FR03 · A course with experiments
Collider physics from events to inference
A collision leaves tracks and energy deposits. Follow them through jet definitions, detector smearing and a statistical fit, until you can ask whether an unfamiliar shape needs new physics.
Start with two outgoing particlesL1 → L2
Define what the event says
Add four-momenta, calculate a rate and understand which final-state quantities survive unresolved radiation.
L3
Include the measurement process
Cluster jets, infer a spectrum through a fixed detector response and let uncertain background parameters participate in the fit.
L4
Test how far the inference goes
Check EFT power counting, recalculate a published benchmark and confront a limited shape model with frozen public data.
Read the chapters in order
L1
Reconstruct a collision and count its rate
Add four-momenta to reconstruct a mass, then connect selected event counts to cross section, luminosity and efficiency.
L2
Why a proton beam has many collision energies
Separate proton structure from a short-distance collision and work out which parton momentum fractions produce a heavy state.
L2
Choose quantities that survive extra radiation
Test soft and collinear limits, distinguish particle counts from energy flow, and calculate a simple event shape.
L3
Build jets by following the nearest pair
Compare anti-kT, kT and Cambridge/Aachen distances, preserve four-momentum, and explain the soft limit of a jet boundary.
L3
Recover a spectrum after detector smearing
Build a response from synthetic records, solve a two-bin example, and use held-out truth to expose regularization bias.
L3
Decide whether an excess needs a new signal
Fit Poisson counts with nuisance parameters, distinguish local significance from coverage, and test a misspecified background.
L4
Fit an effective interaction without outrunning its expansion
Derive interference and squared-amplitude terms, test an energy cutoff, and separate a toy shape fit from a Wilson-coefficient measurement.
L4
Recalculate a published benchmark and test a public jet spectrum
Read Cowan Figure 7, reproduce its known-background counting slice, and compare held-out CMS jet bins with a limited shape model.
The experiments along the way
The jet and inference Labs use saved synthetic records. The last chapter separately uses a published CMS unfolded spectrum. Each source is labelled where it enters the calculation.
Choose the preparation you need
Begin with vector addition and basic probability. Each chapter introduces its next mathematical tool before using it. The field-theory and relativistic-kinematics routes provide further background when a later question needs it; they are not prerequisites for starting Chapter 1.
Worked examples, prediction tasks and explained answers are part of every chapter. The final methods guide defines exactly which published calculation is reproduced and which questions remain for a full analysis.