PH 505: Intro to nuclear and particle Physics
Prof. Pragya Das

Prerequisite

QM I, QM II, STR, Classical Mech (general core EP should be enough)

Course Content

Basic properties of nuclei and Nuclear binding energy Two-body problem (Deuteron) Nuclear reaction kinematics and Cross-section Compound Nuclear and Direct reactions Radioactive decay: Alpha decay, Beta decay, and Gamma decay Application of Nuclear Physics in imaging (CT, SPECT, PET….) Radiation Dose Elementary particles, classifications, symmetries and conserved quantum numbers, quark model

Books

SSM Wong (official reference book, but I just used slides + tut)

Lectures

Slides and tuts were sufficient to perform well in the course, we had surprise mini-quizzes so attendance was kind of assured.

Assignments, Exams and Grading

assignments - we had to solve selected tutorial problems and submit them, exams were fairly straightforward but very lengthy, grading was comparatively lenient given that the overall performance of the class wasn't great (fourth year first sem people tend to do things other than study for core courses)

Tips

Pay attention in class, practice tutorial problems, it's not a difficult course but practice helps because there's a lot of small stuff to remember and while we could refer to things during the exam, it is much easier if you remember things