Ateneo - UPO

The content of the 1st semester Physics course (Fisica MS0063)

Students with disabilities, Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), or Special Educational Needs (SEN) can request dedicated services and tools by contacting the Career Development and Coordination and Student Services Staff and by consulting the dedicated page on the University website: https://uniupo.it/it/servizi/servizi-studentesse-e-studenti-condizione-di-disabilit%C3%A0-e-dsa. Students with disabilities, SLD, or SEN, after contacting the University Staff, can contact the professor in charge of the course regarding the specific exam modalities and teaching aspects.

Electricity

• Electric charge, charge density, Coulomb's force, vacuum permittivity and relative permittivity
• Electric field, field of a point charge, electric field lines, superposition principle, electric field of a dipole along its axis, electric dipole moment, dipole in an external electric field, electric field of an infinite plane, electric field in a capacitor, motion of a charge in a capacitor
• Work done by the electric force, electric potential energy, electric potential, electronvolt, capacitor, capacitance, energy stored in a capacitor
• Conductors and insulators, direct electric current (DC), resistance, first and second Ohm's laws, resistivity and temperature, electric power, Joule effect, alternating current (AC), RMS voltage and current, effects of electric current on the human body, grounding

Magnetism

• Properties of magnets, magnetic field lines, magnetic dipole moment, Earth's magnetic field
• Magnetic force, Lorentz force, effects of a magnetic field on a current-carrying wire, Biot–Savart law, vacuum permeability and relative permeability, magnetic field generated by a current loop at its center, behavior of a magnetic dipole in an external magnetic field, magnetic field of a solenoid
• Motion of a particle in a magnetic field, mass spectrometer

Electromagnetism

• Faraday's experiment, induced currents, Faraday–Neumann–Lenz law
• Introduction to Maxwell's equations, electromagnetic (EM) waves, speed of light in vacuum and in a medium, generation of EM waves, electromagnetic spectrum, energy carried by EM waves and wave intensity, quantization of energy and photons

Introduction to Special Relativity

• Einstein's postulates, time dilation, verification of time dilation using cosmic muons, length contraction, mass–energy equivalence, electric and magnetic fields in relativistic reference frames
• Positron emission tomography (PET)

Particle Accelerators

• Linear accelerators, medical and experimental LINACs
• Circular accelerators: cyclotron and synchrotron, with examples

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

• Dimensions of atoms and nuclei, fundamental forces, limitations of the atomic model, Bohr atom, wave–particle duality, uncertainty principle, spin and the magnetic dipole moment of the proton

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

• Spin flip and relaxation, Larmor frequency, operating principle of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gradient fields, spin–lattice and spin–spin relaxation times, effects of radiofrequency fields in the semiclassical approach
• Free Induction Decay (FID), magnetization vector, spin-echo sequence, contrast agents, examples of NMR equipment

Radioactivity

• Review of nomenclature, atomic nucleus density, shell model, chart of the nuclides, binding energy, alpha decay and its kinematics, beta decay and its kinematics, neutrinos, gamma decay, decay series
• Radioactive decay law, activity, mean lifetime and half-life, natural radioactivity

Radiation–Matter Interaction

• Interactions of heavy charged particles: stopping power, Bethe–Bloch formula, Bragg peak, beam width
• Interactions of light charged particles: braking radiation, radiation length, bremsstrahlung and ionization, multiple Coulomb scattering, linear energy transfer (LET), cross section
• Photon–matter interaction: photoelectric effect, Compton effect, pair production, linear attenuation coefficient, electromagnetic showers, X-ray diagnostics (fluoroscopy, radiography, computed tomography)
• Neutron–matter interaction: introduction to interaction methods

X-ray Generation

• X-ray tube, characteristic lines, rotating anode, angular distribution of X-rays for thick and thin targets
• Current and voltage in the X-ray tube, introduction to power supplies, load curves