Particle Physics Brick By Brick Errata
While multiple checks are made before a book goes to print there are, inevitably it seems, some errors which slip through the net. Below I list errata in the first print of Particle Physics Brick by Brick.
Page 17
The model of the proton on this page is correct but the labeling of d down quarks and u up quarks is incorrect. As in the diagram here the quarks in the upper position should be up quarks, u, and the lower quark brick should be labelled as a down, d, quark. More information on the construction of protons and neutrons can be seen on pages 38-39 and if you want to know more about the colours look at pages 108-109.
Page 18
In the table the electric charge on the charged leptons should read -1 not +2/3.
Page 19
The elements are labelled wrongly – they should read Hydrogen, Helium, Beryllium, Carbon, Oxygen.
Page 21
In the table antiquarks have the wrong sign of charge – the top row of up-like antiquarks have a charge of -2/3 while the lower row of down-like antiquarks have a charge of +1/3. The charged anti leptons in the table are missing their ANTI- prefix: ELECTRON, MUON and TAU should be ANTIELECTRON, ANTIMUON and ANTITAU.
Page 24
Should read 1940’s not 1960’s.
Page 33
A small error in ‘Scale Prefixes’ info box at the bottom right call out box. Mass has the units of electron volts per speed of light squared eV/c2 and in the first two instances these units are given correctly along with the kilo and mega prefixes: keV/c2 and MeV/c2. The third mention when introducing the giga prefix is missing the c2 so GeV should be GeV/c2.
Page 56 & 57
The arrows connecting the larger nuclei (LEGO stack) to the protons (the small group of three blocks) should be pointing in the opposite direction, away not towards the nuclei.
Page 67
In the ‘TERA’ info box, the tera- prefix x1012 is a million million not a billion billion.
Page 93
Top right diagram ELECTRON should read ANTIELECTRON.
Page 96
The K0-bar is wrongly labelled, the u-bar should be d-bar as shown here.
Page 97
The strangeness value of the particles on this page are opposite in sign to convention: the particles with a positive strangeness , e.g. Ξ– or Λ0, should have the same value but negative; the particles with negative strangeness, e.g. K+, should have the same value but positive. The brick equation at the bottom right of the page is also incorrect, the two brackets should be swapped in order as shown here. Please see page 100 for the correct definition of strangeness, all of the diagrams aside from this page in this chapter are correct in strangeness.
Page 104
The bar is over the wrong K0 in the diagram, it should be over the top-left K0 not the bottom right.
Page 149
The lower white bricks should not have the ANTI- prefix: they should be labelled ‘RIGHT-HANDED NEUTRINOS’ on the left side of the see-saw and ‘LEFT-HANDED NEUTRINOS’ on the right of the see-saw. The white bricks represent leptons while the black bricks represent antileptons throughout the book.
Page 152
There is a small error on the lower diagram on this page demonstrating parity inversion. The electric charges of particles do not change in a parity inversion yet they are shown to change on the diagram, they should in fact remain the same on the right as they are stated on the left, from top to bottom row: up-type quarks have +2/3 charge, down-type quarks have -1/3 charge, charged leptons have -1 charge and neutrinos have 0 charge.