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4 - Conservation Rules and Symmetries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2023

Pascal Paganini
Pascal Paganini
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique, Paris
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Summary

The notion of symmetry is essential in the determination of particle properties. It reveals quantities that are conserved in collisions or decays. It also constrains the mathematical formulation of theories. This chapter introduces these concepts and explains how the notion of symmetry is implemented in quantum mechanics. It reviews the quantities conserved in particle collisions or decays: energy-momentum and total angular momentum, and also the internal symmetries, such as parity, charge conjugation, baryon and lepton numbers.

Keywords

symmetriesNoether theoremparitycharge conjugatebaryon numberlepton number
Type
Chapter
Information
Fundamentals of Particle Physics
Understanding the Standard Model
 , pp. 101 - 116
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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