course dates credits
Electroweak and Strong Interactions Oct 5 - Dec 4 9
teachers schedule term
Andrea Romanino Mon-Thu, 11:30 - 13:00 0

Program:

Electroweak Interactions (S. Petcov)

  • Introductory Lecture.
  • Free Dirac equation, Dirac Spinors and Fields (massive, massless, chiral).
  • The Discrete Symmetries P, C and CP.
  • Majorana Fermions (particles): Definition, Properties, P-, C-, CP- Parities, Propagators, Currents. Majorana and Dirac+Majorana Mass Terms.
  • Weak Interactions: Early Developments (Brief Historical Overview).
  • Construction of the Standard Theory (ST).
    • The choice of the gauge symmetry group and the field content.
    • The Higgs Sector and Spontaneous Breaking of the Gauge Symmetry.
    • The Fermion Mass Generation.
    • The Interaction Lagrangian of the Standard Theory.
  • Phenomenology of the ST.
    • CKM-mixing and CP-violation in the quark sector.
    • Properties of the NC weak interaction.
  • Neutrino Masses, Mixing and Oscillations.
    • Evidences of Oscillations of Solar, Atmospheric and Reactor and Accelerator Neutrinos.
    • Generation of Neutrino Masses and Mixing in Gauge Theories.
    • Theory of Neutrino Oscillations in Vacuum and in Matter.
    • Phenomenology of Neutrino Mixing and Leptonic CP-Violation.
    • The See-Saw Mechanism and Leptogenesis.
  • Weak Interaction Processes at Low Energies.
    • Leptonic Processes
    • Semi-leptonic Processes
  • Decay Constants, Formfactors. Weak Formfactors of the Nucleons.
  • The Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani Theory and Mechanism.
  • Lepton Flavour Violating Decays, μ -> e + γ etc.
  • Phenomenology of Quark Mixing and CP-Violation. The Unitarity Triangle.
  • Outlook.


Collider physics (A. Azatov)

  • Introduction
  • Perturbative QCD (pQCD):
    • pQCD lagrangian
    • Feynman rules
    • Exact and approximated symmetries, anomalies
    • Instantons and vacuum structure
    • Perturbative expansion, field theory taxonomy, renormalons
  • Renormalization group equations (RGEs):
    • Writing and solving the RGEs
    • Asymptotic freedom and dimensional trasmutations (scale anomaly)
    • QCD scale vs. mass scale
  • e+ e- into hadrons:
    • Soft gluons and collinear divergencies
    • Infrared safe observables: total cross sections and jets
    • Fragmentation functions
    • Parton branching, showers and jet simulation
  • Deep inelastic scattering (DIS):
    • Parton model
    • QCD corrections
    • Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi (GLAP) equations
    • Factorization
    • Operator-product expansion (OPE)
    • OPE in DIS: parton-like picture without partons
    • GLAP equations (again!)
  • Hadron-hadron collisions:
    • Drell-Yan process
    • Factorization (again)
    • 2-jet cross section
    • W, Z production and decays
    • Higgs boson production and decays
  • Software tools


Flavor physics (A. Azatov)

  • Effective weak Hamiltonians:
    • Operator basis and Wilson coefficients
    • ΔS and ΔB = 1, 2
  • Hadonic matrix elements:
    • 1/N_c
  • Kaon and B-physics:
    • CP violation

Prerequisites:

  • Quantum mechanics and special relativity
  • A general idea of particle physics phenomenology
  • A working knowledge of basic QFT: decay rates and cross sections, perturbative expansion and Feynman rules, renormalization

Some of the topics in the collider and flavor physics parts are discussed assuming that you have been following the QFT course and will use some of the concepts developed therein.

Books:

RK Ellis, WJ Stirling and BR Webber, QCD and Collider Physics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996

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