Book Description

Supernovae explosion, combustion of solar hydrogen to form helium, heavy quark decay, or nuclear beta radiation, all weak interaction phenomena, are not unrelated to electromagnetism, but closely linked to it through the Higgs field. This ebook contains a modern introduction to the electroweak unification theory, as part of the so called Standard Model of particle physics. Not only some of the key theoretical ideas are exposed in a precise way, but also the experiments that revealed them. The main highlights of the theory consolidation process are examined which, concerning its experimental counterpart, span over 40 years, from the discovery of neutral currents in1973 to the Higgs boson in 2012. The reader is assumed to have been introduced to Quantum Mechanics and theories based on the gauge invariance principle, and to be familiar with Dirac’s theory for the relativistic electron. The course is specially suited for undergraduate students in physics, as part of an optional subject of elementary particles. The course consists in nine lectures, that on the blackboard take about 90 minutes each. It contains a very select collection of problems and exercises, having as a connecting thread the calculation of the lifetime of elementary fermions and bosons, as well as the comprehension of some experimental results of historical relevance.