ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS

Module ELEMENTARY PARTICLE PHYSICS II

The course is aimed to provide an advanced knowledge of the particle physics phenomenology. In particular, the course is aimed to critically discuss the latest achievements  in particle physics analysing the results obtained at LEP, TeVatron and LHC. The student will acquire a critical knowledge about the Standard Model, the discovery and calssification of elementary particles, the Higgs mechanism and the possible extension of the Standard Model, the research methodology and the obtained results.

The course is based on lectures with student active participation.

Should the circumstances require online or blended teaching, appropriate modifications to what is hereby stated may be introduced, in order to achieve the main objectives of the course.

“Advanced Quantum Mechanics”, “Nuclear and Particle Physics”, “Strong Interactions”

• Remind of leptons and quarks properties and gauge theories (QED and QCD).
• Mesons, Baryons and exotic states.
• Heavy Flavour Physics.
• Quantum Cromo-Dynamics (QCD). Properties of quarks and gluons. Asymptotic freedom and Confinement. The running of coupling constants. Jet properties and identification criteria. Sphericity, thrust and topological variables. Measurement of αstrong in tau and hadronic multi-jet events.
• The Standard Model of electroweak interactions. The EW lagrangian. Massless gauge bosons. The Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking mechanism.
• Z and W boson properties: neutral and charged currents. Properties and decays of the intermediate vector bosons.
• Electroweak Physics: precision test of the SM (sin²θ_W, Z lineshape parameters, W mass and cross-section, neutrino families, top quark). Leptonic and hadronic event selection. B tagging techniques. Tau tagging techniques. EW global fit.
• Higgs Mechanism. The search for the SM Higgs boson. Results from LEP, TeVatron and LHC.  The discovery of the Higgs boson at LHC

• Heavy Flavour Physics: charm, bottom, top. Properties of heavy quarks. Latest results in heavy flavour Physics at e+e- and hadron colliders
• CP violation: CP violation in K and B mesons. Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. Measurement of sin 2β. Direct and indirect decays. Mixing. Neutral B meson oscillations. B factories. The unitarity triangle and UTFit.

• Beyond the Standard Model Physics: limits of the SM. BSM. GUT. BSM Higgs boson Physics. MSSM: search for SUSY particles at LEP and TeVatron. Search for SUSY particles at LHC.
• New accelerators: the energy vs. intensity frontier. 

The use of minutes of the lectures as well as of summary papers provided during the course is strongly suggested 

Reference books:

Dynamics of the Standard Model - J. Donoughue -Cambridge Mongraphs

Quarks and Leptons: An Introductory Course in Modern Particle Physics - F. Halzen, A.D. Martin

Introduction to Particle Physics - A. Bettini - Cambridge University Press

The questions below are not an exhaustive list but are just a few examples

Neutrino families

Mechanisms of production and decay of the Higgs boson

b-tagging

Lineshape of the Z boson