Atomic Physics

7.3 The Structure of Matter

-Quarks, leptons, and their antiparticles

-Hadrons, baryons, and mesons

-The conservation laws of charge, baryon number, lepton number, and

strangeness

-The nature of and range of the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and
electromagnetic force

-Exchange particles

-Feynman diagrams

-Confinement

-The Higgs boson

The Standard Model

How does this compare to the IB Data Booklet?

General Rules for Fermions

Quarks and Leptons are collectively called Fermions.

Particles made from quarks are called Hadrons. There are two types of Hadrons
(mesons and baryons)

All fermions have an anti-matter equivalent

Antimatter is particles of equal mass but opposite charge.

Quarks and Leptons have 3 generations, with a pair of fermions per generation.

Quarks have Baryon Number of 1/3. Anti-Quarks have -1/3.

Leptons have Lepton Number 1. Anti-leptons have -1.

The strange quark has strangeness of -1. The anti-strange quark has strangeness
of 1. All other fermions have strangeness of 0.

Conservation Rules:

- Particles must have Integer charge and charge must be conserved in all
interactions.

- Particles must have Integer Baryon number and Baryon number must
be conserved in all interactions.

- Particles must have Integer Lepton number and Lepton number must be
conserved in all interactions.

- Strangeness must be conserved for Strong and EM interactions but

does not need to be conserved for Weak Force interactions.

- Mass / Energy must be conserved (just a rough understanding of this

should do)
Leptons

Leptons have integer charge and integer lepton number.

Leptons exist on their own.

Quarks cannot exist on their own, because a lone quark would violate the
conservation rules. (which 2 rules would be violated?)

The rule that quarks cannot exist on their own is called Quark Confinement.

Hadrons

Hadrons are particles made from quarks.

Quarks can exist in Pairs – Mesons. Mesons must be a Quark & Anti-Quark pair

Quarks can exist in threes – Baryons (eg protons and neutrons)

Eg. Proton uud and Neutron udd

(More exotic quark combinations are possible but are not on the course)

As a consequence of quark confinement, if you were to rip apart a meson (for

example) into 2 separate quarks, the work done would be so great that 2 new
quarks would be created from the energy input to make this happen and you
would end up with two mesons.
Mesons (Quark-Antiquark pair)

There are hundreds of possible mesons, but the ones most often seen in
questions are Pions and Kaons.

Pions (𝝅) are mesons made from first generation quarks (u and d). Write down
all possible pions:

Quarks Charge Baryon Name Symbol

Number

Kaons (𝑲) are mesons that contain one first generation quark (u or d) and a
strange quark. Write down all possible Kaons:

Quarks Charge Baryon Name Symbol

Number
Fundamental Forces and their Mediating Particles

What are the 4 fundamental forces of the universe (in order)?

What are the mediating particles for the 4 fundamental forces of the universe?

Weakest Strongest

Force Gravity Weak Electromagnetic Strong

Mediating (Graviton) W- or W+ Photon Guon

particles
or Z0

What it masses interactions Coulomb Nucleons

causes attract between attraction and (Hadrons)
quarks and repulsion to be
leptons (eg bound
Magnetic forces
beta decay) (changes
of colour)

Range Varies / 10-18m infinity 10-15m

infinity

The mediating particles can carry/transfer:

● Charge
● energy/mass
● momentum
● (spin - not on the course)
● (Gluons can transfer Colour - not on the course)
Mediating Particles in the IB Data Booklet (sort of)

Q1. Which mediating particle is the odd one out?

The ……………… because it has never been detected.

Feynman Diagrams Powerpoint:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y_72vZX86xAIMIwAANajKU4lZBkYXzAl/view?usp
=sharing
Feynman Diagrams Questions

Q1a. List the 4 Fundamental Forces in order of increasing strength and the
mediating particle(s) that are responsible for them and their range to an order of
magnitude. (9)

Fundamental Force Mediating Particle(s) Range

Q1b. Have all of the mediating particles (forces carriers) been detected? (2)

Q2. What is a mediating particle and describe the role of a mediating particle
during a particle reaction. (hint what three properties can they carry?) (4)

- Takes place in the …………………

- Never directly …………….
- Carry:
-
-
-
Q3. Draw out the standard model of fundamental particles including the gauge
bosons (mediating particles) and the scalar boson. (6)

Fermions

First Generation Second Generation Third Generation

Bosons

Higgs Boson
Q4(i). Carbon-14 is a beta source. Describe beta-minus decay for Carbon-14:

(i) As a nuclear reaction at an atomic level. (2)

(ii) As a nuclear reaction at a nucleon level. (2)

(iii) As a Feynman Diagram (fundamental particles). (3)

Q4(ii). Magnesium-23 is a positron source. Describe beta-plus decay for
Magnesium-23:

(i) As a nuclear reaction at an atomic level. (2)

(ii) As a nuclear reaction at a nucleon level. (2)

(iii) As a Feynman Diagram (fundamental particles). (3)

Q5. Draw a Feynman Diagram showing Electron - Electron scattering (Coulomb
repulsion). (3)

Q6. Draw a Feynman Diagram showing Electron-Positron annihilation and pair

production. (3)

Q7. Describe what a meson is. Write out all 4 possible Pion mesons. (6)

Q8. Explain why a quark cannot exist on its own? (2)

Q9. What is strangeness and when is strangeness conserved or not conserved?
(4)

A property of the …….

Strangeness must be conserved in EM and Strong interactions

Strangeness does not have to be conserved in Weak interactions

Q10. Draw a Feynman Diagram showing a Pion-Plus meson decaying into an

anti-muon and a muon-neutrino. (5)

Q11. Draw a Feynman Diagram showing a Pion-minus meson decaying into an

electron and an anti-electron neutrino. (4)
Q12. Transmutation is where a nuclide absorbs a particle changes into a different
nuclide and emits a particle. In an example of transmutation, a Beryllium-7
nucleus transmutes into Lithium-7 nucleus by capturing an inner electron and
emitting an electron neutrino. Draw a Feynman diagram for this transmutation.
(4)
Q13. Write out the conservation laws for all fermions.

High Level - Extension

Q14. Draw a Feynman Diagram showing a Kaon-minus meson ( ū s ) decaying in

this reaction: Why can this not be a strong force interaction? (6)

Q15. Q14. Draw a Feynman Diagram showing a Kaon-zero meson ( 𝑑 s )

decaying in this reaction: Why can this not be a strong force interaction? (3)

Ko → π+ + π-
Q15. Draw a Feynman Diagram showing a strong force interaction between an up
and down quark. (3)

(the reason why this is not very interesting is that there would be an exchange of
colour, but this is not on our syllabus)

Q16. What do you “understand” about the Higgs Boson? (2)

- The Higgs Boson accounts for mass and inertia

- Without the Higgs Boson all fermions would be moving at the speed of light.

Q17. (Nature of science) A lot of physicists have ‘leapt on’ to the standard model and this
is not ‘strange’ and some scientists have likened it to the pattern laden periodic table.
What patterns can you see in the standard model?