|
Seminars take place at Newman 311, 4:00 PM (refreshments at 3:45 PM), unless announced otherwise.
Where we are now Abstracts and Transparencies | |||
| DATE | SPEAKER | INSTITUTION | SEMINAR TITLE |
| Fri Sep 2 | |||
| Fri Sep 9 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri Sep 16 | Erich Mueller | Cornell | Routes to new physics with rotating cold gases |
| Fri Sep 23 | Jo Dudek | Jefferson Lab | Charmonium Radiative Transitions on the Lattice |
| Fri Sep 30 | Dan Marlow | Princeton | CMS Luminosity Measurement |
| Fri Oct 7 | Bruce Behrens | CNA | CNA, the Navy, and assorted analyses |
| Wed Oct 12 | Shuwei Ye | U. of Texas, Dallas | Y(4260): a broad strucutre in e+e- -> ISR pi+pi-J/psi |
| Thu Oct 13 | Matthias Liepe | Cornell | The Cornell ERL: A Heart of Niobium |
| Fri Oct 14 | Dick Loveless | U. of Wisconsin | CMS Endcap Muon System |
| Fri Oct 21 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri Oct 28 | Pablo Hopman | MIT Lincoln Lab | High-Rate, Deep-Space Optical Communications: 30 Mbits/second from Mars |
| Tue Nov 1 | Eduard Pozdeyev | Jefferson Lab | Experimental Results from the Small Isochronous Ring at Michigan State University |
| Fri Nov 4 | Dinko Pocanic | U. of Virginia | New results on pion rare decays |
| Wed Nov 9 | Richard Hill | Fermilab | The shape of semileptonic B and D decay form factors: Applications and precision tests |
| Fri Nov 11 | Richard Talman | Cornell | Conversion of CESR to Bright X-Ray Source |
| Fri Nov 18 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- PAC Meeting | |
| Fri Nov 25 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- Thanksgiving | |
| Tue Nov 29 | Val Prasad | Yale University | Search for the Electron Electric Dipole Moment |
| Wed Nov 30 | Alexey Garmash | Princeton University | B meson decays to three-body charmless hadronic final states |
| Thu Dec 1 | Monica Dunford | University of Pennsylvania | Beyond Fluxes with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory |
| Fri Dec 2 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri Dec 9 | Gil Paz | Cornell | An Inclusive Look at Charmless Inclusive B Decays |
| Fri Dec 16 | Peter Fisher | MIT | The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer [CANCELLED] |
|
| |||
| DATE | SPEAKER | INSTITUTION | SEMINAR TITLE |
| Fri Jan 27 | Pekka Sinervo | U. of Toronto | Recent Top Quark Mass Measurements at CDF II and Implications for the Higgs |
| Fri Feb 3 | Dan Akerib | Case Western Reserve University | TBA |
| Fri Feb 10 | Jim Alexander | Cornell | Studying Dark Matter in Accelerator Experiments |
| Fri Feb 17 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri Feb 24 | Wim de Boer | U. of Karlsruhe | Dark Matter Searches with EGRET |
| Fri Mar 3 | Alex Kagan | U. of Cincinnati | e+ e- -> M1 M2 at CLEO and Power Corrections in B Decays |
| Fri Mar 10 | Mark Neubauer | UCSD | Lb Lifetime Measurement at CDF |
| Fri Mar 17 | Alexey Petrov | Wayne State University | TBA |
| Fri Mar 24 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- Cornell Spring Break | |
| Fri Mar 31 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri Apr 7 | |||
| Fri Apr 14 | Michael Ogg | Valaran Corporation | How to Survive in the "Real World" - Tales of a Physicist Turned Software Engineer |
| Fri Apr 21 | |||
| Fri Apr 28 | |||
| Fri May 5 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri May 12 | IC Commencement -- reserved for local speakers | ||
| Fri May 19 | Anna Goussiou | U. of Notre Dame | The Quest for the Higgs: Where do we stand? |
| Fri May 26 | Cornell Commencement -- reserved for local speakers |
September 16
Erich Mueller, Cornell
Routes to new physics with rotating cold gases
I will talk about recent advances in ultracold atomic gases. I will
focus on attempts to use rotating to create exotic states of matter,
and some of the experimental hurdles that must be overcome. I will
try to emphasize some areas where there are analogies in high energy/
accelerator physics, such as how recent experiments have been using
"betatron resonances" to cool atomic clouds.
pdf
September 23
Jo Dudek, Jefferson Lab
Charmonium Radiative Transitions on the Lattice
I will discuss work done in the Jefferson Lab Theory Center which
simulates radiative transitions between the lightest charmonium states
using lattice QCD. This is the first such study in the charmonium sector
and preliminary results appear to be consistent with experimental data.
Obtaining physically measurable quantities involves a fusion of lattice
computation with extrapolations based on successful quark-potential
models. Eventually it is hoped that this method can be applied to the
light-quark sector and in particular transitions involving the
hypothetical hybrid mesons which it is believed will be probed at the
forthcoming JLab experiment: GlueX.
ppt
September 30
Dan Marlow, Princeton
CMS Luminosity Measurement
Various techniques for monitoring the luminosity
at CMS will be described. Simulation results will
be presented and the plans for recording and tracking
luminosity information will be reviewed.
ppt
October 12
Shuwei Ye, U. of Texas, Dallas
Y(4260): a broad strucutre in e+e- -> ISR pi+pi-J/psi
We (BaBar) study initial-state radiation events,
$e^+e^-\to\gamma_{ISR}\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi$,
with data collected with the BaBar detector.
We observe an accumulation of events near 4.26~GeV/$c^2$
in the invariant-mass spectrum of $\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi$.
Fits of the mass spectrum indicate that a broad resonance
with a mass of about 4.26~GeV/$c^2$
is required to describe the observed structure.
The presence of additional narrow resonances cannot be excluded.
The fitted width of the broad resonance is 50 to 90~MeV/$c^2$,
depending on the fit hypothesis.
ppt
October 14
Dick Loveless, U. of Wisconsin
CMS Endcap Muon System
ppt
October 28
Pablo Hopman, MIT Lincoln Lab
High-Rate, Deep-Space Optical Communications:
30 Mbits/second from Mars
NASA anticipates a significant demand for long-haul communications service from deep-space to Earth in the near future. To address this need, a substantial amount of work has gone into developing a free-space laser communications system that can be operated at data rates that are 10-1000 times more capable than current RF systems. In this talk I will overview the challenges of deep-space optical communications and describe the Mars Laser Communications Demonstration program with a focus on the ground receiver architecture. The ground receiver uses photon counting communication techniques made possible by Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photo Diode (GM-APD) detectors. I will describe the GM-APD focal plane array being developed for a distributed photon counting communications ground receiver.
pdf
November 1
The Small Isochronous Ring (SIR) is a compact, low-energy storage ring designed to experimentally investigate the beam dynamics in high-intensity isochronous cyclotrons and synchrotrons at the transition energy. The ring was developed at Michigan State University and has been operational since December 2003. It stores 20 keV hydrogen beams with a peak current of 20 microamperes for up to 200 turns. The transverse and longitudinal profiles of extracted bunches are measured with an accuracy of approximately 1 mm. The high accuracy of the measurements makes the experimental data extremely attractive for validation of multi-particle space charge codes.
The experimental results obtained in the ring show a fast growth of the energy spread induced by the space charge forces. The energy spread growth is accompanied by a longitudinal breakup of the beam bunches into completely separated clusters that are involved in the vortex motion specific to the isochronous regime. The experimental results show a remarkable agreement with simulations performed with the code CYCO.
In this talk, I'll discuss specifics of space charge effects in the isochronous regime, describe the design of the ring, present results of experiments in SIR, and compare the experimental data with results of simulations. I'll also describe possible ring upgrade scenarios.
Eduard Pozdeyev, Jefferson Lab
Experimental Results from the Small Isochronous Ring
at Michigan State University
November 4
Dinko Pocanic, U. of Virginia
New results on pion rare decays
The PIBETA project, a program of precise study of rare pion and muon
decays at PSI, has been active for several years and is now producing
results. The collaboration uses a large spherical electromagnetic
calorimeter with central tracking and an active target for stopped Pi+
beam. I will discuss results on pion beta decay (Pi+ -> Pi0 e+ Nu),
radiative decays Pi+ -> e+ Nu gamma, Mu+ -> e+ Nu Nu-bar gamma, as
well as our plans for a new measurement of the decay Pi+ -> e+ Nu.
pdf
November 9
Richard Hill, Fermilab
The shape of semileptonic B and D decay form factors: Applications and precision tests
Understanding the energy spectrum in exclusive semileptonic B decays,
encoded by the relevant form factors, is important for a precise
extraction of |V_ub|. The spectral data also enables quantitative tests
of theoretical methods, and the determination of fundamental QCD
parameters. In this talk, the general description of heavy-to-light form
factors emerging from the heavy-quark and soft-collinear effective field
theories is outlined, motivating the introduction and study of particular
form factor shape observables. The necessary statistical apparatus to
rigorously extract these observables from the data is described, and
several new applications of the semileptonic B and D decay data are
discussed.
pdf
November 29
Val Prasad, Yale University
Search for the Electron Electric Dipole Moment
The Demille Group at Yale is searching for the electron electric dipole moment
(EDM) using lead oxide molecules. The expected senseitivity of the experiment
is 10^-29 e-cm, two orders of magnitude lower than the current limit of 1.6 x
10^-27 e-cm. Although the Standard Model expected value for the electron EDM
is more than 13 orders of magnitude lower than the target sensitivity of the
experiment discussed, some extensions to the Standard Model allow for an
electron EDM which should be observable by the experiment. Progress towards
this high-precision measurement will be described.
ppt
November 30
Alexey Garmash, Princeton University
B meson decays to three-body charmless hadronic final states
Decays of B mesons to three-body charmless hadronic final states have
attracted considerable attention in recent years as they provide not
only a rich laboratory for studying B meson decay dynamics but also new
possibilities for CP violation studies. Some of the final states considered
so far as two-body (for example B=>rho pi, K* pi, etc.) proceed via
quasi-two-body processes involving a wide resonance state that immediately
decays in the simplest case to two particles, thereby producing a three-body
final state. Multiple resonances occurring nearby in phase space will
interfere and a full amplitude analysis is required to extract branching
fractions for the intermediate quasi-two-body states. Several three-body
final states have been used recently for CP violation searches. Analysis of
time-dependent CP violation has been done with three-body K+K-K0 and KsKsKs
final states. The first evidence for direct CP violation in B+ =>
rho(770)0K+
has been found via an amplitude analysis of the three-body B+ => K+pi+pi-
decay. Results on studies of three-body charmless B decays to be presented
in this talk are based on large data sample collected by Belle detector
operating at KEKB asymmetric energy e+e- collider with a center of mass
energy at Y(4S) resonance.
pdf
December 1
Monica Dunford, University of Pennsylvania
Beyond Fluxes with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
In the past few years, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory has demonstrated that
the total active flux of neutrinos observed is consistent with the standard
solar model prediction although there is a suppression in the number of
electron neutrinos observed from the sun . The Mikheev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein
model which is used to describe the observed electron neutrino suppression also
predicts a distortion in the neutrino energy spectrum and/or a difference in
electron neutrino survival probability day verses night. Neither of these
predictions have been observed. Additionally, certain models of non-standard
interactions also predict a distortion of the neutrino energy spectrum. This
talk discusses the physics potential of a spectral measurement to test these
predictions and focuses on the experimental challenge of lowering the analysis
energy threshold in SNO in order to be more sensitive to observing spectral
distortions.
pdf
December 9
Gil Paz, Cornell
An Inclusive Look at Charmless Inclusive B Decays
Over the last two years there has been a considerable theoretical research
effort that would lead to a high precision measurement of the CKM matrix
element |Vub| from inclusive charmless B decays. Accurate determination of
|Vub| would allow us to test the Standard Model and search for possible
deviations from its predictions. In a series of papers, written in
collaboration with Stefan Bosch, Bjorn Lange and Matthias Neubert, we have
explored both the perturbative and non perturbative aspects of the
problem. This effort has culminated in our latest "state-of-art" work on
the extraction of |Vub|, which the BaBar and Belle experiments have
already started to implement.
pdf
January 27
Pekka Sinervo, U. of Toronto
Recent Top Quark Mass Measurements at CDF II and Implications for the Higgs
The status of the recent measurements of the top quark mass using data collected
by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton Collider will be presented.
The most accurate measurements employ a novel technique to constrain the jet energy scale in the lepton+jets channel, using the observed W boson decay to two jets in the top quark final states. A complementary technique, using a matrix element approach gives comparable
results, though with larger systematic uncertainties. The implications of these measurements to our understanding of the Higgs sector will be summarized.
pdf
April 14
Michael Ogg, Founder and Former Chief Technology Officer, Valaran Corporation
How to Survive in the "Real World" - Tales of a Physicist Turned
Software Engineer
Not every Ph.D. physicist pursues an academic career. One of the most
popular alternative career choices has been, and continues to be,
software engineering. Twenty five years ago, this was a relatively
easy horizontal move: physicists were probably more exposed to
computing in their training than most other disciplines. Today however
is a much more specialized environment: merely having been a big
computer user is not a specially unique qualification. To succeed
requires knowledge of the most popular languages, technologies,
methodologies, and tools. In this presentation, I will attempt to
shine light on the path by recounting my own experiences both in a
large company and as the founder of a much smaller software company.
pdf