Academic Team

Course Content

Type: Optional – PEC Track – 3rd Trimester

Experimental High Energy Physics: Physics at the LHC

This course provides an overview of the current state of experimental particle physics at the LHC, introducing students to the key measurements leading to test the Standard Model, including the electroweak and strong sectors and searches beyond the Standard Model.

The course is divided into five blocks:

Introduction to accelerator and detector instrumentation and reconstruction of observables: the key elements of modern high-energy accelerators and detectors, the fundamentals and techniques of experiments in high-energy physics and methods for reconstructing particle properties are reviewed. Emphasis on the LHC accelerator and its experiments is given.

Tests of QCD at the LHC: introduction to the main reactions, such as processes involving jets, photons and heavy quarks, used at the LHC experiments to test the strong sector of the Standard Model.

Tests of the electroweak sector at the LHC: introduction to the main reactions, such as processes involving W and Z bosons, used at the LHC experiments to test the electroweak sector of the Standard Model.

Tests of the Standard Model and searches: measurements of top quarks (production and decay), measurements of Higgs boson (production and properties) and searches for new phenomena and particles at the LHC.

The final block of the course consists on a hands-on practical learning through supervised projects using real data from the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC. Students will practice programming, data analysis, and visualization, develop strategies for signal selection, control background noise, and evaluate statistical significance in a proposed project.

Reading List

Instrumentation

  • W.R. Leo; Techniques for Nuclear and Particle-Physics Experiments; Springer-Verlag Berlin (1987, available online from CERN library).
  • Richard Clinton Fernow; Introduction to Experimental Particle Physics; Cambridge University Press (open access: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009290098; Online publication date: November 2022).

History of particle physics (experiment and theory)

  • Robert N. Cahn, G. Goldhaber; The Experimental Foundations of Particle Physics; Cambridge University Press (1993).
  • Andrew Pickering; Constructing Quarks; The University of Chicago Press (1984).
  • A. Ferrer, E. Ros; Fisica de partículas y de astropartículas; Publicaciones Universidad de Valencia (2005).

The Standard Model: theory and experiment

  • Francis Halzen & Alan D. Martin; Quarks & leptons: an introductory course in modern particle physics; Wiley (1984, available online).
  • Vernon D. Barger & Roger J.N. Phillips; Collider physics; Westview Press (1997)
  • R. K. Ellis, W. J. Stirling & B. R. Webber; QCD and Collider Physics; Cambridge University Press (open access: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511628788; Online publication date: May 2010).

ATLAS & CMS physics: 13 TeV legacy articles

  • ATLAS Collaboration, Climbing to the Top of the ATLAS 13 TeV data, Phys. Rep. 1116 (2025) 127-183, arXiv:2404.10674 [hep-ex].
  • ATLAS Collaboration, Electroweak, QCD and flavour physics studies with ATLAS data from Run 2 of the LHC, Phys. Rep. 1116 (2025) 57-126, arXiv:2404.06829 [hep-ex].
  • ATLAS Collaboration, Characterising the Higgs boson with ATLAS data from Run 2 of the LHC, Phys. Rep 1116 (2025) 4 -56, arXiv:2404.05498 [hep-ex]
  • ATLAS Collaboration, Exploration at the high-energy frontier: ATLAS Run 2 searches investigating the exotic jungle beyond the Standard Model, Phys. Rep. 1116 (2025) 301-385, arXiv:2403.09292 [hep-ex].
  • ATLAS Collaboration, The quest to discover supersymmetry at the ATLAS experiment, Phys. Rep. 1116 (2025) 261-300, arXiv:2403.02455 [hep-ex]
  • ATLAS Collaboration, ATLAS searches for additional scalars and exotic Higgs boson decays with the LHC Run 2 dataset, Phys. Rep. 1116 (2025) 184-260, arXiv:2405.04914 [hep-ex].
  • CMS Collaboration, Stairway to discovery: a report on the CMS programme of cross section measurements from millibarns to femtobarns, Physics Report 1115 (2025) 3, arXiv:2405.18661 [hep-ex].
  • CMS Collaboration, Review of searches for vector-like quarks, vector-like leptons, and heavy neutral leptons in proton-proton collisions at √s= 13 TeV at the CMS experiment, Physics Reports 1115 (2025) 570, arXiv:2405.17605 [hep-ex].
  • CMS Collaboration, Dark sector searches with the CMS experiment, Physics Reports 1115 (2025) 448, arXiv:2405.13778 [hep-ex].
  • CMS Collaboration, Overview of high-density QCD studies with the CMS experiment at the LHC, Physics Reports 1115 (2025) 219, arXiv:2405.10785 [hep-ex].
  • CMS Collaboration, Searches for Higgs boson production through decays of heavy resonances, Physics Reports 1115 (2025) 368, arXiv:2403.16926 [hep-ex].
  • CMS Collaboration, Review of top quark mass measurements in CMS, Physics Reports 1115 (2025) 116, arXiv:2403.01313 [hep-ex].

Teaching Plan Information

Course Schedule