A. de Angelis – Introduction to Particle and Astroparticle Physics (2015)

Автор: A. de Angelis
Название книги: Introduction to Particle and Astroparticle Physics
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Астрономия
Страницы: 680
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

This book, written by researchers who worked in accelerator physics before becoming leaders of groups in astroparticle physics, demonstrates that a renewed study of cosmic rays must be a part of “modern” research in the new particle physics.

This book introduces particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology starting from
experiment. It provides a unified view of these fields, which is needed to answer in
the best way our questions about the Universe—a unified view that has been lost
somehow during the last years due to increasing specialization.
Particle physics has recently seen the incredible success of the so-called “standard
model.” A 50-year long search for the missing ingredient of the model, the
Higgs particle, has just been concluded successfully, and some scientists claim that
we are close to the limit of the physics humans may know. Also, astrophysics and
cosmology have shown an impressive evolution, driven by experiments and complemented
by theories and models. We have nowadays a “standard model of cosmology”
which can describe the evolution of the Universe from a tiny time after its
birth to any foreseeable future. The situation is similar to the one in the end of the
nineteenth century, after the formulation of the Maxwell equations—and we know
how the story went.
As in the end of the nineteenth century, there are some clouds that might hide a
new revolution in physics. The main cloud is that experiments indicate that we are
still missing the description of the main ingredients of the Universe from the point
of view of its energy budget. We believe one of these ingredients to be a new
particle, of which we know very little; and the other to be a new form of energy.
The same experiments indicating the need for these new ingredients are probably
not powerful enough to unveil them, and we must invent new experiments to do it.
The scientists who will solve this puzzle will base their project on a unified
vision of physics, and this book helps providing such a vision.
This book is addressed primarily to advanced undergraduate or beginning
graduate level students, since the reader is only assumed to know quantum physics
and “classical” physics, in particular electromagnetism and analytical mechanics, at
an introductory level; but it can also be useful for graduates and postgraduates, and
postdoc researchers involved in high-energy physics or astrophysics research. It is
also aimed at senior particle and astroparticle physicists as a consultation book.
Exercises at the end of each chapter help the reader reviewing material from the chapter itself and synthesizing concepts from several chapters. A “further reading”
list is also provided for readers who want to explore in more detail particular topics.
Our experience is based on research both at artificial particle accelerators (in our
younger years) and in astroparticle physics after the late 1990s. We work as professors
for more than 20 years, teaching courses on particle and/or astroparticle
physics at undergraduate and graduate levels. We spent long time in several
research institutions outside our countries, also teaching there and gaining experience
with students from different backgrounds.
This book contains broad and interdisciplinary material, which is appropriate for
a consultation book, but it can be too much for a textbook. In order to give
coherence to the material for a course, one can think of at least three paths through
the manuscript:
• For an “old-style” one-semester course on particle physics for students with a
good mathematical background, one could select Chaps. 1–6, part of 7, and
possibly (part of) 9.
• For a basic particle physics course centered in astroparticle physics, one could
instead use Chaps. 1, 2 (possibly excluding Sect. 2.10.7), 3, 4 (excluding Sect. 4.4),
Sects. 5.1, 5.2, 5.4 (excluding Sect. 5.4.1), 5.5 (possibly excluding Sect. 5.5.4), 5.6,
5.7, 6.1, 8.1, 8.4, part of Chap. 10, and if possible Chap. 11.
• A specialized half-semester course in high-energy astroparticle physics could be
based on Sects. 4.3.2, 4.5 and Chaps. 8, 10, 11; if needed, an introduction to
experimental techniques could be given based on Sects. 4.1 and 4.2.
This book would have not been possible without the help of friends and colleagues;
we remind here (in alphabetical order) Pedro Abreu, Sofia Andringa,
Stefano Ansoldi, Pedro Assis, Liliana Apolinario, Luca Baldini, Fernando Barão,
Sandro Bettini, Barbara Biasuzzi, Giovanni Busetto, Per Carlson, Nuno Castro,
Julian Chela-Flores, Ruben Conceiçao, Jim Cronin, Michela De Maria, Tristano di
Girolamo, Jorge Dias de Deus, Anna Driutti, Catarina Espírito Santo, Fernando
Ferroni, Giorgio Galanti, Riccardo Giannitrapani, Marco Laveder, Francesco
Longo, José Maneira, Oriana Mansutti, Mauro Mezzetto, Alessandro Pascolini,
Gianni Pauletta, Elena Pavan, Massimo Persic, Ignasi Reichardt, Jorge Romao,
Marco Roncadelli, Sara Salvador, Ron Shellard, Franco Simonetto, Fabrizio
Tavecchio, Bernardo Tomé, Ezio Torassa, Andrea Turcati, Robert Wagner, Alan
Watson, and Jeff Wyss. We also thank all our students who where patiently listening
and discussing with us during all the past years.