Course on Physics at the LHC

1. Introduction to the Course. Objectives. Plan of lectures. Additional information.
2. The LHC physics case. In a few slides review what are the main motivations for the LHC program. Short reminder of SM.
3. The LHC experimental program. The LHC machine. The experiments. Basic comparison CMS, ATLAS, LHCb and Alice. 
4. Experimental challenges: Cross-sections, rates. Trigger.  Pile-up. Radiation.

- Particles and their decays into stable particles.
- Detector layout and geometry.
- Calorimetry:
 - Electromagnetic and hadronic showers.
 - Energy reconstruction and resolution.
 - Jets and missing energy.

1. Hadron interactions. A few reminders (kinematics, etc.). Proton-proton scattering. Hard scattering. 
2. QCD and parton densities. Lepton-proton scattering. Scaling violation. Running coupling constant. 
3. Monte Carlo generators. Parton showers: fragmentation and hadronization.
4. Luminosity and cross-section measurements. Ingredients for cross-section measurement. Luminosity.
5. Soft scattering, minimum bias events, underlying event characteristics.
6. QCD and jet physics. Higher orders. Jet algorithms. Jet energy scale. Jet cross-section measurements. 
7. W and Z bosons as standard candles at the LHC.  W and Z production cross-sections. W and Z decays.  Cross-section measurements. Mass measurements.
8. Reminder of electroweak theory.  

- Tracking:
 - Silicon (solid-state) trackers.
 - Track reconstruction, momentum measurement.
 - Muon detectors.
- Trigger:
 - Level-1 latency and pipelining.
 - HLT: configuration flexibility and efficiency.

Top quark physics:
- Introduction
- Discovery
- Tevatron vs LHC
- Objects used in Top quark events
- Heavy flavor tagging and mis-tagging
- Top quark production (cross section, differential cross section)

Top quark properties and decays:
- Properties: mass, mass difference, charge, lifetime, charge asymmetry, spin correlation
- Decay: branching ratios (taus, Vtb)

Single top quark and rare decays:
- Single Top quark
- The Wtb vertex structure within and beyond the SM
- Rare decays of top quarks (Flavor Changing Neutral Current)

Top quark studies in the search for New Physics:
- New particles decaying to top quarks
- BSM top decays
- Top-like signatures
- Boosted top
- Top-tagging

* Basic Probability Density Functions
* Error propagation
* Hypothesis testing
* Likelihood - TBC

Introduction
Reminder of some shortcomings of the SM: masses, WW scattering.
The Higgs mechanism. Production and decay of the Higgs boson at colliders: LEP, Tevatron and LHC.
Previous searches at LEP and the Tevatron.

Case study of the H->gg search at CMS

Fundamentals: CMS ECAL and single photon measurements.
Mass resolution: energy resolution and vertex determination.
Vertexing with the recoil.
Photon energy resolution.
Event classes and 2-jet tag.
Multivariate analysis.

Case study of the H->ZZ (4l and 2l2nu) search at CMS

Leptons, jets and missing transverse energy: the main ingredients for many analysis at the LHC.
Mass and transverse mass reconstruction. Shape analysis.
The VBF topology.
Systematic uncertainties associated to jet energy scale and MET.

Higgsless scenarios. Study of vector boson scattering at high s^{1/2}.

* General introduction SUSY
* Description of the soft SUSY lagrangian
* Phenomenological introduction to SUSY particles I: Squarks, gluino, sleptons, charginos, neutralinos, higgs

Recommended reading:
1/ "SuSY and such", S. Dawson, arxiv:hep-ph/9612229
2/ "A Supersymmetry primer", S. P. Martin, arxiv:hep-ph/9709356

* Phenomenological introduction to SUSY particles II: Squarks, gluino, sleptons, charginos, neutralinos, higgs
* Searches of SUSY particles at past accelerators & LHC I

* Searches of SUSY particles at past accelerators & LHC II

Using TMVA to look into H->ZZ->4l

Revision of the available heavy ion data from SPS to RHIC to LHC.
General theoretical approaches to the problem: statistical QCD.
Phase transitions.
QCD phase diagram.
Major observables:
         - Quarkonia suppression, including sequential suppression and recombination
         - Multiplicities
         - hydrodynamical flow
         - polarization observables

Case study of the  H->bb search at ATLAS