Outlines of Lectures and Project Abstracts

The CTP Summer Programme is primarily aimed at advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students in Egypt. It provides the opportunity for highly motivated students to attend short courses on fundamental subjects that are not widely taught in Egypt; such as general relativity and cosmology, quantum field theory and black hole physics. Among our motivations is to furthermore provide a taste of active research areas in fundamental physics; to familiarize students with topical problems and proposed solutions. The inaugural session last year included three main themes: Physical Cosmology; Inflation and Cosmological Perturbations; and Black Hole Mechanics and Thermodynamics. This, in addition to pedagogical student projects on related topics. Given the significant demand this year, we have accordingly increased the number of accepted students and significantly enhanced the scope of the lectures and tutorials. These are briefly outlined in the coming pages.

I- Lectures:

• Quantum Field Theory and Hawking Radiation (Adel Awad, 7 Lectures)
• Introduction to quantum field theory
• Basic ideas of renormalization
• Fermions and electrodynamics
• Black hole physics
• Hawking radiation calculation
• Relativistic Cosmological Perturbations and Inflation (Alexey Golovnev, 7 Lectures)
• Classical theory of Yang Mills fields
• General Relativity
• Linear theory of cosmological perturbations
• Inflation and the quantum origin of perturbations
• Review of modified gravity and alternative models
• Physical Cosmology (Amr El-Zant, 3-4 Lectures)
• The maximally symmetric universe: Evidence and evolution
• Evolution of its components: Matter, radiation and dark energy
• Distance measures and cosmological parameter estimation
• Basic galaxy formation and upcoming observations; incl. with JWST (optional; depending on demand and final schedule)
• The Standard Model of Particle Physics (ElSayed Lashin, 3 Lectures)
• Weak Interactions (Fermi model and its discontents)
• Higgs Mechanism
• The standard model
• The Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider (Nicola De Filippis; 3 Lectures and tutorials)
• Standard model probing at the LHC
• From the discovery of the Higgs boson to the measurement of its properties and beyond
• Double Higgs searches and constraints on the Higgs self-couplings
• Critical Phenomena and Quantum Quenching (Sumit Das; 3 Lectures)
• Critical phenomena
• Critical Exponents
• Applications in quantum quenching
• Hamiltonian and Numerical Relativity (Maria Guzman; 3 Lectures and tutorials)
• Fundamentals of Hamiltonian formalism in physics
• ADM formulation of general relativity
• Basics of numerical relativity

II- Project Descriptions:

Priority will be given to 3rd year undergraduate students. Several students may participate in the same project; up to a total maximum of 25 students. There will be project tutorials in the afternoons of the first week (where participating students will be divided into groups according to their chosen project). Students are then expected to work on their projects and follow up with their tutors. There will also be some tutorials (by Nicola de Filippis, possibly in collaboration with Sherif ElGammal, and Maria Guzman) during the second week). Students may also choose to follow up with tasks related to these. We note that for those students seeking report on their performance in the internship, proper participation in the projects will be taken seriously into account.

• Confronting alternative ΛCDM models against cosmological observations: (Supervisor: Mahmoud Hashim)
  

  In this project we are going to test different alternative models to the standard model of cosmology – ΛCDM - as a possible solutions to problems that it faces, e.g., 𝐻0 and 𝜎8 tensions. We will use Bayesian inference (or likelihood analysis) to test these models against different cosmological datasets (Supernovae, cosmic microwave background etc...). Required skills: Basic Knowledge of cosmology (at the level of the book Introduction to Cosmology by Andrew Liddle or Amr El-Zant’s lectures). Intermediate knowledge of Python; Basic knowledge of Linux.



• Milky Way-like galaxy simulation using RAMSES (Supervisors: Mahmoud Hashim and Amr El-Zant)
  

  The aim of this project is to learn the adaptive mesh refinement coupled gravity-hydrodynamic solver code “RAMSES” and do a test simulation of a galaxy with specifications similar to the Milky Way galaxy. Post-processing analysis will be conducted on the resulting simulation - e.g., density profile, rotation curve and star formation rate. Required skills: Basic knowledge of astronomy and galactic dynamics. Intermediate knowledge of Fortran. Intermediate knowledge of Python. Basic knowledge of Linux OS. Background Reading: Cosmology Hydrodynamics with adaptive mesh refinement. A new high-resolution code called RAMSES, by R. Teyssier, e- print: :astro-ph/0111367v1



• GR Tensor (Supervisor: Waleed El Hanafy)

  General Relativity is the most successful theory describing gravity so far. The theory encodes the gravitational field as a curvature of spacetime. It has many applications in astrophysics and cosmology. Indeed, these applications intersect with general area of differential geometry, which needs some basic knowledge of tensor calculus. Fortunately, the GRTensor II package provides an easy tool to calculate tensor components on curved spacetimes, specified in terms of a given metric. The package contains a library of standard definitions designed for use in the field of general relativity. GRTensor II is not a standalone package, but requires an algebraic engine (originally developed to run with different versions of Maple). A limited version has been designed to run with Mathematica. GRTensor II and related software and documentation are distributed free of charge, please visit the URL http://grtensor.phy.queensu.ca/ and download the Maple version of GRTensor II. For more details about the package installation see the documentation link in the aforementioned URL. Three group projects will be offered during the programme, each consisting of two to three members: Project I: Schwarzschild metric, which describes the geometry of a spherically symmetric spacetime configuration. The general relativistic solution of an empty space is suitable for solar system applications. Project II: Kerr metric, which describes the geometry of an axially symmetric spacetime configuration. The general relativistic solution of an empty space is suitable for rotating black hole applications. Project III: Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) metric, which describes the geometry of a homogeneous and isotropic spacetime configuration. The general relativistic solution is suitable for cosmological applications.



• RPC gas particle detectors (Supervisor: Yasser Assran)
  

  The resistive plate chamber (RPC) is a fast gaseous detector, which consists of two parallel plates; a positively charged anode and a negatively charged cathode, both made of a very high resistivity plastic material and separated by a gas volume. It is used in many high-energy physics experiments due to its simple design, construction, good time resolution, high efficiency, and low-cost production. This project aims to find the ideal operating conditions of the CMS RPCs using Garfield++ as simulation software. It represents the effect of temperature on various RPC parameters. The electron transport parameters like drift velocity, Townsend coefficient and Diffusion coefficient have been computed under different temperatures and gas mixtures using MAGBOLTZ. While the primary ionization number and energy loss have been studied using HEED. We used the nearly exact Boundary Element Method (neBEM) solver in the calculation of the weighting field and electric field. Finally, we applied Ramo’s theorem to calculate the induced signal.



• Using Garfield for the Calculation of Transport Parameters (Supervisor: Yasser Assran)
  

  Garfield is a computer program for the detailed simulation of two and three- dimensional drift chambers. It has an interface to the Magboltz program for the computation of electron transport properties in arbitrary gas mixtures. Garfield also has an interface with the Heed program to simulate the ionization of gas molecules by particles traversing the chamber. Transport of particles, including diffusion, avalanches, and current induction is treated in three dimensions irrespective of the technique used to compute the fields. In this work, we use Garfield to calculate the transport parameters like drift velocity, longitudinal diffusion, transverse diffusion Townsend coefficient attachment coefficient, and Lorentz angle.



• Search for Dark Matter in Association with Hypothetical Z prime Boson at the LHC Using Run 1 Open Data (Supervisor: Sherif Elgammal)
  

  One of the most puzzling unsolved problems in physics regards the existence of dark matter (DM), which is a new type of non-luminous and non-baryonic matter, suggested by various astrophysical and cosmological observations. The missing matter is being searched for at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The signature of DM at the LHC will be in a form of missing energy, since it is very weakly interacting with ordinary matter. On the other hand, the standard model of particle physics is successful in the unification between the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force but fails to unify the four fundamental universal fields (The electromagnetic, weak, strong and gravity fields) which lead to the need of new physics beyond the SM. In grand unification theories, it is possible to unify the electroweak force and the strong force in a single interaction predicting new sort of heavy bosons (MGU MSM) such as Z (Z prime). The life time of Z' is very short such that it decays rapidly to either di-lepton or di-neutrinos or a pair of quark – antiquark. One of the interesting models based on the grand unification is known as Mono-Z' model, which propose the production of dark matter particles in addition to Z' boson. This process can be produced at the LHC via quark - antiquark Annihilation process in proton-proton collision at 13 TeV. Work plan: Performing MC simulation for Mono-Z' model signal at several mass points of Z' for the di-leptons decay channel; performing MC simulations of the expected background; analyzing open data collected by the CMS detector in order to search for the Dark Matter particles and Z'; comparing the simulated data with the true data and interpreting the results; placing 95% confidence level limits on the free model parameters.

Online Lectures and Talks

Schedule