The purpose of these web pages is to allow you to identify for yourself some interesting particle physics interactions or "events". These events have been seen using an experiment called OPAL, at CERN, near to Geneva. This experiment that runs at LEP (the Large Electron-Positron collider), which is the largest particle accelerator in the world.
The emphasis is very much on your active participation. I have tried to explain as simply as possible a few important things you need to know about our experiment and the different types of events that can occur. But the main parts are where you play the role of "particle detective" and identify for yourself pictures of different types of event.
Introduction
The Detector and How to Understand the Event
Pictures
The Challenge (Part 1)
How to Identify Events Containing a
Particle-Antiparticle Pair (Z0 decays)
The Challenge (Part 2)
How to Identify Events Containing a Pair of
W Particles
The Challenge (Part 3)
The Challenge (Part 4)
How to Identify Some Slightly More Complicated
Types of Event
The Challenge (Part 5)
A Different Sort of Challenge: Making a
Measurement
If you enjoyed looking at these events then you might be interested in
finding out more about particle physics on the web.
Notes for those looking at this website as part of the The National Particle Physics Masterclass.
1) You are probably looking at a local copy of the website.
The definitive version of the site is available at the address:
http://hepwww.ph.man.ac.uk/~wyatt/events/home.html,
which will be maintained and extended in the coming months/years.
2) There are more challenges than you could possibly complete in the one to two
hours you will be spending on these pages during the masterclass.
However, I hope some of you will be interested in continuing to work at the
challenges at home/school after the masterclass.
(If so, please use the definitive address for the website given above.)