Experimental Methods in Nuclear, Particle, and Astrophysics - PHYS736

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Course Description

Topics: Interaction of radiation and particles with matter; common particle detection techniques in accelerator and nonaccelerator experiments; detectors at colliding beam machines, in neutrino physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, and experimental cosmology; experimental strategies in detector design; principles of detector simulation and monte carlo methods, error analysis and statistical techniques in data analysis.

Course Information

• instructor: Prof. Karsten Heeger, heeger@wisc.edu
• circular
• syllabus
• textbooks and reading
• Physics Library Course Page - this page contains all password protected materials, access to textbook chapters for course use etc.
• Physics Library Reserves - this shows that books held in reserves

Lectures & Course Schedule

• online lectures and schedule

Homework

• homework #1 - due Feb 6
• homework #2 - due Feb 6
• homework #3 - due Feb 25
• homework #6 - due Mar 20
• homework #7 - due Apr 10
• homework #8 - due Apr 22

Course Projects

• instructions and list of projects
• course project proposal instructions
• Preparing a presentation of your course project
• effective talks and science communication

Additional References & Suplementary Course Material

• Interactions of Particles in Matter
  • Particle Data Group Reviews, pdg.lbl.gov
• Detectors
  • Detector Simulation Databases and Software
    • Geant4 - A toolkit for the simulation of the passage of particles through matter
    • FLUKA - A particle physics MonteCarlo simulation package
    • SRIM - The Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter
    • EGSnrc - A package for the Monte Carlo simulation of coupled electron-photon transport
    • MCNP - A General Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code
    • MCNPx - A general-purpose Monte Carlo radiation transport code
    • National Nuclear Data Center
    • LBNL Isoptopes project
    • RSICC - Radiation Safety Information Computational Center
    • RSICC - Other Software
  • Statistics & Analysis Techniques
    • "Towards the Observation of Signal over Background in Future Experiments", physics/9808016v1
    • "On Observability of Signal over Background", physics/9809037v2
  • Effective Science Communication
    • Talks and Presentations
      • Who is listening? What do they hear?, Stephen Benka, Physics Today, Dec. 2008.
      • How to give a science talk, Stephanie Pfirman, Martin Stute, and Dallas Abbott, Columbia University, 2006
      • How to write and give a good scientific talk, Janet Conrad, 2005
      • How to add value to your slides, Warren Wiscombe, 2009
      • Hints for Good Talks, Hendrik Schatz, 2010
    • Posters
      • How to create a poster that graphically communicates your message
      • Creating Effective Posters
      • Posters - Making them better, Warren Wiscombe, 2009
    • Writing
      • The Science of Scientific Writing Gopen and Swan, American Scientist, Nov/Dec 1990
      • Right your Writing, Judith Swan, The Scientist, vol. 23, 2009

  Other Relevant Courses

  • Experimentelle Methoden und Instrumente der Teilchenphysik, ETH Zuerich
    • introduction to detectors
    • gaseous detectors
    • silicon detectors
    • track and vertex reconstruction
    • additional lectures in German
  • Experimental Methods in Particle Physics, SMU
  • Experimental Methods in Particle Astrophysics, KTH
  • Instrumentation and Methods in Astroparticle Physics, University of Wisconsin
  • Experimental Methods for Particle Astrophysics, Queen's University
  • Experimental Methods in Nuclear and Particle Physics, Universitas Bergensis
  • Nuclear Safeguards Education Portal
  © 2013 Prof. Karsten Heeger
  Last modified: April 15, 2013, 1:49 pm.