CFU
6
Length
14 Weeks
Semester DD
Second
Radiative corrections, symmetries and observables in QED (about 8 hours)
Low energy effective theories: from the sigma model to QCD (about 8 hours)
Realization of global symmetries and hadron spectrum in QCD (about 4 hours)
Standard Model at low energy: QCD+QED, electron+positron to hadrons (about 4 hours)
Standard Model: gauge fixing, some tree-level and one-loop predictions (about 6 hours)
Anomalies: meaning of the global ones; cancellation of the gauge ones (about 8 hours)
New physics scales and cosmology: Higgs inflation; QCD axion models (about 10 hours)
The programme given above, which is indicative, will be adapted to the background of the students who will eventually choose to attend this class. If needed, fewer arguments will be covered, devoting more time to each of them, than indicated above.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
This course aims at providing master students interested in High Energy Theoretical Physics with the tools needed to understand our theoretical description of the basic physical processes involving elementary particles that are subjected to electromagnetic, weak and strong nuclear interactions, as well as to discuss current evidence for new physics beyond the Standard Model.
The course is taught by lectures. Discussions and digressions on specific topics triggered by questions from the students are expected and highly welcome. The lectures will be tuned on the average preparation level of the students about elementary particle physics processes and quantum field theory.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
The course should allow the students to extend and deepen their knowledge in Theoretical Physics with the goal of understanding how a theoretical model can describe experimentally observed (or observable) phenomena involving elementary particles that are subjected to electromagnetic, weak and strong nuclear interactions.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
Students are expected to become able to study in a quantitative way, following also advanced books and scientific review articles, a few simple key processes (e.g. decays, scattering and resonances) in elementary particle physics.
MAKING JUDGEMENTS:
Students should be able to critically analyse the current level of understanding of elementary particle physics phenomena, for instance whether the description of a certain process is from first principles or merely phenomenological. To this goal they should get familiar with the effective theory approach and master the relation of effective models to (relatively more) fundamental theories.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
Students must be able to discuss a certain process involving elementary particles in a clear
and technically appropriate language, disentangling the pieces of experimental info from the
the theoretical ideas used for the phenomenological description and stressing possible weak point in the current theoretical understanding.
LEARNING SKILLS:
Students are expected to become able to read and understand by themselves advanced textbooks and review papers on the topics covered in the lectures; and to learn about the key role played by the theory of elementary particles in the development of High Energy Physics in the last 60 years or so, which can possibly inform and inspire their future activity.