Physics 120

Autumn 2005

Physics in the Twenty First Century

Course Outline Part 1- Nuclear and Hadronic Physics

Prof. Charles E. Hyde-Wright

Web page updated 31 Aug 2005,  10:00am please return for updates

Please email to me your availability for a Jlab tour in early September.

(requires ½ day on weekday).

Lecture 1,  Wednesday September 7:  Jlab tour may be alternative.

Seeing the invisible:  Particle Detectors and Accelerators.

Lecture 1 Reading Assignment and Quiz

Lecture Notes:  JLab Accelerator, Particle Detection,

Lecture 2,  Wednesday,  September 10

Stardust:  Nucleosynthesis in ordinary stars and extraordinary astrophysical events

 The Galaxy and a Supernovae Remnant imaged with unstable nuclei

 Lecture 2 Reading Assignment and Quiz

Lecture 2 Powerpoint Presentation

 

Lecture 3:  Wednesday, September 17

The origin of mass:  Quarks and Gluons in the nucleus.

Quark Density Distributions at Long WavelengthQuark Density Distributions at Short Wavelength
Lecture 3, Reading Assignment:   American Scientist Artile, Sept-Oct 200, vol 88, Alex R. Dzierba et al.

Lecture Notes:  JLab Accelerator, Particle Detection, 3d-imaging of Quarks in the Proton.
Quiz for Lectures 2&3

Supplementary reading: Richard Feynman's Diagrams

Source Materials for Background Reading:

Nucleosynthesis:

Hendrik Schatz, MSU Lecture Notes , go to Topics & Materials link.
The rp-Process (rapid proton-nucleus fusion) movie, new fission phenomena .
The Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) Project
J. Cameron, Review Talk on the r-Process (rapid neutron-nucleus fusion).

Neutrinos

The Super Kamiokande Neutrino Detector (Japan)
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (Canada), or here
Proposed National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (US)
The original Solar Neutrino experiment (Ray Davis, Brookhaven Science Magazine )

Boiling the Vacuum

RHIC Home page
Why RHIC will not destroy the universe .
The p+p --> p+p experiment ( pp2pp ).
RHIC Spin
White Dwarf Stars, and Phase Transitions of Nuclear Matter

Imaging the Nucleus

The Spin Content of the Nucleon:   Electron Scattering
Charge Density of the Proton
Phase space Densities of quarks (coming soon)

QCD

American Scientist Article on Exotic Mesons at JLab .

Cosmology

American Scientist Article: Superconducting Cosmic Strings .
American Scientist Article:   The Origin of Time
American Scientist Article:   White Dwarf Stars and Dark Matter .


Technology

Time Projection Chamber
Gas Electron Multiplier
Frontiers in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging .
Scientific American article: Next Generation Nuclear Power .
 

Some books available in Library:

Lucifer's legacy : the meaning of asymmetry / Frank Close. : General Coll./Floor 4; QC174.17.S9 C56 2000
Too hot to handle : the race for cold fusion / Frank Close : General Coll./Floor 4; QC791.775.C64 C56 1991
Introductory nuclear physics / Samuel S.M. Wong. / Samuel S.M. Wong. : General Coll./Floor 4; QC776 .W66 1998
Particles and nuclei : an introduction to the physical concepts / Bogdan Povh ... [et al.]

Suggested topics for your research paper:
 (Please consult with one of the faculty before making your choice of research topic)
Nucleosynthesis I:  Stellar pp cycle
Nucleosysthesis II: Stellar CNO cycle
Nucleosynthesis III: r-Process (Supernovae)

Hanbury-Brown, Twiss imaging of hot sources:  From Stars to Colliding Nuclei
Temperature and Particle Abundances in High Energy Heavy Ion Collisions

Pictures of the Nucleus I: Charge and Magnetisation Densities
Pictures of the Nucleus II: : Jefferson Lab and 4-Dimension Imaging of the Proton.
The Pentaquark
Exotic Mesons
39 Flavors:  Sub-Atomic Particle Identification with a Ring Imaging Cherenkov Counter.
High Resolution Tracking:  The ODU-JLab Gas Electron Multiplier Radial Time Projection Chamber

 

Why the Relativisitic Heavy Ion Collider has not destroyed the universe.

Other topics of your choice.