Academic Year 2021/2022
- Docente: Silvia Pascoli
- Credits: 6
- SSD: FIS/02
- Language: English
- Moduli: Silvia Pascoli (Modulo 1) Gian Paolo Vacca (Modulo 2) Davide Pagani (Modulo 3)
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2) Traditional lectures (Modulo 3)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Physics (cod. 9245)
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
1st Module
0. Course overview. Summary of the standard model (gauge structure, fundamental interactions, particle content) and open questions from a theoretical and phenomenological perspective.
1. Neutrino physics. History of neutrino physics. Neutrinos in the standard model: weak interactions, neutrino scattering and number of active neutrinos. Theory of neutrino oscillations: in vacuum and in matter. Phenomenology of neutrino oscillations: brief overview of the experimental status. Current state of knowledge of neutrinos and questions for the future. Nature of neutrinos: Majorana and Dirac particles, double beta decay without neutrinos. Neutrino masses: Dirac and Majorana masses. Origin of neutrino masses beyond the Standard Model: see-saw models and other models of masses at different scales, their theoretical motivations and experimental consequences. The problem of flavour in the lepton sector.
Readings/Bibliography
- C. Giunti and C. W. Kim,
Fundamentals of Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics
Oxford University Press, USA, 2007
- M. E. Peskin and D. V. Schroeder,
An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory,
(Addison Wesley, 1995)
- C.P. Burgess, G. Moore,
“The Standard Model: A Primer”,
Cambridge University Press
- Paolo Nason,
Introduction to perturbative QCD (PDF)
- Michelangelo Mangano,
Introduction to QCD (PDF)
- Böhm, Denner , Joos
Gauge Theories of the Strong and Electroweak Interaction
Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2012
- Ayres Freitas
Precision Tests of the Standard Model (PDF)
Teaching methods
Lectures at the blackboard/online (in presence and/or remote), complemented by tutorials and topical seminars
Assessment methods
Oral examination including the presentation of an advanced topic
Teaching tools
Slides (PDF) for specific lectures, web resources for further reading.
Office hours
See the website of Silvia Pascoli
See the website of Gian Paolo Vacca
See the website of Davide Pagani