- Docente: Ilaria Brivio
- Credits: 6
- SSD: PHYS-02/A
- Language: English
- Moduli: Michele Lucente (Modulo 1) Ilaria Brivio (Modulo 2)
- Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially) In-person learning (entirely or partially) (Modulo 1); In-person learning (entirely or partially) (Modulo 2)
- Campus: Bologna
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Corso:
Second cycle degree programme (LM) in
Physics (cod. 6695)
Also valid for Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Advanced Methods in Particle Physics (cod. 6694)
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from Oct 15, 2026 to Dec 18, 2026
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from Sep 17, 2026 to Oct 09, 2026
Learning outcomes
This course provides an in-depth and critical view on the key aspects of the Standard Model of particle physics. It presents its successes and its limitations, theoretical as well as experimental, and the main avenues currently explored to go beyond it. At the end of the course the students will be able to understand the open problems at the frontier of high energy physics and will have developed the theoretical skills necessary to tackle them.
Course contents
The course provides advanced knowledge of the theory of the Standard Model of elementary particles, with open questions from a theoretical and phenomenological perspective. The course is divided into three parts.
The first part is on precision Standard Model physics:
Lagrangian of the SM. Custodial Symmetry and the rho parameter. Linear and non-linear EW symmetry breaking. EW chiral Lagrangian. Unitarity and perturbativity of the SM. Higgs mass bounds: unitarity, triviality and stability. EW precision-observables (EWPO) and renormalisation schemes. Higgs phenomenology: decays and production. Top-quark phenomenology: decays and single and pair production.
The second part is dedicated to effective field theories:
Motivation and basic concepts: top-down and bottom-up approaches, power counting, renormalizability, operator bases, matching. Applications: Fermi Theory, the Standard Model as an Effective Field Theory. Phenomenology and constraints from precision experiments and LHC constraints. EFTs at one loop: matching and RGE running.
The third part places a focus on neutrino physics:
Brief history of neutrinos in the Standard Model. Neutrino oscillations in vacuum and in matter. Current status and open questions for the future. Nature and masses of neutrinos: Majorana and Dirac particles. Origin of neutrino masses beyond the Standard Model. Brief overview of related open problems of the Standard Model: dark matter; the baryon asymmetry and leptogenesis; the flavour puzzle.
Knowledge of the Standard Model Lagrangian and of Quantum Field Theory will be assumed.
Teaching methods
Lectures.
Students with DSA or temporary or permanent disabilities: please contact the pertinent University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en). They will suggest possible adjustments that will need to be brought to the teacher's attention for approval. Requests for adjustments need to be submitted with a 15 days notice.
Assessment methods
Oral exam
Office hours
See the website of Ilaria Brivio
See the website of Michele Lucente