What on earth is Particle Physics? Divine Kumah European Particle Physics Lab Geneva, Switzerland

The Big WHAT and WHY People have long asked, "What is the world made of?" "What holds it together?" Ancient Belief that matter consisted of 4 elements: EARTH WIND FIRE WATER

What is matter made up of? Matter we can see and touch Atoms made up of Protons, Neutrons and Electrons Molecules

A Brief History YearExperimenterDiscovery 1897ThomsonElectron 1909RutherfordNucleus 1932ChadwickNeutron 1932AndersonAntimatter 1956 Reines, Cowan Neutrino Since 1956 Quarks, leptons, tau, pions

What are Atoms? We used to think that atoms were the fundamental particles. We used to think that atoms were the fundamental particles. Atoms Nucleus and ElectronsProtons and Neutrons Guess WHAT? We were wrong!!!

Can we get more Fun -damental? Yes! Particle Physicists have discovered that we matter is made up of more elementary particles which can be classified into I. Quarks II. Leptons After extensively testing this theory, scientists now suspect that quarks and the electron (and a few other things we'll see in a minute) are fundamental.

What are Quarks and Leptons? Quarks Quarks combine with each other to make matter particles like protons and neutrons combine with each other to make matter particles like protons and neutrons Leptons Leptons are particles like electrons. Unlike the quarks, they do not combine with each other to make other particles are particles like electrons. Unlike the quarks, they do not combine with each other to make other particles

The Building Blocks UpDown TopBottom CharmStrange QuarksElectron Electron Neutrino Tau Tau Neutrino Muon Muon Neutrino Matter consists of elementary particles which can be divided into quarks and leptons Leptons

How do we know? How do we see stuff so small?? We really cannot directly see these tiny particles but we can identify them based on the way they act in our experiments.

How Do we Study the Particles? The two “toys” used to study sub-atomic particles are The two “toys” used to study sub-atomic particles are Particle Accelerators and Colliders Particle Accelerators and Colliders Particles such as electrons, protons and ions are accelerated in electromagnetic fields and bombarded into other particles and studied Particles such as electrons, protons and ions are accelerated in electromagnetic fields and bombarded into other particles and studied Particle Detectors Particle Detectors Special gadgets used to study the products (energy and momenta) of collided particles Special gadgets used to study the products (energy and momenta) of collided particles

A Particle Detector (A Toroidal LHC Aparatus) How it Works Consists of layers like an onion Different Layers detect different products All Information fed to a computer system for reconstruction and analysis

Unanswered Questions Are quarks and leptons made up of other particles? Are quarks and leptons made up of other particles? Where does mass come from? Where does mass come from? Are there some other fundamental forces? Are there some other fundamental forces?

Review. What do we find in the nucleus of an atom? What do we find in the nucleus of an atom? What are the two categories of the fundamental particles? What are the two categories of the fundamental particles? How many quarks do we have? How many quarks do we have? How many leptons do we have? How many leptons do we have? Do you want to be a particle Physicist? Do you want to be a particle Physicist?

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