Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics Elements
Module Module 2

Expected Learning Outcomes

The aim of  this module is to give knowledge to the student of subnuclear physics phenomenology, experiments in the field and fundamental discoveries.

With respect to the Dublin Descriptors, this course contributes to acquiring the following 
transversal skills:

- Knowledge and understanding

At the end of the course, students will have developed inductive and deductive reasoning 
skills. They will have acquired the main  experimentatal and phenomenological facts that led 
to the discovery of elementary particles and their interactions at a fundamental level. 
They will know basic elements of the Standard Model of Particle Physics.

- Ability to apply knowledge:

students will be able to front in a deeper way  topics covered in more 
advanced courses of their study path.

- Autonomy of judgment:

Acquisition of critical reasoning skills

- Communication skills:

management of scientific information and bibliographic searches.

Ability to present with proper language and terminology  a scientific topic, 
illustrating its reasons and results

- Learning ability:

Ability to update  knowledge through the reading of scientific publications, in Italian or 
English, in the fields of physics disciplines, also fronting topics not specifically studied 
during the course.

Course Structure

The second module takes just over 5 weeks. For each week there are 4 hours of frontal lessons, 
for a total of 21 hours (3 CFU)

Required Prerequisites

Knowledge of General Physics, Derivatives, Integrals, Differential Equations.

Attendance of Lessons

Attendance to the course is normally mandatory (consult didactic Regulations of the Course of Studies)

Detailed Course Content

• Basic concepts
• Il concetto di particella e i suoi numeri quantic
  • particles and quantum numbers
  • Fermions and bosons. Particles and antiparticles
  • Yukawa Forces
  • Relativistic Kinematics
  • Natural units

• Quark model and colors
  • Mesons and barions
  • Barion number,  Isospin,  Strangenes,  Charmnes, Bottomnes, Topnes
  • colors;
  • asintotic freedom and confinement
  • hadron jets
  • vacuum polarization
  •  J/Psi discovery
  • Charmonium and bottonium
  •  Deep Inelastic Scattering  e-e and e-p, Form factors, Structure function

• weak interactions

• beta decay
• pion muon and kaon decay
• parity violation
• electroweak unification
• Gargamelle experiments and neutral currents
• UA1 e UA2 experiments - W and Z discovery

Textbook Information

1. Particle Physics, B.R. Martin, G. Shaw, John Wiley and Son
2. D.H. Perkins, Introduction to High Energy Physics, D.H.  Addison-Wesley

Course Planning

Learning Assessment Procedures

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

parity symmetry

invariant mass

discovery J / PSI

quark model