Read Rothberg, Chapters 3+4 (the handout). Do the exercises below and hand them in. (Read Sections 3.4.2 and 3.4.3 carefully).
Use the programs RELKIN and DETSIM to learn about special relativity and its application to particle physics experiments. These programs has now been installed on the PC’s in Rooms 217, 221 and the Modern Physics Lab.
Goals:
a) Learn about special relativity and kinematics: compare laboratory frame and center of mass frame as well as determine available center of mass energy in different frames/experiments.
b) Apply relativistic kinematics to two-body pi^0->gamma gamma decay.
c) Learn how to identify and reconstruct pi^0->gamma gamma decays in an experiment.
1) Do computer exercise 3.4
[You should not depend on the computer. You can do calculations “by hand” (and human brain) here ! ]
2) Do computer exercise 3.5
3) Do computer exercise 3.8
4) Do computer exercise 3.12
[When transforming from the CM frame to the lab frame perpendicular to the boost direction the momentum is unchanged (eqs 3.37+3.38). What effect does this have on the opening angle of a two-body decay ?]
5) Do computer exercise 4.8
[efficiency is the number of particles detected divided by the number of particles produced.]
6) Do computer exercise 4.9
[check the resolution when smearing is turned off.]
7) Do computer exercise 4.11
Notes:
a) Expression for s, the center of mass energy available in the CM frame and laboratory frame are given in the text.
b) Use M_pi^0 = 2 sqrt(E1 E2) sin(theta/2), derived in the text
c) For exercises 4.9 and 4.11, the program can write an output file with the MC outputs for x1, y1, e1, x2, y2, e2 with smearing turned on. These outputs will be used to reconstruct the pi^0 mass and determine the resolution.
The CUPS programs can also be downloaded from http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/~teb/installcups.exe Comments: (make a directory called “cups”. You have to run the patch that will allow the programs to run on Pentium PC’s. This patch is included in the self-extracting package).
Last modified: April 23, 2017
Tom Browder