipated discoveries, that provide or will provide the experimental facts to support these theories. We begin with the notion of a fundamental form of matter, an elementary particle. An elementary particle is treated as a pointlike object whose propagation through space is governed by a relativistically invariant equation of motion. The equation of motion takes on a particular form according to the intrinsic spin of the particle and whether the particle has a nonzero rest mass. In this introduction, we begin by assuming that elementary particles are massless and investigate the possible quantum numbers and degrees of free- dom of elementary particle states. 1.1 Handedness in the Equation of Motion A massless particle with nonzero intrinsic spin travels at the sp