Duration: 24 hours in Spring
Content:
- Overview of the course. The interplay between particles and interactions in the Universe. Brief thermal history of the Universe. Big questions in astroparticle physics.
- Neutrino physics. Neutrinos in the Standard Model and beyond; Neutrino oscillations: Theory, phenomenology, current status and questions for the future; Nature of neutrinos: Majorana versus Dirac, Neutrinoless double beta decay; Neutrino masses: Dirac and Majorana masses, origin of neutrino masses beyond the Standard Model. Neutrinos in the Early Universe.
- Dark Matter. Observational evidence; Dark matter in the Early Universe: thermal equilibrium and freeze out, relic density, hot and cold dark matter, the WIMP paradigm, non-thermal production mechanisms; Dark Matter Identity: WIMPs, axions, sterile neutrinos and other warm dark matter candidates, other options; Brief overview of DM searches.
- The matter-antimatter asymmetry. Basic features of Baryogenesis in extensions of the Standard Mode; Leptogenesis; Electroweak baryogengesis; alternative mechanisms.
- High energy cosmic rays. A basic review of cosmic ray physics and astrophysics.
- Gravitational waves. A basic review of gravitational waves production and properties.
Bibliography
Astroparticle physics and cosmology:
E.W. Kolb and M.S. Turner
The Early Universe
Westview Press, 1994
Neutrino physics:
C. Giunti and C. W. Kim,
Fundamentals of Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics
Oxford University Press, USA, 2007
Dark Matter:
Particle Dark Matter: Observations, Models and Searches,
Cambridge University Press, Ed. G. Bertone (2010)
Teaching methods
Lectures at the blackboard/online (in presence and/or remote), complemented topical seminars