Introduction to the Decay of Common Particles

Abstract

One of the most important scientific research results in decades is the discovery of a boson particle that has the properties of the Higgs boson, which reiterates the importance of studying particle decay. In this paper, an introduction to common particle decays is given. It contains theoretical and experimental information. On the theoretical side, the paper discusses the concept of decay rate and branching fraction and dives into specific particle decays—the decays of the muon, neutral pion, and neutron. The theoretical results are then correspondingly compared with experimental results. The last section on the decay of the Higgs boson takes an experimental perspective, exploring the details of the data produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).