Entry requirements

120 credits with Particle Physics and Quantum Field Theory.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• account for the Standard Model of particle physics and its experimental verification
• account for the limitations of the Standard Model and need for going beyond it with major ideas on new physics and how one may search for it experimentally
• analyse particle physics processes based on the Standard Model and Feynman diagrams
• account for the major types of particle physics experiments and their main detectors
• account for connections to astrophysics and cosmology

Content

- Experimental and theoretical aspects of modern particle physics in terms of fundamental matter particles (quarks and leptons) and force quanta (photon, W±, Z0, gluons).

- The gauge theory of electroweak and strong interactions, i.e. the Standard Model.

- Use of Feynman diagrams to understand basic processes and calculate cross-sections (by hand or using computer methods).

- Experimental state-of-the-art techniques used in today's experiments.

- Experimental verification of the Standard Model and its particle content.

- Discoveries of new phenomena (e.g. CP violation and neutrino oscillations) and searches for new physics related to unsolved problems and limitations of the Standard Model.

- Introduction to Supersymmetry and other theories beyond the Standard Model.

- Prospects for discoveries of new phenomena, e.g. in LHC-experiments at CERN.

- Introduction to particle astrophysics with connections to cosmology.

Instruction

Lectures, exercises for problem solving, seminars.

Assessment

Seminars (3 c), hand-in exercises (2 c) and final examination (5 c).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the disability coordinator of the university.