Kursöversikt

Welcome to FYP204GU/LGFY65GU - Subatomär Fysik!

What follows is general information on the course, as this page is the only one visible to students who are not yet registered. The course syllabus is below this information.

This course consists of 14 lectures, covering the course material, as well as 4 calculation exercises, which will help you with your problem-solving skills. Moreover, three laboratories, K5, K6 and K8 are part of the course. If pandemic regulations continue as currently, you will have to take two out of those labs. Participation in those labs is required for passing the course. Lab reports for those labs are encouraged, but voluntary. If you hand in a lab report (alone or together with a lab partner) you can gain bonus points, which will be counted for the written exam at the end of the course.

This course will be in part (3 of the lectures) held together with a Chalmers course running in parallel on the same topic (FUF050). All lectures, calculation exercises and laboratories will be held online (see updates below). I am currently assuming that this will also be true for the exam at the end of the course.

The first lecture of the course is on Monday, March 29, 2021, at 8:00. I am sorry for the early hour.

Preliminary course schedule: FYP204GU Subatomar Fysik VT 2021.pdf 

Reading tips for the course book: LASHANDLEDNING2011.pdf 

Problem set for exercises: Rakneuppgifter.pdf 

Please make sure that you sign into Canvas regularly AND make sure to set your setting so, that any announcements are forwarded to your preferred email address.

All lectures will be held remotely, using Zoom. The lectures will be live events and students are strongly encouraged to participate online in the lectures, so they can interact with me via chat and/or video. I very strongly believe that you will profit from this approach more than from a recorded lecture.

How this course will be held remotely

This course will be held remotely, which means that all lectures and calculation exercises will be held via Zoom. I will try to create a learning experience as close as possible to that of a course you attend in person.

The situation created by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is stressful for all of us, and I am very much aware that this way of teaching makes the situation even more challenging for you. However, I am convinced that we can make this work, if we work together!

From a technical point of view, we will use two main software tools, namely Canvas and Zoom. Before a lecture I will send you a link via Canvas announcement.  If you click that link during the posted times of lectures, you will be connected to the Zoom meeting for that lecture. I might at a later time switch to a scheduling tool.

I will spend some time during the first lecture to introduce Zoom, but want to give you some information already:

At the beginning of the lecture, I will mute all microphones to avoid problems with the connection. If possible, please use headphones with microphones. Earplugs, as you might use them for your smart phones work just fine.

The more microphones are open at any given time, the poorer the sound quality. So please open your microphone only, if you want to say something close it right afterwards.

Zoom has a toolbar, which becomes visible, if you go to the bottom of the screen.

Zoom has a chat room, which you can use, to ask questions.  One important limitation is that you can only see chats posted AFTER you joined the meeting.

If you click on "manage participants", you can, if you move the mouse pointer next to your name, mute or open your microphone, but you can also "raise your hand" by clicking on "more" at the bottom and then at the corresponding symbol.  Please use this if you want to say something. In that case your name will automatically move up on the participants' list for everybody.

You will need this feature, as I intend you interact with you during the lectures. There will be questions of me, hopefully discussions and the like. Cognitive science shows very clearly that this will help you to learn and I strongly encourage you to participate!

Asking questions is a key part of learning and strongly encouraged, so please do find a way to ask those either during the lecture (it might take a moment before I notice a "raised hand") or outside of lectures by email.

During lectures, I will partly use power-point slides, which I later on load up on Canvas. I will also use a pen board, i.e. a board that allows me to write/draw something by hand and you will be able to see this on a white screen. Please have for each lecture a pen and paper ready, so you can take notes of what I write/draw. This will help you learning the course content. While I am aware that this seems tedious in this digital age, your brain does not agree. This way learning works better and it prevents me from going very fast. I shall try my best to write readable. Please ask or let me know if I do not succeed.

There will be problems during this course. Some will be of technical nature and other problems will occur because we don't see each other in person. We will address those problems as they arise and I hope that you are patient with me and with each other, so we can make this course what it is supposed to be: interesting, informative and fun!

Students who are registered will receive this link also via announcement. Please let me know if you do not have access to Canvas.

I am looking forward to see you in the course!

Laboratories

Three laboratories, K5, K6 and K8 are part of the course. Due to pandemic regulations, you will have to take two out of those three lab and one has to be K5 (because K5 is held in a large room which allows up to 8 students per lab, while K6 and K8 are limited to 4 students each. Participation in those labs is required for passing the course.

Lab reports for those labs are encouraged, but voluntary. If you hand in a lab report (alone or together with a lab partner) you can gain bonus points, which will be counted for the written exam at the end of the course. A maximum of 25 bonus points can be obtained. This is calculated in the following way: both lab reports are graded to a maximum number of 15 points. The better of the two reports is counted in full, the points of of the worse one are multiplies by a factor of 2/3. 

The lab reports are due two weeks after the lab is finished. In case you work with a lab partner on your report who takes the lab at a later time, this counts from the day both partners have finished the lab they write the report on.

Please read the lab handouts before the labs, answer questions and do exercises in those handout before the lab starts! This will save a lot of time during the labs.

Lab reports can be uploaded as Assignment on this course page (will be created by Monday, April 19, 2021).

Some tips about lab reports:

• Up to 8 pages, including a cover page and figures. Additional figures can be put in an appendix if needed.
• The report should be a readable text with your own reflections and conclusions based on your results. It should not be just a list with “answers”.
• Explain the underlying theory with your own words (Note that for K5 you do not have provide a presentation of Fermi’s theory of beta decay).
• Discuss possible sources of uncertainties and how those affect the results you obtained.
• Do not forget to label axes and to give proper units.
• Data in figures should be calibrated for full points.
• Include answers to preparation questions and tasks from the lab handouts.

Example of topics to get more than 12 points:

• Deeper theoretical discussion than usually needed
• Scientific-historic context
• Detailed error analysis and discussion of sources of uncertainties
• …

Andreas Heinz

Last update: April 16, 2021

Syllabus: Subatomic Physics (FYP204/LGFY65 Subatomär Fysik)

Prerequisites: Material covered in physics courses during the first three semesters, especially knowledge on FYP203 Kvantfysik.

Learning Objectives:

- Knowledge on the constituents of nuclei and nuclear models.

- Binding energies and interactions of particles.

- Knowledge on the strong, weak, electromagnetic interactions and radioactive decay.

- Knowledge on nuclear reactions in nucleosynthesis and laboratory experiments.

- Understanding of nuclear fission and fusion reactions.

- Knowledge on the standard and quark models.

- Knowing about different particles ( baryons, mesons, leptons, anti-particles) and basic understanding of the role of relativistic effects.

- Knowledge on nuclear astrophysics.

- Know about different experimental approaches in subatomic physics.

 

Skills and abilities:

- Be able to calculate bindings and decay energies (Q-values).

- On the basis of nuclear models to estimate nuclear shapes and to predict quantum numbers.

- To estimate/calculate lifetimes of atomic nuclei and particles.

- Based on conservation laws to be able to analyze/predict decays and/or reactions.

- To be able to apply quantum mechanics and some relativistic relations in the subatomic physics world.

- To be able to identify the physics background of nuclear physics applications.

- To have a qualitative understanding of radiation effects in therapy and radiation safety.

 

Judgement and approach:

- Have insight into a reality, which cannot be described in terms of classical physics and cannot be observed by the human eye, which is why indirect experimental approaches are needed.

- Knowledge on the different involved scales in terms of size, energy, etc. in the subatomic world.

- Insight into the creation of the universe and the elements as well as the coupling between the microscopic and the macroscopic worlds.

 

Contents:

Nuclear physics concepts and nomenclature. Introduction of interaction mechanisms beyond the electromagnetic and gravitational interactions to explain the stability of atomic nuclei. Discussion of the nucleon-nucleon interaction with the deuteron as starting point. Nuclear models based on quantum mechanics. The statistical nature of radioactive decay and the mechanisms of alpha, beta and gamma emission. The interaction of radiation with matter for the detection of radiation. Different types of nuclear reactions, also nuclear fission, fusion and the energy production in the sun. Meson- and particle physics, leptons, quarks, as well as their relations to baryons and mesons. Nucleosynthesis, the formation of leptons, quarks and photons in the Big Bang.

Some of those aspects are also core of the three laboratories, which need to be attended in order to pass the course.

Exam:

There is a written exam at the end of the course. Voluntary lab reports can, depending on quality, result in bonus points for the written exam.

 

 

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