PARTICLES AND FUNDAMENTAL INTERACTIONS

Academic Year 2022-2023

Teachers

Marina Cobal

Unit Credits

Teaching Period

Second Period

Course Type

Supplementary

Prerequisites. None

Teaching Methods. Lectures, assignment of related papers to read and comment in class discussions, guidance in writing a paper on a chosen subject at the end of the course.

Verification of Learning. Final report (of about 10-12 pages, in english) on a subject chosen after a discussion with the professor. The report has to be presented in about 20-25 minutes using slides. During the presentation, questions are asked related to the report but also to topics presented during the course. The final evaluation is based on the quality of the written report, on the level of its presentation and on the answers to the questions posed.

More Information. During the lessons , papers and conferences related to the topics discussed and which may be useful for further studies are indicated. Teaching can be held in English, upon proposal of the competent teaching structure. The material presented during the course (slides etc) is available at the link: https://thecobal.wordpress.com/

Objectives

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING The course aims to provide the fundamental knowledge and understanding of the Standard Model of Elementary Particles – the theory which describes the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions – and of the principles of particle detection. A further objective is to provide a basic knowledge of modern techniques of data detection and analysis and of the current phenomenological framework in the different sectors of Elementary Particle Physics.  APPLIED KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING  Solving exercises, working in the computer lab that is part of the course (and which proposes the reconstruction – using real data collected at the LHC accelerator – of the Higgs boson through its decay products), the possible discussion of current and interesting scientific results  related to the topics covered in the course, are the elements that allow the student to apply the concepts acquired in the course, for the discussion and resolution of problems. The student will then have – at the end of lessons – the ability to identify the essential elements of a certain phenomenon, to describe it in terms of orders of magnitude and level of approximation necessary, to apply laws and principles studied.  MAKING JUDGEMENTS The student has to demonstrate that he/her has not only acquired concepts and knowledge, but also that he/her has developed his/her own judgment skills. This is obtained also through the choice of the topic for the final report.  COMMUNICATION SKILLS The required presentation of the report aims to test and verify the student’s ability to summarize the written report as required (time limit and use of slides), using the concepts and knowledge learned during the course in an effective and appropriate manner. and with a correct scientific language.  LEARNING ABILITY With the final exam, the student must be able to apply the knowledge, skills and competences foreseen in this syllabus. He will be able to study independently the topics covered in the course, also through the consultation of specific bibliographic texts.

THE INSTRUMENTS: Cosmic Rays: natural accelerators • Accelerators: from cyclotron to protosynchrotron • Accelerators for medical physics • HEP detectors: pulse, energy, particle identification (tracers, calorimeters, muon chambers) MEASUREMENTS: SECTIONS impact, BRs, MASS, WIDTH • Cross section measurements, Branching ratio, Resonances (Breit-WIgner), Width. * Coulomb scattering amplitude for an extended charge distribution. Nuclear form factors and their measurement. Elastic and inelastic electron-nucleus collisions. Form factors of nucleons and their measurement. Generalization of the nucleon form factor in the time-like zone. . • Deeply inelastic diffusions. The form factors. The Bjorken variable. The invariance of scale. The Feynmann parton model. Functions F1 and F2. The spin of the partons. Structure functions in the quark model. Valence quarks and sea quarks. Measurements of neutrino-nucleon diffusion. Neutrino-nucleon structure functions in the quark model. Electric charge of quarks * Hadronic collisions * MEASUREMENTS AND DISCOVERIES • – Identification of leptons and quarks. Discoveries of the J / Psi and of the Y. The J / Psi as a state c cbar. The spectra of charmonio and bottonomio. Neutrinos. Experimental evidence for color. Evidence for jets from quarks• The scientific program of the p pbar collider at CERN. Discovery of the W and Z0 bosons. Phenomenology of neutral currents. Study of the W boson. The width of the Z0 and the number of families. * Precision measurements at LEP • The discovery of the proton-proton collider top at Tevatron • The discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC (+ exercise on Monte Carlo simulation for the reconstruction of Higgs decays in two photons) • Beyond the Standard Model: the search for New Physics

Texts

D. H. Perkins Introduction to High Energy Physics Cambridge, University Press, Cambridge. • B.R. Martin and G. Shaw Particle Physics, WILEY 3rd Edition (2008) • Y. Ne’eman and Y, Kirsh The Particle hunters, Cambridge University Press • G. Coughlan, J. Dodd, B. Gripaios The ideas of Particle Physics, Cambridge University Press

Academic Year 2022-2023