The Standard Model and New Physics (PhD)
This course is designed for PhD students and develops a structured path from the foundations of
high-energy physics and the internal logic of the Standard Model to its phenomenological limits,
experimental testing, and selected directions beyond the Standard Model. The course combines
lectures, laboratory classes, and a project component.
Course structure
The course is organized into five thematic parts together with a final project:
- Module I: Foundations: HEP overview, symmetries, groups, gauge principles, fermions, chirality, spinors, and Dirac structure.
- Module II: Structure of the Standard Model: QED, the electroweak sector, QCD, the Higgs mechanism, and flavor structure.
- Module III: Limits of the Standard Model: precision tests, open problems, and motivations for physics beyond the Standard Model.
- Module IV: New Physics: representative BSM frameworks, search strategies, EFT/SMEFT, and collider signatures.
- Module V: Experimental High Energy Physics and Data Analysis: introduction to experimental HEP, ROOT-based analysis, uncertainties, and measurements using simulation data.
- Project: a compact analysis of sample physical data with report and presentation.
Descriptions of course content and materials / tools
Planned content and discussion
- Historical development of particle physics and the emergence of the Standard Model.
- Particle content, fundamental interactions, and the role of the Standard Model as the current framework.
- Experimental motivation for going beyond a purely descriptive overview.
Indicative materials / tools
- Lecture notes prepared for the course.
- Selected introductory chapters from Mark Thomson, Modern Particle Physics.
- PDG overview tables for particle content and interactions.
Planned content and discussion
- Continuous and discrete symmetries in particle physics.
- Lie groups and Lie algebras in the context of internal symmetries.
- Global versus local symmetries and the gauge principle as the organizing idea of modern field theories.
Indicative materials / tools
- Board derivations and instructor notes.
- Selected sections from modern particle-physics or QFT references.
- Simple symmetry examples and short problem sets.
Planned content and discussion
- Lorentz structure of relativistic fermions.
- Dirac equation, spinor solutions, gamma matrices, chirality, and helicity.
- Connection between spinor language and weak interactions.
Indicative materials / tools
- Lecture notes and worked examples.
- Selected textbook sections on relativistic quantum mechanics / QFT.
- Short analytical exercises.
Planned content and discussion
- Gauge structure of the Standard Model and the organization of interactions.
- Basic ingredients of QED, electroweak theory, and QCD.
- Role of gauge bosons, couplings, and qualitative phenomenology of strong and electroweak processes.
Indicative materials / tools
- Lecture notes.
- Mark Thomson, Modern Particle Physics.
- Selected PDG review material on Standard Model interactions.
Planned content and discussion
- Spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism.
- Mass generation for gauge bosons and fermions.
- Flavour structure, mixing, and phenomenological significance of quark and lepton sectors.
Indicative materials / tools
- Lecture notes.
- Introductory Higgs/flavour chapters from particle-physics texts.
- Selected review material or seminar slides.
Planned content and discussion
- Key precision tests supporting the Standard Model.
- Conceptual and phenomenological limitations of the Standard Model.
- Open problems such as neutrino masses, dark matter, hierarchy questions, and matter-antimatter asymmetry.
Indicative materials / tools
- Lecture notes.
- Selected PDG review summaries.
- Recent review articles or instructor-selected papers.
Planned content and discussion
- Representative classes of physics beyond the Standard Model.
- Direct and indirect search strategies at colliders and complementary experiments.
- Basic logic of EFT/SMEFT and how deviations from the Standard Model may be parameterized and tested.
Indicative materials / tools
- Lecture notes.
- Selected review papers on BSM and SMEFT.
- Illustrative collider-signature examples.
Planned content and discussion
- How theoretical concepts are tested in experimental high-energy physics.
- From collisions and event reconstruction to physics observables.
- Connection between Standard Model phenomenology, New Physics searches, and modern detector-based measurements.
Indicative materials / tools
- Instructor slides on experimental high-energy physics.
- Example event-display or detector material.
- Selected CERN/experiment public documentation.
Planned content and discussion
- Basic workflow of experimental data handling in high-energy physics.
- Introduction to the ROOT environment for histogramming, trees, simple data handling, and visualization.
- Preparation of simple analysis chains and graphical output.
Indicative materials / tools
- ROOT tutorials and example macros/notebooks.
- Prepared sample datasets.
- Short guided laboratory exercises.
Planned content and discussion
- Statistical and systematic uncertainties in high-energy physics measurements.
- Basic estimation techniques, uncertainty propagation, and interpretation of results.
- Practical treatment of uncertainties in analysis workflows.
Indicative materials / tools
- Python/ROOT-based exercises.
- Prepared worksheets or mini-lab tasks.
- Selected notes on uncertainty estimation and elementary statistics.
Planned content and discussion
- Analysis of simulated events relevant to Standard Model or New Physics signatures.
- Event selection, kinematic distributions, basic signal/background reasoning, and interpretation of results.
- Discussion of the physical meaning of observed signatures and their uncertainties.
Indicative materials / tools
- Prepared simulation samples.
- Python/ROOT analysis scripts.
- Guided laboratory instructions and discussion notes.
Planned content and discussion
- Independent or small-group project based on sample physical data.
- Application of course concepts to a compact analysis task, from setup to interpretation.
- Preparation of a short report and presentation/discussion of results.
Indicative materials / tools
- Sample dataset or simulation sample.
- Python/ROOT-based analysis workflow.
- Project brief, consultation meetings, and reporting template.
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