Exploring the Standard Model: Prior Knowledge

       
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Brainstorm

 In a small group write down everythingyou know about the applications of energy and momentum in HEP on butcher paper. At the same time write down questions or ideas that you are not sure about on another sheet of paper. After you have 10-20 good items, or just feel it is time to stop, go back and discuss each one. Look for connections between the items. Reorganize them into a diagram . . . this will serve as your first-order conceptual framework for discussing the energy-momentum relationship.

These questions build a foundation for investigating this topic:
  1. Which are the most fundamental particles in the Standard Model?

  2. What are the "generations" of matter?

  3. Which particles mediate the strong interaction? the weak? electromagnetic? gravitation?

  4. What is the difference between hadrons and leptons? fermions and bosons?

  5. What roles do spin and charge play in the categorization of fundamental particles?

  6. What is antimatter?

  7. Some particles, like the top quark, are hardly ever observed and seem to play no role in the formation of "ordinary" matter. So why do they exist?

  8. Which forces are greatest at inter-quark distances? Which are weakest? How about at inter-nucleon distances?