ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICSModule ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS I
Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: Alessia Rita TRICOMIExpected Learning Outcomes
The course is aimed to provide an advanced knowledge of the particle physics phenomenology. In particular, the course is aimed to critically discuss the latest achievements in particle physics analysing the results obtained at LEP, TeVatron and LHC. The student will acquire a critical knowledge about the Standard Model, the discovery and calssification of elementary particles, the Higgs mechanism and the possible extension of the Standard Model, the research methodology and the obtained results.
Course Structure
The course is based on lectures with student active participation.
Should the circumstances require online or blended teaching, appropriate modifications to what is hereby stated may be introduced, in order to achieve the main objectives of the course.
Required Prerequisites
“Advanced Quantum Mechanics”, “Nuclear and Particle Physics”, “Strong Interactions”
Attendance of Lessons
Detailed Course Content
- Remind of leptons and quarks properties and gauge theories (QED and QCD).
- Mesons, Baryons and exotic states.
- Heavy Flavour Physics.
- Quantum Cromo-Dynamics (QCD). Properties of quarks and gluons. Asymptotic freedom and Confinement. The running of coupling constants. Jet properties and identification criteria. Sphericity, thrust and topological variables. Measurement of αstrong in tau and hadronic multi-jet events.
- The Standard Model of electroweak interactions. The EW lagrangian. Massless gauge bosons. The Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking mechanism.
- Z and W boson properties: neutral and charged currents. Properties and decays of the intermediate vector bosons.
- Electroweak Physics: precision test of the SM (sin2θW, Z lineshape parameters, W mass and cross-section, neutrino families, top quark). Leptonic and hadronic event selection. B tagging techniques. Tau tagging techniques. EW global fit.
Textbook Information
The use of minutes of the lectures as well as of summary papers provided during the course is strongly suggested
Reference books:
Dynamics of the Standard Model - J. Donoughue -Cambridge Mongraphs
Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics - F. Halzen, A.D. Martin
Introduction to Particle Physics - A. Bettini - Cambridge University Press
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Overview of the lepton and quark properties and of gauge theories 6-8 hours | lecture notes and slides |
| 2 | Mesons, Baryons and exotic states2-4 | lecture notes/slide/papers |
| 3 | Heavy flavour Physics: charm, bottom, top. Property of heavy flavors. Recent results if the HF sector at colliders | |
| 4 | QCDQuarks and gluonsAsymptotic freedom and confinement | |
| 5 | Running of the coupling constants | |
| 6 | Jet properties and identification | |
| 7 | Measurement of alpha strong | |
| 8 | The Electroweak Standard Model | lecture notes |
| 9 | Electroweak lagrangian | |
| 10 | Massless gauge bosons | |
| 11 | Electroweak unification | |
| 12 | Spontenous Symmetry Breaking | 1-2 |
| 13 | W and Z bosons: charged and neutral currents.Properties and decay of the weak bosons | |
| 14 | Identification of leptonic and hadronic events. b and tau tagging | |
| 15 | sin 2beta measurement. K and B mesons.Mixing.Unitarity triangle. Result at B-factories | |
| 16 | CP violation and Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix.. |
Learning Assessment
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
The questions below are not an exhaustive list but are just a few examples
Neutrino families
Mechanisms of production and decay of the Higgs boson
b-tagging
Lineshape of the Z boson