Particle Oscillations

Attention! Lecture will be each Friday, 12:30 until 2pm !!

Venue: 3046 in PH-I

1st lecture on April 28th 2017 !!

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Oscillations of particles are fascinating quantum-mechanical phenomenons. In October 2015 the discovery of neutrino oscillations was honoured by the Nobel price for physics. It is th first direct and experimental hint for physics beyond the standard model. Also the discovery of oscillation of neutral kaons lead to new insights of very fundamental questions. In this case it was the inititive for the discovery of CP-violation in weak interaction, which is one of the three Sacharov-conditions for explaining the assymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe.

In detail we will discuss the following topics:

- Particle- antiparticle oscillations of neutral mesons. Fundamental experiments and theoretical description. Link to CP-violation in the quark system.

- Neutrinooscillations. Fundamental experiments and theoretical description. Conditions for coherence. Matter effects of solar neutrinos. Open questions and new ideas.

- Search for sterile neutrinos. Theoretical models and experimental status. Link to the question of dark matter in the universe.

The lecture is complementing the lecture "Astroparticle Physics".

Questions? Please contact L. Oberauer: oberauer@ph.tum.de

Nach erfolgreicher Teilnahme an dem Modul sind die Studierenden in der Lage die grundlegenden quantenmechanischen Ansätze zur Beschreibung von Teilchenoszillationen zu verstehen. In Retrospektive werden so bereits vorhandene Kenntnisse der Quantenmechanik gestärkt und vertieft. Ebenso sind die Studierenden dann in der Lage Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede bei den Oszillationen neutraler Mesonen (Quark-Antiquarksysteme) und Neutrinos zu beurteilen. Die Studierenden sind dann auch in der Lage die speziellen Methoden bei dem experimentellen Nachweis von Neutrinooszillationen mit unterschiedlien Neutrinoquellen zu beurteilen und einzuordnen. Die Vorlesung soll darüber hinaus Interesse an offenen Fragen in der Teilchenphysik fördern und die Verbindung von Teilchenphysik mit Themen der Astrophysik klarstellen. Das Modul soll den Transfer und die Anwendung der Kenntnisse für neue Projekte auf diesem Gebiet ermöglichen und somit auch eine Basis für MSc-Arbeiten auf diesem Gebiet bilden.

Introduction in nuclear and particle physics (KTA-lecture). Students would benefit from the lectures Astroparticle physics I and II, but knowledge of both is not mandatory.

Lecture with instructions for a successful self-study via application of specific literature.

Inclusion of students via open discussions.

PPTX presentations and use of the blackboard.

Intensive discussion with students.

F. Suekane, Neutrino Oscillations, Lecture Notes in Physics 898, Springer, 2014

F. Böhm, P. Vogel, Physics of Massive Neutrinos, Cambridge University Press

D. Perkins, High Energy Physics, Addison Wesley

The achievement of the competencies given in section learning outcome is tested exemplarily at least to the given cognition level using presentations independently prepared by the students. The exam of 20 minutes consists of the presentation and a subsequent discussion.

For example an assignment in the exam might be:

• Direct and indirect CP-violation in oscillations of neutral mesons
• Experimental challenges to detect so-called "Mößbauer"-neutrinos
• How can we get hands on the neutrino mass ordering?
• How can we probe sterile neutrino oscillations?