This course introduces the main concepts, methods, and experimental foundations of modern particle physics. It is intended to guide students from the basic language of relativistic quantum theory and particle interactions to the structure of the Standard Model, including strong, weak, electroweak, and Higgs phenomena, together with selected topics that point beyond the Standard Model.
The lecture sequence below is broadly aligned with the pedagogical structure of Mark Thomson's Modern Particle Physics. It begins with the fundamental language of relativistic quantum mechanics and the calculation of decay rates and cross sections, then develops the electromagnetic, strong, and weak interactions, and finally turns to neutrino physics, electroweak unification, Higgs physics, precision tests of the Standard Model, and selected open questions in contemporary particle physics.
Core topics: The Standard Model, fundamental particles and forces, gauge bosons, the Higgs boson, particle decays, particle detection, and collider experiments.
This lecture provides a broad overview of modern particle physics and introduces the Standard Model as the framework describing the known elementary particles and their interactions. It discusses fermions, gauge bosons, the role of the Higgs boson, the logic of Feynman diagrams, the hierarchy of strong, electromagnetic, and weak decays, and the basic detector ideas used to identify charged particles, photons, hadrons, muons, jets, and missing momentum in collider experiments.
Core topics: Natural units, special relativity, four-vectors, Lorentz invariance, Mandelstam variables, non-relativistic quantum mechanics, angular momentum, and Fermi's golden rule.
This lecture reviews the formal tools needed for later particle-physics calculations. It introduces the natural unit system used in high-energy physics, revisits Lorentz transformations and four-vector notation, develops Lorentz-invariant kinematics, and reviews the operator language of quantum mechanics, probability currents, angular-momentum algebra, and the transition-rate logic that culminates in Fermi's golden rule.
Core topics: Relativistic Fermi's golden rule, phase space, wavefunction normalisation, particle decays, interaction cross sections, and differential cross sections.
This lecture develops the practical framework for calculating measurable quantities in particle physics. Starting from Fermi's golden rule, it introduces Lorentz-invariant phase space and the invariant matrix element, derives general expressions for decay widths and scattering cross sections, and explains how differential distributions arise from the underlying kinematics and dynamics of relativistic processes.
Core topics: The Klein-Gordon equation, the Dirac equation, probability density and current, spin, covariant form, solutions, antiparticles, helicity states, and intrinsic parity.
This lecture introduces the relativistic wave equation for spin-1/2 particles and explains why the Dirac equation is central to the description of matter fields in particle physics. It shows how the equation resolves shortcomings of the scalar relativistic theory, leads naturally to spin and antiparticles, and provides the foundation for understanding fermion states, helicity, and the relativistic interpretation of electrons, positrons, quarks, and leptons.
Core topics: Perturbation theory, Feynman diagrams, virtual particles, quantum electrodynamics, and Feynman rules for QED.
This lecture makes the transition from free relativistic particles to interactions by showing how forces are represented through the exchange of virtual quanta. It introduces the perturbative expansion, explains the logic and interpretation of Feynman diagrams, and develops the first concrete quantum field theory example, QED, together with the basic Feynman rules needed to compute amplitudes for electromagnetic processes.
Core topics: Perturbative amplitude calculations, electron-positron annihilation, spin dependence, chirality, and trace techniques.
This lecture uses the benchmark process e+e− annihilation to show how matrix-element methods are applied in practice. It develops explicit amplitude calculations, examines the role of spin and helicity in relativistic scattering, introduces chirality as a key concept for later weak-interaction physics, and presents both spinor-based and trace-based methods for evaluating observables in fermion scattering processes.
Core topics: Proton structure, Rutherford and Mott scattering, form factors, relativistic electron-proton scattering, and the Rosenbluth formula.
This lecture introduces elastic electron-proton scattering as a precision probe of internal structure. It starts from the classic Rutherford and Mott descriptions, then shows how deviations from point-particle behaviour are encoded in electromagnetic form factors. The lecture culminates in the relativistic treatment of elastic scattering and the Rosenbluth formula, linking measured angular distributions to the spatial structure of the proton.
Core topics: Inelastic scattering, deep inelastic scattering, electron-quark scattering, the quark-parton model, HERA physics, and parton distribution functions.
This lecture develops the deep inelastic scattering framework that revealed quark substructure inside the proton. It introduces the kinematics of inelastic electron-proton scattering, connects scaling behaviour to scattering on quasi-free partons, and explains how parton distribution functions encode the momentum structure of hadrons. The lecture also highlights the role of HERA in extending DIS measurements and constraining proton PDFs.
Core topics: Symmetries in quantum mechanics, flavour symmetry, baryon structure, baryon wavefunctions, antiquark isospin, and SU(3) flavour symmetry.
This lecture introduces the symmetry perspective that organizes hadron spectroscopy. It reviews the meaning of symmetry in quantum mechanics, applies isospin and flavour ideas to hadrons, and shows how mesons and baryons can be classified by quark content and group-theoretic structure. The emergence of SU(3) flavour symmetry is used to explain multiplets, wavefunctions, and the systematic ordering of low-lying hadronic states.
Core topics: The local gauge principle, colour, gluons, colour confinement, running of αS, asymptotic freedom, QCD in e+e− annihilation, colour factors, heavy mesons, and hadron collisions.
This lecture presents QCD as the non-Abelian gauge theory of the strong interaction. It explains why colour charge and gluon self-interactions distinguish QCD from QED, how confinement and asymptotic freedom arise, and how strong-interaction dynamics are tested in processes such as jet production, hadronisation, and e+e− annihilation. The lecture also introduces colour factors, running couplings, and selected phenomenology of hadronic collisions.
Core topics: Charged-current weak interactions, parity, V − A structure, chiral weak couplings, the W-boson propagator, helicity in pion decay, and experimental evidence for the V − A theory.
This lecture introduces the weak interaction through charged-current processes and the experimental discovery that weak interactions violate parity maximally. It develops the V − A structure of the weak current, explains the chiral nature of weak couplings, and uses pion decay and related processes to show how helicity, chirality, and the W-boson description are tied together in the modern weak-interaction framework.
Core topics: Lepton universality, neutrino scattering, neutrino experiments, structure functions in neutrino interactions, and charged-current electron-proton scattering.
This lecture extends weak-interaction physics to purely leptonic and semileptonic processes. It discusses the principle of lepton universality, develops neutrino scattering as a probe of weak couplings and nucleon structure, and connects neutrino data to weak-interaction phenomenology and structure functions. It also relates these ideas to charged-current electron-proton scattering and the broader electroweak description.
Core topics: Neutrino flavours, solar neutrinos, mass and weak eigenstates, two-flavour and three-flavour oscillations, reactor and long-baseline experiments, and the global oscillation picture.
This lecture introduces neutrino flavour change as a quantum-mechanical interference phenomenon. It explains how flavour and mass eigenstates differ, derives oscillation probabilities in two- and three-flavour settings, and reviews the experimental evidence from solar, atmospheric, reactor, and accelerator neutrino studies. The lecture shows how neutrino oscillations establish non-zero neutrino masses and mixing beyond the original simplest version of the Standard Model.
Core topics: CP violation, weak interactions of quarks, the CKM matrix, the neutral kaon system, strangeness oscillations, B-meson physics, and CP violation in the Standard Model.
This lecture develops flavour physics in the quark sector and explains how weak interactions mix quark generations through the CKM matrix. It uses kaon and B-meson systems to introduce flavour oscillations, indirect and direct CP violation, and the phenomenology of weak decays in hadrons. The lecture highlights how CP violation is embedded in the Standard Model and why it remains central to both precision tests and cosmological questions such as matter-antimatter asymmetry.
Core topics: Properties of the W bosons, the weak interaction gauge group, electroweak unification, and decays of the Z boson.
This lecture presents the electroweak sector as a unified gauge theory. It explains how the weak and electromagnetic interactions are embedded in a common gauge structure, discusses the properties of the W and Z bosons, and shows how electroweak unification accounts for neutral-current and charged-current processes within a single theoretical framework. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of gauge symmetry and the predictive structure of the Standard Model.
Core topics: The Z resonance, LEP measurements, W-boson properties, quantum loop corrections, and the top quark.
This lecture examines the precision experimental programme that established the Standard Model as a highly successful quantitative theory. It discusses the Z resonance and LEP measurements, precision determinations of electroweak observables, the role of radiative corrections, and the way loop effects provided indirect information about heavy particles such as the top quark before and after their direct discovery.
Core topics: The need for the Higgs boson, Lagrangians in quantum field theory, local gauge invariance, particle masses, the Higgs mechanism, Higgs properties, and Higgs discovery.
This lecture introduces the Higgs sector as the mechanism that gives masses to gauge bosons and fermions while preserving gauge consistency. It connects the language of field-theory Lagrangians and local gauge invariance to spontaneous symmetry breaking, explains the physical content of the Higgs mechanism, and reviews the main decay channels, production modes, and experimental logic behind the Higgs-boson discovery at the LHC.
Core topics: The structure and parameters of the Standard Model, open questions in particle physics, and selected directions beyond the Standard Model.
This concluding lecture draws together the theoretical and experimental pillars of the Standard Model and then emphasizes its conceptual limitations. It reviews the model as a remarkably successful but incomplete theory, highlights the many free parameters that remain unexplained, and discusses major open problems such as neutrino masses, dark matter, hierarchy questions, and the search for a deeper framework beyond the Standard Model.