Beam particles. Linear and circular accelerators. Luminosity. Measurement of beam energy and luminosity. Particle-matter interaction. Momentum measurement and tracking of charged particles in gas and silicon detectors. Energy measurement. Calorimeters. Velocity measurement (dE/dx, TOF, Cherenkov detectors). Particle identification. Neutrino detection. Data acquisition and trigger. Examples of high energy physics experiments.
Lecture Notes, slides, articles on specific subjects.
Learning Objectives
Educational aims:
Principles of acceleration of charged particles, of the detection of radiation and particles, of event reconstruction in particle physics experiment and of data acquisition.
Learning outcome:
Global view and detailed knowledge of particle accelerators, particle detectors and large detector systems. Design concepts of high energy experiments with respect to the processes and variables to be measured.
Prerequisites
Knowledge of classical physics
(mainly electrodynamics) and
modern physics, with specific reference to special relativity, quantum theory and structure of matter.
Teaching Methods
Class lectures
Further information
Office hours
By appointment.
Type of Assessment
Oral exam divided in 2 parts (total duration 40-45 min.).
First part: short seminar on a specific subject of the module (e.g. experimental apparatus to accelerate or detect particles, a particle physics measurement, particle identification and/or reconstruction algorithms). Duration about 20 min.
Second part.
General questions about the presentation and about the program of the module. Duration 20-25 min.
Course program
ACCELERATORS.
Principles of charged particle acceleration. Beam optics. Linear and circular accelerators. Storage rings. Synchrotron radiation. Luminosity. Secondary beams of mesons and neutrinos. Measurement of the beam energy and luminosity.
INTERACTION BETWEEN RADIATION AND MATTER.
Electromagnetic interactions of charge particles and photons. Multiple scattering. Nuclear and neutron interactions. Neutrino interactions. Electromagnetic and hadronic showers.
PARTICLE AND RADIATION DETECTORS.
Tracking of charged particles. Momentum measurement and track reconstruction. Gas detector for position measurement: MWPC; drift chambers; RPC; Time Projection Chamber. Silicon detectors: strip and pixel configurations. Radiation damage.Time measurement. Energy measurement: electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters; cluster reconstruction. Velocity measurement: dE/dx, Time-of-flight, radiation transition detectors, proportional Cerenkov counters, RICH. Particle identification. Jet reconstruction. Neutrino detection: radiochemical, Cherenkov, calorimetric, lAr TPC. Data acquisition. Data processing. Trigger.
LARGE DETECTOR SYSTEMS. Examples of high energy particle physics experiments.