The Units of High Energy Physics

About the lecture

In this mini-lecture, we discuss the units used in High Energy Physics, focusing in particular on: (i) the units of electronvolts (eV) used for energy; (ii) the relationship among mass, energy, and linear momentum; (iii) angular momentum and Planck’s constant (h); (iv) how physicist Max Planck helped us better understand blackbody radiation with the revolutionary idea that light comes in discrete bundles of energy; (v) scattering cross sections of a material, which is measured in units of barns; and (vi) Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.

About the lecturer

Frank Taylor is a Senior Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests are in precision tests of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, particularly exploring experimentally electroweak symmetry breaking and physics beyond the Standard Model. Since 1994, he has been a collaborator on the ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, where theory such as electroweak symmetry breaking, supersymmetry, and the possibility of unifying gravity with other forces through large extra dimensions are addressed. Discovering ‘new physics’ involves the detection of leptons, such as muons. Dr Taylor has collaborated on the design and construction of the ATLAS muons system and was the project leader of the US ATLAS Muon effort.