Physics in Italy

Physics in Italy 1950-2000 Nicola Cabibbo Dipartimento di Fisica Università di Roma La Sapienza INFN Sezione di Roma Lares, 3 July 2009 Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 1 / 27

The Conversi, Pancini e Piccioni Experiment Hourly counts of mesotrons seen decaying into an electron Negative Yukawa mesons should be absorbed both in Fe and in C and should note decay! modern particle physics started in the last days of World War II, when a group of young Italians, Conversi, Pancini, and Piccioni, who were hiding from the German occupying forces, initiated a remarkable experiment... (L. Alvarez, Nobel lecture 1968) Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 2 / 27

The Conversi, Pancini e Piccioni Experiment Hourly counts of mesotrons seen decaying into an electron Negative Yukawa mesons should be absorbed both in Fe and in C and should note decay! modern particle physics started in the last days of World War II, when a group of young Italians, Conversi, Pancini, and Piccioni, who were hiding from the German occupying forces, initiated a remarkable experiment... (L. Alvarez, Nobel lecture 1968) Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 3 / 27

Nuclear Emulsions and Cosmic Rays Giuseppe Occhialini perfected the nuclear emulsion technique, leading to the 1947 discovery of the true Yukawa meson, the pion π. The cosmic ray Laboratory at Testa Grigia, and a cosmic ray collision seen in nuclear emulsion. The Amaldi group detected in emulsions the first observed antiproton. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 4 / 27

Elementary particles in 1950 and 1960 1950: Proton and Neutron the Nucleons The pion π, the Yukawa Meson. Electron and Positron. Neutrino Observed only in 1957. Muon the Conversi-Pancini-Piccioni particle Who ordered that? (Isadore Rabi) In 1960 new particles appear: Strange Mesons τ, θ (today K mesons) Strange Nucleons (Hyperons) Λ, Σ, Ξ πp Resonance E. Fermi (today ) At the end of the fifties particle physics moves from cosmic rays to accelerators. Among these the CERN PS and the Frascati synchrotron. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 5 / 27

The Frascati Synchrotron 1958 The 1100 MeV Synchrotron, and Giorgio Salvini, director of the Frascati Laboratories. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 6 / 27

Particle Colliders, why E In the collision of a particle of energy E with one at rest with mass M the effective center of mass energy is only 2ME E E In the frontal collision of two particles with energy E, the center of mass energy is 2E Under the guidance of Bruno Toushek the Frascati Laboratories built AdA, the first machine to demonstrate beam-beam collisions. A larger electron-positron collider, Adone (big AdA), was completed in 1968. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 7 / 27

AdA: the first electron-positron collider 1960 Bruno Toushek, inventor of the e + e colliders, with Edoardo Amaldi Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 8 / 27

Adone 1968 Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 9 / 27

The particle Zoo: Baryons The proliferation of hadronic particles: the relatives of the nucleon. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 10 / 27

The particle Zoo: Mesons The proliferation of hadronic particles: the relatives of the π meson. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 11 / 27

Quarks Baryons are bound states of three quarks, For instance the proton: P = uud Mesons are bound states of a quarkantiquark pair, for instance the pion: π + = u d Heavier baryons or mesons are excited states of three quarks or of a quarkantiquark pair The zoo is simplified! Do quarks really exist? Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 12 / 27

Adone: Colored Quarks exist! R is the ratio between hadron and muon-pair production in e + e collisions R = e+ e π + π +... e + e µ + µ To produce hadrons in e + e collisions means producing quark antiquark pairs, and we obtain R = { 2 (Q) 2 = 3 (For each color ) 2 (For three colors ) quarks Adone established the existence of the color quantum number: each quark exists in three copies, and the color symmetry is the foundation of Quantum Chromo Dynamics, the theory of quark interactions. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 13 / 27

DAFNE: towards the new millennium. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 14 / 27

KLOE in the Particle Data Group book With the KLOE detector, DAFNE has practically rewritten the physics of K e Φ mesons, leading also to a precise test of the quark-mixing hypothesis. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 15 / 27

CERN: the LEP and LHC tunnel Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 16 / 27

The LEP experiments INFN had a leading role in the four LEP detectors: DELPHI, OPAL, L3 e ALEPH. ALEPH and an ALEPH event Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 17 / 27

Hadron production in e + -e collisions Cross-section (pb) 10 5 10 4 Z e + e! "hadrons 10 3 10 2 CESR DORIS PEP W + W - 10 KEKB PEP-II PETRA TRISTAN SLC LEP I LEP II 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 Centre-of-mass energy (GeV) This figure omits lower energy data from Adone, SPEAR, etc. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 18 / 27

How many neutrinos? The study of the Z resonance confirms that the invisible channels correspond to three neutrino-antineutrino pairs ν e, ν µ, ν τ Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 19 / 27

Particle detectors: Spark Chambers ( 1960). Invented by Marcello Conversi, spark chambers dominated particle physics in the sixties. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 20 / 27

Particle detectors: the Iarocci tubes ( 1980). Invented by Enzo Iarocci, they are a modern fast version of the Geiger-Müller counters, and have been widely used in the eighties: at LEP, at Frascati, Stanford, DESY (Hamburg), Fermilab (Chicago), Gran Sasso. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 21 / 27

Detectors: Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) Invented by Rolando Santonico, widely used in contemporary experiments. In the photo the structure of the RPC used in the ATLAS experiment at LHC. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 22 / 27

Neutrino Oscillations at Gran Sasso. Gallex and Macro in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratories gave essential contributions to the discovery of neutrino oscillations Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 23 / 27

Boomerang: Universe is flat! March 17, 2000 1.0 age=1.00/h o 0.8 0.90/H o Ω o =1 150 GHz 240 GHz - 150 GHz Ω Λ 0.6 0.80/H o 0.75/H o 0.4 SN1a CMB 0.70/H o 0.2 185 < l peak < 209 0.67/H o 240 GHz 400 GHz 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Ω m Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 24 / 27

Gravitational waves: Amaldi s last enterprise. Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 25 / 27

Gravitational waves: Amaldi s last enterprise. Two cryogenic bar antennas of the Amaldi group: Explorer (CERN) and Nautilus (Frascati). Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 26 / 27

Gravitational waves present and future. The future of gravitational waves is with large interferometers Today on the Earth surface (Virgo near Pisa), Tomorrow in space (The LISA satellites). Nicola Cabibbo Physics in Italy Lares, 3 July 2009 27 / 27