History 181B - Class 41

History 181B: Modern Physics

Class 41 (5/2/03)
The Standard Model

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Outline

The particle zoo
The data flood, and strategies in the face of multiplicity
The rise and fall (and rise again) of QFT

The Standard Model

    Electroweak theory
        Gauge invariance and gauge field theories
        A gauge field theory of the weak interaction
        Aside: How do you see a vector boson?
        Electroweak unification
        The Higgs field and SSB
        Symmetries that no longer hold

    Quantum chromodynamics
        The classificatory spirit
        A gauge field theory of the strong interaction
        Predicting and testing
        Permanently bound quarks

Names and terms

Primary	Secondary
4 forces: EM, weak, strong, gravity S matrix Standard Model (capital S, capital M) vector bosons: Ws, Z quarks flavor (up, down, charm, strange, top, bottom) color (red, green, blue) gluons QCD (quantum chromodynamics)	Geoffrey Chew (1924 - ) Fermi-field theory = 4-fermion interaction spontaneous symmetry breaking jets parity (P), parity violation charge-parity (CP) violation leptons

Assignment

Victor F. Weisskopf, "The Development of Field Theory in the Last 50 Years," Physics Today 34:11 (1981): 69-85.

Second assignment: Read pp. 77-85.
Through p. 80, this covers the same ground as Dyson's article (renormalized QED) in more detail. After that it moves to consider other particles and fields beyond those handled in QED. Specifically, it takes up the electroweak theory and quantum chromodynamics, which are two separate developments. It closes with some ideas about where QFT might be headed.