Section outline

  • Introduction to the course

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    Course goals and organization

    The course presents advanced topics in instrumentation for ionizing radiation, with particular focus on applications in nuclear and particle physics, but with examples also from other fields.

    The students will acquire knowledge of modern sensor technologies and related electronics and of how they can be organized in a detector system. Examples of how advanced instrumentation is used in physics measurements will also be provided.

    The course is organized with classroom lessons and exercise sessions.

    The final exam consists of a short presentation (20 min) on a topic chosen among a predefined set followed by a oral examination.

    Prerequisites

    Advanced electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and special relativity. Electronics laboratory. Basics of interaction of radiation with matter. Attendance of Fundamental Interaction Lab advised.

    Organization 2024-25

    The course will be held in presence. The Microsoft Teams channel and the Elearning page can be used for communication and material. Please sign up on both platforms.
    Calendar:

    • Mon 10.30-12.30       aula V1
    • Thu 10.30-12.30      aula V1
    • Fri 9.30-10.30           aula  V1

    Start date: Monday, February 10, 2025

    Slides and study material will be made available on google drive, accessible with UniPisa account.

    Instructors

    Below you find a list of emails that can be used to contact instructors:

    • Francesco.Forti@unipi.it
    • Fabrizio.Palla@pi.infn.it
    • Fabrizio.Scuri@pi.infn.it
    • Giovanni.Signorelli@pi.infn.it
    • Franco.Spinella@pi.infn.it

  • Course Material

  • Instrumentation seminars

    In the final part of the course some instrumentation seminars are presented by experts in the field, with the purpose of placing the instrumentation technologies in the context of past, present and future experiments. The program is the following:

    5-May-2025 Monday Aula V1 10:30 11:30 Instrumentation for rare decay searches (MEG II, Mu3E) [Papa]
    5-May-2025 Monday Aula V1 11:30 12:30 High energy lepton colliders (LEP, ILC, CLIC, FCCee) [Azzurri]
    8-May-2025 Thursday Aula V1 10:30 11:30 Large area cosmic ray experiments (Magic, CTA, Auger…) [Bossini]
    8-May-2025 Thursday Aula V1 11:30 12:30 Space instrumentation (AMS, Fermi/Glast, IXPE, ) [Sgro’]
    9-May-2025 Friday Aula V1 09:30 10:30 Large volume rare events detectors(SuperK, HyperK, Dune, Darkside, Icecube, KM3) [Forti]
    12-May-2025 Monday Aula V1 10:30 11:30 Instrumentation for rare decay searches (Mu2E, COMET) [Di Falco]
    12-May-2025 Monday Aula V1 11:30 12:30 Low energy lepton colliders (KLOE, BES III, Babar, Belle (II)) [Forti]
    15-May-2025 Thursday Aula V1 10:30 11:30 Forward spectrometers (NA62, LHCB) [Pinzino] 
    15-May-2025 Thursday Aula V1 11:30 12:30 High energy hadron colliders (CDF, CMS, ATLAS, FCChh) [Bedeschi] 

  • Topics for exam

    For the final exam students have to select a  journal paper on a specific topic, on which they have to prepare a short (20 min) presentation that is the starting point of the exam. The presentation will be followed by question on the course program.

    The list of proposed papers is here. 

    Link to exams on Teams.

  • Other activities

    • Visit to INFN laboratories 2025 Reservation

      Program on Thursday 22 May 2025

      09:00 - Mechanical workshop (A. Moggi)
      10:00 - Clean room (Belle II, IXPE, CMS, MEG) (F.Forti)
      11:00 - Cryogenics Laboratories, Faraday Cage (G.Signorelli)
      12:00 - Calorimetry lab (F.Scuri)
      13:00 - End
    • Visit to INFN Electronics laboratories 2025 Reservation

      Program on Wednesday, 4 June 2025

      14.30 - Mu2E laboratory
      15:30 - INFN Electronics service lab (F.Spinella)
      16:30 - End