Schema della sezione

  • Exams will be held on

    • 12/06/2026, 9:45am
    • 06/07/2026, 10am
    • 20/07/2026, 10am

    at ICTP, room 204.

  • Books on the Standard Model

    • Grossman & Nir - The Standard Model

      The main reference in terms of how the course will be structured. Also available online in a pre-publication version https://www.classe.cornell.edu/~yuvalg/GNB/GNB-master-03302022.pdf
    • Marco Fabbrichesi - The Standard Model
      a different way of introducing the subject, very deep and with illuminating examples

    The SM Lagrangian and its Feynman rules

    • Romao & Silva's "A resource for signs and Feynman diagrams of the Standard Model" is an invaluable resource because it carefully tracks all the convention-dependent factors, especially those elusive minus signs that cause so many headaches during calculations.
      https://arxiv.org/abs/1209.6213
    • For how to compute the Feynman rule for a generic vertex see the attached note

    Books on QFT

    • Schwartz - Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model
      My favourite QFT book, at the right level for undergraduate studies.
    • Peskin & Schroeder - An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory
      Simply the classic, since 30 years. Unbeatable when it comes to calculations and phenomenological applications.

    Other readings

    • https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.10233
      Historical perspective. It helps to understand why things are presented the way they are, and to appreciate their complexity. The SM, seen from the bottom-up perspective of a physicist in the 70ies, appears even more beautiful than today.
    • https://www.slac.stanford.edu/econf/C0907232/pdf/001.pdf
      http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/sm/standardmodel.pdf
      nice sets of lecture notes
    • https://cds.cern.ch/record/454171/files/p53.pdf
      An introduction to perturbative effects in QCD
    • Introduction to the course (see attached slides)
    • Spinor representations
    • Weil spinors and their properties
    • Dirac spinors from Weil ones and viceversa
    • Chirality vs. helicity
    • Spinor solutions of the Dirac equations
    • Discrete spacetime symmetries
    • Internal symmetries
    • Z_2 symmetry
    • Global U(1) symmetry
    • Charges
    • Symmetries and fermion masses
    • Local ("gauge") abelian symmetry
    • Scalar QED Lagrangian
    • QED Lagrangian
    • QED
    • Interactions and Feynman rules
    • e+e- --> mu+mu-
  • S matrix, cross sections and decay rates

    • e+ e- --> mu+ mu-
    • Important scattering processes: Rutherford, Compton
    • Ward identity
    • Photon polarization sum
    • Radiative corrections: introduction
    • Renormalization of QED
    • IR divergencies
    • Non-Abelian symmetries
    • Recap of group theory
    • Global non-Abelian symmetries
    • Quantization and Feynman rules
    • Quarks, gluons and their properties
    • Beta function of QCD
    • Mesons and baryons
    • Discrete Z2 symmetry
    • Global continuous symmetries
    • Nambu-Goldstone bosons and Goldstone theorem
    • Quark model
    • Symmetries of QCD and hadrons
    • SSB: pions and K's as Goldstone bosons
    • Spontaneous breaking of a gauge symmetry
    • The Abelian Higgs mechanism
    • Massive vectors from SSB
    • Introduction to the EW theory
    • The four main ingredients: The gauge group, Fermionic representations, Scalar sector, SSB pattern.
    • Spectrum of gauge bosons, charges and interactions
    • Partial wave unitarity
    • Goldstone boson equivalence
    • Yukawa matrices and physical parameters
    • Mass vs. flavour basis
    • Lepton interactions are diagonals
    • Quark masses
    • Quark masses
    • Neutral current weak interactions
    • Charged current interactions
    • CKM matrix
    • Unitarity triangle
    • CKM phases and CP violation
    • CP violation
    • No FCNC at tree level in the SM
    • Colliders
    • Breit-Wigner formula
    • Massive vectors: propagators and polarizations
    • W, Z, h, t at colliders
    • QCD and the parton model: elastic e-p scattering
    • Deep inelastic e-p scattering
    • DIS
    • Parton distribution functions
    • DGLAP equations
    • Parton shower and hadronization
    • Weak decay of hadrons: meta-stable particles and unstable resonances
    • Factorization into weak and strong amplitudes
    • Pion decay constant
    • Kaon form factor
    • GIM mechanism
    • FNCN decays
    • Neutral meson systems: K0, B0, B0s, D0
    • Majorana fermions
    • Majorana masses
    • The Weinberg operator for neutrino masses
    • Majorana masses from the Weinberg operator
    • Neutrino interactions
    • PMNS matrix
    • Values of neutrino masses
    • Flavour changing processes: mu to e gamma, neutrinoless double beta decay
    • Energy scale of a UV completion
    • See-saw mechanism
    • Neutrino oscillations