Laboratory of Fundamental Interactions


course ID

Lecturer

CFU

10

Length

14 Weeks

Semester DD

First


Course details

Main processes on which is based the interaction radiation-matter. Various detectors and their use in Nuclear, Particle Physics  and gravitational waves
 - Scintillators organic and inorganic, Birks constant.
 - Electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters: energy resolution, compensation
 - Gas detectors: Ionization chamber, Proportional counter, multi-wire chamber, drift chamber, TPC, RPC
 - Semiconductor detectors
 - Particle identification: Rich and Cerenkov detectors
-  Interferometers and gravitational waves instrumentations

The course includes small experiments  on different aspects of the course, like:
- Gamma rays sources using inorganic scintillators
- Detector electronics
- Measurements on a gas detector: study of the efficiency, resolution etc
- Use of GEANT Monte Carlo to study the performance of a sampling calorimeter
- Data Analysis

- Instrumentation for gravitational waves

 

Co-teaching: dott. Lorenzini Matteo

Objectives

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The aim of the course is to provide the theoretical and practical knowledge for carrying out experiments in Nuclear, Subnuclear and Gravitational Wave Physics and the different types of detectors and associated reading electronics.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: 

In-depth knowledge of the operation of detectors: in particular scintillation, solid state, gas, calorimeters. Knowledge of electronic instrumentation in Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics and gravitational waves experiments. Use of the Montecarlo program for the simulation and design of the detectors. Data analysis of ongoing experiments.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:

The student must develop a high degree of autonomy in the ability to:
1. use professional electronic equipment.
2. determine the working parameters of simple detectors: such as scintillation, gas ones and measure the efficiency and resolution of these detectors.
3. designing a calorimeter using the Geant simulation program
4. write a simple program to analyze i

MAKING JUDGEMENTS: 

Ability to collect relevant data and interpret them. Ability to integrate knowledge and deal with complexity. Ability to make judgments even with limited or incomplete information.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

Ability to explain the laboratory experiences carried out, describing the experimental setup used, the procedures for setting up the instrumentation used, data taking and data analysis. Ability to communicate effectively the conclusions on the work done and to highlight the knowledge and basic principles that lead to these conclusions.