Physics GRE Discussion Forums

Hey everyone,
So I'm supposed to take Nuclei and Fundamental particles next year, but the GRE is this october, and I don't want to simply hope that I've learned everything I need at the last minute. I currently have the David Griffiths intro to elementary particles. Which chapters do you think are important to go over for the GRE? There was a fermi energy question on the gre, didn't know it at all:

1 Historical Introduction to the Elementary Particles.
2 Elementary Particle Dynamics.
3 Relativistic Kinematics.
4 Symmetries.
5 Bound States.
6 The Feynman Calculus.
7 Quantum Electrodynamics.
8 Electrodynamics and Chromodynamics of Quarks.
9 Weak Interactions.
10 Gauge Theories.
11 Neutrino Oscillations.
12 Afterword: What´s Next?
A The Dirac Delta Function.
B Decay Rates and Cross Sections.
C Pauli and Dirac Matrices.
D Feynman Rules (Tree Level).

Thanks alot for the help.
Ari

AriAstronomer wrote:Hey everyone,
So I'm supposed to take Nuclei and Fundamental particles next year, but the GRE is this october, and I don't want to simply hope that I've learned everything I need at the last minute. I currently have the David Griffiths intro to elementary particles. Which chapters do you think are important to go over for the GRE? There was a fermi energy question on the gre, didn't know it at all:

1 Historical Introduction to the Elementary Particles.
2 Elementary Particle Dynamics.
3 Relativistic Kinematics.
4 Symmetries.
5 Bound States.
6 The Feynman Calculus.
7 Quantum Electrodynamics.
8 Electrodynamics and Chromodynamics of Quarks.
9 Weak Interactions.
10 Gauge Theories.
11 Neutrino Oscillations.
12 Afterword: What´s Next?
A The Dirac Delta Function.
B Decay Rates and Cross Sections.
C Pauli and Dirac Matrices.
D Feynman Rules (Tree Level).

Thanks alot for the help.
Ari

Hey you don't need to get jitters about all these craps now. For the PGRE (REF from your list and the contents of the Book) you need to study 1, a LITTLE bit of 2, then leave else, you can study 5 here or in the quantum mechanics books thats basically is QM, then a very very little idea about Neutrino oscillations, 11 and nothing else is needed for you now to crack the GRE. Hope that helpls.
All the Best.

Thanks alot! Definitely helpful.
Ari

I think you should also know relativistic kinematics (chapter 3) for the PGRE.

All you need for the PGRE is the first (and maybe something from the second) chapter of Griffiths' "Introduction to elementary particles". Plus, of course, chapter 12 from his "Introduction to Electrodynamics" (Electrodynamics and Relativity). That's enough for elementary particles and special theory of relativity (you may find it interesting and helpful to read "Spacetime physics" by Taylor and Wheeler also, but that's not for the PGRE, but rather for your deeper understanding of the subject). By the way, lots of problems for the real PGRE are taken from Griffiths' books

physicsworks wrote:All you need for the PGRE is the first (and maybe something from the second) chapter of Griffiths' "Introduction to elementary particles". Plus, of course, chapter 12 from his "Introduction to Electrodynamics" (Electrodynamics and Relativity). That's enough for elementary particles and special theory of relativity (you may find it interesting and helpful to read "Spacetime physics" by Taylor and Wheeler also, but that's not for the PGRE, but rather for your deeper understanding of the subject). By the way, lots of problems for the real PGRE are taken from Griffiths' books

How fortunate, Ive been through that book cover to cover. Chapter 12 though? That's a prettty intensive chapter, very math heavy, I didn't expect to need to know that, unless youre talking about just the first part of chapter 12. So if lots of questions are taken from that book, and yet they have to be able to be done in under 2 minutes, that would narrow down the choices quite a bit. Thanks.