00411 - Physics of Elementary Particles

Academic Year 2011/2012

  • Docente: Andrea Castro
  • Credits: 12
  • SSD: FIS/04
  • Language: Italian
  • Moduli: Andrea Castro (Modulo 1) Sylvie Braibant (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Physics (cod. 8025)

Learning outcomes

With this course the student acquires the basic knowledge on the experimental Physics of the Elementary Particles, mainly regarding the principles, the phenomenology and the experimental techniques of particle detection. The student is able to understand: - how detectors work and their characteristics; the measurable characteristics of the fundamental interactions; the interactions of particles with matter and the related measurable effects; the invariance laws and the related simmetries; the phenomenology related to the foundations of the research in particle physics; the collision between different types of particle and the resulting effects on the study of the fundamental interactions; the research perspectives regarding the behavior of the infinitely small and, at the same time, the infinitely big. Finally the student acquires familiarity with the Standard Model and with the fundamental constituents of matter (quarks, leptons and gluons), knowing their quantum characteristics and their mutual interaction. In particular the student is able to: understand the difference between leptons, quarks and gluons;  apply the models of interaction between the fundamental constituents of matter; understand the limits of the Model and the possible measurable deviations; calculate cross sections and statistical distributions for the collisions among particles.

Course contents

  • The 4 fundamental interactions
  • Invariance principles and conservation laws
  • Classification of the elementary particles and quark model
  • Hadron-hadron and lepton-nucleon collisions
  • Particle accelerators
  • Silicon detectors and multipurpose detectors
  • Weak interaction
  • Electroweak interaction
  • Neutrino physics and particle oscillations
  • Beyond the Standard Model
  • Phenomenology of proton-proton collisions at the LHC

Readings/Bibliography

S. Braibant, G. Giacomelli, M. Spurio, Particelle ed interazioni fondamentali, Ed. Springer

D.H. perkins, Introduction to High Energy Physics, Addison-Wesley

Teaching methods

Lectures and exercitations in the lecture-hall

Assessment methods

Oral examination

Teaching tools

Blackboard and overhead projector

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Castro

See the website of Sylvie Braibant