• Question: Hi there ! Can you tell me any equations relating to which particles are produced after a Fermions collision (Except the Available Energy one)? ... I would greatly appreciate an answer as i'm doing a project where i need to implement particle scattering. Thanks in advance !

    Asked by kasken to Suzie on 16 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Suzie Sheehy

      Suzie Sheehy answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi there, I could give you all sorts of equations, but I’d be surprised if any of them helped you with your project!
      If you’re talking about scattering perhaps try looking it up on google to find out what type of scattering you have going on?
      The equations depend on the energy that you’re colliding the particles with, which particles they are etc… so there isn’t just one equation.
      I calculated all of these when I was doing Quantum Field Theory in my 4th year of University, so I hope your project doesn’t require you to learn 4 years of university physics!! One type of scattering is electrons with positrons:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhabha_scattering

      I hope that helps… If you want to ask me a specific question about particle scattering i’m happy to answer…

Comments

  • Photo: kasken

    kasken commented on :

    Thank you for your concise answer. I may have had asked the wrong question, so I apologize, what I meant were conservation laws (such as baryon number/lepton number are conserved etc.) and that is why I have mislead you. I apologize again, and I hope you could answer me … can you explain what tachyons are, and how they manipulate our world ???
    btw, Even though I don’t understand fully those formulas you have posted the link to … It looks so exciting !!!, I’ll definitely specialise in particle physics when I go to Uni this year !

    • Photo: Suzie

      Suzie commented on :

      Thanks for your reply back again – that makes a lot more sense! We have a lot of general rules like baryon and lepton number conservation which we use as guidance when we’re going through the maths… but if you want to know all of them I’d suggest trying to pick up a particle physics textbook, it’s really interesting stuff and that’s what I specialized in during my degree! 🙂

      Tachyons are theoretical particles that travel faster than light, at the moment we haven’t observed any and there are some theories that we’ll never be able to!

      So glad you think all the stuff I posted looks exciting. I really think I didn’t understand physics properly until I did this stuff, it was a great feeling to finally understand it right down at the level of the basic maths!

      Good luck with your studies!!