Course content - Learning outcome - Admission - Prerequisites - Overlapping courses - Teaching - Examination - Evaluation

Course content

FYS9530 Subatomic Physics: Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collision Theory is devoted to the theory of high-energy collisions between nuclei and phase transitions in nuclear matter. The curriculum is specially adopted for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, because three LHC experiments, ALICE, ATLAS and CMS, will study both high-energy particle physics and relativistic heavy-ion physics. The course consists of a basic part and detailed subjects on request.

The basic units are:

• Phenomenology of relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Quantum Chromodynamics, phase diagram and the equation of state of nuclear matter under extreme conditions
• Model descriptions of relativistic nucleon-nucleon and heavy-ion collisions: Hydrodynamics, Glauber model, Dual Parton Model and other selected models, and model predictions to be tested at the Large Hadron Collider.

Two other units should be chosen among the following topics:

Signatures of new phenomena in relativistic heavy-ion collisions:

• Jet production and jet quenching
• Anisotropic flow
• Photon and di-lepton production
• Heavy quarkonia production
• Femtoscopy and two-particle correlations
• Strangeness and the thermal statistical model
• Color Glass Condensate and glasma
• Chiral symmetry restoration and masses of resonances
• Neutron stars and exotic phases at extreme baryon densities

Learning outcome

After the course students should have knowledge about:

• Big Bang in early universe and mini Big Bang at LHC at CERN
• New states of matter produced in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, like Quark Gluon Plasma and color glass condensate
• Phase transitions in dense and hot nuclear matter and their signatures
• The basics of Quantum Chromodynamics
• Different models of relativistic hadron-hadron and heavy-ion collisions
• Predictions of these models for LHC at CERN

Admission

PhD candidates from the University of Oslo should apply for classes and register for examinations through Studentweb.

If a course has limited intake capacity, priority will be given to PhD candidates who follow an individual education plan where this particular course is included. Some national researchers’ schools may have specific rules for ranking applicants for courses with limited intake capacity.

PhD candidates who have been admitted to another higher education institution must apply for a position as a visiting student within a given deadline.

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Prerequisites

Formal prerequisite knowledge

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None.

Recommended previous knowledge

FYS3110 - Quantum mechanics and FYS3510 - Subatomic physics with applications in astrophysics

Overlapping courses

10 credits with FYS4530 - Subatomic many-body theory II

Teaching

The course extends over a full semester with 3 hours of lectures and 2 hours of problem solving per week. There will also be a project.

Access to teaching

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Examination

Written exam after each completed unit. One project report. Final oral exam.

Examination support material

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Language of examination

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Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.

Explanations and appeals

You may request an explanation of your grades, and you may also appeal against your grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals.

Resit an examination

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam.

Withdrawal from an examination

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Special examination arrangements

If you have a disability or a health problem that entails significant inconvenience in an examination situation, you may be considered for special examination arrangements. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, periodic evaluation of this course.