Lesson Plan: The Conservation of Baryon Number Physics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to determine the baryon numbers of composite particles and sets of particles and whether given interactions conserve baryon number.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- recall that the baryon number of a quark is ,
- recall that the baryon number of an antiquark is ,
- recall that the baryon number of all other elementary particles is 0,
- recall that the total baryon number of a composite particle is the sum of the baryon numbers of each component particle,
- recall that baryons have a baryon number of 1,
- recall that mesons have a baryon number of 0,
- determine the baryon number of a composite particle based on its composition,
- recall that baryon number is conserved in all interactions,
- identify interactions that are not possible because they do not conserve baryon number.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- the names, basic properties, and symbols of all of the leptons and quarks and their antiparticles,
- what hadrons, mesons, baryons, and hyperons are,
- some more common mesons and baryons.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- the conservation of quark flavor numbers (i.e., strangeness and charm),
- Feynman diagrams,
- quark confinement,
- gluons,
- color charge,
- mixed states.
