OVERVIEW

The course explores the fundamental concepts, phenomenology and some experimental aspects of elementary particle physics as described by the Standard Model.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students will acquire the phenomenological basis of modern elementary particle physics, the tools for the computation of quantities of interest and the most effective experimental techniques for their measurement.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

• The course aims to provide a coherent picture of the phenomenology of elementary particles and of the methodological and experimental tools to understand the main results.

  At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• identify the main quantities of interest in a process of elementary particle physics, calculate the main observables and evaluate their order of magnitude;
• exploit the tools acquired to identify a measurement method for the process in question, identifying any critical issues

PREREQUISITES

General Physics, Nuclear and Particle Physics 1 and 2

TEACHING METHODS

Blackboard lectures accompanied by examples and exercises.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

• Particle Physics
• Decays and Scattering; operator S; eigenstates of impulse and helicity. Decay width and cross section. Phase space. Transition invariant amplitude. Outline of perturbative methods and heuristics of Feynman diagrams. Examples and Applications.
• Symmetries. Symmetries and transition amplitudes. Conservation Laws. Examples and Applications.
• Phisics of strong and electroweak interactions:
  • Electromagnetic interactions: QED as a gauge theory; low energy experimental tests: g-2; experimental tests at high energies: e + e- -> mu + mu- process; running of the coupling constant of the QED.
  • Strong interactions: experimental evidence of color, QCD as a gauge theory. Representation of hadrons as color singlets. Running by alpha_s. QCD on the lattice. QCD in collisions e + e-. Quark-quark scattering, evaluation of color factors. Color potentials. Parton density function and their experimental determination. Kinematic variables of a hadronic collider. Drell Yan process. Process qq -> 2j. Factorization, fragmentation. Jet physics: jet algorithms. Experimental determination of alpha_s.
  • Electroweak interactions: experimental evidence of weak interactions. Decay of W. Electroweak unification: electromagnetic current and current of Z. Decay of Z. Discoveries of W and Z. Cross section e + e- -> Z -> mu + mu-. Mass and width of the Z. Number of neutrino families. Mass and width of the W. Measurements of the asymmetry FB. Electroweak fit. Discovery of the top. Higgs mechanism (toy model). Higgs mechanism in MS. Decay and production of the Higgs boson. Discovery of the Higgs boson.
• Physics of Flavor and Neutrinos
  • Physics of hadronic weak interactions. Cabibbo angle. CKM matrix. Measurements of the CKM matrix elements, Unitarity triangles.Oscillations of neutral mesons.Measurements of meson oscillations in the kaon and B meson systems. CP violation.
  • Physics of weak interactions of leptons. Neutrino oscillations. PMNS matrix. Neutrino masses and mass hierarchy. CP violation. Neutrino oscillation experiments.
• Notes on Physics beyond the Standard Model

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Principali Riferimenti Bibliografici

Fisica relativistica: Hagedorn, Byckling-Kajantie.

Fisica quantistica: Sakurai.

Teoria dei campi: Weinberg, Landau, Misner-Thorne-Wheeler, Peskin-Schroeder.

Simmetrie: Sozzi, Bigi-Sanda, Sakurai.

Fisica matematica: Ticciati.

Fenomenologia: Nagashima, Quang Ho-Kim, Xuan-Yem Pham

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

FABRIZIO PARODI (President)

ROBERTA CARDINALE (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti/

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam. The student can start discussing a topic of his/her choice, will then be asked to answer questions on the remaining part of the program.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exam aims at testing the student preparation and his/her abilitity to critically discuss the course contents.
The examining board will also ascertain the ability to exploit the knowledge acquired to estimate orders of magnitude in particle physics processes
and design possible measurement strategies.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with Professor Sergio Di Domizio (sergio.didomizio@unige.it), the Department’s disability liaison.