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QuarkNet and the American Association of Physics Teachers�

An Introduction to:

Everything in the Universe

(that we think we know about)

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Particle Physics

Particle physicists use really big machines to ask very basic questions about the smallest pieces of matter – fundamental particles!

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Remember these?

What are they about?

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Standard Model

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How small?

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How small?

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How small?

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How small?

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How small?

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Way small!

one million times smaller than an atom!

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Where it fits

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Questions abound

Incomplete list:

  • Where has all the antimatter gone?
  • What are dark matter and dark energy?
  • Why do neutrinos change from one kind to another?
  • How do particles get mass?
  • How do particles get mass?
  • What questions have we not thought of yet?

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Making really small particles

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is buried about 100 m below the surface near the Swiss-French border. It is the highest energy accelerator in the world.

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LHC is here

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Part of the LHC looks like this

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How does it work?

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How does it work?

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How do we detect things?

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How do we measure things?

How do we measure particles?

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Collider detector (generic)

Generic Design

Cylinders wrapped around the beam pipe

From inner to outer . . .

Tracking

Electromagnetic calorimeter

Hadronic calorimeter

Magnet*

Muon chamber

​

​

* location of magnet depends on specific detector design

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How does it work?

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