AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to present the basic analytic tools and fundamental phenomenological concepts in modern particle physics, exploiting examples and applications

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

• introducing basic tools to understand modern particle physics and the necessary pre-requisite to achieve an understanding of particle physics based on quantum mechanics and relativity
• introducing modern particle physics from a phenomenological viewpoint
• introducing to techniques and methods to study elementary particles’ properties and their interactions
• discussing open problems in high-energy physics
• all topics are complemented by examples and applications

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

• Basic concepts
  • units of measure in particle physics
  • reference frame transformations and the centre-of-mass frame
  • Lorenz-invariant phase space. 2-body and 3-body phase space
  • Kinematics of a 2-body decay
  • Kinematics of a 3-body decay. Dalitz plots. 
  • Kinematics of particle scattering
  • Cross sections and decay rates
  • Particle production in high-energy collisions; accelerators, luminosity: examples and applications
  • Spin and polarisation, covariant formalism, examples and applications
• Modern Particle Physics
  • Particle physics phenomenology: masses and energies
  • Fundamental building blocks: quarks and leptons
  • Force carriers: gluons, electro-weak bosons and gravitons
  • Unstable particles and resonances
  • Scalar particles: Klein-Gordon equation
  • Spin 1/2 particles: Dirac, Weyl and Majorana
  • Spin 1 particles
  • Continuous and discrete symmetries: C, P, T
  • P violation, C violation and CP violation in K mesons
• Determination of Particles’ properties
• Partial wave analysis and helicity formalism
• Some examples
• Introduction to the Standard Model
• the Standard Model and the Higgs mechanism.
• CKM matrix, CP violation
• Physics beyond the Standard Model
• Neutrino mass and oscillations
• Low-energy processes. 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

ALESSANDRO PETROLINI (President)

MARCO PALLAVICINI