Unit ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS
- Course
- Physics
- Study-unit Code
- GP005478
- Location
- PERUGIA
- Curriculum
- In all curricula
- Teacher
- Livio Fano'
- Teachers
-
- Livio Fano'
- Hours
- 56 ore - Livio Fano'
- CFU
- 8
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2022
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Sperimentale applicativo
- Academic discipline
- FIS/01
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- Brief introduction to particle physics. Preliminary notions. Kinematic invariants. Nucleons and leptons. Discrete symmeties. Hadrons, mesons and baryons. The quark model. Experimental tests of Quantum Electrodynamics. Phenomenology of quantum cromodynamics. Weak interactions. Discovery of the weak neutral currents. The K and B neutral mesons. The CKM matrix. Electroweak unification and precision measurements of the Standard Model parameters. Discovery of the Higgs boson. Neutrino masses. Search for new effects beyond the Standard Model.
- Reference texts
- Alessandro Bettini: Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics (Cambridge University Press)
Mark Thomson: Modern Particle Physics (Cambridge University Press)
Donald H. Perkins: Introduction to High Energy Physics (Cambridge University Press)
Robert Cahn e Gerson Goldhaber: The experimental foundation of pparticle Physics (Cambridge University Press) - Educational objectives
- The main expected results, at the end of the course, for the knowledge and the capacity of undestanding are:
- Knowledge of the particle physics phenomenology and of the main experimental methods used
- Knowledge of fundamental interactions, particle classificarion and their properties, in the framework of the Standard Model
- Capacity of contextualize the main aspects of the vaste phenomenology of elementary processes within the Standard Model.
For the capacity of applying knowledge and understanding, the expected results are:
- Capacity of analyzing teh acquired knowledges with a critical approach and in a transversal way. - Prerequisites
- The course, intended for all the curricula, has a phenomenological approach. Topics will be addressed starting with a brief introduction of the theory; focus will be mainly on experimental aspects, interpretation of the data and comparison with theory. It is therefore fundamental to have knowledge of the underlying theory, which is the subject of the course "Theoretical Physics", with some specific topics, such as QED and Feynman diagrams. It is also assumed that students have knowledge of elementary scattering theory, electromagnetic structure of nucleons and nuclei and proton structure models. It is useful to have basics of group theory. The student is also advided to take, as optional course at the Bachelor, "Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics".
- Teaching methods
- Lectures.
- Other information
- The department and the associated reseach insitutes organize seminars on the research activities in the department and also on other relevant aspects of Particle Physics. The student is advised to attend the seminars.
- Learning verification modality
- The exams is an oral proof and consits of an interview of about 1 hour. The first part of the exam concerns the discussion of a fundamental discovery (or measurement) in Particle Physics. In the second part, the student will be asked to discuss other topics of the programme. The student is evaluated on his capacity of understanding and interpreting the article content, on the knowledge of the arguments of the programme and on the ability of putting different topics in relation among them. It is appreciated the capacity to examine in a critical way the process that led to the present model of Elementary Particle Physics.
- Extended program
- - Hadrons, mesons and baryons. The quark model. Resonances.
- Quantum Electrodynamics: the Feynmam diagrams. Experimental tests.
- Phenomenology of quantum cromodynamics: the nucleon structure, the colour charges and the quark masses.
- Weak interactions: parity and particle-antiparticle violation.
- Cabibbo mixing. GIM mechanism. Weak neutral currents.
- The K and B neutral mesons: flavour oscillations, mixing and CP violation.
- The CKM matrix: determination of the elements of the matrix and of the Unitarity triangle.
- Electroweak unification and precision measurements of the Standard Model parameters. Discovery of the Higgs boson.
- Neutrino, brief overview.
- Search for new effects beyond the Standard Model.