67115 - Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics

Learning outcomes

At the end, the students will acquire familiarity: with the physics of nuclei (nuclear models,nuclear stability, nuclear fission and fusion), with particular emphasis on reactions that occur in astrophysics; with the ultimate constituents of matter (quarks and leptons) and their interactions with each other (electromagnetic, strong and weak interactions). The student assimilates specific examples of connection between the microcosm and macrocosm.

Course contents

Short history of Particle Physics.

Quantum Physics for Particle Physics.

Accelerators and detectors for particles.

The four fundamental interactions.

Invariance and conservation laws (parity, charge conjugation,  time reversal, CP and CPT).

Hadron- hadron collisions in the resonance region and at high energy.

The static quark model. The color quantum number.

Electron-positron collision. The discovery of heavy quarks.

The weak interactions. The discovery of neutrinos.

The weak interactions cross section. The Fermi model.

The vector bosons Z and W. The Standard model of particle physics.

The atomic nucleus. Nuclear stability. Radioactive decay. The nuclear structure.

Nuclear Energy.

Connections between Particle Physics and Astrophysics and Cosmology.

Readings/Bibliography

S. Braibant,G.Giacomelli, M. Spurio: Particles and Fundamental Interactions

http://www.springer.com/physics/particle+and+nuclear+physics/book/978-94-007-2463-1
Springer- ISBN 978-94-007-2463-1

Exercises available from: http://www.bo.infn.it/~spurio/particelle.htm

Additional material:

-I.S. Hugues, Elementary particles (3rd ed.)- Cambridge

-D. Griffiths, Introduction to elementary particles (2nd ed.) - Wiley-VCH

-E.M. Henley, A. Garcia, Subatomic Physics, World Scientific

Teaching methods

Lectures on blackboard and slides.

Assessment methods

Oral assesment

Teaching tools

Dedicated textbook

Office hours

See the website of Maurizio Spurio