Lectures’ End
At last we’ve made it to the end of term. This morning I delivered my last particle physics lecture. Given that it is the last day of the semester I was half-expecting no students would turn up, but in the end I had about 60% attendance. At the end of my lecture there was even a smattering of applause, which I interpreted as meaning that the students were happy that I’d finished.
I thought I would end this module with some topics that I didn’t have time to cover in any detail, but thought the students should know at least something about. These loose ends included:
- Renormalization
- Grand Unified Theories (GUTS)
- Supersymmetry (SUSY)
- Particle candidates for Dark Matter
- Baryogenesis
I only had time for a superficial treatment of these topics, but felt the class should at least hear the words. There are some very good unanswered research questions under those headings, which I think is an appropriate way to end a final-year module, given that at least some of the class are intending to carry on to further study in physics.
This afternoon we had a colloquium by our PhD student John Ibrahim on the subject of the “Quark‑Gluon Vertex and Confinement of Quarks”. It was a nice talk but it struck me how big the gap was between what I’d been teaching at undergraduate level and the standard that a PhD student has to reach.
Today was also the deadline for Computational Physics projects. I’ll be grading them next week. Even then the term won’t quite be over – there is the small matter of exam marking to be done – but at least I’ve got no more formal teaching to do until September.
Last night on the way home I decided to buy a nice bottle of white wine and put it in the fridge so I could drink it in celebration of the end of term when I get home, with a nice fish supper.
In the Dark 
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