Here we explain details of our lectures on experiments in the five-year doctor course. We are going to hold introductory courses for those who have taken only undergraduate courses. For details, please click here.

Curriculum

The curriculum in the experimental division consists of the following three activities:

• Schooling: to acquire basic and special knowledge through lectures
  
• Practical training: to acquire basic techniques through participation in the research activities of the group you are affiliated with
  
• Research: study under the supervision by your advisor for the Ph. D. thesis

In the first year, schooling would be your main activity as in the ordinary master- or doctor-courses of other universities. From the second year the practical training would gradually take over, and in the latter half of the course you will concentrate on your own research.

Introductory lectures

We will present the following introductory lectures:

• Seminars on high energy accelerator science
  This is an elementary lecture common to the three departments in the school of high energy accelerator science. Researchers active at the vanguard of this field in KEK give lectures on a wide range of topics of its forefront.
• Introduction to high energy physics Principles of particle detection These are for acquiring basic knowledge of experimental technique necessary for research in particle and nuclear physics.
• Relativistic physics
  This is for acquiring theoretical knowledge necessary for experimental research, such as Dirac equation, quantum field theory, special and general relativity, and cosmology. You can learn them through this lecture, even if you have not taken these lectures in your undergraduate courses.
• Here we present example Power Point files (with speech) or PDF files of the lectures on experiments given as a part of the course �gSeminars on high energy accelerator science". (To view them you need Microsoft Power Point, Adobe Acrobat Reader or softwares compatible with them.)
  
  • �gparticle experiments with colliders�h: by Keisuke Fujii (associate professor)
  • �gparticle experiments with fixed targets�h: by Takeshi Komatsubara (associate professor)
  • “nuclear experiments”: by Masaharu Ieiri (associate professor)

Specialized lectures

You will take those necessary for your research from the specialized lectures we present. They are usually delivered as lectures or seminars by turns among a small number of people. For your reference, we show lectures on experiments given in KEK in the last few years below.

• Particle and nuclear physics
  Following a survey of recent high energy experiments and lectures on basic knowledge, specialists talked about some topics on the forefront of experiments and theory.
• High energy lepton reactions
  Following lectures on the fundamentals of electron-positron collision experiments, we read some representative papers on collision experiments (TOPAZ, TASSO, BELLE, ALEPH) by turns.
• Hadron spectroscopy
  Through reading a lecture note (T. Nir, "CP Violation - A New Era") by turns, we learned various cases of CP violation. We reached thorough understanding by doing calculations ourselves as well as reading it.
• Principles of particle measurement
  A survey of the principles of measuring devices was given through reading some textbooks by turns.
• System designs of measuring devices
  Through reading the original papers we reviewed the historical experiments crucial for the development of particle physics in the view of designs of experimental devices.
• Particle detectors
  Through practice using simulators of measuring devices, we deepened our understanding of how main detectors necessary to high energy collision experiments by the next generation of accelerators are working, and how to reconstruct particle reactions by integrating information from them.
• Survey of circuits for particle measurement I
  Lectures on principles of radiation detectors and electronics (such as signal processing, transistors and circuits) were given.
• Survey of circuits for particle measurement II
  Lectures on designs of analog integrated circuits were given.
• Statistical data processing
  Lectures on the methods of statistical processing of experimental data and their examples were given.
  

For the details of the above lectures, see this.

Practical training and research

Practical training and research are made in the courses titled “Practice of particle and nuclear experiments” and “ Special research in experimental particle and nuclear physics”, under the guidance of your supervisors.
Unlike lab classes for undergraduates, which are performed along with predetermined schedules and plans, you will gain a credit by participating in an experimental project of your group for a year and obtaining results from it.
Your research begins by taking charge of a part of the hardware or software in the experiment, and you will start doing "physics" by collecting data and analyzing them. Your Ph.D thesis, which is usually written in English, is expected to be compiled from the results of your research. After you pass the defence of the thesis, you earn Ph.D.

In ordinary courses, you are requested to write and submit a �gmaster thesis�h by the end of the master course in two years. In our five-year doctor course, submission of master-thesis is not officially required. However, in the experimental course of the department of particle and nuclear physics, you will be requested to submit a master thesis or its equivalent and to give an oral presentation on it at the end of the second year. That is because, we strongly believe, writing a master thesis is an crucial step to proceed to the research for the Ph.D. thesis. You should keep it in mind.