Answer THREE questions.

The numbers in square brackets in the right-hand margin indicate the provisional allocation of
maximum marks per sub-section of a question.
[Part marks]

1. (a) Consider the QED elastic scattering reaction

. Neglecting all masses,
the cross section is given by
   





    

where  is the fine structure constant,  is the square of the centre-of-mass energy
and  is the angle of the scattered electron in the
centre-of-mass frame. Draw
the Feynman diagram for this reaction and justify the power of  in the above
expression. [3]
(b) Neglecting all masses in the above reaction, show that the change of the electron
four-momentum,
, satisfies






 

   

Hence show that the cross section as a function of

is




 

   



 
[6]


(c) Deep inelastic scattering of electrons from protons can be described by the reaction
 , where is a hadronic system with 
 . Within the quark
model, this can be considered to arise from elastic electron-quark scattering. If the
scattered quark initially had a fraction  of the proton momentum then, neglecting
masses and transverse momentum components, show that the centre-of-mass en-
ergy of the electron-quark system, , is related to that of the electron-proton system,
, by
   
[4]
(d) If the probability of each type of quark  (     ) having a momentum 
is   , then using the results from (b) and (c), write down the cross section
as a function of
and  for the electron-proton reaction from the quark model.
Conventionally, the cross section for the electron-proton reaction has been written
as 

 
 
 
 
   

 


 


  
in terms of two arbitrary “structure functions”  and  . Hence deduce a relation
between  and  . [7]
PHYS4442/2004 PLEASE TURN OVER

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 [Part marks]

2. (a) The main decay mode of the muon is
  . Draw the lowest order Feyn-
man diagram for this decay and explain why this decay can be approximated by a
zero-range four-fermion interaction. [3]
(b) Neglecting the electron mass, what is the range of values that the energy   of the
electrons emitted in this decay can take, in the muon’s rest frame? [2]
(c) Neglecting the electron mass, the spectrum of  is given by





  
 




By differentiating this expression, find the most probable energy for the electron
and sketch the energy spectrum over the full allowed range of  . [4]
(d) Draw a diagram showing the orientation of the momenta of the three outgoing
particles in the muon’s rest frame, when  is at its most probable value. For each
particle, show the direction of its spin and give its helicity. Also show the direction
of the muon spin. Briefly explain your answers. [6]
(e) Integrate the energy spectrum to obtain an expression for the total decay width


of the muon. Hence, calculate the muon lifetime in seconds. The muon mass is
 MeV the value of the Fermi constant is       GeV
 
and in


natural units 1 second   GeV . [5]

PHYS4442/2004 PLEASE TURN OVER

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 [Part marks]

3. The Higgs mechanism allows gauge bosons to have mass without violating local gauge
invariance. In the Standard Model, the   and the   acquire mass through this method,
but it could be applied equally well to give mass to the photon.

(a) The Lagrangian density for a photon with mass   would be






       


where         . Show explicitly that this Lagrangian density is not
invariant under a gauge transformation

   

unless the mass is zero. [3]

(b) Given the locally gauge invariant Lagrangian density

 

 

 
      
   


  
  






  

(
  ) find the minimum  (ground state), of the “potential” term for the  field

 


  




 

[2]
(c) Assuming a gauge has been chosen that eliminates the imaginary component of the
 field, express  in terms of a new field  representing the deviations of  from

the ground state  . Then express in terms of  . [7]
(d) Identify the mass term for the photon and give an expression for the generated
photon mass in terms of
and . [4]
(e) Identify any interaction terms and draw the corresponding Feynman diagrams. [4]

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 [Part marks]

4. The CKM unitary matrix gives the flavour-dependent relative couplings for the charged-
current weak interactions for quarks, where  is the factor for interactions involving
quarks  and . The numerical values of the magnitudes of the matrix elements can be
taken to be 
     

 
 

 
  


     

 

 
  

      


(a) The tau lepton has a mass of  GeV and a lifetime of 0.29   s. It can decay
semi-hadronically: to either a tau neutrino and one or more pions; or to a tau
neutrino, a kaon and zero or more pions. Examples of these two types of decay are
!   and !  " , respectively. Draw a quark level Feynman diagram
for each of these particular example decays. Ignoring mass effects, estimate their
relative rates. [5]
(b) The only other decays of the tau are leptonic: !   or ! 
 .
Ignoring mass effects, estimate the branching fractions for both of these decays
and also for the two types of semi-hadronic decays described in part (a). [6]


(c) The charmed meson # (quark content $) has a measured lifetime of 1.05  s. 

Draw a quark level Feynman diagram for the most common hadronic decay of this
meson. [4]

(d) The total width of the tau is proportional to   . Using this, and assuming asymp-
totic freedom holds for the #  decay (“spectator model”), estimate the #  lifetime
and compare with the above value. The mass of the charm quark can be taken to
be  GeV. [5]

PHYS4442/2004 PLEASE TURN OVER

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 [Part marks]

5. (a) Describe briefly the reactions studied and the results of the SNO experiment. [6]
(b) Explain briefly the process of neutrino-less double beta decay and its significance
in understanding the properties of neutrinos. [6]
(c) If neutrinos have mass and lepton number is not conserved, then the neutrino
flavour eigenstates,    , need not be the same as the mass eigenstates,
   , and mixing can occur. Consider the case with mixing only between
the electron and muon states, i.e.
    

  
  




 


  
 

    

A pure electron neutrino beam of momentum  is created at time %  . What is

the composition of the neutrino state at a later time %? Show that the amplitude of
muon neutrino production in the beam is given by

 
  
 ¾ 
½  

where  is the energy of the state  . [5]

(d) Hence, show that the proportion of muon neutrinos in the beam after time % is


&  
 




 %


and explain how this can be used to extract information about the masses of   and
 , assuming that    . [3]

PHYS4442/2004 END OF PAPER