TMP-TB2: QCD and Standard Model – Overview

Note: Due to the current Coronavirus Crisis the lecture will be held online, until further notice. See here for more details.

Contents

This course gives an introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics and its phenomenological implications, with concern to both electroweak and strong interactions. Solid knowledge of Quantum Field Theory is recommended, although not mandatory, as we will delve into many related topics.

It is important to remark that a careful attendance to the lectures and the tutorials is a key requirement to pass the exam.

Program of the Lectures

Part I: The Standard Model

• Introduction to group theory with focus on SU(N) groups
• Fermi's theory and the electroweak sector
• Goldstone theorem and Higgs phenomenon: application to electroweak symmetry breaking
• CKM matrix
• The quark model and flavour physics
• Flavour Changing Neutral Currents (FCNC) and the GIM mechanism
• Heavy quarks
• Neutrino sector: mass oscillations

Part II: Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)

• Yang-Mills theory
• QCD scale and chiral symmetry breaking
• The Eightfold Way
• Path integral for gauge theories: the Faddeev-Popov procedure
• The large-N limit and fatgraphs
• Asymptotic freedom
• Color confinement
• Non-perturbative effects

References:

• Lie Algebras in Particle Physics - H. Georgi
• Group Theory in Physics - Wu-Ki Tung
• An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory - M. Peskin and D.V. Schroeder
• Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model - M. Schwartz
• Quantum Field Theory - M. Srednicki
• Leptons and Quarks - L. Okun
• QCD and Collider Physics - R.K. Ellis, W.J. Stirling and B.R. Webber