oie Gu Sa) ) iD Dn Ge it E MODERN ELEMENTARY PARTICLE 3 PHYSICS Lhe Fundamental Particles and Forcest mK Rs oFMODERN ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS The Fundamental Particles and Forcest UPDATED EDITION Gordon Kane University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan & Addison-Wesley Publishing Company The Advanced Book Program Reading, Massachusetts Menlo Park, California New York Don Mills, Ontario Wokingham, England Amsterdam Bonn Sydney Singapore ‘Tokyo Madrid San Juan Paris Seoul Milan Mexico City ‘TaipeiLo the experimenters and theorists who discovered the Standard Model, and to the scientists who build the accelerators and detectors that will take us further. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kane, G. L. ‘Modern elementary particle physics : the fundamental particles and forces? / Gordon Kane — Updated paperback ed. Pom. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-201-62460-5 1. Particles (Nuclear physics) 2. Standard model. I. Title. QC793.2.K36 1993 539.72—de20 93-16098 cp Copyright © 1993 by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or oth- erwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Published simultaneously in Canada. Cover design by Lynne Reed Cover art courtesy of Westlight® ‘This book was prepared by the author, using the TEX typesetting language. Set in 10-point Computer Modern 23.45 6 7-MA-97969594 First printing, March 1993 Second printing, February 1994re fnceseteene etter ee eetetetcee ct ee teeeeeeecteecet cc eeeaeeeeetiee se aeitix 1. Survey ... 1 1.1 Introduction 7 1.2 The Framework 2 1.3 The Forces 5 14 The Particles 7 1.5 Natural Units . u Problems 12 Suggestions for Further Study .. 13 2. Relativistic Notation, Lagrangians, Currents, and Interactions ............ 15 2.1 Some Relativistic Notation ........ 16 2.2 Lagrangians ...... : 17 23 Lagrangians in Particle Physics 19 2.4 The Real Scalar Field : 19 25 Sources and Currents in Non-Relativistic Quantum Theory 22 2.6 Complex Scalars, Conserved Currents, and Noether’s Theorem = 23 2.7. Interactions ....... 27 2.8 Summary of the Lagrangians 30 2.9 Feynman Rules . 32 Problems . 33 Suggestions for Further Study 34 3. Gauge Invariance . 35 3.1 Gauge Invariance in Classical Electromagnetism ........... Seer reeset 3.2 Gauge Invariance in Quantum Theory ... ... Baer 3.3 Covariant Derivatives .......00.200cc0c0seeceees 38 Problems ... : paeaeen 41 Suggestions for Further Study 42 4. Non-Abelian Gauge Theories ..... 43 4.1 Strong Isospin, an Internal Space 4B 46 4.2 Non-Abelian Gauge Theories ..5 6. a 8. 43 Problems Suggestions for Further Study Dirac Notation for Spin . 51 5.2 5.3 54 55 5.6 5.7 58 59 5.10 The Dirac Lagrangian Problems ........ Suggestions for Further Study . ‘The Standard Model Lagrangian 6.1 6.2 The Quark and Lepton Lagrangian 6.3 Gauging the Global Symmetries Problems Contents Non-Abelian Gauge Theories for Quarks snd: Leptongecsseate estates ‘The Dirac Equation Massless Fermions .... Fermions with Mass #0 . ‘The y-matrices . Currents ..... Free Particle Solutions Particles and Antiparticles . Left-handed and Right-handed Fermions . Useful Relations .... Labeling the Quark and Lepton States - The Electroweak Theory and Quantum Chromodynamics . 7.1 The U(1) Terms 7.2 The SU(2) Terms on 7.3 Connection to Experimental Facts; The Neutral Current ... 7.4 Connection to Experimental Facts; the Charged Current . 7.5 The Quark Terms ........ . 7.6 ‘The Quark QOD Lagrangian 7.7 The Second and Third Families . 7.8 The Fermion-Gauge Boson Lagrangian . Stpve ssc MMi eascigsesasNasclie: Problems Suggestions for Further Study Masses and the Higgs Mechanism .............++ 47 52 53 55 56 57 7 58 60 62 64 65 66 68 68 69 a 73 76 78 79 81 81 82 82 88 90 91 92 92 93 95 96 97Contents. 9. 10. lL. 8.1 Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking . 8.2 Complex Scalar Field—A Global Symmetry .... 8.3. The Abelian Higgs Mechanism . 8.4 The Higgs Mechanism in the Standard Model ..................00e0eee 8.5 Fermion Masses ...... seeee 8.6 Comment on Vacuum Energy Problems . Suggestions for Further Study . Cross Sections, Deeay Widths, and Lifetimes; W and Z Decays .. 9.1 ‘The Relation of Lifetime and Resonance Width to the Decay Probability ....... 9.2 Scattering Through a Resonance 93 The W Width ...... 9.4 The Z° Width ..... 9.5 Branching Ratios . Problems ........ Suggestions for Further Study Production of W* and Z° ..... eae 10.1 Getting Quarks to Collide ...... 10.2 The Constituent Cross Section 10.3 The W Production Cross Section . 10.4 The W Decay and Total Event Rate 10.5 Measurement of Z° and W* Masses at Hadron Colliders ... 10.6 The W Spin and Decay Asymmetry Problems : Suggestions for Further Study - Measurement of Electroweak and QCD Parameters; the Muon Lifetime ... 11.1 Measurement and Significance of sin? Oy, 11.2 Muon Decay . 11.3. Measurement of a3 11.4 Comments on Standard Model Parameters i Suggestions for Further Study 101 103 105 109 112 113 115 uz 119 120 124 127 130 131 132 133 135 136 136 138 139 142 143 144 145 146 147 151 154 15612. 14, 15. 16. Contents Accelerators —Present and Future 12.1 Parameters of Accelerators 12.2 Useful Energy 12.3. Present and Approved Facilities . Problems ..........++ Suggestions for Further Study . Experiments and Detectors .... 13.1 What Emerges from a Collider ... 13.2. Triggering : 13.3 Elements of Large Detectors .. 13.4 Major Detectors ..... 13.5 How the System Works . 13.6 Research and Development Problems . Suggestions for Further Study Low Energy and Non-Accelerator Experiments . Quarks, Confinement, Light Mesons, Baryons, Jets, and Glueballs 15.1 Confinement of Color and Color-Singlet Hadrons 15.2 Color-Singlet Hadrons 15.3 Quantum Numbers of Mesons and Baryons 15.4 Comments and Perspective Problems ... Suggestions for Further Study Light Mesons, Baryons, and Strong Isospin . 16.1 The L = 0 Meson States . 16.2 The L = 0 Baryon States 16.3 Decays and Transitions 16.4 The Origin of Strong Isospin Invariance . Suggestions for Further Study Heavy Quarks (c, 6, t) ..... 17.1 Some Charmonium Properties 17.2. The Charmonium Spectrum ... 17.3. Charmed Mesons ........ 17.4 More Leptons and Quarks 17.5 The 6 quark .... 157 158 159 161 164 165 167 168 170 171 172 174 175 175 176 17 179 180 183 185 187 188 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 197 199 200 203 203Contents 18. Deep Inelastic Scattering and Structure Functions Problems Suggestions for Further Study 18.1 Deep Inelastic Scattering .... 18.2 Analysis of the Parton Model . 18.3 The Structure Functions Problems Suggestions for Further Study . - Colliders and Tests of the Standard Model . 19.1 Are Quarks, Leptons, and Gluons Point-like? . 19.2 The ratio R= o/opoint - 19.3 The 7 and Heavy Leptons 19.4 Observation of Gluons .... Problems .... Suggestions for Further Study . Advanced Topics in the Standard Model 20. Coupling Strengths Depend on the 21. Production and Detection of a Higgs Boson . 22. Quark (and Lepton) Mixing Angles . Momentum Transfer and on Virtual Particles . 20.1 QED 20.2 QCD 20.3. Corrections to Precision Measurements from Intermediate States with Heavy Particles .. Problems .. 21.1 Higgs Couplings 21.2 Higgs Decays . 21.3 Ways to Search for Higgs Bosons . 21.4 Large My .... 21.5 Comments . Problems ... Suggestions for Further Study . Problems ... 203 204 205 205 208 209 214 215 217 219 221 223 225 226 227 229 231 236 241 viiviii Contents 23. Quark and Hadron Masses 261 24. CP Violation 263 Problems 266 Suggestions for Further Study - 266 25. Why the t-Quark and the r-Neutrino Must Exist 267 25.1. Forward-Backward Asymmetries ...... 267 25.2 b-Quark Decays 269 25.3 The r-Neutrino 270 25.4 ‘The Mass of the t-Quark . am Problems ... a7 Applications of the Standard Model to Questions Beyond the Standard Model 26. Open Questions 273 27. Grand Unification 27 27.1 Unifying Quarks and Leptons; Electric Charge and the Number of Colors ... 27 Pa aneca ore 279 27.3 Calculation of sin? Oy 282 27.4 Proton Decay ...... 286 27.5 The Baryon Asymmetry 290 Suggestions for Further Study . 291 28. Supersymmetry 293 28.1 Production and Detection of Supersymmetric Partners 296 28.2 The Lightest Supersymmetric Particle and Dark Matter . 299 Problems 301 Suggestions for Further Study 301 29. Neutrino Masses? ....... 303 29.1 If m, # 0; Neutrino Oscillations 304 29.2 Solar Neutrinos ... 308 29.3 Measurement of my in Decays .. 309 29.4 Expectations for my ........ 310 Suggestions for Further Study .... 311Contents ‘A. Angular Momentum and Spin and SU(2) .... B. Some Group Theory B.l_ The SO(n) Groups B2 The SU(n) Groups spo Bibliography Index .. Some Relativist The Point Cross Section . When Are Our Approximations Not Valid? . Lagrangians and Symmetries; ‘The Euler-Lagrange Equations . APPENDICES B3 SU(2) and Physic B4 $U(3) .. B.5 Abelian and Non- Problems . Problems ............. Kinematics ‘Abelian GroupsPreface All life is a struggle in the dark......... This dread and darkness of the mind cannot be dispelled by the sun- beams, the shining shafts of day, but only by an un- derstanding of the outward form and inner workings of nature. And now to business. I will explain... Lucretius, “On the Nature of the Universe” ‘Translation of R. E. Latham, Penguin Books A few years ago I was asked to teach our University of Michigan undergrad- uate course in particle physics. Soon after agreeing, I found that there was no book available at the undergraduate level which presented particle physics as the successful theory of quarks, leptons, and their interactions that it has become. In 1970 there was no theory of weak or strong interactions; no confidence that a fun- damental set of constituents had been identified; no way to calculate or explain a variety of results. Today there is a theory of strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions, with the latter two unified. There have been several extraordinary experimental discoveries and there are no experimental results that appear to fall outside of the framework of that theory. The so-called Standard Model of particle physics that accomplishes all of that is now widely tested in a variety of ways, and it is here to stay. It is expected that deviations from the Standard Model will someday be found, as clues to improved understanding and to new physics, but the Standard Model will describe physics on the scale where strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions are important. Given that development, it seemed essential to have a presentation of the Standard Model that could be used for undergraduate teaching. In addition, it seemed even more important to have a book that any scientist who understood the necessary background material could read in order to learn about the devel- opments in particle physics. Those developments should become a part of the education of anyone interested in what mankind has learned about the basic con- stituents of matter and the forces of nature, but there was no place that many people who had the needed background could go to learn them. After teach- ing the course once, I was convinced that an introductory course in quantumxii Preface theory and normal undergraduate courses in mechanics and electromagnetism were the minimal background. With those tools it is possible to obtain a good, generally quantitative, understanding of modern particle physics. Physics books on electrodynamics normally begin with Maxwell’s equations and explore their consequences, rather than proceeding with the historical development of the sub- ject. I believe the Standard Model should be taught the same way—by writing down the basic form of the theory and working out the consequences. But all previous treatments were either at the graduate level, for physicists aiming to work in particle physics, or popular descriptions too superficial to really provide understanding of the developments, or historical descriptions that missed the deep logic of the Standard Model. Tt quickly became clear that a good deal of the subject matter that had been very important in the historical development of particle physics was not essential for describing its present status. Many areas, such as parity violation, the hadron spectrum and the flavor SU(3) symmetry, elastic scattering and total cross sec- tions, and more, are of interest to professional particle physicists but not to those who want to understand only the fundamentals of the field today. So, with very sincere apologies to the people whose work is not covered, I have treated the Standard Model deductively rather than historically when that seemed suit- able, and suggested places to read history. I have left out a great deal that is already available in other books. In most cases, I give references where a reader who wants to explore some area further can begin. Since historical treatments of the past two decades have already appeared, and more are coming, I have not discussed the history and the credit at all, rather than doing so superficially. ‘A second major goal emerged after some thought. Although particle physics has clearly reached a plateau where many of the historical goals of physics have been achieved, no one feels that its development is complete. There are many open questions: why the theory takes the form it does, why there are some particles and not others, what is the physical origin of mass, and so on. Once a reader has understood the basic structure of modern particle physics, it is a small extension to add a framework for understanding why some directions of frontier research are emphasized most, and from what directions progress is thought likely to come. There are no guarantees, of course, but now that there is a theory it is possible to evaluate ideas in ways that were not available before. For example, one of the most crucial problems of the Standard Model is to find the Higgs boson or to establish limits on what mass it might have. Because the Standard Model is available, it is possible to enumerate all ways the Higgs boson might be produced, what would be required to detect it if it were produced, etc.Preface xiii Further, because accelerators and detectors have become so expensive, we know long in advance which experimental facilities will be built. It is essentially impossible for a major facility to turn on within nearly a decade unless it is already planned. So the directions from which data will come in the next decade are rather well known now. Consequently, this book also attempts to give the reader the information needed to understand what most particle physicists will be doing for the next decade, and why, in so far as it is connected with extending the Standard Model experimentally and theoretically. Of course there will also be theoretical efforts in directions we will not consider because they are beyond the scope of this book, such as quantum gravity or superstrings, and there will be accelerator and detector developments. It was necessary to decide what fraction of the book should be spent on detailed calculations. Clearly the reader should learn to understand the qualita- tive numerical structure of the Standard Model. On the other hand, only active particle physicists need to be able to calculate precisely, and good books have appeared at the graduate level. I have taken an intermediate path, using the notation of quantum field theory, which is compact and easily understandable, but not calculating with it. Some simple approximate calculational procedures are developed which allow almost all decay rates and cross sections to be calcu- lated to within about a factor of two, and especially allow one to keep track of their dependence on the important physical quantities. Thus, the reader learns to estimate in a controlled way many of the main rates necessary to understand the Standard Model and its tests. The book can be thought of as being divided into three parts: the Standard Model, some advanced topics in the Standard Model, and a few topics beyond the Standard Model. The main treatment of the Standard Model is subdivided into several sections. Chapters 1 and 2 compose the first section. They are sur- veys meant to prepare the reader for the systematic treatment, which begins in Chapter 3. Chapter 1 describes the particles and the forces as we think of them today. This material will be unfamiliar to many readers, and much of it is only explained as the book unfolds, but a preview of the material has been helpful for many students. Chapter 2 presents and ties together a variety of material necessary for proceeding with the main purpose of the book. It will be useful for some readers, though perhaps frustrating for others, depending on how their backgrounds fit what is presented and on how they find the heuristic arguments that are given. Probably some readers should read Chapters 1 and 2 initially and then return to them after some exposure to the rest of the book. Others can skip Chapters 1 and 2 entirely.xiv Preface ‘The explanation of the Standard Model begins in Chapter 3. The develop- ment proceeds with massless fermions and bosons through Chapter 7, including what is needed about the Dirac equation and its solutions in Chapter 5. The Higgs mechanism is presented in Chapter 8. The formal development concludes in Chapter 9 with a derivation of the W and Z widths. The third section covers, in Chapters 10-19, a variety of tests and predictions and properties of the Standard Model. I have found that this portion of the book, through Chapter 19, can be used to constitute most of a one-semester advanced undergraduate course, with time to include about three topics from the rest of the book. A scientist from another field who only wants an overview of particle physics may wish to skim chapters 16-19. Chapters 20-25 contain short treatments of several important but somewhat more advanced Standard Model topics, including some recent developments. I try to include parts of Chapters 20 and 21 in a one semester course. The third part of the book provides a few possibilities for what might happen beyond the Standard Model. I have restricted the subjects to those which fit naturally into the gauge theory framework of the Standard Model, and have treated them basically as applications of the Standard Model techniques. The calculation of sin? ®,, in Chapter 27, or the derivation of the photino cross section in matter in terms of the structure function F2, are good exercises in Standard Model physics even though they are used in the context of a hypothetical new theory. Finally, several Appendices make the book more self-contained in various ways. About seventy-five homework problems are included, more than enough if the book is used for a one-semester course. Most chapters (particularly Chap- ter 1) end with some guide to additional historical, pedagogical, or technical information for readers who wish to pursue the subject further. In general, the guiding principle I followed in deciding what to include, how detailed a discussion should be, what should be derived, and so on, was to teach interested readers to understand the structure of modern particle physics, not to train them to become particle physicists. The main purposes of the book then, are to provide what is needed for people (with some scientific background) who are eager to understand the extraordinary progress in particle physics over the past two decades, to appreciate the beauty of the Standard Model, and to have a framework within which to appreciate the developments yet to come. — April, 1987Preface a eee As I began to update this book six years after writing it, and reflect on what has happened in the meantime, the Standard Model of particle physics — perhaps we should be calling it the Standard Theory — is now much better tested. As expected, the theory has not changed at all. In some areas it is better understood, and many calculations have been done. Some of these, particularly higher order perturbative corrections, are important for understanding how well the theory is tested and what we are learning today, and I have extended Chapter 20 to explain them. When combined with the remarkably successful experiments on Z decays at the LEP collider at CERN, these calculations lead to a prediction for the top quark mass, and perhaps in a year or two the first experimental (though still indirect) information about a Higgs boson. In general the response I received to presenting the Standard Model in a deductive rather than a historical approach has been very positive. Of course, a number of people who contributed to the areas that were left out were ambivalent. ‘As the Standard Model has become better tested and understood, increasingly many people with some physics training but no interest in working in particle physics want to understand qualitatively this new success of modern science. I have tried to explain it in these pages. I am grateful to many people for the encouragement and enthusiasm that helped convince me to write this book. The comments and questions of the stu- dents in Physics 468, and their desire to understand modern particle physics, were very important. I appreciate comments on the content of the book or assistance from Joel Primak, Frank Paige, Rudi Thun, Dennis Hegyi, Jay Chapman, Greg Snow, Bob Cahn, Bob Tschithart, Tim Jones, Chris Kolda, Robert Garisto and especially from Jean-Marie Frére, Marc Ross, and Chien-Peng Yuan who pro- vided many valuable suggestions. The figures were drawn by Les Thurston. The contribution of Mark Schutze, who took the course and produced the original manuscript intelligently and effectively, was essential. Finally, I am very grateful for all the valuable support as well as suggestions about the manuscript from my wife, Lois. — February, 1993cuapter 1 Survey 1.1 Introduction Remarkably, the field of particle physics is completely different today from what it was before the 1970’s; what most older particle physicists work on and think about today has essentially no resemblance to what they learned in gradu- ate school. Quarks and leptons are the fundamental objects of which all matter is composed; they interact via the exchange of gauge bosons. The forces that significantly affect them are the unified electroweak force, whose gauge bosons are the photon and the W+ and Z® bosons, and the strong force. The theory of the strong force is called quantum chromodynamics (QCD); the gauge bosons of the strong force are the (eight) gluons. (The new terms here will be defined later, as the new physics appears in context.) In another sense there is great continuity. The theory fully incorporates special relativity. And there has been a continuous development of relativistic quantum field theory from its inception before 1930. Theorists have learned how to deal with difficult problems such as mass and renormalization. There has been steady and extraordinary progress in particle physics, both in understand- ing quantum field theory and in learning what to include in the Lagrangian; no revolution has occurred. The theories which describe the particles and their interactions seem to be gauge theories, a special class of quantum theories where there is an invariance principle that necessarily implies the existence of interac- tions mediated by gauge bosons. In gauge theories the interaction Lagrangian is, in a sense, inevitable rather than being introduced in an ad hoc way as in quantum theory. Although technical work in a relativistic quantum gauge field theory can be very difficult, the basic formulation of the theory is accessible to anyone having2 1. Survey an undergraduate knowledge of classical mechanics and electrodynamics, plus an introduction to quantum mechanics including spin and angular momentum. ‘Though the theory is formulated in a fully relativistic way, the student has to learn mainly notation in order to make simple calculations and estimates. (I hope that the reader will find the present structure of particle physics beautiful and compelling, and thus feel challenged to learn more of the advanced quantum theory needed in order to grasp the particle theory at a deeper level.) Our goals in this book will be (a) to understand the way the theory of quarks and leptons and their interactions (called the “Standard Model”) is formulated, (b) learn to calculate or approximately estimate a number of predictions of the theory, both to see how it works and to learn the techniques, and to understand the tests of the theory and why it is believed to actually describe nature, and (c) to have a framework within which future major research efforts can probably be understood. To avoid misunderstanding, it should be emphasized that although the Standard Model is called a “Model? it is in fact as fully a mathematical theory as there has ever been in the history of science. Most of the book will deal with the established Standard Model. One part of the Standard Model, concerning the physics associated with the Higgs mechanism and Higgs bosons, is poorly understood (although technically satisfactory); we will examine it in some detail. Although the Standard Model describes all known experiments and particle interactions, there are many questions that can be raised about the values of the parameters it depends on and about the form it takes. Most workers hope for and expect a number of future developments to help answer such questions; we will survey some of these at the end, and see how they fit into and extend the Standard Model. Next we will briefly describe the structure the theory takes and introduce the quarks and leptons, the gauge bosons, and the forces. The purpose of such an introductory survey is to give an overview so it is more clear where we are heading, particularly later on when we are deep into a long series of arguments or calculations. The material covered in the rest of this chapter is developed in detail in the first two-thirds of the book. 1.2 The Framework Recall the way in which force enters in Newton’s laws. F = ma is used to compute the motion of an object, given any force F on the object. And spe- cific classical forces have been discovered, such as gravity with F = GymM/r?, Coulomb’s law with F = KgQ/r?, etc. Hamilton’s or Lagrange’s equations are equivalent to F = ma in a different formalism.