Examination procedure
Seminar-like presentation on a topic of choice from the course.
Prerequisites
Master’s degree course (4th or 5th year). Prerequisites: special relativity, quantum mechanics. Particle-matter interactions (principles of operation of particle detectors) – recommended but not compulsory.
Syllabus
- Historical and general Standard Model introduction
- Particle classification and fundamental interaction classification. Relativistic kinematics (reminders), fundamental interactions and Feynman diagrams.
- Particle detection methods, general principles. Particle beams, acelerator luminosity, cross-sections.
- Symmetries and conservation laws.
- Weak interactions and parity violation. CP violation.
- Electroweak parameters, radiative corrections, pseudo-observables. Electroweak global fits and indirect constraints on quark top mass, and the mass of the Higgs boson before its discovery.
- General-purpose 4-pi detector at LEP: ALEPH’s design and performances.
- Precision EW measurements at LEP: lineshape and width of the Z boson, width of the Z boson decaying to invisible, number of light neutrino families, forward-backward asymmetries, and weak mixing angle determination.
- Physics of the W boson at LEP2: mass determination, WW production cross-section.
- General-purpose 4-pi detector at LHC: CMS’s design and performances.
- Precision EW physics at LHC: Higgs discovery and properties determination; measurement of the W boson properties
- Tau physics (A. Lusiani)
- Muon g-2 measurement (A. Lusiani)
Bibliographical references
M. Thomson: Modern Particle Physics
Handouts and references therein