This course in Hadron Physics is an extensive program designed to provide students with a fundamental and practical understanding of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in a confined regime of hadronic matter. Beginning with an introduction to the basics of QCD, including quarks, gluons, color confinement, asymptotic freedom, and gauge invariance, the course sets a solid theoretical foundation. It then progresses into a detailed study of hadron classification and structure, covering baryons, mesons, the quark model, and flavor symmetry. A significant portion of the course is devoted to experimental techniques in hadron physics, with a focus on particle detectors, and data processing, particularly LHCb, COMPASS, and BES experiments. This includes practical aspects of event generation, detection, and data analysis, alongside addressing common experimental challenges. Spectral analysis and reaction theory are explored, elucidating particle interaction, resonance phenomena. Students will also delve into the spectroscopy of hadrons, learning about excitation spectra of mesons and baryons, as well as exotic structures like tetraquarks, pentaquarks, glueballs, and hybrids. Theoretical tools and computational methods will be discussed in the second half of the course. The course also addresses current and future experiments in hadron physics, exploring their role in the broader context of particle physics and discussing heavy flavor physics, including heavy quarks, CP violation, and B-meson physics. Finally, the course wraps up with ethical and practical considerations in research, offering guidance on collaboration in large-scale experiments, student projects, research opportunities, and career paths in hadron physics.
- Kursleiter/in: Mikhail Mikhasenko