glementary Particles ad Introduction jpisindeed & difficult task to define the term ‘elementary particles’. The purport of the syord ‘elementary’ is ‘ultimate’ and hence the meaning of the term continuously gets shifted a8 research progresses with time. The search for the ultimate particles of which all, matter is composed has, in fact, been a strenuous exercise for the physicists since long: Beginning with atoms and its electronic structure, the search was eventually extended to the nucleus. And now it has been into the very structure of nucleons themselves. With the development of more and more gigantic accelerators, physicists could produce higher and higher energy atomic and sub-atomic projectiles to bombard the nuclei and shatter them into a host of new and interesting particles. Many, too many (> 200) have been already discovered and it is believed that many of them will be explainable in terms of only few of them. ‘The first elementary particle discovered was the negatively charged electron by sir J.J, Thomson in 1898. The scattering experiments of Rutherford (1914) indicate the presence of positively charged protons inside the nucleus. With the discovery of neutron by Chadwick (1932), the number of elementary particles became three : electron (e~), proton (p) and neutron (n). The proton-neutron hypothesis of the composition of nuclei could successfully explain most of the observed properties of the nuclei, Soon after, with the progress of cosmic ray research, a dramatic change occurred in the number of elementary particles. The discovery of positron or positive electron (et) was made by Anderson (1933) from the track of the particle in a magnetically controlled cloud chamber to vindicate Dirac’s prediction. The particle concept of radiation — light quantum’ hypothesis —~ of Einstein introduced photon (7) as a quantum of radiation and was also considered as an elementary particle, Pauli (1931) postulated the existence of a neutral particle of negligible mass called neutrino (v) to account for the missing enersy of f-particles in @-decay. Fermi (1934) used Paul's hypothesis of emission of ‘reutrino (v) end antineutrino (7) to get the correct shap. fe 439 -— Dab.440 of G-spectrum of radioactive G-emitters. The discovery of these seven element, particles, viz., p,n,e,e*,,v and @ could very well explain most.of the atomic an nuclear phenomena. However, to account for the stability. of the nucleus against Coulomb Tepulsi forces, Yukawa (1935) predicted the existence of a particle of mass between 200-39 electronic mass and showed that such an intermediate particle would provide a stro nucleon-nucleon (N-N) interaction between protons and neutrons. In 1935, Andere and Neddermeyer observed the track of a positively charged cosmic ray particle 4 mass in the above range—the positive muon (+). This was immediately follo by the discovery of negative muon (ju) by Street and-Stevenson. Both + and have a mass of about 207me, but they were not Yukawa. particle as they interacte weakly with nucleons. Powell and Occhialini discovered another cosmic ray particle in their emulsion detector of mass 273m, that interacts strongly with nucleons and was identified with Yukawa. particle. It was called pi-meson or pion (7). Between 1937-50, three x-mesons : 7*,a~ and x? (neutral) were discovered. The charged pions (r+, ) had a mass 273m.) but the neutral pion (n°) has a mass of 264m.) Both muons and) pions are short lived. Up to this stage, all the observed particles fitted rather well into the prevailing theoretical ideas regarding the atomic-and nuclear structure. But soon other short- lived heavy mesons like K+, K~, K°, K® and 7° were also discovered of which K+ behaved somewhat strangely (strange particles). Subsequently, a number of short-lived particles of mass greater than nucleon (between neutron and deuteron) was discovered : lambda (A°), sigma (=*°), Xi (S~°) and omega (97) particles. These have been produced with the help of high energy accelerators in the laboratory and are also observed in the interaction of high energy cosmic radiation. The situation at this stage demanded the introduction of revolutionary concepts regarding elementary particles and the basic interactions governing their behaviour.11.3 Pions and Muons Pi-mesons (1) are particles with mass intermediate between that of an electron and a proton, To explain the short range internucleon force, the pion was considered as a quantum of this force and was predicted by Yukawa. Subsequently, it was discovered in the cosmic radiation by Powell and co-workers. ‘As regards their production in the laboratory and their properties, we made a detailed discussion in Chapter : Cosmic rays, and would not be repeated here. Muons (*), like the charged pions, are also elementary particles with mass intermediate between that of an electron and a proton. ‘The muons are electrically charged—either positively or neatively — and carry one unit of electronic charge. They are unstable particles. The muons were also discovered in cosmic radiation, earlier than the discovery of pions, by Anderson and Neddermeyer. Their mass, mean life etc. were first determined during the cosmic ray studies and later more accurately in the laboratory. As regards the production and properties of muons, we made a detailed discussion in the Chapter : Cosmic rays which may now be consulted again.apr tm Elementary Particles aa y1.4 K-mesons or Kaons ile working with counter-contoled cloud chamber ina strong, magnetic eld Me sho (tek interposed lng the dinner ofthe habe, Rochester and Butler observed @ paired track of oppositely charged pions originating apparently at a common point, It was not a case of collision process producing the pair, for then a host of other particles would have originated in the lead-plate. The event, was attributed to spontaneous disintegration of a neutral particle that left no track in the chamber and the particle was termed [C°-meson, The disintegration was represented as Koant +a ‘The rest mass of this new particle was estimated from the measurement of energy released in the above decay to be about 9667me. ‘Another type of rare events was soon recorded in photographic emulsion that showed the existence of both negatively and positively charged K-mesons (K*) that decay into three charged pions in accordance with the following scheme. Ktarttatte Koartitte All K-decays are now assigned to a single group cof mesons, the K-mesons or kaons, roth ebarged and neutral, the masses being O75me for K® and 966m, for K*. They are similar to pions but have many more possible decay schemes, The common decay modes are : Kt ant tn? fe Keo pity Ktontentta (7 =124ns) Karta Since the mean life of kaons is 101° to 10s, it is characteristic of weak interaction decays, But the kaons could be artificially produced in many high-energy reactions involving pions and nucleons—either N-N (nucleon-nucleon) or *-N collisions—and there aré indications of strong interactions between kaons and nucleons. Kaons ave thus known as strange particles in that a new type of selection rules determines their decay. All kaons have zero spin and.they are therefore bosons. ‘© Kaons are now readily available from the giant accelerators. ‘The other neutral mesons inchide (549)-particles with zero sp and mean life 2.51 x 107!%5, The decay modes are : party pata Ponte ta Other neutral mesons of established existence are p°(765), 4°(784), (1019) and 1°(1060).chapter 11 & Elementary Particles 445 The omega particles (9) form a pair of singlets with a spin 3, Although n very heavy particle (1762 MeV), its mean life is rather long : 1.30 % 107!s, 11.6 Fundamental interactions Elementary particles are rather large in number, But only few of them—proton, electron, positron, neutrino and photon—are stable. The rest are all unstable. Some of them have mean lives much larger than the characeristic nuclear time, being defined as the time taken. by a pion to travel past a proton (~ 4 x 10-*4s) and decay by weak interaction; few like 7° and Z° decay by electromagnetic interaction. A large number again decays by strong interaction, with mean lives ~ characteristic nuclear time. They are called resonance particles. To understand the significance of the existence of these large number of particles, a study of the fundamental interactions that act between them is worth-making. In nature, there are four different types of fundamental interactions. These are : gravitational, electromagnetic, weak and stong interactions. According to the quantuin field theory, all‘the interactions rely on the mechanism of exchange of quanta. The mediators of different interactions along with their strength and ranges are given in Table 11.1. All the interactions are transmitted from one particle to the other by successive processes of emission, propagation and absorption of such mediators. 1. Gravitational interaction — It is the weakest of all the fundamental interactions and acts between all bodies having mass and is described by the long range inverse square type Newtonian law of gravitation : F = Gmym2/R? where my, mg are } the two masses separated by R and G(= 6.7 x 10-! SI units) is the gravitational constant. Subsequently, Einstein extended it to describe gravitational interaction in terms of curvature of space. This interaction is believed to be mediated through the quantum of interaction — graviton — which is yet to be discovered and provides a large attractive force between the planets producing the acceleration due to gravity in their vicinity. It is of extreme importance for astral bodies in galaxies and on cosmological scale since large masses and distances are involved. The gravitational interaction however becomes inappreciable when the interaction of elementary particles, nuclei and atoms are considered and is totally left out. 2. Electromagnetic interactions — This interaction is much stronger than gravitational one and is described by long range inverse square type law : Coulomb's law. It is due to the charges of particles and their motion. In quantum field theory, it is visualised as an exchange of virtual photons which are the quanta of the field. This type of interactions occur in the chemical behaviour of atoms and molecules, Rutherford’s scattering etc. 3. Weak interactions — The third fundamental interaction, weak nuclear ateraction, takes place in the nuclear characteristic time ~ 10~° to 07's, The446 PHYSICS OF THE NUCLEUS B-docay of radionetive muclet and weak decays of strange particles are typical of weap interactions. Unlike the previous two interactions, v weak interaction is a very short ran, . force and is mediated through bosons named W* and Z° discovered rather recent by Arnison et al. The intrinsic strength of weak interaction is 10-! times that e electromagnetic interaction. In weak interactions, the parity is not conserved and this violation of part distinguishes weak interaction from other fundamental interactions. The importan development in the study of this interaction is the unification of weak and electrons netic interaction into the electro-weak interaction. 7 ‘S- 4. Strong interaction — This is the strongest force in nature and occurs betwee, = a a neutron and a proton, or a neutron and a neutron, or a proton and a Proton, This is a short range (~ 10-!4 — 10-5 m) attractive force, charge-independent and is mediated through the exchange of m-mesons (x*,x~, 7°) which are the quantum of internucleon field. It has Zot a relative magnitude of strength of about 10! Of weak interactions involving time of interaction ~ 10-23 interactions between hadrons. Since protons, neutrons, ™-mesons are thought to be built up of more fundamental, entities—quarks—the strong interaction is believed to be mediated through the exchange of another particle called gluons (massless quanta of spin h) between the quarks. Neither gluons nor quarks have been observed in free state. In Table 11.1 are given the relative strengths and other properties of different fundamental interactions. times that, 's. It explains strong nuclear41» Elementary Particles 18%, ceptor understood. An important method of studying the characteristics of strong nuclear force is to study the properties of hypernuclei, where a nucleon in a nucleus is replaced py a hyperon- e The gravitational oe @ __ The etectromagnotic: fraction interaction Graviton Photon @ Any particle Any particlo@ Electron Electron@ “The weak nuclear interaction The strong nuclear @ e@ Electron @ Aninenting interaction Proton fe fo N\ @Xeutron @ oie quark —_ Rea quark Fig. 11.1 Four fundamental interactions 11.7. Classification of elementary particles The discovery of various elementary particles was followed by an extensive study of their characteristic properties. This led to the determination of their mass, charge, life-time, quantum numbers, decay schemes, interactions etc. The elementary particles may be classified in a number of different ways depending on their masses, interactions, statistics etc. Commonly however they are mainly classified into three broad classes, namely (i) the photons, (ii) the leptons and (iii) the hadrons. Hadrons, again, are further classified into two groups, namely (a) mesons and (b) baryons. Baryons, again, are further subdivided into (1) nucleons and (ii) hyperons. The following table, Table 11:2, shows the basic properties of most of the common elementary particles.448 PHYSICS OF THE Nuctey, S Table 11.2 : Some elementary particles and their properties Charge Particle Mass Mean life (in units of Spin (Symbol) (MeV/c?) (sec) Proton charge) (1) 1. Photon (7) 0 Stable 0 T 2, Leptons Electron-neutrino (ve) 0 Stable 0 4 Muon-neutrino (4) 0 Stable 0 ] Tauon-neutrino (v7) 0 Stable 0 i Electron (e~) 0.51, Stable -1 7 Muon (117) 105.667 2.2 x 10-8 -1 L Tauon (77) 1784.2 = =1 L 3. Hadrons 3.1 Mesons at 139.57 2.60 x 10-8 +1 0 = 139.57 2.60 x 10-8 -1 0 7? 134.96 0.83 x 10-16 0 0 K+ 493.67 1.24. x 10-8 +1 0 ie 493.67 1.24 x 10-8 -1 0 Ke 497.67 = 0 0 7? 548.8 < 10718 0 0 3.2 Baryons 3.2.1 Nucleons Proton (p) 938.28 Stable Z 3 Neutron (n) 939.57 640 0 3 3.2.2 Hyperons Lambda (A°) 1115.60 2.63 x 10-10 0 } Sigma (=*) 1189.36 0.80 x 10-10 +1 7 Sigma (2°) 1192.46 5.8 x 10-20 0 2 Sigma (=~) 1197.34 1.48 x 10-10 -1 2 xi (°) 1314.9 2.90 x 10-10 0 2 i 1321.32 1.64 x 10-1 -1 3 1. Photon: 's — It represents a quantum of radiation that travels with the velocity of light and possesses an energy hv, where h is Planck’s constant and v the frequency of radiation. Photon is stable and neutral having no rest mass and no rest energy) but Possesses, by virtue of its motion, a mass hv/c?. Its spin is 1 and is thus a boson.cposor > Elementary Particlos v0 2, Leptons — Leptons are weakly interacting particles. Charged leptons also show electromagnetic interaction. There are up to now twelve leptons : electron (e~), positron (ct), pair of muons (u*, 27), pair of tauons (r+,77~) and three neutrinos : electron- neutrino (Ye), muon-neutrino (Y,) and tauon neutrino (v7) and their antiparticles (antineutrinos : Fe, Py and D,). Leptons appear to have no internal structure and are point particles. Electrons, the first of the elementary particles discovered, are negatively charged, stable, having a rest mass 9.11 x 10-8! kg and a rest energy 0.511 MeV/c’. It is spin } particle. Positron is an antiparticle of electron and hence is also called positive electron. Muons were first observed in cosmic radiation and have a mass of about 200me. Muons are also spin } particles. Tauons have comparatively recently been discovered, having a large mass (1784.2 McV/c2)—heavier than nucleons. They are unstable and decay into muons and two neutrinos. Tae +t Neutrinos were first discovered in @-emission, and thereafter other neutrinos were obtained in other nuclear reactions. All neutrinos are stable, having zero charge, spin 5 and negligible (or zero) mass. ‘All the leptons interact weakly with other particles and they are all fermions as they obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. 3. Hadrons — Particles which are subject to strong nuclear interaction are called hadrons. They are sub-divided into (a) mesons and (b) baryons. (a) Mesons - These particles are strongly interacting and include spions (1 Kaons (K*®) and n-meson (7°), all having having masses between that of a pion and a nucleon. Subsequently, two more were added to the list—charmed mesons (D*°) and beautiful mesons (B*®), which are heavier than nucleons. Pions that can exist as positively and negatively charged or neutral particles have zero spin and are responsible for short-range nuclear forces. K-mesons ot Kaons are produced due to interactions of high energy particles at very short range due to strong nuclear forces. The 7? exists as a neutral particle which has a very short life time. Of the mesons, Kaons are strange particles, neutral pion’ and 7° decay by electromagnetic interactions, decay. All mesons have zero spin and odd parity and are bosons. (b) Baryons — Hadrons of half-integer spins are called baryons. Baryons have 4 of a nucleon and a deuteron. These include the rest mass intermediate between thal includ nucleons-—protons and neutrons—and the hyperons that include lambda (X ), sigma’s (89), X's (E-) and omega (9~) particles, and their antiparticles. #0), but the rest are non-strange. The while the rest undergo weak Phy.ot Nucl 30,41.13 Quark model As mentioned earlier, attempts were being made to see if the elementary particles so far described can be understood in terms of still simpler or basic units of particles. One such attempt is the proposition of Quark model by Gell-Mann and Zweig in 1964. ‘They analysed certain properties of baryons and mesons, in particular the symmetries le up of still snvolved in the interaction, and proposed the theory that hadrons are mad smaller particles called quarks each having a charge £2 or £2 of an electronic charge and is-assigned specific quantum numbers. The word ‘quark’ was bofrowed by Gell- Mann from an obscure line in a book by James Joyce. All quarks have spin 7 and they are obviously fermions. According to this theory, baryons are composed of three quarks each, generated by suitable combinations of the three. Similarly, mesons are composed of appropriate ‘combination of fwo quarks each. Symbolised by wd and s, ree different quarks were postulated with the designation ‘up’, ‘down’ and ‘strange’. For each of these three quarks again, called antiquark. there is also an antiparticle, Fig. 11.42 The quark structure of a) proton, (b) neutron and (©) positive pion e discovered that usually have large mass and “4 J/psi. Such particles could not be explained three more quarks were added to the ‘top’ (t), having additional quantum cles, with their charge Later, two sub-nuclear particles wer Jong half-lives. These particles are name’ only with three quarks. Eventually, therefore, st, These are called ‘charm’ (c), ‘bottom’ (b) and numbers. Table 11.5 gives six types of quarks and their antiparti in units of electronic charge, and mass in units of BeV/c?. "According to the quark model, mesons consist of one quark and another antiquark, eg. wt (ud), K*(u5) ‘whereas baryons are made of three quarks e.g. p(uud), n(udd), D(uds), E(uds), (dss), W (sss). A combination of leptons, and « and d quarks forms stable particles, while a combination of leptons and s and c quarks form unstable particles. In the quark model, there are only two types of particles — leptons and quarks. ‘The quark structures of the proton, the neutron and 7+ are shown in Fig. 1112: ‘The arrows indicate the spins.11.15 The standard model The currently accepted status of elementary particles can be described as follows : A standard model of sub-atomic particles and their interaction has been proposed and most of the experimental information about elementary particles can be theoreti. cally described with its help. It is based on the assumption that all matter is made up of three kinds of basic (elementary) particles : (i) leptons, (ii) quarks and (ii) mediators. There are 6 leptons, as described earlier, and 6 antileptons. So there are 12 leptons (Table 11.2). Similarly, there are six flavour quarks which are classified according to charge, strangeness (S), charm (C), beauty (B) and truth (T), up-ness (J) and down-ness (D). Each quark and antiquark comes in three colours so that there are 36 quarks. As already discussed, every interaction has its mediators (photons, W*, 2°, gluons (8). There are 12 mediators except gravitons, for graviton is not counted in the standard model Loa eS ——— Thus, the number of elementary particles (12 leptons + 36 quarks + 12 mediators + 1 Higg's particle) comes to be G1 at present, There are speculations that some of these 61 must be composites of more elementary particles, sub-particles. Such speculations are beyond the scope of both the standard model and the book.” :