1. Particle Physics Script Notes: Introduce who we are
What the presentation is about
Particle Physics
Presented by Laura Johnson, Catherine Jones, Catherine Cutts and Victoria Green

2. Atomic Model The Electron The Proton Charge: -e Antimatter equivalent:
the positron
Charge: +e
Antimatter equivalent:
Anti-proton
Atomic Model
Script Notes:
Reminds people about the standard atomic model.
Explanation of antimatter, with diagram/object
Charge: 0
Antimatter equivalent:
Anti-neutron
The Neutron

3. Scale An atom 10-10 m The nucleus 10-14 m A proton 10-15 m Electrons
Script Notes:
Shows the scale of the atomic model (but we’ve times everything by ! )
“Imagine looking for a specific ant between here and Manchester!”
A proton
10-15 m
Electrons
2 x giraffe height
10 m
Large ruler 1m
Ant width
1mm
10-18 m
100 km!

4. If we had some way of breaking this particle apart…
Is a neutron…
…fundamental?
Fundamental
What could lie inside?
…we could find out!
Script Notes:
Explain the meaning of fundamental
The search begins!
If we had some way of breaking this particle apart…

5. Originally physicists investigated sub-atomic particles using cosmic rays.
When cosmic rays from space hit big atoms (e.g. lead) smaller particles were sprayed out. At high altitudes there are more cosmic rays so they went to the tops of mountains to conduct their experiments.
The Search Begins...
Physicists started to build devices which accelerated particles to near to the speed of light and collide them target atoms.
The resulting pieces from the collision are analysed and tell us about what’s inside the particles…
…Kind of like smashing a watch to find out how it works!
LEAD
Script Notes:
N/A

6. Particle Accelerators
A modern day particle accelerator
CERN
Location: Geneva, 100 meters underground
Circumference: 27km (making this the worlds largest machine!)
Speed: can accelerate protons to % of the speed of light
Particle Accelerators
Script Notes:
“The largest manmade machine searching for the smallest particles”

7. Particle Accelerators
It takes a long time (and distance) to get the particles up to the required speeds so to save space the track is circular (like at CERN!).
The charged particle is accelerated by large voltages and kept moving in a circle by magnets. s
Particle Accelerators s s s

8. Particle Accelerators
Target particle
Inside a particle accelerator..
Particle Accelerators
Script Notes
Use balloon demonstration firstly, then play animation
Electron

9. Particle Accelerators
Positron
Inside a particle accelerator..
Particle Accelerators
Using antimatter! Lovely.
About time for a demonstration? (balloons and sweets)
(demonstration before antimation)
Electron

10. These are traces of where the particles have been
These are traces of where the particles have been. We analyse them and then figure out what they are.
What we found...
Quarks
Leptons (electrons etc.)
Neutrinos
Fill in slide.. To make the presentation flowwwwwww…
(Charged particles move in circles in a magnetic field)

11. Quarks Strange -1/3 Up +2/3 Charm +2/3 Top +2/3 Bottom -1/3 Down -1/3
Quarks are one of two things that make up all matter!
There are 6 types of quarks
Quarks
Strange -1/3
The name originally came from the book Finnegans Wake where seabirds give "three quarks“ like the quack of ducks...
The charges of quarks are fractions of the charge on an electron. This all adds up, as you’ll soon see!!
I’ll de-waffle this later.
Up +2/3
Charm +2/3
Top +2/3
Bottom -1/3
Down -1/3

12. Quarks The quarks make up the inside of protons and neutrons.
The Up and Down Quarks are the only quarks that are in normal matter. The stuff you and me are made of!
Quarks
No charge!
+e charge!
+2/3e
-1/3e
-1/3e
-1/3e
+2/3e
+2/3e
neutron
proton

13. Quarks cannot be separated
Quarks cannot be separated. The force that holds them together is too strong.
If you pull enough in the quarks, two other quarks will appear in between them.
Quarks
Nice quarky pictures!

14. The leptons are a family of elementary particles (particles that cannot be broken into smaller pieces). The lightest one is the electron.
There are two other different types of leptons, the muon and the tau. Muons are found in cosmic rays (high energy particles that come from outer space).
Leptons
(Each of these has a related neutrino, which we’re going to talk about now)

15. Neutrinos have a very, very low mass, (so low that we have only just proved that they have a mass at all!)
They can pass through the whole of the earth without being stopped no force acts on them much.
It is very hard to detect neutrinos.
And we try and detect them by using:
470 tonnes of ‘dry cleaning fluid’
A deep, underground mine
A team of keen physicists
Neutrinos

16. There are three types of neutrino (one for each lepton) Electron neutrino Muon neutrino Tau neutrino
They come from nuclear decay, for example in the sun. When a supernova occurs there is a burst of them.
Neutrinos might be part of dark matter, since we cannot detect them easily and there are lots of them. But we don’t think it can make up much, because their individual masses are soooo small.
Neutrinos
I’m freeeeeeeeeeee

17. Forces So, what next? Lets look at forces.. Gravitational
Electro-magnetic
Weak nuclear
Strong nuclear
Weight
Friction
Air resistance
Reaction
Tension
Magnetic
Electrical
Radioactivity
Holds protons together
Forces

18. An extremely high temperature…
Yes, that’s it, there are really only four forces.
Forces
The big bang…
An extremely high temperature…
Theoretically, all four forces were unified at the big bang and also can be unified at extremely high temperatures (only we’ve not managed to created such a high temperature yet!). But that still doesn’t explain why particles have mass…

19. The bowl that is full of sweets is like a particle
The bowl that is full of sweets is like a particle. You are like a Higgs field.
The bowl is harder to get moving because the field is around it.
If the bowl had different sweets in it, it might be slowed down more.
The particle is slowed down according to its mass. (i.e., the number of sweets in the bowl)
This is like the Higgs Field at work!
A bowl without sweets is like a particle with no mass, for example light.
The Higgs Boson
Sweetie demonstration!

20. If I started a rumour and it passed around the room, the field would be disturbed without there being anything there. The Higgs boson is like this clustering.
The Higgs field is what give the particles their mass.
The LHC is going to look for this as well as lots of other things. If it doesn’t find it, we’ll be very surprised…
….and a completely new theory will have to be developed to explain why particles have mass!
The Higgs Boson

21. Particle physics is based around answering these two main questions:
- What are the fundamental (smallest) building blocks from which all matter is made up of?
- What are the interactions between them that govern how they combine and decay?
Our research so far has lead to:
- the world wide web
- extreme development in computer processing power
- understanding of basic quantum technology
What we could achieve:
- (quantum) superior computers,
- (quantum) dynamic treatment for diseases
- (strong and weak forces) a near-infinite energy supply
Why we do this...

22. Thanks for listening! This presentation was brought to you by
Laura Johnson
Catherine Jones
Catherine Cutts
Victoria Green of
Nottingham High School
for Girls
With thanks to
Mr Price
Mrs Bell
And
The University of
Birmingham, for all the
resources they have
provided
Thanks for listening!