Corso di laurea in Fisica

Phenomenology of Fundamental Interactions

Phenomenology of Fundamental Interactions

Anno accademico 2021/2022

Sommario insegnamento

• Obiettivi formativi
• Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi
• Modalità di insegnamento
• Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
• Programma
• Testi consigliati e bibliografia
• Strumenti didattici

Obiettivi formativi

The course introduces the fundamentals of the Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics and some of its extensions in a phenomenological approach. In particular the Electroweak interactions and Quantum Chromodynamics are discussed, as well as a few of their phenomenolical applications like neutrino physics. The concept of anomalies and their cancellation in the SM is developed and the course deals with some phenomenological consequences of the most common extenstions of SM.

Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi

The students will know the fundamentals of the Standard Model of Particle Physics and their phenomenological implications. They will acquire essential notions on phenomenological applications like neutrino physics and new physics at accelerators.

Modalità di insegnamento

In person if at all possible, with the possibility of online attendance.

Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

The exam consists of an oral examination, lasting typically 30-45 minutes, during which it is required to discuss ab initio two to three topics developed in class, presenting the issues both from a physical and a mathematical viewpoint.

If pandemic conditions will forbid exams in presence, the exam will be an oral one managed online via the webex platform.

Programma

Program of the Course of Phenomenology of Fundamental Interactions

Electroweak interactions: History
Currents and their conservation in field theory; The Fermi Lagrangian; Parity Violation; Weak currents for quarks; Cabibbo angle; Experimental tests; Flavor Changing Neutral Currents; GIM mechanism.

Electroweak interactions: the Standard Model.
Limits of the Fermi theory: parity violation and non-renormalizability (power-counting); SU(2) Gauge theory;
Inclusion of the electromagnetic current; Weinberg Angle; Interaction Lagrangian with neutral and charged
currents; Lagrangian for the gauge fields.

Electroweak interactions: the problem with masses.
Problems related to massive gauge bosons. Global hidden symmetries and Goldstone bosons; Local hidden symmetries and Higgs mechanism; scalar electrodynamics; non-Abelian cases, the Standard Model; The masses of the fermions: Yukawa couplings. Mixing in the general case, CKM matrix.

Concept of anomalies and their cancellation in the Standard Model.

Quantum chromodynamics.
Lagrangian of QCD; Running of alpha_s, asymptotic freedom and confinement; Parton Model; Processes in QCD: R ratio, deep ineleastic scattering with charged leptons and neutrinos, Drell and Yan, notes on jet production.

Phenomenological applications.
Neutrino physics: Dirac and Majorana neutrino; Kurie plot; Oscialltion probability, solar and atmospheric neutrinos. Semileptonic processes: form factors and their parametrization.

Physics beyond the SM.
Limitations of the SM; Motivations for a grand unified theories and possible models; Proton decay; Unification of coupling constants; Motivations for supersymmetry; SMEFT.

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