Related papers: Charting the Course for Elementary Particle Physic…
We discuss some of the key science questions that are bringing particle physicists and astrophysicists together, and comment on some of the cultural and funding issues that have arisen as these two communities become increasingly…
Wonderful opportunities await particle physics over the next decade, with the coming of the Large Hadron Collider to explore the 1-TeV scale (extending efforts at LEP and the Tevatron to unravel the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking)…
A personal perspective on the future challenges of research in particle physics is presented with emphasis on the role of DIS physics in this endeavour.
A short resume is given about the nature of exceptional points (EPs) followed by discussions about their ubiquitous occurrence in a great variety of physical problems. EPs feature in classical as well as in quantum mechanical problems. They…
An intense effort is being made today to build a quantum computer. Instead of presenting what has been achieved, I invoke here analogies from the history of science in an attempt to glimpse what the future might hold. Quantum computing is…
With an investigation into how students in a physics Master of science program make sense of their whole first year study experience in one of the years following a programme reform, we try to offer insights and advice to consider when…
Data taking at the LHC is the beginning of a new era in particle physics which will lead us towards understanding the completion of the Standard Model at and beyond the TeV scale. I discuss different approaches to new physics searches:…
We are in the middle of a remarkable paradigm shift in particle physics, a shift of opinion that occurred so slowly that some even try to deny that they changed their minds at all. It concerns a very basic question: can we expect to derive…
I present the case for fundamental physics experiments in space playing an important role in addressing the current "dark energy'' crisis. If cosmological observations continue to favor a value of the dark energy equation of state parameter…
In this article, I set out arguments why the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) : the machine and the experiments with it, are a watershed for particle physics. I give a historical perspective of the essential link between development of particle…
Understanding the properties and physical phase of the dense strongly interacting matter present in the cores of neutron stars or created in their binary mergers remains one of the most prominent open problems in nuclear astrophysics. While…
In this course, given at the school in 3 parts of 75 minutes each, we will discuss the physics of particle detection, the basic designs and working principles of detectors, and, as an example with more details, some detectors for particle…
Elementary particles, i.e. the basic constituents of nature, are characterized by quantum recurrences in time. The flow of time of every physical system can be therefore decomposed in elementary cycles of time. This allows us to enforce the…
This introductory text on the basics of quantum mechanics is intended to serve as a kind of travel guide through the quantum world. It starts by asking whether quantum physics is important, or weird, or incomprehensible. It explains why…
Particle physics has evolved a coherent model that characterizes forces and particles at the most elementary level. This Standard Model, built from many theoretical and experimental studies, is in excellent accord with almost all current…
For several decades there has been no breakthrough in fundamental physics as revolutionary as relativity and quantum physics despite the amazing advancement of applied physics and technology. By discussing several examples of what physics…
The cosmological model best capable of fitting current observational data features two separate epochs during which the Universe is accelerating. During the earliest stages of the Universe, such acceleration is known as cosmological…
Physics education research (PER) aims to improve how students solve problems. But whose problems are we teaching students to solve? Physics has grown up as a child of war, and PER stems from the cognitive revolution in psychology, which…
In these lectures I start by briefly reviewing the status of the electroweak theory, in the Standard Model and beyond. I then discuss the motivation and the possible avenues for new physics, on the brink of the LHC start.
In the first Lecture, the Big Bang and the Standard Model of particle physics are introduced, as well as the structure of the latter and open issues beyond it. Neutrino physics is discussed in the second Lecture, with emphasis on models for…