Enduring Understanding

Through the hands-on inquiry based analysis of particle physics data students will gain a greater understanding of how scientists use indirect evidence to support claims about the most fundamental building blocks of nature.

Objectives

• Know what the elementary particles of the standard model are
  • Understand that quarks combine to form particles similar to protons and neutrons
  • Understand that muons and taus are heaver "cousins" of electrons
  • Neutrinos are tiny neutral particles that are still not completely understood
  • Be familiar with the force carriers
• Be able to identify electron, muon, tau, and jet candidates in a detector
• Understand that particle physics attempts to observe and explain what can not be "seen" to determine what we are fundamentally made of and how it interacts.
  • Observations are indirect and subjective; Therefore...
    • Scientists need to collaborate in order to generate valid and reliable interpretations of what "might" be happening.
    • Scientists need to collect huge data sets and use lots of statistics in order to "see" the big picture

Preparation Activities

NOVA Video; Big Bang Machine

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365402221/

Physics for the 21st Century (Part 1 video only) http://www.learner.org/courses/physics/

Found at:

The following Four Activities Found at: http://quarknet.us/library/index.php/Resources_2012

Masterclass Classroom Preparation Slides (teacher version)

Rolling For Rutherford

https://quarknet.i2u2.org/sites/default/files/rutherford_0.pdf

Bubble Chamber

Quark Puzzle

Homework

Assignment 1

http://www.particleadventure.org/eternal-questions.html

Complete the two sections "What is Fundamental" and "What is the World Made Of?" while completing the following worksheet.

Assignement 2

Continue with the above website. Complete the section, "What Holds It Together?" and complete the following worksheet.

Particle Projects

50 points

In ALL presentations you must include:

Objective

Summary of Procedures

Results

Conclusion

Why it is important for scientists to collaborate and why a statistically large sample of data is necessary?

What surprised you and/or interested you the most about the data analysis activity?

Explanation for how all members of the group equally contributed equally to the construction of this presentation?

Note about getting screenshots of events. To transfer an event image into powerpoint or into a word document to print try the following.

1. Click the "print scrn" button near the top right of your keyboard. This copy's the image of the screen onto the clipboard.

2. At this point you can paste the "screen shot" into google slides

OR TO EDIT

Open the windows program known as "paint". And paste it into the program. You may then select only the relevant parts of the "screen shot"

Cosmic Rays

Objective: To study cosmic ray flux by looking at different parts of the sky.

Part 1 changed the angle to look at different parts of the sky (you made the graph).

Part 2 allowed the Earth to rotate to look at different parts of the sky.

Do the results agree or disagree? Why? Possible explanation?

Rolling For Rutherford and the Standard Model

Objective: To INDIRECTLY measure the diameter of an object through collisions and statistics.

Background to probability equation

n your presentation make sure you include:

• Standard Model Chart (that includes the Higgs)
• An explanation of the difference between quarks, leptons, and bosons.
• The similarities and differences between electrons, muons, and taus
• What specific quarks make up the proton, neutron, and the J/Psi and how the charges of the quarks add up to +1, 0, and 0 respectively.
• Background information on CERN, the LHC, and CMS
• A summary of how you can measure the size of something by rolling a marble and the use of probability
• Show your work as to how you calculate the diameter.

J-Psi

Objective: To evaluate the quality of J/Psi candidates through their decay into muons. Then to measure their mass.

If we understand the charge, momentum, and energy of the muons after the decay, then we know the charge, energy, and momentum of the J/Psi before the decay. The spreadsheet uses the relationship between energy and momentum to calculate the mass.

Note: the mass of a proton is slightly less than 1 GeV in the these energy units.

The Data Link

CMS Masterclass

Then Follow the J/Psi Path

J/Psi Spreadsheet Link

Spreadsheet for Data

For the presentation you must include the following:

• Why the muons curve in the detector
• How and why curvature of muons is used to identify J/Psi candidates
• An example of a zero, one, two, and a three-rated event with brief explanation
• An explanation as to how a heavier particle can be created from a lighter particle.
• The histograms of the calculated mass of a J/Psi with a comparison to the mass of a proton.
• A critical explanation of which graph gives the best statistical measurement.

CMS Data Express

Objective: To identify Z and W bosons through their decays to muons and neutrinos. To measure the mass of the Z boson. Determine if nature prefers positive or negative W's.

Note: the mass of a proton is slightly less than 1 GeV in the these energy units.

https://quarknet.i2u2.org/data-portfolio/activity/cms-data-express

For your presentation you must include the following:

• Why the muons curve in the detector
• How and why curvature of muons is used to identify W⁺, W^-, and Z⁰ candidates
• An example of a W⁺, W^-, and Z⁰ event with brief explanation

Group A

• The histogram of the calculated mass of a Z with a comparison to the mass of a proton.
• A critical analysis of the histogram for the measured mass of the Z
• An explanation as to how it is possible for a relatively HUGE mass can be created from the collision of two relatively small mass particles.

Group B

• The table of W⁺, W^-, and Z⁰ showing individual group results and total results for the class
• An explanation (with examples) as to why a small sample size (just one group) could give a misleading result
• An explanation as to why the ratio of W⁺ to W^- is what it is which also includes why we should even see negatively charged and neutral particles.