Schema della sezione

  • Introduzione

    Minimizza tutto Espandi tutto

  • Exams

    Exams will be held on

    • 11/06/2026, 10am
    • 06/07/2026, 10am
    • 20/07/2026, 10am

    at ICTP, room 204.

  • Textbooks and other suggested readings

    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

    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

  • Problem sheet

  • Lecture 1 - 24.02.26

    • Introduction to the course (see attached slides)
    • Spinor representations

  • Lecture 2 - 26.02.26

    • Weil spinors and their properties
    • Dirac spinors from Weil ones and viceversa
    • Chirality vs. helicity

  • Lezione 3 - 03.03.26

    • Spinor solutions of the Dirac equations
    • Discrete spacetime symmetries

  • Lezione 4 - 05.03.26

    • Internal symmetries
    • Z_2 symmetry
    • Global U(1) symmetry
    • Charges
    • Symmetries and fermion masses
    • Local ("gauge") abelian symmetry
    • Scalar QED Lagrangian
    • QED Lagrangian

  • Lezione 5 - 10.03.2026

    • QED
    • Interactions and Feynman rules
    • e+e- --> mu+mu-

  • Lezione 6 - 12.03.2026

    S matrix, cross sections and decay rates

  • Lezione 7 - 17.03.2026

    • e+ e- --> mu+ mu-
    • Important scattering processes: Rutherford, Compton
    • Ward identity
    • Photon polarization sum
    • Radiative corrections: introduction

  • Lezione 8 - 19.03.2026

    • Renormalization of QED
    • IR divergencies
    • Non-Abelian symmetries

  • Lezione 9 - 24.03.2026

    • Recap of group theory
    • Global non-Abelian symmetries
    • Quantization and Feynman rules

  • Lezione 10 - 31.03.2026

    • Quarks, gluons and their properties
    • Beta function of QCD
    • Mesons and baryons

  • Lezione 11 - 02.04.2026

    • Discrete Z2 symmetry
    • Global continuous symmetries
    • Nambu-Goldstone bosons and Goldstone theorem

  • Lezione 12 - 09.04.2026

    • Quark model
    • Symmetries of QCD and hadrons
    • SSB: pions and K's as Goldstone bosons

  • Lezione 13 - 14.04.2026

    • Spontaneous breaking of a gauge symmetry
    • The Abelian Higgs mechanism
    • Massive vectors from SSB
    • Introduction to the EW theory

  • Lezione 14 - 16.04.2026

    • The four main ingredients: The gauge group, Fermionic representations, Scalar sector, SSB pattern.
    • Spectrum of gauge bosons, charges and interactions