1. A Brief Introduction to Quarknet and Particle Physics
Mike Strauss

2. Outline An introduction to Quarknet Some Themes for the Week
The Particles and Forces of Nature
The Nature of Science
Particle Physics Experiments
Looking at CMS data

3. QuarkNet
A program to connect high school teachers with people doing research in Elementary Particle Physics (or High Energy Physics)
Provide resources to teachers
Assist in bringing HEP into the classroom
Assist in improving science education
Sponsored by NSF and DOE
Centered at Fermilab
Begun in 1999
About 50 participating universities

4. Quarknet at OU and OSU
OU was one of the first 12 universities to be chosen to participate in Quarknet in 1999.
Approximately 70 teachers have participated
An ongoing program offering teachers the opportunity to participate annually
We usually offer an annual one week program
Research opportunities available
Opportunities at Fermilab and CERN
OSU joined Quarknet in 2006
Ongoing collaboration between OU and OSU in physics research and Quarknet

5. This Week Talks/Discussion on Particle Physics
Activities that teach particle physics and can be used in your classroom
Material from this and other Quarknet workshops can be found at (not yet updated)
/PDF_Curriculum
/Powerpoint_Talks
/Resources
/Word_Worksheets
See also

6. The Structure of Matter
Evidence for quarks was seen in the late 1960’s and fully confirmed by 1974
What should every high school student (or science teacher) know about the structure of matter?

7. The Standard Model of Particles and Fields
Force EM
Strong
Weak H
Higgs Boson
The standard model does not include the force of gravity
Every particle also has an associated anti-particle

8. Hadrons
Any particle made of quarks, like a neutron or proton, is called a “hadron”
3 quarks is a baryon
Quark-antiquark is a meson
We will present a lot of new nomenclature this week.
“All science is either physics or stamp collecting” – Ernest Rutherford

9. The Nature of Science What is science?
How would the average student answer this question?
Is there a problem with how they would answer the question? If so, what?
How can we address any of these problems?
Observations about the presentation of the standard model in this talk?
Is the standard model correct?
How do we know?

10. How do we know about these small particles?
Smash stuff together!!
λ α 1/E
This field of research is called “Elementary Particle Physics” or “High Energy Physics”

11. Major HEP Laboratories
CERN (Geneva, Switzerland)
KEK (Tsukuba, Japan)
Fermilab (Chicago, Illinois)
DESY (Hamburg, Germany)

12. The Large Hadron Collider
Housed in a tunnel 17 miles in circumference 300 feet underground on the French/Swiss border

13. A large camera to “see” subatomic particles.
The ATLAS detector:
A large camera to “see” subatomic particles.
Most particles created in the proton-proton collisions decay very quickly, and the detector sees the debris (primary and secondary particles) from the collision.

14. A Torodial LHC ApparatuS
Width: m
Diameter: 22 m
Weight: tons
A Torodial LHC ApparatuS

15. Also when particles collide
E=mc2
Since…
Energy of motion (kinetic energy) can be changed into new particles with mass. The more kinetic energy, the more massive the new particles can be.

16. Connection to Cosmology
Time
Energy
Now (14 billion years)
Stars form (1 billion years)
Atoms form (400,000 years)
Nuclei form (3 minutes)
Protons and neutrons form (10-10 seconds)
LHC
10-13 Seconds
Quarks differentiate
(10-34 seconds?)
??? (Before that)

17. OU and OSU
HEP is primarily done within large international collaborations
DØ at Fermilab: 380 physicists from 15 countries and 68 institutions (Little OU effort here currently)
ATLAS at CERN: 3000 physicists from 38 countries and 177 institutions

18. Day to day experimental HEP details
What we do:
Build and test hardware
Develop and test software
Analyze data
Where we do it:
Much work can be done in Oklahoma via internet and videoconferencing
Travel to the lab and conferences is required
Graduate students and postdocs at lab

19. Questions?
This talk has been a very brief introduction to this week’s content. We will visit all these subjects in more detail as the week progresses.

20. “Must Do” website