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Seminars take place at Newman 311, 4:00 PM (refreshments at 3:45 PM), unless announced otherwise. Winter/Spring 2006 | |||
| DATE         | SPEAKER | INSTITUTION | SEMINAR TITLE |
| Fri Jan 20 | Dan Peterson | Cornell University | Development of a TPC for the ILC |
| Thu Jan 26 | Kristian Hahn | U. of Pennsylvania | Search for New Physics in Decays to electron-muon at CDF |
| 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 | Looking for WIMPs in the Galactic Halo: The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search |
| Fri Feb 10 | Jim Brau | University of Oregon | Detector R&D for the International Linear Collider |
| Wed Feb 15 | Sarah Demer | University of Rochester | TBA |
| Fri Feb 17 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri Feb 24 | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- scheduled talk moved to March 9th | ||
| Fri Mar 3 | Wim de Boer | U. of Karlsruhe | Dark Matter Searches with EGRET |
| Thu Mar 9 | Alex Kagan | U. of Cincinnati | e+e- -> M1 M2 and importance of power corrections in hadronic 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 | open | TBA | |
| Fri Apr 14 | Michael Ogg | Valaran Corporation | How to Survive in the "Real World" - Tales of a Physicist Turned Software Engineer |
| Fri Apr 21 | Bill Ford | University of Colorado | Flying B's, and what they teach us |
| Fri Apr 28 | Wesley Smith | University of Wisconsin | "Trigger and Data Acquisition for the Super LHC" |
| Fri May 5 | ---- | NO JOURNAL CLUB -- CLEO Meeting | |
| Fri May 12 | Peter Wittich | Cornell University | TBA |
| Fri May 19 | Anna Goussiou | U. of Notre Dame | The Quest for the Higgs: Where do we stand? |
| Fri May 26th | Richard Kass | Ohio State University | Tau physics in Babar |
Abstracts and Transparencies
January 26
Kristian Hahn, U. Pennsylvania
Search for New Physics in Decays to electron-muon at CDF
Experimental tests of the "accidental" symmetries of the Standard Model, such as that leading to the conservation of lepton flavor, may prove to be sensitive probes of new physics. While precision experiments have severely constrained lepton flavor violation (LFV) in processes involving charged leptons at low energies, limits on LFV in models of new physics are largely indirect. I present a direct search for LFV decays of heavy neutral particles to an electron-muon final state in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The analysis utilizes 344 pb-1 of integrated luminosity recorded by the upgraded CDF-II detector at Fermilab. Results of the analysis are used to constrain R-parity violating supersymmetric and E6 inspired U'(1) models.
pdf
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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
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February 3rd
Dan Akerib, Case Western Reserve University
Looking for WIMPs in the Galactic Halo: The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
Overwhelming observational evidence indicates that most of the matter in the Universe consists of non-baryonic dark matter. One possibility is that the dark matter is Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) that were produced in the early Universe. These relics could comprise the Milky Way's dark halo and provide evidence for new particle physics, such as Supersymmetry. After reviewing some of the evidence for dark matter and the WIMP hypothesis, I will describe the search we are conducting to detect these particles using phonon-mediated particle detectors housed in a low-radioactive 20-milli-Kelvin environment 2000 feet below ground. I will also briefly discuss our future plans to build a new experiment with a factor of 10 further sensitivity, which is the first phase of a ton-scale experiment named SuperCDMS.
pdf
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February 10
Jim Brau, University of Oregon
Detector R&D for the International Linear Collider
Optimization of the ILC experimental program depends on
a successful world-wide detector R&D program. Requirements for
the physics goals of the ILC will be reviewed. Precision
measurements of the ILC will demand detector capabilities beyond
the current state-of-the-art. This means overcoming technical challenges
different from those of previous efforts, such as for the LHC.
An overview of the detector R&D efforts, world-wide, will be presented.
pdf
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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
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April 21
Bill Ford, University of Colorado
Flying B's, and what they teach us
The weakness of the b quark's coupling to lighter quarks was somewhat
surprising when first measured through the lifetimes of b hadrons. That
observation alongside the b->(u,c) ratio fixed the hierarchy of quark
weak couplings. The values found for the lifetime, and subsequently for
the B0-B0bar oscillation frequency, enabled the experiments that now
explore the CP-violating phases of the couplings. Here I recall the
lifetime measurements, and review the pattern of overlapping constraints
and their potential to reveal the limits of the Standard Model. I also
indicate the prospects for future gains in the sensitivity of these and
successor experiments.
ppt,
pdf
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April 28
Wesley Smith, University of Wisconsin
Trigger and Data Acquisition for the Super LHC
R&D is needed for LHC trigger and data acquisition systems if the LHC luminosity is increased to 10^35 cm-2s-1. This upgrade, entitled the Super LHC (SLHC), would occur in the next decade. The physics triggers, the algorithms needed to provide these triggers against the substantially increased backgrounds and pile-up, and the types of electronics solutions that can support these more sophisticated algorithms are discussed. New architectures of Data Acquisition systems exploiting advances in network technology are also presented.
pdf
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