PH3930A/32

Royal Holloway and Bedford New College 2002

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
BSc and MSci EXAMINATION 2002
For Internal Students of
Royal Holloway
DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL TOLD TO BEGIN
PH3930A: PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS
Time Allowed: TWO hours
Answer THREE questions
No credit will be given for attempting any further questions
Approximate part-marks for questions are given in the right-hand margin
Only CASIO fx85WA Calculators are permitted
GENERAL PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
Permeability of vacuum
0
= 4 10
-7
H m
-1
Permittivity of vacuum
0
= 8.85 10
-12
F m
-1
1/4
0
= 9.0 10
9
m F
-1
Speed of light in vacuum c = 3.00 10
8
m s
-1
Elementary charge e = 1.60 10
-19
C
Electron (rest) mass m
e
= 9.11 10
-31
kg
Unified atomic mass constant m
u
= 1.66 10
-27
kg
Proton rest mass m
p
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Neutron rest mass m
n
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Ratio of electronic charge to mass e/m
e
= 1.76 10
11
C kg
-1
Planck constant h = 6.63 10
-34
J s
h = h/2
= 1.05 10
-34
J s
Boltzmann constant k = 1.38 10
-23
J K
-1
Stefan-Boltzmann constant

= 5.67 10
-8
W m
-2
K
-4
Gas constant R = 8.31 J mol
-1
K
-1
Avogadro constant N
A
= 6.02 10
23
mol
-1
Gravitational constant G = 6.67 10
-11
N m
2
kg
-2
Acceleration due to gravity g = 9.81 m s
-2
Volume of one mole of an ideal gas at STP = 2.24 10
-2
m
3
One standard atmosphere P
0
= 1.01 10
5
N m
-2
MATHEMATICAL CONSTANTS
e 2.718 3.142 log
e
10 2.303
page 1 PH3930
PART
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TURN OVER
1. (a) Briefly discuss Sakharovs three conditions for the universe to acquire a
nonzero baryon number B beginning from an initial state with 0 = B .
Say how each of the conditions could be met.
[9]
(b) Grand Unified Theories predict a mean lifetime for the proton of
approximately
5
p
4
U
0 4
X
p
g
) e p (
m
B M

where 56 . 0
U
g is a coupling strength, 94 . 0
p
m GeV is the proton
mass,
X
M is the mass of the X boson, and 3 . 0 ) e p (
0

+
B is the
branching ratio for the dominant decay mode
0
e p
+
. (Recall the
probability for a decay before a time
p
<< t is
p
/ t P .)
Suppose you observe
30
10 protons for one year and determine there were
no occurrences of
0
e p
+
. Show that the mean lifetime of the proton
must therefore be greater (e.g. at 95% confidence level) than about
29
10
years.
Use this result to estimate a lower limit on the mass of the X boson in
GeV. (There are about
7
10 3.2 seconds in one year, 0.197 c = h GeV-
fm and
8
10 3 c = m/s.)
[8]
(c) For sufficiently early times the time is related to the temperature by
2
Pl
*
301 . 0
T
m
g
t = .
Show that the temperature at the Planck time is
Pl
4 / 1
* Pl
55 . 0 ) ( m g t T

= .
[3]
page 2 PH3930
PART
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TURN OVER
2. (a) Recall the fluid equation
0 ) ( 3 = + + P
R
R

&
& ,
where the symbols have their usual meanings. For relativistic particles,
the energy density and pressure obey 3 / = P . Show that under these
conditions, the energy density follows
4
/ 1 R . [5]
(b) Explain why the energy density of relativistic particles is proportional to
the fourth power of the temperature. (You may use the result from (a).) [5]
(c) The number density of primordial neutrinos (and antineutrinos) for each
family is today around 112 cm
-3
and their temperature is 1.95 K. Taking
the current age of the universe to be 15 billion years and assuming the
scale factor evolves as
3 / 2
t R , estimate their number density and
temperature
9
10 15 years from now.
Suppose one of the neutrino families has a mass of 10 =

m eV (i.e.,

m
is much greater than the temperature). Find the current value of
c
/

= for this family, where G H
c
8 / 3
2
= is the critical
density. (Evaluate as a dimensionless number using
17 1
10 8 . 4 =

H s, eV 10 2 . 1 / 1
28
Pl
= G m ,
4
10 197 . 0

= c h eV-cm
and s / cm 10 0 . 3
10
= c .)
[10]
page 3 PH3930
PART
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TURN OVER
3. (a)
Suppose freeze-out temperature for the reaction

pe n were to be
1
f
= T MeV. Neglecting neutron decay, show that the mass fraction of
helium produced in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis is around 0.42. (Use the
neutron and proton masses 6 . 939
n
= m MeV and 3 . 938
p
= m MeV.)
Give two reasons why the actual helium mass fraction from BBN is lower
than this value.
[8]
(b) Describe briefly how a measurement of the deuterium abundance can be
used to estimate
b
O , the baryon density divided by the critical density.
Illustrate your answer with a sketch of the predicted abundance versus
b
O .
[4]
(c) Recall that for sufficiently early times, the expansion rate is related to the
temperature by
Pl
2
*
66 . 1
m
T
g H = ,
where the symbols have their usual meanings. Suppose that stable
WIMPS such as neutralinos are in thermal equilibrium by
annihilation into other particles for temperatures above

m T =
f
, where

m is the neutralinos mass and 05 . 0 is a constant.

Show that the number density of relic neutralinos at T
f
is
.
66 . 1
) (
Pl
2 2
f
*
m
m e g
T n

For temperatures lower than T

f
, how does

n scale with the

temperature T?
Hence show that the energy density of relic neutralinos today is
Pl
3
*
66 . 1
m v
T g

= ,
where T is the current neutralino temperature, v is the thermally
averaged neutralino speed times the annihilation cross section, and
*
g is
the effective number of degrees of freedom at the freeze-out temperature
f
T .
[8]
page 4 PH3930
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TURN OVER
4. (a) Describe briefly: (i) the flatness problem, (ii) the horizon problem, and
(iii) the monopole problem. [7]
(b)
Suppose inflation begins at
34
start
10

= t s and lasts until

32
end
10

= t s, and
the expansion rate during this period is
start
/ 1 t H . By approximately
what factor does the monopole density change from
start
t to
end
t ?
[6]
(c) It takes 13.6 eV to ionize neutral hydrogen, and yet the recombination of
electrons and protons did not occur until the temperature had dropped to
around 0.3 eV. Explain briefly why.
[3]
(d) Describe two sources of anisotropy in the observed CMBR temperature,
giving their physical origin and rough numbers for the magnitudes of the
temperature differences.
[4]
page 5 PH3930
PART
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TURN OVER
5. (a) Describe two measurement techniques that will be used at the Pierre
Auger Observatory to detect high energy cosmic rays. Illustrate your
answer with relevant sketches, and for each of the techniques, indicate
how the energy and direction of the primary cosmic rays will be
measured.
[10]
(b)
Consider the reaction
+
e pe p , where the photon is from the CMBR.
Show that the minimum proton energy
p
E in order for this reaction to be
kinematically allowed is approximately

E
m m
E
p e
p
.
Evaluate this numerically, making a reasonable estimate for the energy of
a CMBR photon. (Recall that the CMBR temperature is 2.73 K,
Boltzmanns constant is
1 11
K MeV 10 6 . 8

= k , and the proton and
electron masses are 938
p
= m MeV and 511 . 0
e
= m MeV.)
[6]
(c) List four processes by which high energy photons can be produced in
astrophysical sources. [4]
page 6 PH3930
PART
MARKS
END GDC
6. (a) Describe briefly the solar neutrino problem and a likely solution.
Describe briefly how radiochemical and water Cherenkov detectors are
used to detect solar neutrinos.
Describe how the reactions used by the SNO experiment demonstrate that
neutrino flavours other than
e
are detected from the sun.
[10]
(b)
Consider oscillations between only two types of neutrinos, say,

and

. The probability for a neutrino to be detected as

at time t given
that it started as

at 0 = t is given by
( )

=
2
) (
sin 2 sin 1 ) 0 ( ) (
1 2 2 2
t E E
t P

where
1
E and
2
E are the energies of the two corresponding mass
eigenstates and is the mixing angle. Show that as long as the neutrinos
are highly relativistic this reduces to
( )

=
E
t m
t P
4
sin 2 sin 1 ) 0 ( ) (
2
2 2


.
where 2 / ) (
2 1
E E E + = and
2
1
2
2
2
m m m = .
Suppose
9
10 = E eV and
2 2
eV 01 . 0 = m . Find the shortest distance in
km that the initial

must travel to have the minimum probability to be

detected as a

, namely, 2 sin 1
2
. (Recall
9
10 197 . 0

= c h eV-km.)
[10]