Learning outcomes
At the end, the students will acquire familiarity: with the physics
of nuclei (nuclear models,nuclear stability, nuclear fission and
fusion), with particular emphasis on reactions that occur in
astrophysics; with the ultimate constituents of matter (quarks and
leptons) and their interactions with each other (electromagnetic,
strong and weak interactions). The student assimilates specific
examples of connection between the microcosm and macrocosm.
Course contents
Short history of Particle Physics.
Quantum Physics for Particle Physics.
Accelerators and detectors for particles.
The four fundamental interactions.
Invariance and conservation laws (parity, charge
conjugation, time reversal, CP and CPT).
Hadron- hadron collisions in the resonance region and at high
energy.
The static quark model. The color quantum number.
Electron-positron collision. The discovery of heavy quarks.
The weak interactions. The discovery of neutrinos.
The weak interactions cross section. The Fermi model.
The vector bosons Z and W. The Standard model of particle
physics.
The atomic nucleus. Nuclear stability. Radioactive decay. The
nuclear structure.
Nuclear Energy.
Connections between Particle Physics and Astrophysics and
Cosmology.