UCL HEP Seminars 1994-2013
: Lea Reichhart (UCL)
First results from the LUX Dark Matter Experiment
A vast number of astronomical observation point towards the existence of an unknown dark component dominating the matter content of our Universe. The most compelling candidates for dark matter are the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which have great potential to be detected in deep underground low background experiments, looking for direct interactions of WIMPs with dedicated target materials. Very recently, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment, operated in the Davis Cavern of the SURF laboratory, USA, has announced results from its first science run. From an exposure of 85 days, having found no evidence of signal above expected background, LUX has set constraints on scalar WIMP-nucleon interactions above 7.6x10-46 cm2 at 33 GeV/c2 WIMP mass (90% C.L.) - three times more sensitive than any competing experiment. This first result also seriously challenges the interpretation of hints of signal detected in other experiments as arising from low-mass WIMPs.
: Bryan Lynn (UCL/CERN)
Chiral Symmetry Restoration, Naturalness and the Absence of Higgs-Mass Fine-Tuning 1: Global Theories
The Standard Model (SM), and the scalar sector of its zero-gauge-coupling limit -- the chiral-symmetric limit of the Gell Mann-Levy Model (GML) -- have been shown not to suffer from a Higgs Fine-Tuning (FT) problem due to ultraviolet quadratic divergences (UVQD). In GML all UVQD are absorbed into the mass-squared of pseudo Nambu-Goldstone (pNGB) bosons. Since chiral SU(2)_{L-R} symmetry is restored as the pNGB mass-squared or as the Higgs vacuum expectation value (VEV) are taken to zero, small values of these quantities and of the Higgs mass are natural, and therefore not Fine-Tuned. Our results on the absence of FT also apply to a wide class of high-mass-scale (M_{Heavy}>>m_{Higgs}) extensions to a simplified SO(2) version of GML. We explicitly demonstrate naturalness and no-FT for two examples of heavy physics, both SO(2) singlets: a heavy (M_S >> m_{Higgs}) real scalar field (with or without a VEV); and a right-handed Type 1 See-Saw Majorana neutrino with M_R >> m_{Higgs}. We prove that for |q^2| << M_{Heavy}^2, the heavy degrees of freedom contribute only irrelevant and marginal operators. The crucial common property of such high-mass-scale extensions is that they respect chiral SO(2)_{L-R} symmetry. GML is therefore natural and not FT, not just as a stand-alone renormalizable field theory, but also as a low energy effective theory with certain high-mass-scale extensions. Phenomenological consequences include the renewed possibility of thermal lepto-genesis, and subsequent baryon-number asymmetry, in the neutrino-MSM. We conjecture that, since gravity couples democratically to particles, certain quantum gravitational theories that respect chiral symmetry will also retain low-energy naturalness, and avoid FT problems for GML (and maybe the SM). Absent a SM FT problem, there should be no expectation that LHC will discover physics beyond the SM which is unrelated to neutrino mixing, the only known experimental failure of the SM.
: Matt Lilley (Imperial)
Feeling the Fusion Burn
The age of fusion energy is almost upon us, creating and sustaining hot plasmas of 150 million degrees is now a routine operation performed all around the world. We are ready for next big challenge - the burning plasma - in which the fusion reactions are self sustaining. This is a highly non thermal system which is prone to instability. The nonlinear character of the instability determines the fate of the plasma, either ignition or a mere fizzle. In this presentation we will explore the physical processes behind these burning plasma instabilities and discus the challenges that lie ahead.
: Nikos Konstantinidis (UCL) — CANCELED!
The High Luminosity LHC programme
As the LHC machine and experiments are preparing frantically to start data taking at design energy and luminosity (and slightly above), an equally intense and exciting programme of R&D and physics studies is ongoing for the High Luminosity (HL-) LHC project, proposed to start in about 10 years, that would deliver 3000/fb to each general purpose detector by the mid-2030s. I will discuss the science case for HL-LHC, the challenges for the accelerator and the experiments, and the ongoing R&D, particularly on the tracking and triggering systems of the experiments
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: Gabriel Facini (CERN)
H -> bb in ATLAS
Since the discovery of a Higgs-like boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC, the emphasis has shifted towards measurements of its properties and the search in more challenging channels in order to determine whether the new particle is the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson. Of particular importance is the direct observation of the coupling of the Higgs boson to fermions. A comprehensive review of the latest ATLAS result in the search for the Higgs boson decaying to a b-quark pair int associated production channel will be given.
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: Lauren Tompkins (University of Chicago)
FTK: A hardware-based track finder for the ATLAS trigger
The spectacular performance of the LHC machine challenged the ATLAS and CMS detectors to contend with an average of 25 proton-proton interactions per beam crossing in 2012. Projections for 14 TeV running in 2015 and beyond suggest that the detectors should prepare for up to 80 interactions per crossing. In these dense environments, identifying the physics objects of interest, such as isolated leptons, taus and b-jets is of paramount importance for a successful physics program. The ATLAS experiment is developing a hardware based track finder, FTK, which will perform full silicon detector tracking within 100 microseconds of a Level 1 trigger accept at luminosities of 3x10^34 cm^-2 s^-1, significantly improving the track-based isolation, secondary vertex tagging and track-based tau finding done at Level 2. I will discuss the FTK design and performance prospects, as well as report on successful prototype tests completed thus far.
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: Bhupal Dev, University of Manchester
Heavy Neutrino Searches at the LHC
One of the simplest extensions of the Standard Model to explain the non-zero neutrino masses is to introduce heavy neutrinos. In this talk, we will review the existing experimental constraints on the masses and mixing of these heavy neutrinos. We will then discuss their ongoing searches at the LHC and some recent efforts to improve their sensitivity.
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: 1st Year Student PhD Talks
B05 Lecture Theatre in the Chadwick Building.
: Group Day + drinks (E1)
B17 (Basement) 1-19 Torrington Place.
: 2nd Year Student PhD Talks
E3/E7 Physics and Astronomy Department.
: Prof. Jose Valle, (IFIC/CSIC - U. Valencia)
Neutrinos and Dark Matter
I will review the status of neutrino mass and mixing parameters, theoretical modeling and cosmological implications. In particular I discuss how neutrino mass and dark matter may be closely connected and indicate possible direct, indirect and collider detection prospects.
: Brian Rebel, Fermilab
Liquid Argon Detectors at Fermilab: From R&D to LBNE
Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) are an exciting new technology for neutrino detectors. This technology provides excellent position resolution that rivals bubble chamber images, but in a digital format. The striking advantage of liquid argon time projection chambers for neutrino physics is the ability to distinguish between electrons, produced in charged current interactions, and gammas, produced by the decay of neutral pions created in neutral current interactions, with high efficiency. This talk will outline the Fermilab R&D program aimed toward development of the multi-kiloton LBNE detector for long baseline neutrino physics. Results from the various aspects of the program will be presented, as well as the status of LBNE.
: Alexander Grohsjean, DESY
A quark comes of age: latest highlights in top quark physics.
The discovery of the top quark in 1995 at the Fermilab Tevatron collider was a remarkable confirmation of the standard model of particle physics. Its short lifetime provides the possibility to probe the properties of a bare quark With increasingly large integrated luminosities, the characteristics of this particle, as well as its production and decay properties have been measured with ever greater precision. The analysis of top-quark events triggered the development of new analysis tools and offered an excellent starting point for searches of new phenomena. In this summary, following a short historic perspective, I present recent measurements from the D0 experiment, as well as new ATLAS results from the LHC at 7 and 8 TeV.
: Jonathan Hays, Queen Mary
LHC Higgs results
Last year the ATLAS and CMS experiments announced the discovery of a new particle with a mass of around 126 GeV and a strong candidate for being a Higgs boson. Measurements with the full 2011+2012 dataset have further confirmed this. The latest results in experimental Higgs physics are presented from both experiments, concentrating on the new particle. This includes the continuing search for signals in those modes yet to find evidence for the new particle, property measurements in the diboson modes, and a variety of global fits to data across different channels to investigate compatibility with the Standard Model. Additionally, the compatibility of the results across experiments will be briefly discussed along with some thoughts on the outlook for the Higgs programme at the LHC.
: Dr Will Thomas, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Imperial College
Problems in Particle Detection 1930-1950: New Ways to Talk about the History of Physics
Early developments in particle physics were based on the analysis of cosmic rays and radioactive materials before these sources were supplanted by high-energy accelerators circa 1950. Commonly used particle detection technologies included cloud chambers, arrays of coincidence counters, and, after 1945, nuclear emulsions. These technologies all yielded fairly imprecise information about the particles passing through them, necessitating experimenters to deploy strategies to arrive at what they viewed as legitimate interpretations of events. These strategies included using inference to establish what sorts of particles were being detected, the aggregation of evidence, and an increasingly intensive use of nuclear physics knowledge to narrow a range of possible interpretations. It will be suggested that articulating the nature of these strategies, and paying attention to how experimenters deployed them, allows for a good way of discussing historical experimenters’ skill, certainly over and above a simple cataloguing of their discoveries.
: Gino Isidori, INFN, Frascati National Laboratories
Standard Model and beyond after the the Higgs discovery
We discuss the implications of the recent Higgs discovery, and particularly of the Higgs mass measurement, for the stability of Higgs potential and, more generally, for the completion of the Standard Model at high energies.
: Dr. Bela Majorovits, Max-Planck-Institut für Physik
Understanding Neutrinos?GERDA and the Neutrinoless Double Beta-Decay
Observation of neutrinoless double beta (0vbb) -decay could answer the question whether Neutrinos are their own anti-particles or not and could yield information on the absolute mass scale of neutrinos. The most stringent half-life limit for 76Ge is T1/2>1.9 1025 years. This can be translated to the lowest present limit for the effective Majorana neutrino mass of
: Mat Charles, Oxford
Charm results from LHCb
Highlights from LHCb's charm physics programme are presented, including searches for the highly suppressed decays D+ -> pi+ mu- mu+, D+ -> pi- mu+ mu+, and D0 -> mu- mu+; a measurement of meson mixing in D0 -> K+ pi-; and a search for CP violation in two-body D0 decays.
: Prof. Chris Mabey, Middlesex Business School
Big Lessons from Big Science
The ATLAS collaboration comprises 3000 physicists from 140 Institutes in 37 countries collaborating on a ‘big science’ project based at CERN near Geneva. As a loosely-coupled, global network of knowledge activists working at the forefront of science, it is prototypical of many knowledge-intensive agencies and firms. What can be learnt from this unusual collaboration about the way tacit knowledge is surfaced and exchanged across professional, cultural and geographic boundaries? ATLAS is feted as a remarkably democratic and highly productive partnership. How does it achieve this and what are the lessons for the effective leadership of knowledge? Chris will share insights from his recent ESRC-funded project (2009-12).
: Prof. Robert Thorne, UCL
Parton Distribution Functions at the LHC
I discuss the current status of parton distributions, compare to LHC data and present the range of predictions for LHC processes. Some significant discrepancies are found between different PDF sets, particularly regarding predictions for Higgs boson cross sections and the asymmetry between W^+ and W^- production. I examine possible causes for this, concentrating on issues of parameterisation dependence and the treatment of heavy flavours in the fits.
: Dr. Bobby Acharya, Kings College London
Generic Predictions from string/M theory for Particle Physics and Dark Matter
: Dr. Ricardo Silva, Department of Statistical Science, UCL
The Structure of the Unobserved
Hidden variables are important components in many multivariate models, as they explain dependencies among recorded variables and may provide a compressed representation of the data. In this talk, I will provide some overview of my line of work on how latent structure can be exploited in machine learning and computational statistics applications. In particular, we will go through the following topics: 1. How to measurement error problems have a causal interpretation and what can potentially be done to identify probabilistic and causal relations among variables that cannot be recorded without error 2. How dependencies among interacting individuals in a network can be explained by hidden common causes and what their roles are in prediction problems 3. How measurements can be compressed into fewer items without losing relevant information from the data, as postulated from a latent variable model, with applications in social sciences
: Prof. Buzz Baum, LMCB, UCL
A noisy path to order: refinement of a developing tissue
In my talk I will discuss the process of tissue refinement, whereby an ordered epithelial is generated from an initially disordered state through noisy processes that cause cells to compete for space and fate.
: Jennifer Smillie, (University of Edinburgh)
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: Dr. Maurizio Piai, Swansea
Holographic techni-dilaton
I review the status of theoretical and phenomenological studies on the holographic techni-dilaton, a light composite scalar present in the spectrum of a class of strongly-coupled models of electroweak symmetry breaking. The experimental signatures of such scalar are similar to those of the Higgs particle of the minimal version of the Standard Model, with important observable differences is some of the search channels. The 125-126 GeV scalar discovered by ATLAS and CMS could be such particle, and I will discuss how to test this hypothesis in future theoretical as well as experimental studies.
: Prof. Jon Butterworth, UCL
Standard Model physics
I'll review a selection of LHC measurements of jets, photons and weak bosons, show comparisons to Standard Model predictions, and discuss some lessons learned and future prospects.
: Prof. Jeff Forshaw, Manchester
The breakdown of collinear factorization in QCD
Collinear factorization underpins the calculation of many particle physics cross sections, through the use of parton distribution and fragmentation functions. All of the principal Monte Carlo event generators exploit it in their design. In this talk I will explain that in general the factorization does not hold in hadron-hadron collisions and shed light on the mechanism of the breakdown in the language of perturbation theory.
: Dr. Stephen West, RHUL
Models of Dark Matter
I will outline some alternatives to the standard neutralino dark matter scenario. In particular, I will review asymmetric dark matter and the production of dark matter via ``freeze-in". I will present the possible ways in which we can search for these candidates in dedicated dark matter search experiments and at colliders.
: Dr. Chamkaur Ghag, UCL
Direct Dark Matter detection
Discovery of the nature of dark matter is internationally recognized as one of the greatest contemporary challenges in science, fundamental to our understanding of the Universe. The most compelling candidates for dark matter are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) that arise naturally in several models of physics beyond the Standard Model. Although no definitive signal has yet been discovered, the worldwide race towards direct detection has been dramatically accelerated by the progress and evolution of liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chambers (TPCs). The XENON phased programme operates LXeTPCs at Gran Sasso, Italy, and has released results from analysis of 225 days of WIMP search data from the XENON100 detector - presently the most sensitive instrument in the worldwide hunt for WIMPs. XENON100 finds no evidence of signal above expected background and constrains scalar WIMP-nucleon interactions above 2x10-45 cm2 at 55 GeV/c2 WIMP mass (90% C.L.) - over an order of magnitude more stringent than any competing experiment. This result seriously challenges interpretation of the DAMA, CoGeNT or CRESST-II observations as being due to scalar WIMP-nucleon interactions.
: Prof. David Evans, Birmingham
Probing the Quark-Gluon Plasma - recent results from ALICE at the LHC
ALICE is a general purpose heavy-ion experiment aimed at studying QCD at extreme energy densities and the properties of the deconfined state of matter, known as a quark-gluon plasma. A selection of the latest results will be presents, together with the first results from proton-lead collisions.
: Dr. Simon Jolly
Proton Accelerators for Cancer Therapy
Proton beam therapy (PBT) is a more sophisticated form of radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer. Due to the Bragg Peak, protons can deliver the necessary dose to the tumour site much more precisely than the 6-18 MeV photons used in conventional radiotherapy. This is particularly valuable for tumours in the head and neck and central nervous system and for treating children, whose growing organs need to be protected from excessive dose. Until now proton therapy was only available from the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology on the Wirral, and then only for eye treatments using 62 MeV protons. Two new sites are planned for the UK to deliver large-scale proton therapy treatment for the first time: at the Christie Hospital in Manchester and at UCL Hospital. I will describe the reasons for using protons over photons and the accelerator technologies used to deliver 70-250 MeV protons for the full range of treatment we will offer at UCLH. I will also cover some of the issues in selecting the right accelerator technology in my role as the accelerator lead for the new UCLH PBT facility and as an advisor to the Christie programme.
: Prof. Kael Hanson, Brussels
Particle astrophysics at 90° south: reports from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a kilometer-scale cosmic ray muon and neutrino telescope deployed in the deep ice at the South Pole. It detects the Cherenkov radiation emitted by charged particles in transit through the transparent glacial medium by means of a huge array of photomultiplier tubes, each of which independently registers the intensity and arrival time of the radiated photons. The resulting ensemble of hits is processed by event reconstruction algorithms which determine the energy, direction, and type of particle underlying the event. Under construction since 2003, the so-called IC86 array was finally completed December 2010 with the installation of the 86th deep ice string and the full detector was commissioned and placed in operation in May 2011. This talk outlines the science goals of the facility and highlights the results to date that have been released by the IceCube collaboration: searches for high-energy and ultrahigh-energy cosmic neutrinos and lower-energy neutrinos from dark matter; measurements of the cosmic ray anisotropy; detection of neutrino oscillations at high energies. Planned extensions to IceCube are additionally described. Finally, the Askaryan Radio Array (ARA) is introduced. It is an array of radio antennas located next to the current IceCube array which is expected to eventually cover an area of over 100 square kilometers and which targets the detection of the GZK neutrino flux at extreme high-energies which should result from the observed absorption of cosmic rays at these energies.
: Dr. Tamsin Edwards, Bristol
Predicting future changes in climate and sea level
How can we predict the future of our planet? I will give an overview of modelling and assessment of uncertainty for future climate change and sea level, focusing on the world-leading UK Climate Projections 2009 and our recent research on Antarctica.
: Dr. Kumiko Kotera
From the magnetized Universe to neutrinos: a life of an ultrahigh energy cosmic ray
The origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs, particles arriving on the Earth with energy 10^17- 10^21 eV) is still a mystery. I will review the experimental and theoretical efforts that are being deployed by the community to solve this long-standing enigma, including the recent results from the Auger Observatory. I will describe in particular the interactions experienced by UHECRs while propagating from their sources to us, in the cosmic magnetic fields and the various intergalactic backgrounds. These interactions, that induce deflections and multi-messenger production (neutrinos, gamma-rays and gravitational waves) could reveal crucial information about the path taken by these particles, and help us track down their progenitors. I will also focus on one candidate source that has been little discussed in the literature: young rotation-powered pulsars. The production of UHECRs in these objects could give a picture that is surprisingly consistent with the latest data measured with the Auger Observatory.
: Prof. Mark Lancaster & Dr. Dave Waters
History of the Tevatron & The Mass of the W Boson
CDF, with significant involvement of the UCL group, have published a W mass measurement with greater precision that all previous measurements combined. We'll take a look at the history of the Tevatron project and particularly the latest ground-breaking W mass measurement. This is an important legacy of the Tevatron as all eyes are now focused on the LHC ...
: Prof. Kam-Biu Luk, University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Latest results of the Daya Bay Reactor Antineutrino Experiment
The goal of the Daya Bay Reactor Antineutrino Experiment is to determine the neutrino-mixing angle, &theta13, with a precision better than 0.01 in sin2(&theta13). The value of sin2(&theta13) is measured by comparing the observed electron-antineutrino rates and energy spectra with functionally identical detectors located at various baselines from the reactors. This kind of relative measurement using a near-far configuration significantly reduces the systematic errors. Daya Bay began data taking near the end of 2011 and reported the observation of a non-zero value for &theta13 recently. In this seminar, an overview of the experiment and the latest results from Daya Bay will be presented.
: Basil Hiley, Birkbeck College and Rob Flack, UCL
Weak measurement: a new type of quantum measurement and its experimental implications
We will discuss the notion of a ‘weak measurement’, originally introduced by Aharonov et al and carefully analyzed by Duck et al. This technique opens up new experimental possibilities for exploring quantum phenomena. It has already been used to measure the spin Hall effect of light and to measure photon ‘trajectories’ in a two slit interference set up, traditionally deemed to be impossible without destroying the interference effects. We will discuss the theoretical basis for the experimental technique and propose new experiments to explore foundational issues, throwing new light on the Bohm interpretation.
: Dr. Frank Deppisch, UCL
Lepton Flavour and Number Violation in Left-Right Symmetrical Models
We discuss lepton flavour and number violating processes induced in the production and decay of heavy right-handed neutrinos at the Large Hadron Collider. Such particles appear in Left-Right symmetrical extensions of the Standard Model as the "messengers"' of neutrino mass and may have masses of order TeV, potentially accessible at the LHC. We determine the expected sensitivity on the right-handed neutrino mixing matrix, as well as on the right-handed gauge boson and heavy neutrino masses, and compare the results with low-energy probes such as searches for mu-e conversion in nuclei and neutrinoless double beta decay.
: Prof. Max Klein, Liverpool
The LHeC Project at CERN
An overview is given on the physics, detector and accelerator designs of the Large Hadron electron Collider. The LHeC is a new electron- proton/ion collider, which, operating at TeV energy and using the intense LHC p/A beams, is designed to open a new chapter of deep inelastic lepton-hadron physics.
: Dr. Marumi Kado, LAL
Higgs searches at the LHC
This talk will give an overview of the searches for the Higgs boson with the ATLAS and CMS detectors at the LHC with the full 2011 dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of nearly 5 fb-1. Both experiments have explored the Higgs boson mass hypotheses range from 110 GeV up to 600 GeV. Most of this range is now excluded at a high confidence level. However, at its low end, for Higgs boson mass hypotheses close to 125 GeV, both experiments observe an excess of events above the background expectation. More data are required to determine the origin of this excess. These results will be reviewed and the short to medium term prospects will be briefly discussed.
: Dr. Tracey Berry, Royal Holloway
Searching for Extra Dimensions at ATLAS
The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has been recording data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV since March 2010. In 2011 it collected an integrated luminosity of over 5 inverse femtobarns. The combination of the large amount of data available and the excellent detector performance has enabled searches for evidence of new physics at this unprecedented energy scale to be performed. In this talk I will give an overview of the ATLAS searches for extra dimensions.
: Prof. Mark Lancaster, UCL
The Muon: a probe for new physics
The muon whose discovery in 1937 caused a furore at the time is about to have a renaissance. The availability of new high intensity proton sources at PSI, J-PARC and FNAL will allow the muon's decay modes and dipole moments to be probed to an unprecedented precision. Lepton violation measurements can probe physics far beyond the LHC energy scale and elucidate and resolve degeneracy in new physics models potentially exposed by the LHC. In conjunction with measurements of neutrinoless double beta decay and neutrino oscillations, the muon measurements can also shed light on the mechanism that has generated the universe's matter anti-matter asymmetry. In this talk I will discuss the motivation for, and describe, the next generation of muon experiments and particularly the UK involvement in the COMET experiment.
: Dr. Aidan Robson, Glasgow
Final Higgs results from the Tevatron
I will present Higgs search results from the complete Tevatron dataset, which were shown for the first time two weeks ago, and discuss them in the context of recent LHC results.
: Dr. Dan Browne, UCL
Putting Bell inequality violation to work
Entanglement and the violation of Bell inequalities are the most striking examples of the incompatibility of quantum physics and the classical world. Quantum experiments can exhibit correlations which would be impossible in any classical world, unless information could travel faster than light. This behaviour is captured by Bell inequalities and other effects. Giving a general introduction to these effects for the non-specialist, I will give examples of the non-classical correlations which can lead to Bell inequality violations and describe how, in my own recent research, Bell inequality violation has been shown to represent something useful - computation.
: Dr. Boris Kayser, Fermilab
Neutrino Phenomenology, News, and Questions
We will explain the quantum mechanics of neutrino oscillation, which is a quintessentially quantum mechanical phenomenon. Then we will summarise what has been learned so far about neutrino oscillation experiments and discuss several experimental surprises. Finally, we will turn to the future, focusing on neutrino questions that will be addressed by the search for neutrinoless double beta decay.
: Prof. Ben Allanach, Cambridge
LHC versus SUSY
We review what last year's searches mean for supersymmetry, focusing on what they mean in terms of naturalness and fits to indirect data.
: Dr. Morgan Wascko, Imperial
T2K's First Neutrino Oscillation Result
The discovery of non-zero neutrino mass, via neutrino flavor oscillation, is the only confirmed observation of physics beyond the standard model of particle physics. Neutrino oscillation experiments have so far measured two of three mixing angles. I will describe the T2K experiment, a long baseline accelerator neutrino experiment in Japan searching for the third mixing angle, and present our first neutrino oscillation results.
: Dr. Sarah Bridle, UCL
Quantifying Dark Energy using Cosmic Lensing
I will describe the great potential and possible limitations of using the bending of light by gravity (gravitational lensing) to constrain the mysterious dark energy which seems to dominate the contents of our Universe. In particular we have to remove the blurring effects of our telescopes and the atmosphere to extreme precision, and account for possibly coherent distortions of galaxy shapes due to processes in galaxy formation. I will discuss these issues in more detail and review some recent progress in tackling them, putting them into the context of the upcoming Dark Energy Survey.
: Prof. Dmitri Vassiliev, UCL
Is God a geometer or an analyst?
The speaker is a specialist in the analysis of partial differential equations (PDEs) and the talk is an analyst's take on theoretical physics. We address the question: why do all the main equations of theoretical physics such as the Maxwell equation, Dirac equation and the linearized Einstein equation of general relativity contain the same physical constant - the speed of light? The accepted point of view is that this is because our world was designed on the basis of geometry, with the speed of light encoded in the concept of Minkowski metric. We suggest an alternative explanation: electromagnetism, fermions and gravity are different solutions of a single nonlinear hyperbolic system.
: Dr. Chris White, Glasgow
Polarisation Studies in Ht and Wt Production
The polarisation of the top quark can be an efficient probe of new physics models. In this seminar, I will focus on the associated production of a single top quark with either a charged Higgs boson or a W boson. Angular and energy observables relating to leptonic decay products of the top will be presented, which carry strong imprints of the top polarisation. These can be used to constrain the parameter space of two Higgs doublet models, as well as reduce backgrounds to either Ht or Wt production. The talk is based on arXiv:1111.0759.
: Jenny Thomas
MINOS + MINOS+, so good they named it twice
MINOS has delivered a number of important measurements which have moved the field of neutrino oscillations into the precision arena. The whole field is in a state of heightened excitement with recent results from a number of experiments which point to a large value of he mixing angle theta13. This will enable investigation of the mass hierarchy and CP violation in the experiments which are presently being constructed and being thought about. MINOS+ will be unique in its ability to probe with precision the correctness of the 3x3 PMNS mixing model which is presently assumed to be correct, both via the interference of other models on the oscillation probability over long distances and also via the search for sterile neutrinos, which would imply at least one extra neutrino family. In all cases, the next few years will be a great time for the neutrino field.
: Jocelyn Monroe (Royal Holloway London)
Searching for the Dark Matter Wind: Recent Progress from the DMTPC Experiment
The DMTPC directional dark matter detection experiment is a low-pressure CF4 gas time projection chamber, instrumented with charge and scintillation photon readout. This detector design strategy emphasizes reconstruction of WIMP-induced nuclear recoil tracks, in order to determine the direction of incident dark matter particles. Directional detection has the potential to make a definitive observation of dark matter using the unique angular signature of the dark matter wind, which is distinct from all known backgrounds. This talk will review the experimental technique and current status of DMTPC.
: Mitesh Patel (Imperial College London)
LHCb
: Luca Panizzi (CNRS-IN2P3)
Lorentz violation in neutrinos from SN 1987a and MINOS
Lorentz invariance can be precisely tested using neutrinos from supernovae or long baseline experiments. I will discuss which limits can be imposed on general phemoneological parametrisations of Lorentz violation which go beyond the usual linear or quadratic power-law behaviour inspired by quantum-gravitational models.
: Costas Andreopoulos (RAL)
First Neutrino Oscillation Results from T2K
T2K is a front-runner, second-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. It utilises a new and powerful, relatively pure muon-neutrino beam produced at Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (JPARC). The beam is aimed almost 2 degrees off-axis from the position of the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector in western Japan, 295 km away. The experiment also benefits from a near detector complex, instrumented with finely segmented solid scintillator and TPCs, located 280 m downstream of the beam-line target. The experiment aims to accumulate 8E+21 protons-on-target over the next 5 years. At the end of this running period, T2K aims to have improved present knowledge of sin^{2} (2\theta_{13}), sin^{2} (2\theta_{23}) and \Delta m^{2}_{23} by an order of magnitude. I will present initial muon-neutrino disappearance and electron-neutrino appearance results using the dataset accumulated during the first T2K physics run (January-June 2010), which corresponds to an integrated JPARC neutrino flux exposure of 3.23E+19 protons-on-target.
: Clive Speake (Birmingham) — Maths 505
Experimental Gravitation
I will describe experimental work currently underway at University of Birmingham in gravitation. We are building an experimental test of the inverse square law of gravity at short ranges using a superconducting suspension. I will describe this experiment and the challenges that need to be overcome. We have used a room temperature torsion balance to search for time variations of the gravitational constant over diurnal and semidiurnal periods as predicted by Kostelecky and Tasson (PRL 010402 2009). I will report on recent results from this experiment and improvements that are underway.
: Tony Padilla (Nottingham)
Meddling with Einstein
Einstein gravity has reigned supreme for over 100 years, but is it right? Of course not. We know it is definitely wrong in the super Planckian regime of quantum gravity, but perhaps it is also wrong at very low energies. I give an overview of why we might want to meddle with Einstein, and how we might do so without screwing everything up. I also give a taste of some recent ideas I've had in attempting to "solve" the cosmological constant problem.
: Tony Padilla (Nottingham)
Modified gravity
: Samuel Wallon (Laboratoire de Physique Theorique)
Mueller Navelet Jets
: Sam Harper (RAL)
Recent CMS Searches for Gauge Bossons Decaying into High Pt Leptons
Many new physics scenarios beyond the Standard Model predict the existence of new heavy gauge bosons decaying to electrons and muons. Evidence of these new particles has so far not been found experimentally. In 2010, the LHC made available a new energy frontier, significantly extending the potential experimental search region in these channels. In this talk I will briefly motivate these models and then describe the CMS searches for them using 40pb of 7 TeV proton-proton collision data. Finally I will conclude with the outlook for the near term future.
: Matthew Wing (UCL)
Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Accelerators
: Guennadi Borissov (Lancaster)
Search for new sources of CP violation with DZero detector
I will review the latest results of the DZero experiment on the search for new sources of CP violation and will discuss in detail the measurement of the like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry. This result will be compared with other Tevatron studies of CP violation in Bs system.
: Mario Campanelli (UCL)
Jet Physics at ATLAS
: Gary Barker (University of Warwick)
Liquid Argon Detectors
: John Baines (RAL)
Performance of the ATLAS Trigger in 2010 running
The ATLAS trigger has been used very successfully to collect collision data during 2009 and 2010 LHC running at centre-of-mass energies of 900 GeV, 2.36 TeV, and 7 TeV. The trigger system reduces the event rate, from the design bunch-crossing rate of 40 MHz, to an average recording rate of 200 Hz. The ATLAS trigger is composed of three levels. The first (L1) uses custom electronics to reject most background collisions, in less than 2.5 us, using information from the calorimeter and muon detectors. The upper two trigger levels, known collectively as the High Level Trigger (HLT), are software-based triggers. As well as triggers using global event features, such as missing transverse energy, there are selections based on identifying candidate muons, electrons, photons, tau leptons or jets. I will give an overview of the performance of these trigger selections based on extensive online running during LHC collisions and describe how the trigger has evolved with increasing LHC luminosity. I will end with a brief overview of plans for forthcoming LHC running including future trigger upgrades.
: Justin Evans (UCL)
Latest Results from the MINOS experiment.
The MINOS experiment uses a muon neutrino beam, over a baseline of 735 km, to measure neutrino oscillation parameters. A number of new results have been released this year. The observation of muon neutrino disappearance has allowed the world's most precise measurement of the largest neutrino mass splitting, and a competitive measurement of the mixing angle θ_23. A search for the appearance of electron neutrinos yields limits on the as-yet-unmeasured mixing angle θ_13. A measurement of the neutral current interaction rate allows limits to be placed on the existence of sterile neutrinos. Data has also been taken with a dedicated muon antineutrino beam. This data has been used to make the first precision measurement of the muon antineutrino oscillation parameters; any observed difference from the neutrino parameters would be evidence for physics beyond the standard model.
: Gunther Roland (MIT)
Long-range correlations in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions at the LHC
The CMS collaboration recently announced the observation of long-range near-side angular correlations in proton-proton collisions at LHC. In this measurement, we have found a novel correlation where particles produced in the collision are aligned in their azimuthal angle over a large pseudorapidity region. This "ridge"-like structure is absent in minimum bias events but emerges as the produced particle multiplicity reaches very high values. This phenomenon has not been observed before in proton-proton collisions but resembles similar effects seen in collisions of nuclei such as copper and gold ions at RHIC. In this talk, I will report on the experimental aspects of this measurement and discuss some of the recent proposals regarding the physical origin of the effect.
: Adam Davison (UCL)
Exciting results from the ICHEP 2010 conference
A review of the exciting results presented at this year's International Conference on High Energy Physics in Paris this summer.
: Subir Sarkar
Antimatter in cosmic rays: new physics or old astrophysics?
There has been considerable excitement generated by recent 'anomalies' in galactic cosmic ray and gamma-ray observations, indicative of dark matter annihilation or decay. It is essential to have a reliable evaluation of the astrophysical 'background' in order to evaluate such claims. I will focus on the PAMELA, Fermi and HESS data and discuss whether these can be accommodated in the 'standard model' of galactic cosmic ray origin and propagation or whether new physics is needed.
: Krisztian Peters (University of Manchester)
Higgs searches - latest results from the Tevatron
The current status of Standard Model Higgs searches at the Tevatron is presented. A comprehensive program of searches in many Higgs boson production and decay channels is underway, with recent results using up to 5.4/fb of data collected with the CDF and D0 detectors. The major contributing processes include associated production (WH→lνbb, ZH→ννbb, ZH→llbb) and gluon fusion (gg→H→WW). Improvements across the full accessible mass range resulting from the larger data sets, improved analyses techniques and increased signal acceptance will be discussed. A new CDF and D0 combined result with the updated data set will also be presented. Finally, I will discuss prospects for Higgs searches at the Tevatron.
: Steve Biller (University of Oxford)
The SNO+ Project
The continuously surprising and peculiar nature of neutrinos and the weak interaction have been a source of puzzlement since they were first discovered. In recent years, a remarkable paradigm has emerged that seeks to explain hidden symmetries, the scale of neutrino masses and the reason for the imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe. A cornerstone of this includes the notion that the physical neutrinos we see are their own antiparticles. The only viable mechanism known to have a chance of testing this is the process of neutrinoless double beta decay (0nbb). A pioneering new approach to searching for this rare process involves a novel use of the unique SNO detector in Canada as part of the SNO+ programme, which has a large UK involvement. In concert with other experiments using different isotopes, Phase I aims to convincingly establish or bound 0nbb for equivalent neutrino masses in excess ~100meV and, if seen, constrain the physics mechanism by 2015. Methods to push beyond this are also being explored. In addition, SNO+ will perform precision measurements of solar neutrinos at the transition between matter and vacuum-dominated oscillations to critically test fundamental neutrino couplings as well as studing geo-neutrinos, reactor neutrinos and a variety of other physics.
: Yoshi Uchida (Imperial College London)
Charged Lepton Flavour Violation: a factor one million improvement
Flavour-changing transitions of charged leptons have been a topic of experimental investigation since the early days of particle physics, and this helped shape some of the basic laws that any successful model of particle physics would have to obey, including what we now call the Standard Model. While such phenomena have never been observed to date, when the discovery of neutrino masses and oscillations broke the Standard Model, it transformed the question "Does charged lepton flavour violation exist?" into "How much?" and "How?", and even "Why haven't we seen it yet?". In this seminar, I will describe the current experimental and theoretical state of the field, and why the next generation of experiments could hold the keys that lead the way to a fuller understanding of our universe, offering complementary discoveries that experiments at the high-energy frontier cannot reach. I will then focus on mu-e conversion experimentation, and specifically the COMET/PRISM programme which is promising a sensitivity improvement of four orders of magnitude compared to the current record, potentially improving to six orders, which could open the path to precision measurements with multiple lepton flavour-violating probes of Physics Beyond the Standard Model.
: Friedrich Hehl, University of Cologne (M304 Kathleen Lonsdale Building - Origins Seminar)
Nonlocal gravity simulates dark matter
A nonlocal generalization of Einstein's theory of gravitation is constructed within the framework of the translational gauge theory of gravity. In the linear approximation, the nonlocal theory can be interpreted as linearized general relativity but in the presence of dark matter that can be simply expressed as an integral transform of matter. It is shown that this approach can accommodate the Tohline-Kuhn treatment of the astrophysical evidence for dark matter.
: Friedrich Hehl, University of Cologne (Maths room 500 - Origins Seminar)
On the change in form of Maxwell's equations during the last 150 years --- spotlights on the history of classical electrodynamics ---
Starting with Maxwell's equations for the electromagnetic field (1865), we first point out how Maxwell brought his system of equations into quaternionic form. Subsequently, we recognize that what we call Maxwell's equation nowadays is a creation of Heaviside and Hertz. We touch the development of vector calculus (Hamilton, Grassmann, Gibbs, Foeppl) and of tensor calculus (Riemann, Christoffel, Ricci, Levi-Civita) both around 1900. Then we study the impact of special and of general relativity on Maxwell's equations. In particular we follow up the metric-free and topological version of Maxwell's equations via exterior differential forms and period integrals. Some alternative formulations via spinors, Clifford algebras, chains and cochains... are mentioned.
: Jon Butterworth (UCL)
Subjet structure as physics tool at the LHC: and some early LHC Data
I will show some of the first jet data from the 2009 LHC run, and discuss the prospects for using jet substructure to search for new physics in high energy running.
: Adrian Bevan (Queen Mary)
Super Flavour Factories: SuperB
The Standard Model of particle physics is the pinnacle of achievements of science. In one simple model we can describe the behaviour of all known particles extremely well. However we know that there are missing pieces to this puzzle. We can use SuperB to learn about the missing pieces through a multi-prong approach: i) study rare decays, ii) search forbidden decays, and iii) over-constrain measurements of Standard Model sensitive observables to see if they all agree. I will discuss just a few of the many measurements that can be made at SuperB and how these can be used to improve our understanding of particle physics. Having motivated the reasons for a new experiment, I will briefly discuss some of the aspects of such a proposed facility.
: Morgan Wascko (Imperial College London)
Neutrino Cross Section Measurements at SciBooNE
As we enter the era of precision neutrino oscillation measurements, the need to improve neutrino interaction cross section measurements is paramount. SciBooNE at Fermilab uses a fine grained tracking detector to make precise neutrino and antineutrino cross section measurements on carbon and iron. I will present SciBooNE's latest physics results, which are measurement of neutral current neutral pion production by neutrinos. These measurements are of direct relevance to the future global long baseline accelerator neutrino program, especially the T2K experiment in Japan.
: Alain Blondel (University of Geneva)
R&D for neutrino factory and muon collider: the MICE experiment at RAL
Neutrino Factory and Muon Collider are novel accelerators and their development is of great interest for the particle physics community. Producing, capturing and accelerating enough of these particles that live 2.2 microseconds is a challenge at every step. One of the novel technologies is ionization cooling. The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment at RAL is set to demonstrate the feasibility and performance of a section of cooling channel on a real muon beam. After a brief introduction to the specific virtues of muon colliders and neutrino factory, the MICE experiment and its present status will be described. We will conclude with an invitation to study future possibilities.
: Mark Dorman (UCL)
Preliminary CCQE Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering Results from MINOS
Charged-current quasi-elastic scattering is the dominant neutrino interaction mode at low energies and accurate knowledge of the cross section is important for current and future oscillation experiments. CCQE scattering is also hugely interesting in it's own right as a fundamental process, a probe for the axial nature of the nucleon and a window into the complex world of nuclear effects. I will first introduce the MINOS experiment and discuss CCQE scattering theory and the current status of CCQE cross section measurements. I will then present preliminary results made with a high statistics neutrino scattering dataset collected by the MINOS Near Detector.
: Henrique Araujo (Imperial College)
Direct dark matter searches with ZEPLIN-III and beyond
ZEPLIN-III is a two-phase xenon experiment deployed 1100 m underground at the Boulby mine (UK) to search for galactic dark matter WIMPs. These Weakly Interacting Massive Particles are the lead candidate to explain the missing non-baryonic matter in the universe. ZEPLIN-III operates on the principle that electron and nuclear recoils, produced in liquid xenon by different particle species, generate different relative amounts of scintillation light and ionisation charge. WIMPs are expected to scatter elastically off Xe atoms (much like neutrons), and the recoiling atom will produce a different signature to gamma-rays, which create electron recoils. The first science run at Boulby placed a 90%-confidence upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon cross-section of 8.1x10-8 pb, at the level of the world's most sensitive experiments. We are now embarking on the second run after upgrading the instrument and adding an anti-coincidence veto system. With one year of running we expect to improve our sensitivity ten-fold, biting significantly into the parameter space favoured by Supersymmetry. To fully probe the SUSY prediction requires target masses in the tonne scale and above. Achieving this whilst keeping sensitivity to nuclear recoils in the keV scale - and possibly looking for no more than a hand-full of events per year - is a serious technical challenge. This is now the priority for the most competitive technologies, namely cryogenic germanium and the noble liquids. For this next phase we have teamed up with the US LUX collaboration to deploy a tonne-scale xenon target at Homestake (South Dakota, US), possibly followed by a 20-tonne experiment. The nature of dark matter is one the main open questions in Physics today, and the race is on to claim a discovery!
: Mark Lancaster (UCL)
Latest Results from CDF
The latest results from CDF since the spring of 2009, 50 in total, from the world's highest energy collisions (until the LHC beats it by 120 MeV !) at the proton anti-proton Tevatron collider will be presented. These include results on CP anomalies in the b-sector, top quark physics, searches for physics beyond the Standard Model and the latest searches for the Higgs boson.
: Evgueni Goudzovski (University of Birmingham)
A precision test of lepton universality in K --> l nu decays at the CERN NA62 experiment
Measurement of the helicity-suppressed ratio of charged kaon leptonic decay rates BR(K --> e nu)/BR(K --> mu nu) has long been considered as excelent test of lepton universality and the Standard Model description of weak interactions. However it was realised only recently that the helicity suppression enhances the sensitivity to SUSY-induced effects to an experimentally accessible level. The NA62 experiment at CERN has collected a record number of over 10^5 K --> e nu decays during a dedicated run in 2007, aiming at achiving a 0.5% precision. Experimental strategy, details of the analysis, preliminary results, and future prospects of the measurement will be discussed.
: Geoff Mills (Subatomic Physics Group, Los Alamos National Laboaratory)
Nus and Anti-Nus from MiniBooNE
The MiniBooNE experiment, a short baseline neutrino oscillation experiment currently running at Fermilab, has spent the last two years building up its supply of anti-neutrino data, and has combed through it and the already substantial neutrino data stockpile. The intriguing results will be explored along with future possibilities for short baseline programs.
: Freya Blekman (Cornell University)
CMS Pixel Detector
The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is one of two general purpose experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. The CMS experiment prides itself on an ambitious, all silicon based, tracking system.
After over 10 years of design and construction the CMS tracker detector has been installed and commissioned. The tracker detector consists of ten layers of silicon microstrip detectors while three layers of pixel detector modules are situated closest to the interaction point. The pixel detector consists of 66M pixels of 100um*150um size, and is designed to use the shape of the actual charge distribution of charged particles to gain hit resolutions that will eventually be down to 12 um. This presentation will focus on commissioning activities in the CMS tracker, with extra attention on the pixel detector. Results from cosmic ray studies will be presented, in addition to results obtained from the integration of the detector within the CMS detector and various calibration and alignment analyses.
: Doug Cowen (Pennsylvania State University)
Physics with IceCube's Deep Core Sub-array
The low energy reach of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory will be significantly extended with the addition of a sub-array called "DeepCore." DeepCore will be fully deployed in February 2010 in the clearest ice at the bottom center of the larger array. It will feature a 10x higher pixel density and 40% higher quantum efficiency photomultiplier tubes. It will also benefit greatly from the use of the surrounding IceCube array as an extremely effective veto against the copious background from downward-going cosmic-ray muons.
In this talk we will show that DeepCore extends the energy reach of IceCube to neutrino energies as low as 5-10 GeV. This will allow IceCube to search for lower mass solar WIMP annihilations, astrophysical neutrino sources in the southern sky, and to measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations. After an overview of IceCube and the design and deployment schedule for DeepCore, we will focus on neutrino oscillations with DeepCore. We will present some early results and predictions showing how well we can measure muon neutrino disappearance, how well we might be able to measure tau neutrino appearance, and whether we have a chance to determine the sign of the neutrino hierarchy.
: Mark Dorman (UCL) -- Physics E7
Recent Results from the MINOS Experiment
The MINOS long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment has been taking data in the NuMI neutrino beam since 2005. In this seminar I will introduce the experiment and present the latest physics results from MINOS. I'll first discuss atmospheric neutrino mixing and then present a number of other oscillation results; the search for sterile neutrinos, the search for electron neutrino appearance (theta_13) and anti-neutrino oscillations in MINOS. Finally I'll present neutrino cross section measurements from the Near Detector and summarise the outlook for MINOS.
: Peter Krizan (University of Ljubljana, Jozef Stefan Institute)
From Belle to SuperBelle
The seminar will first review some recent highlights of measurements of B and D meson properties that have been carried out by the Belle collaboration. We will discuss the motivation for a future Super B factory at KEK, as well as the requirements for the detector. Finally, the present status of the project will be presented together with the plans for the future.
: Michela Massimi (UCL) — E7
Are we justified to believe in colored quarks? A philosopher's look at the debate
: Filipe Abdalla (UCL)
Neutrino Mass contstraints from cosmology
: Jim Hinton (Leeds)
Gamma Ray Astronomy
: Are Raklev (University of Cambridge)
Gravitino Dark Matter
: Phil Harris (University of Sussex)
Testing Time Reversal
: Marcella Bona (CERN)
Flavour physics as a test of the SM and a probe of new physics
The vast amount of flavour physics results delivered by the B factories and the Tevatron continuously improving Bs system measurements allows for precision test of the Standard Model (SM). The Unitarity Triangle (UT) analysis for the extraction of the CKM matrix parameters is a powerful tool for combining all the available experimental data in the flavour sector and the lattice QCD calculations to check SM consistency and determine the values of SM observables. The measurements of the UT angles recently performed at B factories provide a determination of the UT comparable in accuracy with the one performed using the other available data. Thus the UT fit is now overconstrained. It is therefore possible to add new physics (NP) contributions to all quantities entering the UT analysis and to perform a combined fit of NP contributions and SM parameters. Thus the UT fit analysis can be turned to a new physics search.
: Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre
Origins Launch
The keynote speeches will be given by Sir Paul Nurse and Prof. John Ellis.
: Tom McLeish
: Maths 706
Origins -- Mathematical Foundations
: Andrej Gorisek
The ATLAS Diamond PIXEL Upgrade
The goal of this project is to construct diamond pixel modules as an option for the ATLAS pixel detector upgrade. This is made possible by progress in three areas: the recent reproducible production of high quality polycrystalline Chemical Vapor Deposition diamond material in wafers, the successful completion and test of the first diamond ATLAS pixel module, and the operation of a diamond after irradiation to 1.8x10^16 p/cm2. I will summarize the results in these three areas and describe our plan to build and characterize a number of ATLAS diamond pixel modules, test their radiation hardness, explore the cooling advantages made available by the high thermal conductivity of diamond and demonstrate industrial viability of bump-bonding of diamond pixel modules.
: Prof. Alain Blondel (University of Geneva)
Status of MICE
: Harry van der Graaf
Alternative ATLAS Upgrade?
Results from Neutrino '08
In May 2008 I attended the conference Neutrino08 in Christchurch New Zealand and gave a plenary talk about the latest results from NEMO 3 and SuperNEMO. There were approximately fifty plenary talks and 100 "beer and pizza" talks in the evening. I will give a summary of the main plenary talks.
: Simon Bevan
Ultra High Energy Neutrino Astronomy with ACoRNE
An overview of UHE neutrino astronomy will be presented emphasising on the exciting new results from ACoRNE. The ACoRNE collaboration has successfully been taking data from the Rona array since December 2005. Here the progress in match filters, co-incident pulse finding tools, and neural networks will be discussed, showing the development of a successful reduction and analysis package used on the Rona data. The results of this analysis will be presented as the UK's first acoustic limit.
: Prof. Gary Varner (University of Hawai'i)
Microwave Radio Detection of UHE Air Showers
Extensive air showers deposit such large amounts of energy into the atmosphere that even relatively weak emission mechanisms may be observable at considerable distances. It has been known since the 1960's that UHE Cosmic Ray interactions lead to a concurrent radio emission, though the process was not well understood or characterized at the time. In recent years there has been renewed interest in this lower frequency radio mechanism, attributed to geosynchrotron emission during shower evolution. However since this emission is "beamed" onto the ground, observation is similar to traditional ground array observations of the shower particles. By contrast, in analog to distant shower observation via Nitrogen fluorescence, molecular bremsstrahlung emission of shower electrons leads to isotroptic radiation at microwave radio frequencies. While incoherent emission may be detectable at kilometer scale distances, accelerator measurements indicate that at least partial coherence is present in such cascades, significantly enhancing the fiducial acceptance of this technique. Since the atmosphere is almost completely transparent to microwave and operation is insensitive to light background or weather, an order of magnitude better livetime may be expected compared with fluorescent observation, with potentially lower systematic energy uncertainty. A preliminary satellite dish-based system has been operated in Hawaii and a follow-on prototype system is described that will be deployed at the Auger Observatory in spring 2009.
: Prof. Yoshitaka Kuno (Osaka University)
Physics of Lepton Flavor Violation of Charged Leptons and an Experimental Proposal to Search for Muon to Electron Conversion at J-PARC
Lepton flavor violation of charged leptons has attracted much interest from theorists and experimentalists since it would have potentials to get important hints for new physics beyond the Standard Model, such as SUSY-GUT and/or SUSY-Seesaw models. In particular, a process of muon to electron conversion in a muonic atom is considered to be one of the best to search for. In this talk, a new experimental proposal to search for muon to electron conversion with sensitivity of less than 10^{-16} at J-PARC in Japan will be presented.
: Dr. Chris Hays (University of Oxford)
Search for High-Mass Resonances in CDF Dimuon Data.
Neutral resonances have a long and illustrious history, and could well provide the next big discovery in particle physics. I present a new search for high-mass neutral resonances in the CDF dimuon data, the most sensitive such search to date. The analysis applies the novel technique of probing the inverse mass spectrum, for which the detector resolution is constant in the search region. The results are interpreted in terms of spin 0, 1, and 2 resonances, using sneutrino, Z', and graviton models, respectively.
: Jonathon Coleman (SLAC)
The Status of mixing and CP searches in the charm sector.
During 2007 the Flavor Factories surprised the physics community with unexpected results in charm-mixing. Since this time there has been several confirmations of this phenomena. I will present an overview of recent experimental results from for the $D0$ meson oscillating into its own anti-particle, (or vice versa).
: Fabrizio Palla (INFN-Pisa)
Motivation and possible architechtures for a Level-1 track Trigger in CMS and the SuperLHC
: Carlo Carloni Calame — Maths 500
Electroweak radiative corrections to Drell-Yan processes at hadron colliders
The status of the electro-weak radiative corrections to Drell-Yan processes is summarized. Their impact on observables which are important for Tevatron and LHC physics is discussed. Particular emphasis will be given on their implementation in the event generator Horace.
: Dave Waters (UCL) -- E7
Weighing Up the Weak Force: W Boson Mass and Width Measurements from CDF Run II
The W boson, carrier of the weak nuclear force, is the least well measured of the Standard Model's force carriers. Precision measurements of the mass and the lifetime of the W boson provide a stringent test of the Standard Model and, indirectly, allow us to probe the physics that may lie beyond the Standard Model. I present recent direct measurements of the W boson mass and width from the CDF experiment, both of which are now the single most precise measurements in the world. I discuss several of the challenges involved in performing these analyses, and outline the prospects for such measurements in the future.
: Aidan Robson (University of Glasgow)
Higgs Searches at CDF
2008 is going to be significant for Higgs physics: we expect to reach 95%CL sensitivity to a 160GeV Higgs with the combined Tevatron data. I will talk about CDF's Higgs->WW analysis, focusing on techniques, set it in the context of CDF's low-mass Higgs searches, and give an outlook for the next few years.
: Ken Peach (John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science -- University of Oxford and Royal Holloway University of London)
A new accelerator for advanced research and cancer therapy
Although Fixed-Field Alternating Gradient Accelerators were invented in the 1950s, they have never made any significant impact, the technology being superseded by the synchrotron. However, interest has recently been revived, particularly in Japan, where "proof of principle" proton FFAGs have been built. More recently, a new concept - the "non-scaling FFAG" - has been advanced, which offers the prospect of developing relatively compact, high acceleration rate accelerators for a variety of purposes, from neutrino factories and muon acceleration to cancer therapy. However, there are formidable technical challenges to be overcome, including resonance crossing. We have recently been awarded funding in the UK to construct a demonstrator non-scaling FFAG at the Daresbury laboratory (EMMA, the Electron Model with Many Applications), and to design a prototype machine for proton and carbon ion cancer therapy (PAMELA, the Particle Accelerator for MEdicaL Applications). I will describe some of the motivations for developing this new type of accelerator, and discuss the status of the EMMA and PAMELA projects.
: Terry Sloan (Lancaster University)
Cosmic Rays and Global Warming
In this seminar I will explore the proposed link between changes in cloud cover and the changes in the rate of ionization in the atmosphere produced by the effects of solar magnetic activity on cosmic rays. I will briefly review the mechanism by which this could cause global warming,comparing it with the more conventional view of the cause arising from the increased the concentration of greenhouse gases. I will go on to describe our searches for evidence to corroborate the cosmic ray cloud cover link.
: Fabio Maltoni (Université catholique de Louvain)
The ttbar invariant mass as a window on new physics
I explore in detail the physics potential of a measurement of the ttbar invariant mass distribution at the Tevatron and the LHC. First, the accuracy of the best available predictions for this observable are considered with the result that in the low invariant mass region the shape is very well predicted and could be even used to perform a top mass measurement. Second, I study the effects of an heavy s-channel resonance on the ttbar invariant mass distribution, in a model independent way and outline a simple three-step analysis towards a discovery.
: Fedor Simkovic (Comenius University Bratislava)
Double Beta Decay: History, Present and Future
The properties of the neutrinos have been the most important issues in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. After neutrino oscillations discovery, search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0v-decay) represents the new frontiers of neutrino physics, allowing in principle to fix the neutrino mass scale, the neutrino nature (the Dirac or Majorana particles) and possible CP violation effects. Many next generation 0v-decay experiments are in preparation or under consideration. In this presentation the development in the field of nuclear double beta decay is reviewed. A connection of the 0v-decay to neutrino oscillations and other lepton number violating processes is established. The light and sterile neutrino exchange mechanisms as well as R-parity breaking mechanisms of the 0v-decay are analyzed. The problem of the reliable determination of the 0v-decay nuclear matrix elements is addressed. The possibility of boson neutrino and partially boson neutrino is studied in light of the 2v-decay data. The perspectives of the field of the double beta decay are outlined.
: Dr. Tim Namsoo
A prelude to some ZEUS results to be shown at DIS08
The DIS08 conference is fast approaching and is to be hosted by UCL and Oxford University, in the UCL campus in the week starting the 7th April. The ZEUS collaboration, that operated a general purpose detector on the HERA electron-proton collider in Hamburg, and to which the UCL HEP group belongs, are preparing to send a number of results to DIS08. The number and range of these results makes covering them all in a single seminar unfeasible so instead, a subset of results, in which the speaker is involved, will be discussed. These topics will include the measurement of the longitudinal proton structure function, the energy dependence of the photoproduction cross section, studies involving the multiplicity and momentum spectra of charged hadrons in jets and three- and four-jet cross sections in photoproduction. The talk will not include final results on all of these topics but instead will motivate and discuss various aspects of the measurements at a level not possible during the conference itself due to stricter time constraints.
: Dr. Chris Parkes
The LHCb Vertex Locator and the LHCb upgrade - or finishing the bicycle wheel spokes and turning it into a vespa.
LHCb is the dedicated heavy flavour physics experiment at the LHC, and is currently being commissioned. Arguably the single most critical element of the detector is the silicon vertex locator. The unique design has 40 micron pitch silicon strip detectors operated in vacuum only 8mm from the LHC beam and retracted and reinserted between each fill. It is the only LHC detector yet to have seeen beam data - the partially assembled final system having been tested in the CERN SPS. The design, testing, alignment and performance of this detector are discussed. The discovery potential of the experiment, or the measurement of the characteristics of new physics discovered during the first phase, can be significantly enhanced through the upgrade of the experiment to run at higher luminsoity. The plans for the LHCb upgrade are presented.
: Dr. Steve Boyd (Warwick)
T2K - The Next Generation.
It is now a well established fact that the weak and the mass eigenstates of neutrinos are not identical. As a consequence we can observe transitions from one neutrino species to another. Over the past decade neutrino experiments have measured most of the parameters describing neutrino oscillations with ever increasing accuracy. One parameter so far eludes measurement, the so-called mixing angle theta_13. T2K is one of the next generations experiments. While it aims to improve the knowledge of some of the other parameters, its main objective is the measurement of theta_13, which is responsible for muon to electron neutrino transitions. This angle may hold the key to study CP violating effects in the lepton sector of the SM. The seminar will summarise the current status of neutrino oscillation studies, and will outline the future contributions of the T2K Experiment.
: Dr. Lisa Falk-Harris
The Double Chooz Reactor theta_13 Experiment
The Double Chooz reactor experiment is the next step for neutrino oscillation measurements: It will measure, or limit, the last undetermined PMNS mixing angle, theta_13, down to an order of magnitude below the current limit. Deploying two identical detectors, one near the reactor cores and one at a distance of 1.05 km, will permit us to control the systematics to the level required to reach a sensitivity of sin^2 2theta_13 ~0.03. I will give a brief summary of our present knowledge of the neutrino mixing parameters, and a motivation for new reactor experiments. I will then describe the design and status of the Double Chooz experiment and of its detector components. Finally, I will discuss systematics, expected sensitivity and the schedule for installation and data-taking.
: Dr James Libby (Oxford)
The precise determination of the unitarity triangle angle gamma: LHCb and CLEOc
The LHCb experiment will be introduced. The precise determination of gamma is a cornerstone of the LHCb physics programme; the motivation for this will be presented. Decays of the type B+ -> DK+, where the D is a D0 or a D0bar decaying to the same final state, allow a theoretically clean measurement of gamma. The prospects with LHCb for modes where the D decays to 2, 3 and 4 bodies are discussed. This discussions introduces the importance of measurements of the strong parameters of the relevent D-decays to allow precise determination of gamma and the crucial role played by quantum correlated e+e- -> psi(3770) ->D0D0bar data currently being collected by CLEOc. The CLEOc measurements essential to a precise determination of gamma are presented.
: Prof. Stephen Watts (Manchester)
Data Mining and Visualisation
There are more ways to represent ones data than by using graphs, histograms and scatterplots. There are many new techniques which exploit computer technology that enable one to visualise and explore multidimensional data. The seminar will explain these ideas, show how they are related to data mining, and apply them to particle physics data analysis.
: Prof. Peter Rowson (Stanford Linear Accelerator)
A Novel Approach to Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay - EXO.
The "Enriched Xenon Observatory", or EXO, is an ongoing experimental and R&D program to employ a new technique for the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. The decay and detection medium is xenon enriched in the 136 isotope. A phase I experiment known as EXO200, using 200 kg of xenon enriched to 80% xenon 136, is presently being installed at the WIPP underground facility in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and is scheduled to begin data taking at the end of the coming summer. In a two year run, this liquid xenon TPC experiment will observe and study two-neutrino double beta decay in xenon for the first time, and should exceed presently available sensitivity for the neutrinoless mode. In parallel, an R&D program is underway for a future multi-tonne detector employing a laser-fluoresence based daughter-nucleus tagging scheme that should be able to reach sensitivities to the effective neutrino mass in neutrinoless double beta-decay down to the 10 meV range.
: Prof. Bob Nichol (Portsmouth)
Seeing Dark Energy
Nearly 10 years ago, astronomers discovered the expansion of the Universe was accelerating driven by a mysterious quantity now know as "Dark Energy". Explaining the existence and properties of dark energy is a major challenge for physicists. In this seminar, I will review the evidence for dark energy (including my own research) and our present understanding of dark energy. I will conclude the talk with an overview of future dark energy research which will dominate cosmology for the next decade.
: Borut Kersevan (University of Ljubljana, Jozef Stefan Institute)
AcerMC Monte Carlo Generator and Heavy Flavor Matching
I will present the functionality of the AcerMC Monte Carlo event generator with the emphasis of newly developed procedure for matching hard processes with parton shower approximations in the presence of heavy quarks in the initial state.
: Jan Michael Rost
Department Colluquium (Massey Theatre?)
Lepton-Photon Neutrino Results
The most exciting results at this years Lepton-Photon came from the neutrino field. I will review the talks giving special attention to Accelerator neutrino Experiments.
Green HEP: Doing Particle Physics with Beam Switched OFF
There are numerous scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model (e.g. split supersymmetry) which predict the production of a heavy quasi-stable particles in 14 TeV proton-proton collisions. If these particles are charged, they will lose energy via ionisation as they traverse the experimental apparatus. Consequently, if these particles are not produced with too much initial kinetic energy and their lifetime is long enough, they will come to rest in the detector. These "stopped" particles will subsequently decay at some later time, perhaps after the beam has been switched off. I will review the theoretical motivations which suggest that such particles could be copiously produced (and stopped) at the LHC. I will also discuss the status of the experimental effort to search for such particles using the CMS detector.
Recent measurements on ultra-high energy cosmic rays
Knowledge about cosmic rays above 10^19 eV has greatly improved through the successful operation of the Auger Observatory in Argentina where more events above 10^18 eV have now been recorded than from the sum of all previous efforts. I will outline the reasons for interest in this field, describe the Observatory and review our latest results on the mass composition, the energy spectrum and the anisotropy of what are the highest energy particles in Nature.
The Small Frontier (W.H. Bragg Lecture)
For more than twenty years, the scanning tunneling microscope has given us a kind of virtual presence in the world of atoms. This wonderful instrument not only allows us to "see" the atomic and electronic landscape, but we also can use it to build structures of our own design with individual atoms as the building blocks. In this presentation I will describe how the microscope works and give some examples of how we use it to broaden our knowledge of the physical properties of nanometer-scale structures. I will show examples of our efforts to explore ways in which future computation might be performed using atomic-scale components.
: Sebastian Boeser (UCL)
Towards acoustic detection of ultra-high energy neutrinos
Detection of neutrinos with energies at the far end of the cosmic ray spectrum promises valuable insight not only on cosmological questions, but also for high-energy particle physics. However, the tiny neutrino cross-section and the small flux require target volumes in the order of 100 km^3 - and thus the development of new detection techniques. Among a variety of different target media and interaction signatures, registration of acoustic waves in the South Polar ice cap from the neutrino-induced cascades seems to be promising. The development of a setup to verify the predicted absorption length of ~10km as well as to measure the sound velocity profile and background noise is presented.
: Tim Londergan (Indiana University)
How do we interpret the NuTeV result?
: Tim Gershon (Warwick)
Super Flavour Factory
Recent studies have highlighted the essential role of flavour physics in searching for and understanding physics beyond the Standard Model. At the same time, advances in accelerator technology have made realistic the possibility of an e+e- machine reaching unprecedented luminosities above 1036/cm2/s1. I will summarise the opportunities presented by the SuperB project, as described in the recent Conceptual Design Report.
: Jeppe R. Andersen (Cambridge)
Hard Multi-Jet Predictions from High Energy Factorisation
The dynamics of QCD (and other field theories) simplifies greatly in the so-called perturbative "high energy limit", characterised by large centre of mass energy and fixed (perturbative) transverse scales. We will present a framework based on this high energy factorisation of scattering amplitudes, which allows for the prediction of multi(>=2)-jet rates. We will present predictions for e.g. W+jets, H+jets, and pure n-jet events at the LHC and Tevatron. Finally, we will discuss recent efforts towards improving the accuracy of the calculations.
: Ryan Nichol (UCL)
Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Astronomy in Antarctica
Ultra-high energy neutrino astronomy is a rapidly emerging field at the crossroads of particle physics, astronomy and astrophysics. This talk will address the history and scientific motivation of neutrino astronomy, and discus the detection mechanisms and prospects of current and currently proposed experiments. Particular attention will be paid to the ANITA project, which successfully completed a 35 day flight over Antarctica during the Austral summer of 2006/7.
: Athanasios Dedes (IPPP Durham)
A Natural Nightmare for the LHC
A very simple singlet-extension of the Standard Model which results in naturally light Dirac neutrino masses may also explain the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. This extension requires breaking of a global symmetry associated with neutrinos at low energies which in turn results in a Nambu-Goldstone boson. In this talk I will discuss how the presence of this particle may completely change our view for Higgs boson searches at the LHC.
: Student practice talks for the IoP conference (Details to follow)
: Vladimir Tretyak (Institute for Nuclear Research, Kiev)
Searches for rare decays in nuclear and particle physics in INR
Experiments are reviewed which were performed by the INR (Kiev) group to search for double beta decays of several isotopes, rare alpha and beta decays, and exotic charge non-conserving (CNC) processes like decays of electron, CNC beta decays and disappearance of nucleons. In particular, in the experiment with 116-CdWO_4 crystal scintillators in the Solotvina Underground Laboratory (Ukraine) the two-neutrino double beta decay of 116-Cd was observed (T1/2=2.9e19 yr) and the best limit for neutrinoless double beta decay was set (1.7e23 yr). Fourth-fold forbidden beta decay of 113-Cd was investigated (7.7e15 yr). Rare beta decay of 115-In (4e20 yr) was observed at the first time; probably, it has the lowest value of Q_beta of ~0.5 keV. Two rare alpha decays: of 180-W (1.1e18 yr) and 151-Eu (5e18 yr) were observed at the first time. Limits on exotic decays of electron, nucleons, etc. are mostly the most stringent among known world limits. Experiments were performed either independently or in collaboration with other groups.
: Dr Peter Richardson (Durham)
Herwig++
After a brief recap of the basic physics of Monte Carlo event generators I will describe the development of the new Herwig++ event generator. I will concentrate on recent progress allowing the simulation of hadron-hadron events and physics improvements. I will conclude with our plans for the future.
: Morgan Wascko (Imperial)
Results from the MiniBoone neutrino experiment
Results from the MiniBoone neutrino experiment, which is investigating the anomalous LSND neutrino oscillation result.
: Prof. Toshimitsu Yamazaki (University of Tokyo and Japan Academy)
Quasi-stable exotic atoms, molecules and nuclei composed of antiproton, pion and kaon
In recent years, unexpectedly long-lived exotic atoms, molecules and nuclei with constituents of antiprotons, negative pion and antikaon have been discovered. The following topics will be covered in this talk: 1) Metastable antiprotonic helium composed of an antiproton, a helium nucleus and an electron as a unique interface between the particle and the antiparticle worlds. High-precision laser spectroscopy for a CPT test and quantum tunneling effect in chemical reactions. 2) Pionic nuclei as a probe for chiral symmetry restoration in nuclear medium. 3) Kaonic nuclear systems as anomalously dense bound states mediated by antikaons. Connection with kaon condensed matter and stars.
: Jeff Forshaw
Does there have to be a Higgs boson?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will soon turn on and it is widely expected to discover the Higgs boson: the particle responsible for the origin of mass and the missing piece in the Standard Model of particle physics. However, there is no guarantee that nature will be so obliging. This talk will explain why we expect to see a Higgs, why it may not be there and why we are so confident that in any event something new should show itself at the LHC.
: Dr Olga Mena (Universita "La Sapienza") — Pearson LT in Pearson building
Landscape & Strings in vacqua
I will talk about the high energy neutrino detection capabilities of the long-STRING-Cherenkov Icecube neutrino in ACQUA (ice), sorrounded by the beautiful Antarctica LANDSCAPE. We explore the matter-induced oscillation effects on emitted high energy neutrino fluxes, using the energy dependent ratio of electron and tau induced showers to muon tracks, in the upcoming Icecube neutrino telescope. Although the energy of supernova neutrinos lies far below the threshold for track reconstruction in long-STRING detectors a la Icecube, a supernova neutrino burst could be recorded with a signal-to-noise ratio of ~400. The black hole at the center of the galaxy is a powerful lens for supernova neutrinos. In the very special circumstance of a supernova near the extended line of sight from Earth to the galactic center, lensing could dramatically enhance the neutrino flux at Earth and stretch the neutrino pulse. The Icecube neutrino observatory could be sensitive to both effects.
: Will Venters
A social study of the development and use of Grid for the LHC
Pegasus is a joint research project between the LSE's Information Systems Group and UCL HEP Group to explore the development and use of Grid infrastructure for the LHC. The project is funded by the EPSRC programme: "Usability challenges from e-science" and draws on the LSE group's focus on how information and communication technology influences, and is influenced, by the social context in which it is developed and used as well as by its technical characteristics. Through qualitative research the project is exploring how the variety of people involved in developing and using GridPP infrastructure collaborate. This seminar will introduce the project, its research methods and its expected contribution. We will also outline some of our initial observations from recent research at CERN, and discuss our future research plans.
: Kostas Fountas (Imperial)
The CMS Trigger
: Dr Katherine George (QMUL)
It's not just about B's. Latest Results from BABAR
: Prof. Alan Watson (Leeds)
Progress in the search for the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays
I will explain why there is interest in the highest energy cosmic rays and describe the Pierre Auger Observatory, now the premier instrument available for their study. The latest results on the energy spectrum, mass composition and arrival direction distribution will be discussed and compared with those from other groups. Some speculations about the origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays will be made.
: Doug Gingrich (University of Alberta and TRIUMF)
Very High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy with STACEE
The study of galactic and extragalactic objects using very high-energy gamma rays is an evolving field of science. New gamma-ray telescopes are allowing us to proceed from an era of simply detecting objects to an era of precision measurements of energy spectra and time profiles. Surprisingly, there is still an unexplored energy region of the electromagnetic spectrum: 10 GeV to 250 GeV. The Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment (STACEE) is reaching into this unexplored energy region to observe pulsars, supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. My talk will focus on the interest of active galactic nuclei in the unexplored energy region and observations of blazars using STACEE.
: Silvia Capelli (University of Milano)
CUORICINO and CUORE: bolometric experiments for Double Beta Decay research
The positive results obtained in the last few years in neutrino oscillation experiments have stimulated great interest in Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (DBD0n) research. Cuoricino is a running 40.7 kg TeO2 bolometric experiment dedicated to the search of DBD0n of 130Te atoms.Due to the very low expeted rate for the searched decay, a extremely low level of radioactive background is mandatory, mainly in veiw of the future large mass experiment CUORE, aimed to reach a sensitivity for the neutrino Mayorana mass in the range predicted for an inverse hierarchy scheme for neutrino masses. Last results of CUORICINO and the R&D performed in order toreduce the background level to the wanted sensitivity for CUORE will be presented.
: Dr Bostjan Golob (Ljubljana)
Topics in charm hadron studies at Belle
The Belle detector at the KEK-B e^+e^- B-factory proves to be an excellent experimental environment for a wide variety of measurements. Besides the study of the CP violation in the system of B mesons, various measurements of the properties of charmed hadrons are performed. A short overview of D^0 meson mixing searches, measurements of charmonium-like resonances and properties of the recently observed charm baryons will be given.
: Dr Steve Fitzgerald (Culham)
Fusion energy and nanoscale materials science
I will give a brief overview of the nuclear fusion research at UKAEA Culham, and then discuss some recent work on the modelling of materials for use in the ferocious environment of a fusion reactor.
: David and Tegid Fest
Speakers include Albrecht Wagner, George Kalmus and David Wark. Refreshments will be provided.
: Dr Cinzia DaVia (Brunel)
3D silicon sensors
The LHC upgrades will demand the innermost layers of the tracking detectors to withstand fluences of about 10^16 n/cm^2 with improved spatial and time resolutions. Forward physics trackers will also require to reduce as much as possible the insensitive area at the detector'e edge. Active edge 3D sensors, where the p and n type electrodes penetrate through the entire silicon bulk thickness, have proven to match these requirements. Results will be reported of their response to charged particles using radioactive sources and particle beams with LHC-compatible readout electronics. The 3D fast time response studied using 0.13 um readout electronics and their signal efficiency after an exposure to reactor neutrons equivalent to ~1.4x10^16 high energy protons per sq. cm. will be discussed.
: Dr Muge Unel (Oxford)
Highlights of PhyStat
The PHYSTAT05 conference held last year in Oxford concentrated on current statistical issues in analyzing data in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, as a continuation of the popular PHYSTAT series at CERN (2000), Fermilab (2000), Durham (2002) and Stanford (2003). In-depth discussions on topical issues were presented by leading statisticians and researchers in their relevant fields and the latest, state-of-the-art techniques and facilities were introduced and discussed. I will summarize the conference with an attempt to highlight most of the popular and important topics which are becoming more relevant as the start-up of the LHC experiments approaches.
: Dr Zornitza Daraktchieva (UCL)
Results from the MUNU experiment on neutrino-electron scattering
The MUNU detector was designed to study electron antineutrino - electron elastic scattering at low energy. The central tracking detector is a Time Projection Chamber filled with CF4 gas, surrounded by an anti-Compton detector. In this talk I will present the final analysis of the data recorded at 3 bar and 1 bar pressure. From the 3-bar data a new upper limit on the neutrino magnetic moment of 9x10^-11 at 90 % C.L. is derived. At 1-bar a Cs-137 photopeak is reconstructed by measuring both the energy and direction of the Compton electrons in the TPC.
: IoP HEPP meeting at UCL
LHC - The first year
The programme and registration details can be found here
: Are Raklev (CERN, Bergen) — E7
Search for Charged Metastable SUSY Particles at the LHC
: Dr Mark Lancaster (UCL)
Hot results from the summer conferences
: Joey Huston (MSU)
Lessons from the Tevatron and Standard Model Benchmarks for the LHC
I will discuss results and tools from the Fermilab Tevatron and theapplication of these tools towards the understanding of the Standard Model at the LHC during the early running.
: Prof. Jonathan Butterworth (UCL) — Harry Massey amphitheatre
High energy collisions and fundamental physics; or why the proton is like the tardis
: Patricia Vahle (UCL)
Preliminary Results Of An Accelerator Based Search For Muon-Neutrino Disappearance By The MINOS Experiment
: Rick Jesik (Imperial)
Beautifully Strange Physics at DZero
The Tevatron collider experiments have a proven track record for making significant B physics measurements. The hadronic environment provides for the production of B species not readily accessible to the B-factories. One of these states, the Bs meson, is of particular interest. I will report on studies of this meson by the DZero experiment using 1 fb-1 of data. Measurements of the Bs lifetime and lifetime difference, and the first direct upper and lower bounds on the Bs mixing frequency (Delta ms) will be presented. Our measurement of the CP violation parameter in B0 mixing and decay will also be shown.
: Bino Maiheu (UCL)
Hadronization at HERMES
In the HERMES experiment, situated at the HERA storage ring in Hamburg, 27.5 GeV positrons or electrons are scattered off a fixed gaseous, polarised proton target. Data taking started in 1995 and since then HERMES has produced quite some interesting results about the nucleon's internal spin structure. To disentangle the individual contributions from the different quark flavours to the total spin 1/2 of the proton, the understanding of the production of hadrons through fragmentation is very important. Hadrons in HERMES are identified using a Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector which is capable to disentangle with high efficiency the different hadron kinds over a momentum range of 2 to 15 GeV/c. By extracting multiplicity distributions we can study the production of hadrons more closely and moreover compare to previously published results at higher energy. Quite some effort was put into obtaining model independent results using an unfolding method to correct for experimental and QED radiative smearing as well as geometrical detector acceptance and efficiency. This talk will highlight some topics of the HERMES physics program with emphasis on the extraction of multiplicity distributions.
: Erkcan Ozcan (UCL)
Radiative Penguin Decays at B Factories
For two decades, radiative penguin decays have played a central role in the search for the "new physics" of the day: top-quark mass, extended TC, anomalous trilinear gauge couplings, fouth generation of quarks and so on. Today, at the brink of the LHC experiments, many phenomenology articles on beyond-the-SM physics, and essentially almost all of the SUSY related ones, again refer to constraints from the radiative penguin decays. In the last few years, the excellent luminosity provided by the B Factories have enabled high-precision measurements of these rare decays. This talk aims to give an overview of the experimental techniques used and current limits obtained, focusing particularly on the inclusive decay b->s\gamma, the most commonly encountered member of the radiative-penguin family in the SUSY literature.
: Carlos Frenk (University of Durham)
Cosmology confronts some of the most fundamental questions in the whole of science. How and when did our universe begin? What is it made of? How did it acquire its current appearance? There has been enormous progress in the past few years towards answering these questions. For example, recent observations have established that our universe contains an unexpected mix of components that include not only ordinary atoms, but also exotic dark matter and a new form of energy called dark energy. Gigantic surveys of galaxies like one recently completed using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in Siding Spring, New South Wales, tell us how the universe is structured. Large supercomputer simulations recreate the evolution of the universe and provide the means to relate processes occuring near the beginning of the Universe with the structures seen today. A coherent picture of cosmic evolution, going back to about a micro-second after the Big Bang, is beginning to emerge. However, fundamental issues, like the nature of the dark energy, remain unresolved. These will require understanding of what went on at even earlier times.
: Ilija Bizjak (UCL)
Measurement of |Vub| at Belle
The measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |Vub| is an important counterpart to the measurement of the CP violation parameter sin(2 phi1) in testing the Kobayashi-Maskawa mechanism of CP violation. Recent measurements managed to obtain |Vub| with a precision that is better than 10% and have shown that the theoretical and experimental methods employed can be used to further improve the measurement. I will present the current status of inclusive and exclusive measurements of |Vub| at Belle.
: Maury Goodman (Argonne National Laboratory) — in A19
Reactor experiments for neutrino studies
In their simplest form, neutrino oscillations are described by three mixing angles and two differences of mass squared. From solar and atmospheric neutrino experiments, four of the five numbers are approximately known. The fifth value, known as theta-13, is only constrained by an upper limit on its value, which was set by the reactor neutrino experiment CHOOZ. Ideas to measure or further limit this parameter are being pursused by "off-axis" accelerator neutrino experiments, and also by improving reactor neutrino disappearance experiments. Six such reactor experiments are being pursued: Double Chooz, Braidwood, Daya Bay, KASKA, RENO and Angra. The Double Chooz experiment, in a region of France along the Belgian border, will probably be the first one in operation. The prospects and status of this experiment will be described.
: James Stirling (IPPP, Durham)
Quantum Chromodynamics and High-Energy Colliders: Fundamental Physics from Non-fundamental Particles
: John Ellis (CERN)
How to look for supersymmetry?
Supersymmetry is still the most promising option for physics beyond the Standard Model, and there are good chances that it could be seen at the LHC. The experimental signature most frequently considered is missing energy, but an interesting alternative is offered by models with a metastable charged particle decaying into gravitino dark matter.
: Charles Loomis (LAL Orsay)
Challenges of Analysis for Grid Computing
The LCG/EGEE production service is the largest operating grid infrastructure in the world. It is currently being used by both HEP and non-HEP applications for large scale productions. However, users wanting to run analyses on the grid will bring higher expectations and more difficult requirements with them. The presentation summarizes the current state of the grid and specific areas which will need to be improved to support analysis on grid infrastructures.
: Jens Als-Nielsen (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen)
X-Ray synchrotron radiation - glimpses from the past and of the future
It is well known that synchrotron X-ray science - or maybe more precisely science based on X-ray synchrotron radiation (SR) - has undergone a revolution within the last couple of decades. The brilliance, the figure of merit often used for SR sources, exhibits a growth rate exceeding that of Moore~Rs law for semiconductors, and this development will continue with new large-scale projects such as the free electron X-ray laser. In this talk I shall, however, emphasize another aspect of X-ray science which will have a more direct impact on our daily lives, and that is the proliferation to universities, hospitals and companies of affordable, laser based SR sources equipped with novel X-ray optics. Amongst other benefits, this combination will allow the routine clinical use of phase-contrast imaging rather than conventional absorption-contrast imaging.
: Silvia Pascoli
Determining neutrino masses
In recent years strong evidence of neutrino oscillations has been found. This implies that neutrinos are massive particles. At present, we have measured the solar and atmospheric mass squared differences but the overall neutrino mass scale and the type of hierarchy are still unknown. This information is crucial for our understanding of the origin of neutrino masses. I will review the present knowledge of neutrino parameters. I will discuss the strategies for determining the absolute values of neutrino masses (absolute mass scale and type of hierarchy). In particular, I will focus on neutrinoless double beta decay and long baseline experiments and, briefly, on direct mass searches. I will finally comment on the complementarity of these different approaches.
: Oliver Rosten (Southampton)
Computing in SU(N) Yang-Mills without Fixing the Gauge
A manifestly gauge invariant Exact Renormalisation Group is constructed for SU(N) Yang-Mills, in a form convenient for computation at any loop order. A diagrammatic calculus is developed which facilitates a calculation of the two-loop beta function, for the first time without fixing the gauge or specifying the details of the regularisation scheme.
: Steve Jones (UCL)
Did Adam meet Eve? - the view from the genes
: Alan Barr (UCL)
SUSY or extra dimensions? Can we find out with ATLAS?
Two of the most widely talked-about extensions to the Standard Model are supersymmetry and extra spatial dimensions. If applicable at the TeV-scale, both could be discovered at the LHC. However the signals from some extra dimensional models share many of the properties of supersymmetric events. I discuss some recent work which shows that ATLAS has the potential to distinguish between such models.
: Hans Drevermann (CERN)
Data oriented projections in the ATLAS event display ATLANTIS
Based on simulated data of the two inner 3D tracking chambers of ATLAS, it will be shown that special projections of the data allow to check and understand complicated ATLAS interactions. These projections are optimized to suit human perception. The detection of the interactions and the cleaning of high luminosity data sets containing many noisy channels will be demonstrated.
: Georg Weiglein (Durham)
Higgs Physics and Supersymmetry at Present and Future Colliders
Precision tests of the electroweak Standard Model (SM) and its minimal supersymmetric extension (MSSM) are analysed, and indirect constraints on the Higgs-boson mass in the SM and the scale of supersymmetry are discussed. In the MSSM the mass of the lightest Higgs boson is not a free parameter as in the SM, and a firm upper bound can be established. The phenomenology of Higgs physics in the MSSM can differ very significantly from the SM case. The phenomenology of Higgs physics in the MSSM at the Tevatron, the LHC and the ILC is discussed. The possible interplay between the LHC and ILC in analysing the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking and the underlying structure of Supersymmetric models is investigated.
: Edwige Tournefier (Annecy)
Gravitational waves and the VIRGO detector
Gravitational waves are predicted by general relativity but have not yet been experimentally observed. A new generation of interferometric experiments aimed at their detection, such as Virgo, is now being commissioned. After an introduction on gravitationnal waves I will give an overview of the world programme before focusing on the Virgo detector and its commissioning.
: Wit Busza (MIT)
Surprises from RHIC
: Claire Gwenlan (Oxford)
QCD analyses of HERA data: determination of proton PDFs
: Lucio Cerrito (Oxford)
Top Quark Physics at the Tevatron
The observation of top quarks is still an exclusive privilege of only two experiments operating at the Tevatron Collider. However, never forming bound states, rapidly decaying and with unmeasurably small rare decays the top may appear like a rather uninteresting specie. Or is it ? I will review the latest measurements in top physics at the Tevatron, with focus on the CDF experiment. It emerges a rich programme that is currently testing the Standard Model at the highest energy ever reached in laboratory.
: Simon Dean (UCL)
Once in a lifetime: Investigating Z -> tau tau -> e mu + neutrinos at D0
The sum of signed impact parameters in a two-track system is proposed as a tool for discriminating channels with lifetime in the final state. Z ->tau tau -> e mu is shown to be a realistic process for demonstrating this effect and a signal sample is selected from the D0 RunII dataset.
: Emily Nurse (UCL)
Electroweak physics at the Tevatron
Run II of the Tevatron is now well underway and results are starting to come out thick and fast. I will present the recent electroweak results from CDF and Dzero, going through one analysis in detail to give some insight into how precision measurements are done at hadron colliders.
: Philip Burrows (QMUL)
The Linear Collider: microscope on physics at the TeV scale
I will discuss the power of the Linear Collider in terms of precision measurements and discovery potential for new physics at the TeV scale. I will discuss the joint potential of the Linear Collider and the LHC. I will review briefly the status of the International Linear Collider project and the UK contributions.
: Chris Quigg (FermiLab)
The Double Simplex; envisioning particles and interactions
: Glen Marshall
Recent results from the TWIST experiment
The TRIUMF Weak Interaction Symmetry Test (TWIST) has recently completed its first physics analyses. The results represent a significant increase in precision for two of the four Michel parameters describing the energy and angle distributions of positrons from polarized positive muon decay. This is the first step toward our eventual goal of improving upon previous determinations for three of the parameters by at least an order of magnitude, as a test the Standard Model in the purely leptonic decay interaction. TWIST uses a polarized muon beam stopping at the center of a spectrometer consisting of a low mass, high precision array of planar drift chambers in a two tesla solenoidal field. The talk will focus on the operation of the device and the methods which are used to extract the decay parameters in a reliable way. Systematic uncertainties are especially important, as they will limit the final results.
: Yoshi Uchida
The KamLAND experiment
: Hans Kraus (Oxford)
The CRESST Dark Matter Search
Dark Matter is one of the key issues in the field of particle-astrophysics. We understand many phenomena in great detail, but yet, we do not know what the bulk of the Universe is made of. Dark Matter and Dark Energy appear to dominate normal matter by a large factor. I summarize the astrophysics evidence we have for the existence of Dark Matter; explain how particle physics provides a good candidate for Dark Matter particles and talk about the experimental challenges one has to master in attempting to detect WIMP Dark Matter. I review the general requirements every Dark Matter experiment has to satisfy and summarize some of the physics carried out within underground laboratories. The focus of the presentation is on novel cryogenic detectors that CRESST uses to search for WIMPs. These detectors are scintillating low-temperature calorimeters operating in the milli-kelvin temperature range and providing event type recognition to distinguish between a potential signal and backgrounds. The presentation concludes with a summary on how far the world-wide search for Dark Matter has progressed.
: Steward Boogert (UCL)
Physics of/at a linear e+ e- collider
: Philip Harris (Sussex)
The neutron EDM experiment
: Jon Butterworth (UCL)
Implications of HERA measurements for the LHC
: Ofer Lahav (UCL)
Neutrinos and Cosmology
: Bill Murray (RAL)
Results from MuScat
Ionization cooling is foreseen for the muon collider and neutrino factory, and is to be tested in action in the Mice experiment at RAL. The cooling effect of dedx losses is offset by multiple scattering, which is difficult to calculate and has not been measured at the appropriate muon momenta. The MuScat experiment fixes that deficiency. The results of the MuScat experiment are presented, along with details of the performance.
: David Miller (UCL)
Physics at the Future Linear Collider
: Nikos Konstantinidis (UCL)
The Higgs Search: Past, present and future
Almost four years after the last data from LEP, (preparation for) the search for the wholy grail of particle physics continues. Starting with a quick review of LEP's legendary contribution to the Higgs searches, I will discuss (a) the more recent progress in precision electroweak measurements and the information they provide for the SM Higgs; and (b) the expectations in the coming years from the Tevatron and the LHC.
: David Evans (Birmingham)
"ALICE and the Physics of Quark Matter"
QCD predicts that hadronic matter, under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure, will undergo a phase transition into a deconfined soup of quarks and gluons called a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) The University would have been in such a state some 10^-6 to 10^-5 seconds after the Big Bang. Colliding lead ions at LHC energies will produce such a QGP and the ALICE experiment will study QCD in detail under these extreme conditions.
: Costas Andreopoulos (RAL)
"The MINOS experiment: Just 7 months away from the first beam event!"
MINOS is a first generation long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment designed to study the oscillation parameter space hinted at by the results of atmospheric neutrino experiments. In order to achieve this goal we plan to use two magnetized iron calorimeters with solid scintillator as active material: a 5.4 kt one in Soudan mine in Minnesota, 735 km away from an intense, low energy neutrino beam source at Fermilab, and a smaller 1 kt one just 1 km downstream of the neutrino source. Neutrino oscillation measurements will be carried on by comparing the neutrino event rates and spectra at the two detectors. In this talk, I will briefly summarize the current experimental evidence for neutrino oscillations and describe the current status of the MINOS experiment which is now very close to the end of its construction phase. I will also try to illustrate what challenges we are going to face, after the beam starts up, using highlights from my recent work in event reconstruction, event classification and neutrino interaction model tuning/validation.
: Simon Dean (Manchester)
"Once in a Lifetime: Investigating Z -> tau tau -> e mu (+neutrinos) at D0"
The sum of signed impact parameters in a two-track system is proposed as a tool for discriminating channels with lifetime in the final state. Z -> tau tau -> e mu is shown to be a realistic process for studying this effect and the current best method of signal selection is presented
: Todd Huffman, Oxford
"Why B Physics is Interesting, (with a CDF focus)"
We all are convinced that the Standard Model of particle interactions is not the last word in the theory of the fundamental forces of nature. There are many searches proposed and on-going to try to add data to the speculations of what lies beyond the Standard Model. I show that the study of B mesons is actually much more fascinating than the simple measurements of lifetimes and branching ratios. These particles probe some very basic questions about the nature of matter in the Universe and are already beginning to constrain the physics beyond the standard model. Using recent results from the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, I show how the search for physics at the TeV scale can take place at the GeV scale and why CDF is, at the moment, unique in it's capability for that search.
: Frank Close, Oxford
"Pentaquarks and tetraquarks: the end of the constituent quark model?"
: Giacomo Polesello, Pavia/CERN
"Discovery physics with the ATLAS detector at the LHC"
We give an overview of the potential of the ATLAS detector for the discovery of new particles at the LHC, based on the expected detector performance and on the proposed analysis strategies. A special emphasis is given to the signatures predicted by supersymmetric models.
: Peter Richardson (CERN/Durham) *TBC*
"Parton Shower Monte Carlos: The State of the Art"
: Ben Allanach (LAPTH)
"R-parity Violating SUSY" (including SUSY primer)
: Rob Edgecock (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
"Neutrino Factory: Physics and Prospects"
: Subir Sarkar, Oxford University
The world according to WMAP: Does cosmology now have a Standard Model?
Recent precision observations of anisotropies in the relic 2.7 K radiation by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe are supposed to have determined the values of cosmological parameters to a few per cent, and in particular, to have established the presence of a cosmological constant. We will discuss the assumptions that underlie these results and draw attention to alternative cosmological models which also appear to be consistent with the data.
: Dr. Ruben Saakyan (UCL)
"Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay & NEMO"
: Joao Seco (ICR) — ***POSTPONED UNTIL 20/6/2003***
"Simulations for Intensity Modulated Radiation Treatment (IMRT)"
: Dr. Nigel Smith (RAL) — ***POSTPONED UNTIL 13/6/2003***
"The search for WIMPs in the UK"
: Professor Tim Sumner (Imperial College London)
"The observation of gravitational waves from space using LISA"
: Ankush Mitra (Oxford University)
"LICAS: The Linear Collider Alignment and Survey Project"
: Silvia Miglioranzi (University College London)
"Algorithms Designed to Measure b-quark Production at the ZEUS Experiment at HERA"
: Chris Damerell (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
"Feedback from Vertex 2002 Conference"
: Professor Karl van Bibber (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
"A Large-Scale Search for Dark-Matter Axions"
: Stewart Boogert (University College London) — POSTPONED UNTIL 13/12/2002
"Introduction to Linear Collider Physics"
: Dr. Jon Butterworth (University College London)
"HERA physics as a preparation for LHC"
: Professor Tom Ferbel (University of Rochester & Imperial College)
"New Measurement of the Mass of the Top Quark"
: Dr. Lee Thompson (University of Sheffield)
"ANTARES - a neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean" ... or ... "Diving for WIMPs - neutrino astrophysics in the Mediterranean"
: Professor Paul Singer (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)
"Rare Charm Decays and the Search for New Physics"
: Greg Landsberg (Brown University)
"Black Hole Production at Future Colliders and Cosmic Rays"
: Steve Biller (Oxford)
"SNO: Latest Results"
: Dr.Cristina Lazzeroni (Cambridge)
"CP Violation Results from NA48"
: Richard Hall-Wilton (UCL)
"Charm Production in DIS at HERA"
: Stefano Moretti (CERN-TH and Durham-IPPP)
"Improving the discovery potential of charged Higgs bosons at Tevatron and the LHC"
: Ed McKigney (Imperial College London)
"MuScat and MICE: Steps toward a Neutrino Factory"
: Ernest Ma (University of Califormia, Riverside)
Verifiable Origin of Neutrino Masses at the TeV Scale and the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment.
: Uri Karhson (Weizmann/UCL)
Heavy Quark Production at HERA
: Ivan Reid (UCL)
Muons in Sulphur and Selenium
: Vitaly Kudryavtsev (Sheffield)
Dark Matter searches and neutrino astrophysics.
: David Miller (UCL) (In A19)
Has LEP found the Higgs?
: Angela Wyatt (Manchester).
Rapidity Gaps Between Jets at HERA
: Murray Moinester (Tel Aviv).
Colour Transparency and Exclusive Meson Production at COMPASS
: Akos Csilling (UCL)
Photon Structure and More
Don't miss your chance to meet our other OPAL postdoc!
: Dave Waters (Oxford) (TBC)
Measuring the W at the Tevatron
: Alan Watson, University of Leeds — The Elizabeth Spreadbury Lecture
The Quest for the Origin of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays
Cruciform Lecture Theatre No.1. Tea, squash biscuits etc in South Cloisters at 4.45
: Mark Hindmarsh (Sussex)
The Dynamics of Phase Transitions in the Early Universe
: Pedro Teixeira-Dias (Glasgow)
Higgs searches at LEP
: Paul Newman (Birmingham) (TBC)
Diffractive DIS at HERA.
: Dave Wark (Oxford/Sussex/RAL)
Status of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
: Brian Cox, Manchester
Hard Colour-Singlet Exchange at HERA and Tevatron
Note; Rearranged Date!
: Nigel Glover, Durham
Prompt Photon production at LEP and Tevatron
: Jeff Forshaw, Manchester
Is there a Higgs Boson?
2pm. Note unusual day!
: Roger Jones, Lancaster
Quark and Gluon Jets and Jet Shapes
: Antonio Soares, UCL
Medical Application of a Gamma Camera.
: Prof. Douglas Ross, Southampton.
Electric Dipole Moments of the Electron and Neutron as a Window on New Physics
: Dr. Burton Richter, SLAC — Darwin Theatre
The Future of High Energy Physics; a Personal View
Open lecture for the UK particle physics community - Sponsored by PPARC.
: Prof. Stanislaw Jadach, CERN
How precise are MC calculations for WW final states?
: Dr. Jason McFall, Bristol
Status of Babar
: Dr. Phil Harris, Sussex
The Search for the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
The discovery of an electric dipole moment of the neutron would have dramatic consequences for particle physics beyond the Standard Model; it may even help us to understand why the universe contains more matter than antimatter. The latest EDM experiment, now running in Grenoble, applies magnetic resonance techniques to stored ultracold neutrons to obtain an extraordinarily high sensitivity, while a newly-developed magnetometer based upon spin-polarised atomic mercury allows unprecedentedly low systematic uncertainties. This talk will cover the motivation behind and the technique of the measurement; the latest results will be presented, together with some ideas for the possible future evolution of the experiment.
: Dr. Neville Harnew, Oxford
LHCB - Detector and Physics Challenge
: Matthew Wing, McGill University/UCL
Semileptonic Decays in ZEUS and Open Beauty at HERA
: Dr. Witek Krasny, Paris/Oxford
Nuclear Options at HERA
The HERA ep collider turned out, rather unexpectedly, to be the best machine for studies of strong interaction physics in the most intriguing domain of transition between soft and hard interactions of real and virtual photons at large and small distances. This unique microscope provide means to look at quarks and gluons in a very broad range of "precisely tunable space-time volumes" and, if nuclear option is realized, using "tunable magnification" of the color forces. What are the perspectives of nuclear program at HERA? Is a curiosity driven research program for eA scattering feasible? I shall try to answer these and other questions in my seminar.
: Dr. John Hassard, ICSTM.
What Can Particle Physics do for DNA Sequencing?
The HEP community in the UK has suffered a large drop in real funding in the last ten years. Paradoxically, our research prospects in HEP may never have been brighter. However, there has been a remarkable drop in applicants to physics - at all levels - partly as a consequence of a perceived lack of future for the subject as a discipline in its own right. Few would dispute the long-term importance of pure research at a cultural and societal level; many consider an emphasis on short-term spin-offs to be irrelevant or even counterproductive. I will illustrate the short-term utility of physics in general and HEP in particular by discussing our biotechnology and biomedicine programmes and making the connection to pure research. My central thesis is that if we take care of the short term, the long term takes care of itself. The key is in making the connection.
: Carsten Hensel (Hamburg University)
Beam induced Background at a Detector at a 500 GeV Electron-Positron Linear Collider
: Aude Gehrmann-De Ridder (Karlsruhe University)
Photon structure at LEP and Linear Collider
:
IoP Half day meeting on future physics.
: Jason Ward (Glasgow)
W Physics Results from ALEPH
: Thomas Hadig (Aachen)
Measuring the Gluon Density in the Proton at H1
: Greg Landsberg (Brown)
Search for Exotics at D0
: David Miller (RAL) (no relation)
Heavy Quarks from Gluon Splitting at LEP
: Marco Stratmann (Durham)
Physics at a Polarised HERA
: Paul Dervan (UCL)
Silicon Vertex Detectors
: Ben Allanach (RAL)
Increased Predictivity in Supersymmetry
: Chris Llewellyn-Smith (CERN)
Colloquium - The LHC Program
: David Miller (UCL)
Lepton collider prospects
: Rajendran Raja (FNAL)
Top quark Physics results from the Tevatron
: Martin McDermott (Manchester)
Diffractive Heavy Quarkonium production
: Malcolm Longair (Cambridge)
The Enigma of the Cosmological Constant, The Elizabeth Spreadbury Lecture
:
IoP HEPP Group Half Day at UCL on Neutrino Physics
: Michael Kramer (RAL)
Current status of Quarkonia Physics
: Paul Dervan (UCL)
The SLD vertex detector upgrade.
: Martin Rees (at STS)
Our Universe and Others
: Simon George (RHBNC)
The ATLAS SCT Trigger
: Prof. H. M. Chan (RAL)
Are post-GZK air showers due to strongly interacting neutrinos?
Joint with Astronomy group, in the Massey Theatre
: Prof. D. H. Davis
Hypernuclei
: Paul Dauncey (RAL)
Measuring the CKM angle gamma at BaBar
: Neville Harnew (Oxford)
Observation of ring patterns with a pixellated single-photon detector
The proposed LHC-B experiment at CERN will use a novel photon detection device called the hybrid Photon Detector (HPD) to recognise rings of Cherenkov light produced by high energy particles in matter. Electrons from a photocathode surface in the HPD are accelerated and detected in a silicon pad detctor. NB. This is not a Bloomsbury seminar, but one of a series organised but CAIS/Sira UCL postgrad centre. It will be at 3pm in the M.Res seminar room, 66-72 Gower St.
: Phil Burrows (SLAC)
Testing the Standard Model using Polarised Electrons, a Micro-vertex Detector and Particle Identification: the SLD Experiment at SLAC
: Prof. Ian Percival, QMW
Quantum technology and quantum foundations (Joint with Molecular and Atomic Physics, will be held in A1)
: Prof. Basil Hiley, Birkbeck
Alternative Quantum Mechanical Interpretations: Do they really help? (Joint with Molecular and Atomic Physics, will be held in A1)
: Stan Wojcicki (Stanford U.)
Brookhaven Rare Kaon Decay Experiment
: Herbi Dreiner (RAL)
R-parity violation
: Vakhtang Kartvelishvili (Manchester)
SVD Approach to Data Unfolding
Distributions measured in high energy physics experiments are usually distorted and/or transformed by various detector effects. A regularization method for unfolding these distributions is re-formulated in terms of the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of the response matrix. A relatively simple, yet quite efficient unfolding procedure is explained in detail. The concise linear algorithm results in a straightforward implementation with full error propagation, including the complete covariance matrix and its inverse. Several improvements upon widely used procedures are proposed, and recommendations are given how to simplify the task by the proper choice of the matrix. Ways of determining the optimal value of the regularization parameter are suggested and discussed, and several examples illustrating the use of the method are presented.
: Mike Seymour (RAL) THURSDAY!!
The Internal Structure of QCD Jets
: Jan Lauber (UCL)
Summary of Jerusalem conference (EPS97)
: Mark Hayes (Bristol University)
Hard diffractive scattering in photo-production at HERA
: Tony Rooke (University College London)
Summary of the Photon 97 conference
: Peter F. Smith (RAL)
Measurement of the neutrino mass from supernova
: Allan Skillman (University College London)
Determination of the Trilinear Gauge Couplings in WW events at LEP II at a center of mass energy of 172 GeV
: John Thompson (RAL)
ALEPH LEP 2 Results
: Claude Bourrely (Birkbeck)(UCL)
Theory of Deep inelastic scattering
: Lynne Orr (University of Rochester)
Gluon Radiation in Top Quark Production and Decay
The strong force causes quarks to radiate gluons with a large probability. Because these gluons appear in experiments as jets of hadrons which are typically indistinguishable from jets due to quarks, making sense of these experiments requires understanding gluon radiation. This is particularly important for top physics because uncertainties in future top measurements will be dominated by systematic effects associated with gluon radiation. Gluons can be radiated during both top production and decay; both processes must be taken into account. In this seminar I discuss gluon radiation in top quark production and decay at present and future colliders (both hadron and electron-positron colliders), and some implications of the results.
: Jon Butterworth (UCL)
HERA and the Leptoquark — Is the Standard Model dead ?
Results presented last week by the H1 and ZEUS experiments at DESY, Hamburg (and submitted to journals this week) have caused something of a stir. Interest focusses on comparisons between positron-proton scattering data and the predictions of the 'Standard Model' of particle physics. Anomalies are seen in the data when the four-momentum transfer is high (Q^2 > 15000 GeV^2) and the momentum fraction of the struck quark in the proton is around x = 0.5. After a simple outline of the Standard Model and of the experiments is given, the significance and implications of these anomalies will be examined.
: Boris Ruskov (Oxford)
From QED to QCD — from similarities to differences
The purpose of this lecture is to give an elementary introduction to basic ideas of the non-perturbative QCD. The universal gauge-theory description of QCD and QED will be given. Considering both models in parallel, we will explain the reason for similarities between them in the weak-coupling regime and crucial differences in the strong-coupling (non-perturbative) region. We will discuss some ideas on how these properties can be observed.
: No Seminar
OPAL UK Meeting
: Roger Barlow (Manchester)
Why physics lectures
: Jon Flynn (Southampton)
Some recent results from Lattice QCD
I review some recent lattice QCD results for quantities of phenomenological interest. After a brief consumer guide I will survey recent results for some or all of: B-meson decay constant and mixing parameter, K-meson mixing parameter, strong coupling constant, light quark masses and the lightest scalar glueball.
: Hugh Gallagher (Oxford)
New Results on Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations from Soudan 2
: Dr C. Damerell (RAL)
The international e+e- linear collider programme: physics prospects and recent design developements
The future e+e- linear collider was one of the options studied in detail at the recent Snowmass Workshop 'New Directions for High Energy Physics'. This talk (which includes material presented in the closing parallel session) summarises recent progress on the accelerator and detector design, and contrasts the physics prospects with other options discussed during the workshop.
: Prof. I Percival (QMW)
Quantum mechanics, cat-fleas and gravit
By analogy with the use of Brownian motion to detect flucuations on the atomic scale, it is shown that modern matter interferometry experiments might detect fluctuations of space-time on a Planck scale, despite the small values of the Planck length and time.
: Dr B. Webber (Cavendish Laboratory)
"Hadronisation" corrections to QCD observables
Predictions in perturbative QCD refer to final states consisting of quarks and gluons, rather than the hadrons actually observed in experiments. It has therefore been customary to apply `hadronization'' corrections, based on Monte Carlo models, to the theory before comparing with experiment. Although this procedure seems to fit the data quite well, the corrections applied have not been well justified theoretically. Empirically, they behave like inverse powers of a large momentum scale of the process, for example the centre-of-mass energy in e+e- annihilation or the quark mass in heavy quark processes. Recent theoretical work has suggested that such power-suppressed corrections can arise from divergences of the perturbation series at high orders, which are called `renormalons''. This talk will explore the insights into hadronization corrections that can be obtained from the renormalon approach.
: Dr C. Sutton (Oxford)
Communicating science
: Dr O Teryaev (Dubna and Birkbeck)
QCD single spin asymmetries in the RHIC and HERA-N programmes
: Dr J. McGovern (Manchester)
Chiral symmetry in nuclei
Partial restoration in nuclear matter of the chiral symmetry of QCD is discussed together with some of its possible signals. Estimates of corrections to the leading, linear dependence of the quark condensate are found to be small, implying a significant reduction of that condensate in matter. The importance of the pion cloud for the scalar quark density of a single nucleon indicates a close connection between chiral symmetry restoration and the attractive two-pion exchange interaction between nucleons. This force is sufficiently long-ranged that nucleons in nuclear matter will feel a significant degree of symmetry restoration despite the strong correlations between them. Expected consequences of this include reductions in hadron masses and decay constants. Various signals of these effects are discussed, in particular the enhancement of the axial charge of a nucleon in matter.
: Prof E. Leader (Birkbeck)
Report on the 12th Int. Symp. on High Energy Spin Physics, Amsterdam
: Prof D. Miller (UCL) and Dr J. Lauber (UCL)
Report on the INternational Conference on High Energy Physics, Warsaw
: Dr Dhiman Chakraborty (State University of New York at Stony Brook)
The current status of top physics at the Tevatron
The Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab has recently concluded a run in the collider mode before switching to the fixed-target mode of operation for the next 3 years. Each of the two collider experiments, CDF and D0, has collected over 100 pb**-1 worth of data which is about twice what the last batch of publications were based on. The first results from this full data sample have just started to come out. In the arena of top physics, both experiments have revised their calculations of production cross-section and the mass of top quarks with reduced statistical and systematic errors. These as well as some new results from more difficult final states and a breif outline of future prospects will be presented.
: Dr Mike Charlton (University College)
AntiHydrogen
Antihydrogen was recently observed at high energies at CERN. We briefly review this experiment, but suggest that the primary motivations for studying this object, which include CPT and WEP tests, can only be addressed by its controlled production at very low energies. Techniques which will allow this are described, including the capture and cooling of antiprotons to temperatures below 20K and the accumulation of dense positron plasmas.
: Nick Allen (Brunel University)
Electroweak Measurements at SLD
:Dr George Lafferty (Manchester)
Inclusive particle production in hadronic Z decay
An overview will be given of the physics results from the study of inclusive particle production in multihadronic Z decays at LEP, the primary aim of which is to reach an understanding of the non-perturbative hadronisation process in QCD. Topics covered will include: aspects of quark and gluon fragmentation; local parton-hadron duality; QCD-based models of parton hadronisation; two-particle correlations; and spin effects in fragmetation.
: Barry Macevoy (Imperial College)
Defect kinetics in silicon detector material
A numerical kinetics model has been used to investigate the evolution of complex defects in high resistivity silicon detector material during fast neutron irradiation to levels expected at the CERN LHC. The complex V_2O is identified as a candidate for a deep-level acceptor state which gives rise to experimentally observed changes in the effective doping concentration. The importance of the initial oxygen impurity concentration in determining the radiation tolerance of the detectors is demonstrated. The characteristics of devices heavily irradiated with Colbalt 60 photons are modelled satisfactorily by using a semiconductor simulation in conjunction with the kinetics model. It is postulated that inter-defect transitions between divacancy states in the terminal damage clusters are responsible for apparent discrepancies in the modelling of data from neutron-irradiated devices. This mechanism (if correct) may have important consequences for te prospects of "defect-engineering" a radiation hard device.
: Dr Greg Heath (Bristol)
Hunting the Higgs Boson - In a Haystack
Particle physics experiments produce enormous raw data rates. Millions of events per second must be filtered on-line to find a few dozen of interest. Filtering processors will be described and the strategies used on them, for current experiments and for the future Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
: Dr Jeff Forshaw (Manchester)
Report on the Beijing Lepton-Photon Conference
: Dr Roger Phillips (DRAL)
Speculations about the KARMEN Anomaly
The KARMEN experiment, studying neutrinos from the pi+ decay chain, has found an anomaly in the time-dependence that suggests a new unstable particle x with m(x)=33.9 MeV, produced via pi -> mu+x . Could this be a new neutrino or what? Pros, cons, ifs and buts will be reviewed.
: Dr Subir Sarkar (Oxford)
"No-crisis" for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
The synthesis of the light elements at the end of the `first three minutes' provides the most detailed probe of physical conditions in the early universe and has proved very useful in constraining new physics, viz. the existence of new particles and forces. Recently it was claimed that the observationally inferred abundances of deuterium, helium and lithium are in fact inconsistent with even the Standard Model, thus undermining this programme. I will review the situation and argue that there is no such crisis.
: Prof John Edgington (QMW)
Neutrino Oscillations - Weighing the Evidence
Do neutrinos possess mass? The Standard Model says no, without giving a reason. So far there is no direct and sustainable experimental evidence for mass, despite occasional hints to the contrary. To some, non-zero mass is more "natural" and cosmologists seeking missing mass have supported this theological view with enthusiasm. Massive neutrinos will have wave functions which are combinations of separate flavour eigenstates; thus production of neutrinos of one flavour and their detection as another flavour is evidence for non-zero mass. Experimental searches for neutrino oscillations will be reviewed, concentrating on the KARMEN experiment at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and comparing it with the LSND experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Some problems of drawing conclusions will be discussed, including the relevance of a Bayesian approach to data handling.
: Dr. D. B. Stamenov (INR, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Constraints on "Fixed Point" QCD from the CCFR data on DIS
: Dr Robert Thorne (DRAL)
Report on the European Physical Society HEP Meeting, Brussels
I will attempt to summarize some of the most important and interesting developments reported at the Meeting. This is clearly a personal choice, but the topics to be discussed include: developments in perturbative QCD, particularly small x physics, high pT jets, and higher twist corrections; particle-astrophysics and the solar neutrino problem; precision measurements (particularly R_b and R_c) and calculations in the standard model, and implications for new physics; and duality in supersymmetric theories.
: Prof John Dainton (Liverpool)
The Partonic Structure of Diffraction
Recent new measurements of the deep-inelastic scattering of electrons on protons have revealed a new layer in our understanding of the structure of the proton. At the highest possible interaction energies, which are available only at the HERA ep collider in DESY in Hamburg, new measurements have revealed a contribution which is due to the way protons interact with other hadrons. The first measurements of the short distance structure of this contribution reveal that it is partonic, and furthermore that it may be understood in terms of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). For the first time, deep-inelastic lepton scattering experiments are able to probe one of the oldest conundrums in physics, namely the way nucleons interact with other nucleons (often generically referred to as diffraction), and to provide measurements which elucidate an understanding in terms of QCD. The new results which lead to these conclusions are presented and discussed.
: Jason Ward
Measurement of the Photon Structure Function at OPAL
An introduction to how photon structure is studied at an electron-positron collider is given, with motivation for such a study. The new contributions that LEP can make to the measurement of the photon structure function are discussed and the OPAL measurements are presented. These measurements are compared with theory. The photon structure function measurements that we expect from future LEP-II running are also discussed.
: Prof. Roger Cashmore (Oxford)
The Top Quark - Discovery and Implications
The evidence for the recent discovery of the top quark at Fermilab will be reviewed and the implications for other areas of particle physics discussed. Further progress in top quark physics will be made with upgrades to the Tevatron and the construction of the LHC while a high energy linear e+/e- collider offers intriguing possibilities. These aspects will be developed and put in perspective.
: Dr Alexei Yung (St. Petersburg / Swansea)
Why Topological Models are Relevant to Physics
An elementary introduction to what is topological field theory is given. The problem how topological models could serve physics is discussed. In particular, the idea that the physical theory could correspond to the broken phase of the topological theory is explained. The example of such breakdown phenomenon in the two dimensional topological sigma model is presented.
: Dr Paul Harrison (Queen Mary)
A Solution to the Solar and Atmospheric Neutrino Problem
The physics of solar and atmospheric neutrinos is reviewed, and the evidence of anomolous detection rates is summarised. Vacuum neutrino oscillations are discussed and an especially simple and elegant form for the lepton mixing matrix is proposed, based on a cyclic permutation symmetry among the generations. Predictions are compared with experiment, and an excellent fit is obtained, the data requiring a hierarchical spectrum of mass-squared differences for the neutrinos. Implications for future experiments are discussed.: Dr Brian Foster (Bristol)
The BaBar Experiment
I will motivate the study of CP violation in the B system by the need to understand the baryone asymmetry of the Universe. I will discuss the possible mechanisms of CP violation and various formalisms in which to understand and express them. I will discuss the requirements for an experiment to study CP violation in the B system and then show how these are being realised in the design of the BaBar experiment at PEP-II
: Dr Alfred Goldhaber (Stony Brook / Cambridge)
An Open Universe from Inflation
A model is described in which inflation occurs, with many of the features customarily associated with inflation, but the universe today may still exhibit appreciable negative curvature, e.g. Omega = 0.2. This is achieved without extremely fine tuning if the inflation proceeds in two stages. The first, or old inflation, stage, is one with a local minimum in the vacuum energy associated with the inflaton field, and implies a de Sitter universe. At some point a bubble forms through a a quantum transition, with new or slow-roll inflation proceeding inside. This bubble evolves into our visible universe, and the slow roll must involve a change in the magnitude of the inflaton field of the same order as the Planck scale. Tuning in the initial value (delta Phi)/Phi around 0.01 to 0.1 would be sufficient to give agreement with current observations. The model has been presented in a recent paper by M. Bucher, A.S. Goldhaber, and N. Turok, and further developed in work by Bucher and Turok.
: Dr Apostolos Pilaftsis (DRAL)
How Left-Right Asymmetry, Tau Polarization and Lepton Universality Constrain Unified Theories at the Z Peak
We suggest the use of a universality-breaking observable based on lepton asymmetries at the Z peak, which can efficiently constrain the parameter space of unified theories. The new observable is complementary to the common lepton-universality quantity relying on partial width differences and depends critically on the chirality of a possible non-universal Z-boson coupling to like- flavour leptons. The LEP potential of probing universality violation is discussed in representative low-energy extensions of the Standard Model (SM) that may be motivated by supersymmetric grand unified theories, such as the SM with left-handed and/or right-handed neutral isosinglets, the left-right symmetric model, and the minimal supersymmetric SM.
: Dr Mike Green (RHBNC)
The Search for the Higgs Boson at LEP I and LEP II
One of the most important outstanding issues for the standard model is the origin of mass. The most popular mechanism for generating mass requires the existence of one or more Higgs bosons with a mass below about 1 TeV. Prior to the operation of LEP there was very little opportunity to search for these and only a very small mass range close to zero was excluded. In the first few years of LEP running the whole mass range below 60 GeV has been excluded for the minimum standard model Higgs. At LEP II the sensitivity will be extended up to at least 80 GeV and hopefully higher. Direct searches above this mass will depend on LHC. However virtual effects in electroweak processes and a direct measurement of the top mass can help pin the Higgs down to a restricted mass region
: Dr Werner Vogelsang (DRAL)
Prompt Photon Production at Hera
We first review the status of prompt photon production in hadronic collisions, focussing in particular on the situation at high-energy ppbar colliders, where we show how the longstanding discrepancy between data and theory at small pt/S is removed by using steep small-x parton distributrions and also by taking into account the fragmentation contribution in next-to-leading order. Then we turn to prompt photon production at HERA and study its sensitivity to the parton, in particular the gluon, content of the photon in the framework of a complete next-to-leading order calculation. Special attention is paid to the issue of isolation constraints imposed on the cross section by experiment.
: Dr Tim Greenshaw (Liverpool)
Recent Results from H1
: Prof David Miller
The Next Collider(s) after LHC
The LHC must come first, but then what? There is important physics which other colliders can do but which LHC will find difficult or impossible. Technical and physics questions will be reviewed.
: Dr Neville Harnew (Oxford)
Exotic Physics Searches at Hera
During the 1993 running period of the HERA e-p collider, the ZEUS and H1 detectors each recorded approximately 550 inverse picobarns of integrated luminosity. I report on searches from both experiments for particles beyond the Standard Model, in which HERA is able to explore an entirely new kinematic range. Topics considered include the hunt for direct, indirect and flavour-changing leptoquarks, predicted in extensions to the Standard Model. I will also review the status of the search for excited electrons, neutrinos and quarks, all of which are predicted in composite models. Finally, I will discuss the prospects for the discovery of SUSY at HERA, both in the R-parity conserving and R-parity violating production and decay modes.
: Dr Allan Skillman
Inclusive Strange Vector and Tensor Meson Production in Hadronic Z Decays
Measurements have been made in the OPAL experiment at LEP of the inclusive production of strange vector phi(1020) and K*(892) mesons, and the neutral tensor meson K*(1430). The measurements for the vector states update previously published results based on lower statistics, while the K*(1430) rate represents the first measurement of a strange tensor state in Z0 decay. Both the overall production rates, and normalised differential cross sections for the vector states, have been compared to JETSET and HERWIG predictions. The peak positions in the xi = ln(1/xp) distributions have been measured and found to be consistent with measurements of other hadron states.
: Dr Jeff Forshaw (DRAL)
Diffractive Vector Meson Production at Large Momentum Transfer
HERA is able to observe diffractive production of vector mesons. Their observation at large momentum transfer will provide important information regarding the nature of the pomeron in QCD
: Dr Nick Brook (Glasgow)
The Hadronic Final State in Deep Inelastic Scattering at Zeus
The general characteristics of the hadronic final state in deep inelastic, neutral current electron-proton interactions at ZEUS are investigated for Q2 > 10 GeV2. The general properties of events with a large rapidity gap are investigated and compared to events without a rapidity gap. The kinematic properties of the jets in 2-jet events are measured and compared to NLO calculations. Fragmentation effects are investigated in the current fragmentation region. The data are used to study QCD coherence effects in DIS and to compare with corresponding e+e- data in order to test the universality of quark fragmentation.
: Prof Elliot Leader
The Present Status of Polarised Deep Inelastic Scattering
The unexpected results of the EMC experiment in 1987, using a longitudinally polarised lepton beam on a longitudinally polarised hydrogen target, with its suggestion of a "spin crisis in the parton model" catalysed an enormous amount of theoretical and experimental work. What that was regarded as a trivial extension of the unpolarised case is now seen to be a rich field of its own, full of subtleties. Several new experiments reported results during 1993/4. The first data on neutrons appeared and led initially to claims that the fundamental Bjorken sum rule was violated. The seminar will cover both the theory and phenomenology .
: Dr Lev Chekhtman (CERN/Novosibirsk)
Microstrip Gas Chambers - Possible Applications for X-ray Detection
Existing low-dose digital X-ray systems have much worse spatial resolution than photographic film/screen techniques. Microstrip gas chambers offer resolutions of around 100 microns and may have larger area than solid-state strip or CCD detectors.
: Dr Robert Bingham (DRAL)
Particle Acceleration in Plasmas using High Powered Lasers
The generation of relativistic plasma waves in low density plasmas is important in the quest for producing ultra-high acceleration gradients for accelerators. At present two methods are being pursued vigorously to achieve ultra-high acceleration gradients. The first is the beat wave mechanism which uses conventional long pulses (>100 ps) modest intensity lasers (I ~ 10E14 Watts/cm2 - 10E16 Watts/cm2) and the second uses the new breed of compact high brightness lasers (< 1 ps) and intensities > 10E18 Watts/cm2. With the development of these compact short pulse high brightness lasers new areas of study for laser matter interactions is opening up. In the ultra-high intensity regime laser plasma interactions are highly nonlinear and relativistic leading to new phenomenon such as plasma wakefield excitation for particle acceleration, relativistic self-focusing, remote guiding of laser beams, harmonic generation and photon acceleration.
: Dr John Hassard (IC)
Diamond Detectors: Towards the Frontiers of Technology
Diamond films are strictly insulators, but they are excellent photoconductors (and conductors of heat). As detectors for ionising particles they may be especially interesting for high-radiation environments in nuclear medicine and at future particle colliders.
: Prof Tegid Jones, Prof David Miller, Dr Mark Thomson
Glasgow Conference Review
Tegid, David and Mark will be telling us about the highlights of that sunny week in July, north of the border.