University of Oxford Physics Year 3 - Nuclear and Particle Physics (B4) Complete Lecture Notes & Revision Guide

Comprehensive handwritten lecture notes for the University of Oxford Year 3 Physics course "Nuclear and Particle Physics (B4)". These notes provide a structured and detailed treatment of the material covered throughout the course, including derivations, worked examples, key formulas, diagrams, and explanations designed to support both understanding and revision. Topics covered include: • Quantum scattering theory, scattering amplitudes, differential and total cross sections, Born approximation, form factors, propagators, and the physical interpretation of scattering processes • Fermi's Golden Rule, decay rates, lifetimes, decay widths, branching ratios, resonance phenomena, Breit-Wigner distributions, and unstable particle dynamics • Relativistic kinematics, four-vectors, Lorentz invariance, Mandelstam variables, antiparticles, particle creation and annihilation, and relativistic collision processes • Experimental particle physics concepts including luminosity, event rates, detector observables, scattering experiments, and the extraction of physical quantities from measured cross sections • Feynman diagrams, interaction vertices, virtual particle exchange, perturbation theory, propagators, and diagrammatic descriptions of particle interactions • Symmetries in particle physics, conservation laws, Noether's theorem, gauge symmetries, angular momentum, helicity, and internal quantum numbers • Nuclear structure, nuclear masses, binding energies, nuclear stability, semi-empirical mass formula, radioactive decay, and the energetics of nuclei • Alpha decay, beta decay, nuclear reactions, fission, fusion, and the physical mechanisms underlying nuclear energy generation • Quark model of hadrons including mesons, baryons, quark content, flavour structure, colour charge, confinement, and hadron classification schemes • The Standard Model of particle physics, quark and lepton generations, gauge bosons, Higgs mechanism, electroweak unification, and fundamental interactions • Strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), colour confinement, gluons, hadronic structure, and qualitative aspects of non-perturbative strong-force physics • Weak interactions, parity violation, flavour mixing, Cabibbo mixing, weak currents, W and Z bosons, and the role of weak interactions in particle decays The document consists of carefully organised handwritten notes taken during the course and is suitable for lecture review, tutorial preparation, revision, and exam preparation. Ideal for Oxford Physics students and anyone studying nuclear physics, particle physics, quantum scattering theory, and the Standard Model of fundamental interactions.