Exam questions - IAP

Two questions will be chosen among the following:

1. What are the particles present in the room? What are their properties, their quantum numbers, and how do they interact?
2. How are the forces described in modern quantum theories? In particular, how are the four elementary forces accounted for?
3. Define the Lie Group SU(2) and its algebra su(2). Give three example of its uses.
4. Give three examples of continuous group, and of their use in physics.
5. Explain how electromagnetism can be built as a local U(1) gauge theory.
6. Explain how non-abelian gauge theories are built, and what their main properties are.
7. Explain the meaning of the following diagrams. What do they describe, how are they built, and what discovery did they lead to?
   
8. What are the main properties of quantum chromodynamics?
9. What are probable sources for cosmic rays? What are the main properties of their spectrum?
10. What are the properties of cosmic-ray showers, and how are they observed at the highest energies?
11. Describe the AMS02 experiment, and discuss its main results.
12. What are the properties of electroweak interactions?
13. Explain what the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism does, and why the Higgs boson was so hard to detect.
14. Explain what neutrino oscillations are and explain briefly what their consequences are.
15. How have neutrino oscillations been proven to exist?
16. What are the main results of neutrino astronomy? What are the characteristics of the detectors used?
17. How was CP violation discovered, and how is it described in the standard model?
18. What is the evidence for dark matter? What is the density of Dark matter?
19. What are the broad classes of explanations of the dark matter puzzle?
20. How are dark matter particles searched for? What are the results so far?
21. What are the problems with the WIMP models?
22. How can one derive gravitational waves from Newton's law? How do these relate to those derived from General Relativity?
23. What are the sources of detected gravitational waves? What are their characteristics? What other sources could be detected?
24. Describe the LIGO and Virgo detectors and relate their characteristics to those of gravitational waves.
25. What can one deduce from the observed black-hole mergers?
26. What can one deduce from the observed neutron-star merger?
27. What are the characteristics of KAGRA, the Einstein Telescope and LISA? What kind of events can they detect?