Review of Particle Physics

TLDR: The review as discussed by the authors summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology using data from previous editions, plus 3,283 new measurements from 899 Japers, including the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons and baryons.

Abstract: The Review summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. Using data from previous editions, plus 3,283 new measurements from 899 Japers, we list, evaluate, and average measured properties of gauge bosons and the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as heavy neutrinos, supersymmetric and technicolor particles, axions, dark photons, etc. All the particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We also give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as Supersymmetry, Extra Dimensions, Particle Detectors, Probability, and Statistics. Among the 112 reviews are many that are new or heavily revised including those on: Dark Energy, Higgs Boson Physics, Electroweak Model, Neutrino Cross Section Measurements, Monte Carlo Neutrino Generators, Top Quark, Dark Matter, Dynamical Electroweak Symmetry Breaking, Accelerator Physics of Colliders, High-Energy Collider Parameters, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, Astrophysical Constants and Cosmological Parameters.

Figures

Figure 19.12: The structure function xF γZ 3 measured in electroweak scattering of a) electrons on protons (H1 and ZEUS) and b) muons on carbon (BCDMS). The line in a) is the HERAPDF parameterization. References: H1 and ZEUS—H. Abramowicz et al., Eur. Phys. J. C75, 580 (2015) (for both data and HERAPDF parameterization); BCDMS—A. Argento et al., Phys. Lett. B140, 142 (1984). c) The structure function xF3 of the nucleon measured in ν-Fe scattering. The data are plotted as a function of Q 2 in bins of fixed x. For the purpose of plotting, a constant c(x) = 0.5(ix − 1) is added to xF3, where ix is the number of the x bin as shown in the plot. The NuTeV and CHORUS points have been shifted to the nearest corresponding x bin as given in the plot and slightly offset in Q2 for clarity. References: CCFR—W.G. Seligman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1213 (1997); NuTeV—M. Tzanov et al., Phys. Rev. D74, 012008 (2006); CHORUS—G. Önengüt et al., Phys. Lett. B632, 65 (2006).

Table 38.1 gives a number of common probability density functions and corresponding characteristic functions, means, and variances. Further information may be found in Refs. [1– 8], [10], and [11], which has particularly detailed tables. Monte Carlo techniques for generating each of them may be found in our Sec. 40.4 and in Ref. [10]. We comment below on all except the trivial uniform distribution.

Figure 34.8: Charge rate dependence of normalized gas gain G/G0 (relative to zero counting rate) in proportional thin-wire detectors [86]. Q is the total charge in single avalanche; N is the particle rate per wire length.

Figure 34.7: Electric field lines and equipotentials in (a) a multiwire proportional chamber and (b) a drift chamber.

Figure 34.23: Dotplot of Monte Carlo C (Cherenkov) vs S (scintillator) signals for individual events in a dual readout calorimeter. Hadronic (π−) induced events are shown in blue, and scatter about the indicated event locus. Electromagnetic events cluster about (C,S) = (0,0). In this case worse resolution (fewer p.e.’s) was assumed for the Cherenkov events, leading to the “elliptical” distribution.

Fig. 21.1 illustrates all the tests of strong-field and radiative gravity derived from the above-mentioned binary pulsars: (3 − 2 =) one test from PSR1913+16, (5 − 2 =) 3 tests from PSR1534+12, (4 − 2 =) 2 tests from PSR J1141−6545, and (7 − 2 =) 5 tests from PSR J0737−3039. [See, also, [64] for additional, less accurate, and partially discrepant, tests of relativistic gravity.]

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in this paper?

The Review summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. All the particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. The authors also give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as Higgs Boson Physics, Supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, Neutrino Mixing, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Cosmology, Particle Detectors, Colliders, Probability and Statistics. The complete Review is published online in a journal and on the website of the Particle Data Group ( http: //pdg. lbl. gov ). The printed PDG Book contains the Summary Tables and all review articles but no longer includes the detailed tables from the Particle Listings. A Booklet with the Summary Tables and abbreviated versions of some of the review articles is also available. The 2016 edition of Review of Particle Physics should be cited as: C. Patrignani et al. ( Particle Data Group ), Chinese Physics C, 40, 100001 ( 2016 ) c ©2016 Regents of the University of California ∗The publication of the Review of Particle Physics is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics of the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE–AC02–05CH11231 ; by the European Laboratory for Particle Physics ( CERN ) ; by an implementing arrangement between the governments of Japan ( MEXT: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ) and the United States ( DOE ) on cooperative research and development ; by the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences ; and by the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics ( INFN ). 

Q2. What is the way to get the values of a set of parameters?

In some cases, such as branching ratios or masses and mass differences, a constrained fit may be needed to obtain the best values of a set of parameters. 

Q3. How many students from 500+ US high schools learn fundamental physics?

About 100,000 students from 500+ US high schools learn fundamental physics as they participate in inquiry-oriented investigations and analyze real data online. 

Q4. How do the authors find the values of the fractions Pi?

Pi by minimizing the χ2 as a function of the m− 1 independent parameters:χ2 = Nr ∑r=1Nk ∑k=1(Rrk − RrδRrk)2, (3)where the Rrk are the measured values and Rr are the fitted values of the branching ratios. 

Q5. What are the main areas of responsibility of the authors of the Particle Listings?

The Particle Listings also give information on unconfirmed particles and on particle searches, as well as reviews on subjects of particular interest or controversy. 

Q6. How many full-text DOE sponsored STI reports are there?

SciTech Connect also has over 400,000 full-text DOE sponsored STI reports; most of these are post-1991, but over 140,000 of the reports were published prior to 1990. 

Q7. What is the way to determine the ideogram's area?

since for this choice of area the height of the Gaussian for each measurement is proportional to (1/δ xi)2, the peak position of the ideogram will often favor the high-precision measurements at least as much as does the least-squares average. 

Q8. What is the database of past, present and future conferences?

The database of more than 20,600 past, present and future conferences, schools, and meetings of interest to high-energy physics and related fields is searchable by title, acronym, series, date, location. 

Q9. How many links do the ADS have?

The ADS’s search engine also indexes the full-text for approximately four million publications in this collection and tracks citations, which now amount to over 80 million links. 

Q10. What is the common case of correlated errors?

Another common case of correlated errors occurs when experimenters measure two quantities and then quote the two and their difference, e.g., m1, m2, and ∆ = m2 − m1. 

Q11. What is the free software suite for lattice QCD?

This freely available software suite provides a set of tools to be used in lattice QCD simulations, mainly a HMC implementation for Wilson and Wilson twisted mass fermions and inverter for different versions of the Dirac operator. 

Q12. How many people are associated with particle physics?

People• INSPIRE HEPNames: Searchable worldwide database of over 112,000 people associated with particle physics and related fields. 

Q13. What is the name of the LIGO Science Education Center?

LIGO Science Education Center: The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) Science Education Center has over 40 interactive, hands-on exhibits that relate to the science of LIGO. 

Q14. What is the procedure used to increase the errors?

To average data, the authors use a standard weighted least-squares procedure and in some cases, discussed below, increase the errors with a “scale factor.”