FISICA NUCLEARE E SUB-NUCLEARE

To provide students, regardless of the curriculum of studies they have chosen, basic training in nuclear and particle physics, with particular reference to the structure of the hadronic matter, to the force of electroweak interaction and to the physics of neutrinos.

Historical notes and introduction.
1) The concept of cross section in atomic and nuclear processes. Rutherford experiment and
the birth of the atomic nucleus concept. Coulomb interaction and its cross section. The
discovery of the proton and neutron. The discovery of the positron and muon.

The structure of the hadrons: the scattering of electrons on nuclei and nucleons.
2) Generalities on the interaction of charged particles with matter. Fermi second golden
rule. Feynman diagrams.
3) Kinematic of electron scattering on nuclei and nucleons. Mott and Rutherford formulae.
Electromagnetic properties of the nuclei. Electron scattering on nuclei and measure of their
electric charge radius. Spin and magnetic momenta.
4) Elicity and its conservation. Form factors of the nucleons. Rosenbluth formula.
Diffraction minima in the cross sections and form factors. Radii of the nucleons. Separation
of electric and magnetic form factors. Dipolar Form Factor. Neutron electric Form Factor.
Asymptotic Form Factors. Pion and kaon Form Factors.

Parton model of the nucleon.
5) Electron inelastic scattering on nuclei. Quasi-elastic peak. Inelastic scattering on
nucleons. Excited states of the nucleons. Deep Inelastic Scattering. The Bjorken scale
variable x and the structure functions. Electron-quark scattering. F(x) for a quark in the
nucleon. Structure functions for nucleons composed of three quarks. Callan-Gross relation.
The structure functions do not depend on Q2. Interpretation of the variable x. F₂^p(x,Q²):
valence quarks plus quark-antiquark sea. Contribution of valence quarks and sea quarks to
nucleon structure functions. Coupled quarks and isolated quarks in nucleons. Separation of
the sea:F₂^p-F₂ⁿ. Contribution of quarks to quad-momentum of the nucleus. Interpretation of
theF₂ⁿ/F₂^p ratio. Quark distribution functions in nucleons

Beta Decay - Neutrino Physics.
6) Phenomenology of beta decay. Leptons and neutrinos. Invariances and symmetries. Non
conservation of parity in beta decay. Experiment of Wu and collaborators. Cowan-Reines
Experiment. Neutrinos and antineutrinos. Mass of the neutrino. Neutrino as particle of Dirac
or Majorana?
7) The lepton families. The bosons W and Z. Neutrino scattering. Deep inelastic scattering
of neutrinos. PMNS matrix and leptonic flavor mixing.
8) Real bosons Z and W. Electroweak Unification. Weak isospin. Weinberg angle.
9) Current issues: a) neutrino oscillations; b) double beta decay.

Other Nuclear and Subnuclear Physics topics.
10) The quark families. Color interaction. Mix of flavors of the quark and Cabibbo angle.
11) Production of monochromatic and polarized photon beams. Photo-production of
mesons.

1) B.Pohv et al: Particles and Nuclei; Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
2) C. Giunti and C.W. Kim: Fundamentals of Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics at Oxford
University Press.
3) Course notes.