School of Physics and Astronomy

Third Year Example Class 2017/18

Semester 6

Examples 7: 40222

For classes in Week 9 beginning 16 April

Start work on these questions the week before

class Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8 Wk9 Wk10 Wk11 W12
G Phys C1-C4 C1-C4 C1-C4 C1-C4 C1-C4 C1-C4 C1-C4 C1-C4 C1-C4
30392 D1-D3 D1-D3 D1-D3
40322 D1-D3 D1-D3 C2-C4
40222 D1-D3 D1-D3 D1-D3
40352 D1-D3 D1-D3 C2-C4

class time room

C1 M2 Turing G.107
C2 W10 Turing G.107
C3 W11 Turing G.107
C4 F12 Turing G.209
D1 W12 Turing G.107
D2 F2 Turing G.107
D3 F3 Turing G.209
repeters@cern.ch Schuster Building, 5.09

justin.evans@manchester.ac.uk Schuster Building, 6.15

Exercises to Particle Physics

(PHYS40222)
Homework - Sheet 2
covering lecture 5 to 8

1: Top Quarks

(a) The Tevatron collider was running

√ until 2011 and collided protons with antiprotons
at a centre of mass√energy s = 1.96 TeV. The LHC collides proton with pro-
tons, ultimately at s = 14 TeV. These machines are powerful enough to produce
real top - antitop quark pairs. In homework sheet 1 I asked to draw the leading-
order diagrams for top quark pair production (tt̄). Draw them again (it should be 4
diagrams).

(b) What momentum fractions x1 and x2 do the partons involved in the reaction need
in order to produce a tt̄ pair at rest at the Tevatron, and at the LHC (assume that
x1 = x2 )? (use mt = 175 GeV for the top quark mass)

(c) Go to http://hepdata.cedar.ac.uk/pdf/pdf3.html and plot the parton density func-

tions at the appropriate scale (Q2 = (2mt )2 ). (Use HERAPDF as group and HE-
RAPDF01 as set; note that the plotted parton density function is scaled with x).

(d) Use the parton density functions for the two colliding particles and the x values
calculated in problem (c) to determine the most relevant contributions amongst the
various Feynman diagrams and initial partons at the LHC and the Tevatron

(e) Is the tt̄ pair production cross-section higher at the LHC or at the Tevatron? (note:
this exercise does not require the calculation of cross sections; a qualitative argu-
mentation is enough).

(f ) Look at the PDFs you got in (c). At what x is approximately the average of the
distributions for quarks? In particular: for seaquarks and for valence quarks?

2: QCD and parton model

(a) Explain the different behaviour of the strong coupling constant αs and the electroma-
gnetic constant α when plotted against Q2 . (note: draw a sketch of the ’constants’
as function of Q2 and explain the behaviour)
(b) Explain what is asymptotic freedom and confinement. What is the key element of
the theory (not present in QED) which leads to this behavior?

(c) By considering the reaction e+ e− → q q̄, explain why individual quark (or gluons)
are not observable and describe what should be observed in a detector (and explain
why).

(d) When electrons and positrons are collided, for example at LEP, different final sates
are created. In the lecture we used the ratio R of e+ e− → q q̄ over e+ e− → µ− µ+ to
show experimental evidence for colour. Why could we not eaily use as denominator
e+ e− → e+ e− instead of e+ e− → µ− µ+ ? Answer the quesiton by drawing all Feyn-
man diagrams with single a photon exchange for e+ e− → e+ e− interactions. What
is different if one considers e+ e− → µ− µ+ reactions instead of e+ e− → e+ e− ?

3: HERA kinematics
At the HERA collider electrons with an energy of 27.5 GeV collide with protons of energy
920 GeV in head-on collisions. Let’s denote the electron four-momenta by k, the pro-
ton four-momenta P and the four-momentum of the scattered electron by k0 . The four-
momentum exchanged between electron and proton is denoted by q := k − k0 . In the
following neglect the masses of the involved particles.

(a) In order to determine the kinematics of the ep-scattering the energy E0e and the
angle θ of the scattered electron is measured. The angle θ is measured with respect
to the proton beam. Using those two quantities, express the virtuality Q2 = −q 2 and
inelasticity y = P · q/P · k of the interaction. What is the meaning of the inelasticity
y?
2
(b) Express the invariant mass of the hadronic final state (W
√ ) and the Bjorken scale
2
variable x in terms of Q , y and centre of mass energy s.

(c) What are the requirements for a detector which one would use to measure Q2 and y?

(d) Not in all interactions an electron is observed in the detector. What are the reasons
for not seeing an electron in the detector?

(e) What experimental possibilities does one have to estimate kinematics of ep-scattering
in cases where no electron is detected? Look e. g. at the H1 detector at HERA.

(f ) Derive an expressions for Q2 in terms of the energy and scattering angle of the ha-
dronic final, state, and hence show that y can still be found even if no electron is
detected.
4: Feynman diagram practice

Draw and fully label Feynman diagrams for the following processes:

(a) Muon decay,

(b) τ − → π + π − π − ντ ,

(c) ∆++ → pπ + ,

(d) ∆− → π − n,

(e) π 0 → γγ,

(f ) Λ0 → π − p,

(g) D0 → K − e+ νe ,

(h) J/ψ → ρ+ π − ,
0
(i) D+ → µ+ νµ K ,

(j) Υ → τ + τ − ,

(k) B + → K + K + K − ,

(l) νe n → e− p,

(m) Harder: Bs → µµ (this is a ‘GIM-suppressed’ ‘box diagram’),

(n) Harder: Can you think of a box diagram that would allow a B 0 meson to turn into
0
a B meson?

5: The weak interaction

You invent a theory of a new weak interaction, which is the same as the regular weak
interaction in all ways except that the masses of the new exchange bosons, the Z 0 and
W 0± , are MZ 0 = 210 GeV and MW 0 = 200 GeV.

(a) List all of the possible decay modes of the W 0 and Z 0 bosons. Explain any differences
with respect to the list you would have written for the regular W and Z bosons.

(b) Use your knowledge of matrix elements and resonances to compare, qualitatively,
the probabilities of the processes e+ e− → Z → µ+ µ− and e+ e− → Z 0 → µ+ µ− at
energies of (i) 1 GeV, (ii) 210 GeV, and (iii) 1000 GeV. In the 1 GeV case, calculate
the relative strength of your new interaction to that of the regular weak interaction.
(c) Assuming your new theory is correct, sketch a graph of the cross section σ(e+ e− →
µ+ µ− ) as a function of centre-of-mass energy from 0 GeV to 300 GeV and explain
the features.

(d) You manage to persuade the ATLAS collaboration to search for your W 0 boson in
pp collisions. Discuss the relative merits of using each of the W 0 decay channels you
listed in part (a) for this search. For each channel, describe the observed signature
in the ATLAS general purpose detector.

6: Lifetimes and branching ratios

(a) Calculate the ratio of the lifetime of the tau lepton to that of the muon. You may
use the value B(τ − → e− ν e ντ ) = 17.82%. Use a dimensional argument to explain
the dependence of your answer on the masses of the leptons.

(b) Since the ATLAS collaboration fails to find your W 0 boson, you invent another new
theory in which there is a fourth charged lepton, the δ lepton, which has a mass
mδ = 3.9 GeV. Calculate the ratio of the lifetime of the δ lepton to that of the muon.
(You may neglect the masses of final-state particles.)

(c) Explain the function of the Cabibbo mixing matrix in particle physics.

(d) The partial width of the tau lepton decaying to a muon is given by

G2F m5τ
Γ(τ − → µ− ν µ ντ ) = .
192π 3

Use this as a starting point to give expressions for the following partial widths (assuming
you can neglect the masses of all final-state particles):

Γ(τ − → e− ν e ντ ) =
Γ(τ − → udντ ) =
Γ(τ − → usντ ) =