About this course: This course introduces you to subatomic physics, i.e. the physics of nuclei and particles. More specifically, the following questions are addressed: - What are the concepts of particle physics and how are they implemented? - What are the properties of atomic nuclei and how can one use them? - How does one accelerate and detect particles and measure their properties? - What does one learn from particle reactions at high energies and particle decays? - How do electromagnetic interactions work and how can one use them? - How do strong interactions work and why are they difficult to understand? - How do weak interactions work and why are they so special? - What is the mass of objects at the subatomic level and how does the Higgs boson intervene? - How does one search for new phenomena beyond the known ones? - What can one learn from particle physics concerning astrophysics and the Universe as a whole? The course is structured in eight modules. Following the first one which introduces our subject, the modules 2 (nuclear physics) and 3 (accelerators and detectors) are rather self contained and can be studied separately. The modules 4 to 6 go into more depth about matter and forces as described by the standard model of particle physics. Module 7 deals with our ways to search for new phenomena. And the last module introduces you to two mysterious components of the Universe, namely Dark Matter and Dark Energy.
Who is this class for: This course is aimed at people who have a basic education in physics, especially classical mechanics and electrodynamics. Basic notions of special relativity and quantum mechanics may also be useful, although we give short reminders of these tools. The ideal background would be that of a 3rd year student in any scientific discipline.
Created by: University of Geneva
Taught by: Martin Pohl, Professeur ordinaire
Département de physique nucléaire et corpusculaire
Taught by: Mercedes Paniccia, Collaboratrice scientifique
Département de Physique Nucléaire et Corpusculaire
Taught by: Anna Sfyrla, Assistant Professor
Nuclear and Particle Physics
| Commitment | We estimate the workload for this course to be about 11 weeks of study with 3 to 4 hours/week, depending on your usage of the optional material. |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Matter and forces, measuring and counting
During this first module, we will give an overview of the objects studied in particle physics, namely matter, forces and space-time. We will discuss how one characterizes the strength of an interaction between particles using the concept of cross section, which is central to our subject. At the end of this module, we will visit the laboratory of the nuclear physics course at University of Geneva to see an example of how one measures the strength of a reaction in practice.
13 videos, 5 practice quizzes
- Video: General presentation of the course
- Video: 1.1 Matter
- Practice Quiz: 1.1 Matter
- Video: 1.2 Forces
- Video: 1.2a Natural units (optional)
- Video: 1.2b Special relativity and four-vectors (optional)
- Video: 1.2c Virtual particles (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 1.2 Forces
- Video: 1.3 Probability and cross section
- Video: 1.3a Attenuation of a photon beam (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 1.3 Probability and cross section
- Video: 1.4 Rutherford experiment
- Video: 1.4a Rutherford cross section (optional)
- Video: 1.4b Counting rate Rutherford (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 1.4 Rutherford experiment
- Video: 1.5 Quantum scattering
- Practice Quiz: 1.5 Quantum scattering
- Video: 1.6 Rutherford experiment in practice (optional)
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 1
WEEK 2
Nuclear physics
During this second module, we deal with nuclear physics and its applications. This is a rather self-contained module. If your main interest is nuclear physics, you will be well served. You will notice that this is a rather substantial module, we recommend that you take two weeks to digest it. At the end of this module, we will visit the Tokamak of the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne and the Beznau nuclear power plant, the oldest one still in operation. This will alllow you to better understand the applications of nuclear physics for our energy supply.
15 videos, 1 reading, 9 practice quizzes
- Video: 2.1 Nuclear mass and binding energy
- Practice Quiz: 2.1 Nuclear mass and binding energy
- Video: 2.2 Nuclear size and spin
- Practice Quiz: 2.2 Nuclear size and spin
- Video: 2.3 Models of nuclear structure
- Video: 2.3a QCD and nuclear force (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 2.3 Models of nuclear structure
- Video: 2.4 Radioactivity: alpha decay
- Video: 2.4a Energy of alpha particles (optional)
- Reading: 2.4 Radioactivity: alpha decay
- Practice Quiz: 2.4 Radioactivity: alpha decay
- Video: 2.5 Beta and gamma decay
- Video: 2.5a Exponential decay law (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 2.5 Beta and gamma decay
- Video: 2.6 Radioactivity in practice (optional)
- Video: 2.7 Radiocarbon dating and NMR imaging
- Practice Quiz: 2.7 Radiocarbon dating and NMR imaging
- Video: 2.8 Nuclear fission
- Practice Quiz: 2.8 Nuclear fission
- Video: 2.9 Nuclear power
- Practice Quiz: 2.9 Nuclear power
- Video: 2.10 Nuclear fusion, the Sun and ITER
- Practice Quiz: 2.10 Nuclear fusion, the Sun and ITER
- Video: 2.11 The tokamak of EPFL (optional)
- Video: 2.12 The Beznau nuclear power plant (optional)
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 2
WEEK 3
Accelerators and detectors
In this module, we treat the basic facts about particle acceleration and detection. This is a rather self-contained module. If your main interest is particle acceleration and detection, you will be well served. You will notice that this is rather substantial module, we recommend that you take two weeks to digest it. We introduce electromagnetic acceleration and focalisation of particle beams and show how they are used in the accelerator complex of CERN. We describe how charged particles and photons interact with matter and how these interactions are used to detect particles and measure their properties. And we show how modern particle detectors use the synergies between different detection methods to get exhaustive information about the final state of particle collisions.
14 videos, 3 readings, 9 practice quizzes
- Video: 3.1 Principles of particle acceleration
- Video: 3.1a Cyclotron frequency (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 3.1 Principles of particle acceleration
- Video: 3.2 Acceleration and focalisation
- Video: 3.2a The CERN accelerator complex (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 3.2 Acceleration and focalisation
- Video: 3.3 Components of the LHC (optional)
- Video: 3.4 Heavy particles in matter
- Practice Quiz: 3.4 Heavy particles in matter
- Video: 3.5 Light particles in matter
- Practice Quiz: 3.5 Light particles in matter
- Video: 3.6 Photons in matter
- Practice Quiz: 3.6 Photons in matter
- Video: 3.7 Ionisation detectors
- Practice Quiz: 3.7 Ionisation detectors
- Video: 3.8 Semiconductor detectors
- Practice Quiz: 3.8 Semiconductor detectors
- Video: 3.9 Scintillation and Cherenkov detectors
- Reading: 3.9 Scintillation and Cherenkov detectors
- Practice Quiz: 3.9 Scintillation and Cherenkov detectors
- Video: 3.10 Spectrometers and calorimeters
- Video: 3.10a Particle detection with ATLAS (optional)
- Reading: 3.10 Spectrometers and calorimeters
- Practice Quiz: 3.10 Spectrometers and calorimeters
- Video: 3.11 Particle detectors at DPNC (optional)
- Reading: 3.11 Particle detectors at DPNC (optional)
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 3
WEEK 4
Electromagnetic interactions
We now start a series of three modules discussing the three fundamental forces described by the Standard Model of particle physics. In this forth module, we go into more details about the properties of electromagnetic interactions. We discuss spin and how it intervenes in measurements. And we give a few examples of basic electromagnetic processes to point out common features.
You will notice that the intellectual challenge and also the level of mathematical description rises somewhat as we go along. This is why we first remind you how to describe the intensity of a reaction using the cross section and the decay rate and how to construct a Feynman diagram.
7 videos, 5 practice quizzes
- Video: 4.1 Reminder: Describing particle interactions
- Video: 4.1a How to construct a Feynman diagram (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 4.1 Reminder: Describing particle interactions
- Video: 4.2 Electromagnetic scattering
- Practice Quiz: 4.2 Electromagnetic scattering
- Video: 4.3 Spin and magnetic moment
- Video: 4.3a Motion in a Penning Trap
- Practice Quiz: 4.3 Spin and magnetic moment
- Video: 4.4 Compton scattering and pair annihilation
- Practice Quiz: 4.4 Compton scattering and pair annihilation
- Video: 4.5 Electron-positron annihilation
- Practice Quiz: 4.5 Electron-positron annihilation
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 4
WEEK 5
Hadrons and strong interaction
In this module we discuss the structure of hadrons and the properties of strong interactions. We start out by explaining how one uses the scattering of electrons off nucleons to learn about the internal structure of these baryons. Step by step we lead you from elastic scattering, through the excitation of resonances, all the way to deep inelastic processes. You thus learn about the concept of form factors and structure functions and what they tell us about hadron structure. We then discuss the physics behind this and learn about color and the strange features of strong interactions, like asymptotic freedom and confinement.
5 videos, 5 practice quizzes
- Video: 5.1 Elastic electron-nucleon scattering
- Practice Quiz: 5.1 Elastic electron-nucleon scattering
- Video: 5.2 Inelastic scattering and quarks
- Practice Quiz: 5.2 Inelastic scattering and quarks
- Video: 5.3 Quark-antiquark resonances and mesons
- Practice Quiz: 5.3 Quark-antiquark resonances and mesons
- Video: 5.4 Color and strong interactions
- Practice Quiz: 5.4 Color and strong interactions
- Video: 5.5 Hadronisation and jets
- Practice Quiz: 5.5 Hadronisation and jets
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 5
WEEK 6
Electro-weak interactions
In this 6th module, we discuss weak interactions and the Higgs mechanism. You will notice that this module is again larger that average. This is due to the rich phenomenology of electro-weak interactions. We recommend that you take 2 weeks to digest the contents. Before entering into our subject, in this first video we go into more depth on the subject of antiparticles. We will then discuss the discrete transformations of charge, space and time reversal. Weak interactions are introduced, explaining the weak charge (called weak isospin) and examples of decays and interactions. Properties of the W and Z bosons are detailed. The extremely tiny cross sections of neutrino interactions with matter are discussed. In the last part of the module, we explain how the Higgs mechanism keeps particles from moving at the speed of light, and the properties of the associated Higgs boson.
13 videos, 12 practice quizzes
- Video: 6.1 Particles and antiparticles
- Practice Quiz: 6.1 Particles and antiparticles
- Video: 6.2 The discrete transformations C, P and T
- Practice Quiz: 6.2 The discrete transformations C, P and T
- Video: 6.3 Weak charges and interactions
- Practice Quiz: 6.3 Weak charges and interactions
- Video: 6.4 Muon and tau lepton decay
- Practice Quiz: 6.4 Muon and tau lepton decay
- Video: 6.5 The W boson
- Practice Quiz: 6.5 The W boson
- Video: 6.6 The Z boson
- Practice Quiz: 6.6 The Z boson
- Video: 6.7 Weak decays of quarks
- Practice Quiz: 6.7 Weak decays of quarks
- Video: 6.8 Particle-antiparticle oscillations and CP violation
- Practice Quiz: 6.8 Particle-antiparticle oscillations and CP violation
- Video: 6.9 Neutrino scattering
- Practice Quiz: 6.9 Neutrino scattering
- Video: 6.10 Neutrino oscillations
- Practice Quiz: 6.10 Neutrino oscillations
- Video: 6.11 The Higgs mechanism
- Practice Quiz: 6.11 The Higgs mechanism
- Video: 6.12 The Higgs boson
- Practice Quiz: 6.12 The Higgs boson
- Video: 6.13 The discovery of the Higgs boson (optional)
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 6
WEEK 7
Discovering new phenomena
In this 7th module Anna discusses searches for new phenomena, beyond the known ones described by the standard model and covered in previous modules. We will remind you why we believe that the standard model is incomplete and new physics must be added. We will explain how hadron collider data are rendered usable for searches. And we will discuss examples, split into the two categories, based on how new phenomena might manifest themselves.
5 videos, 4 practice quizzes
- Video: 7.1 The world beyond the Standard Model
- Practice Quiz: 7.1 The world beyond the Standard Model
- Video: 7.2 Sifting chaff from the wheat
- Practice Quiz: 7.2 Sifting chaff from the wheat
- Video: 7.3 Hunting peaks
- Practice Quiz: 7.3 Hunting peaks
- Video: 7.4 Hunting tails
- Practice Quiz: 7.4 Hunting tails
- Video: 7.5 Hunting new physics with LHCb (optional)
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 7
WEEK 8
Dark matter and dark energy
5 videos, 3 practice quizzes
- Video: 8.1 The Big Bang and its consequences
- Practice Quiz: 8.1 The Big Bang and its consequences
- Video: 8.2 Dark matter
- Practice Quiz: 8.2 Dark matter
- Video: 8.3 Dark energy
- Video: 8.3a Motivating the Friedmann equation (optional)
- Practice Quiz: 8.3 Dark energy
- Video: 8.4 What hides behind dark matter and dark energy? (optional)
Graded: Graded quiz for Module 8
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University of Geneva
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Ratings and Reviews
It is a very nice introductory course which is supported with laboratory session which is an awesome idea, but the mathematics used in this course is somehow higher level to me, so I recommend if there is any source to learn the mathematics behind this lectures. last but not least I would like to thank all the staff working on this course especially Dr. Martin, Dr. Mercedes, Dr. Anna for their attractive and elaborating way of lecturing
Very good overview. The equation require quite a bit more explanation and the tests really only test the concepts not the mathematics.
I recommend English subtitles for the optional lectures, which are in French.
Thank you for this course, i am looking forward to future courses. I found it helpful that we were not drowned in difficult calculations. I also found it helpful that we were given hints of calculations. Just about the right mix for a hopeful beginner. Thanks again to all the team and good luck in your future discoveries
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Excellent course!