LNS LUNCHTIME
SEMINAR
Tuesdays at NOON, Kolker Room, 26-414
FALL 2009 Schedule
Committee: Steve Nahn, Joseph Formaggio, Bill Barletta, Richard Milner
September 8
Sunil Golwala, Caltech
"WIMP Dark Matter Searches into the Next Decade with SuperCDMS and GEODM"
I outline the future of WIMP dark matter searches using the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) technique of identifying WIMP-induced nuclear recoils using simultaneous measurement of athermal phonons and ionization in sub-Kelvin germanium detectors. The SuperCDMS collaboration has started the SuperCDMS Soudan experiment using the CDMS II apparatus at the Soudan Underground Lab; it will use a 16 kg target mass to obtain a factor of 4 increase in sensitivity over CDMS II to reach a WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section of 5e-45 cm2. The SuperCDMS collaboration is proposing construction of 100 kg of detectors and a new apparatus at SNOLAB to reach to 3e-46 cm2. And we developing a preliminary design for the Germanium Observatory for Dark Matter (GEODM) at the upcoming Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab (DUSEL) with a target mass of 1.5 tons and a sensitivity of 2e-47 cm2. These experiments will probe deeply into minimal supersymmetric parameter space, completely testing the "bulk" and "focus point" regions. They provide a necessary complement to collider searches for SUSY, in particular checking whether a lightest superpartner inferred from missing E_T is indeed the dark matter and constraining its mass directly.
Host: Sciolla/Formaggio
September 22
Asher Kaboth, MIT
"KATRIN and the Cosmic Neutrino Background"
September 29
Kimberly Palladino, MIT
"Neutrinos from Gamma Ray Bursts: The ANITA-I Limit On Ultra High Energy Neutrinos"
Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are amongst the most energetic objects in our universe. They are known sources of Very High Energy photons, and if hadronic acceleration is occurring at these sites, then GRBs may also be sources of extragalactic cosmic rays and neutrinos. Basic GRB models and their proposed neutrino fluxes will be discussed, before the current upper limits on high energy neutrinos from gamma-ray bursts from the AMANDA, IceCube, and RICE collaborations will be presented. Finally, the comparable limits achieved by the ANITA-I flight on ultra high energy neutrinos from individual gamma ray bursts will be presented. ANITA is a long-duration balloon experiment which looks for a radio Cherenkov pulse from a neutrino-induced cascade within the Antarctic ice cap. The first ANITA flight took place in December 2006 - January 2007.
October 6
No talk (DOE visit)
October 13
No talk (NSF visit)
October 20
Peter Fisher, MIT
Dark Forces: New Theories, New Experiments
October 27
Lee Roberts, Boston University
Muon (g-2) and other dipole interactions: Looking to the future
The magnetic dipole interaction played a central role in the development of QED, and continued that role in leading to the standard model. The muon anomalous magnetic moment has served as a benchmark for models of new physics. With new results from BaBar, the confrontation between theory and experiment is now at the 3.2 sigma level, when e+e- data are used to determine the hadronic piece of the standard-model contribution. I will first give an overview of the searches for new physics through dipole interactions, review the standard-model value for the muon anomaly, and then describe the new (g-2) experiment that is proposed for Fermilab.
November 3
Jay Flanz, Massachusetts General Hospital
"The next generation of Particle Beam Therapy for Cancer is here"
In the near term, the number of proton therapy centers in the United States will double (with centers already under construction). The rapid growth of this treatment modality is due to the capability to deliver a more conformal dose distribution than other external beam radiotherapy modalities. However other modalities have also evolved and, when compared with the previous generation of particle treatments, seem very good. "New" particle beam delivery modalities such as forms of beam scanning result in the ultimate physical dose distribution and, when coupled with appropriate imaging capabilities, will provide very precise treatments. This talk will discuss beam scanning techniques as well as the accelerators required to produce the beams.
November 10
Michel Sorel , IFIC (CSIC - University of Valencia)
NEXT Experiment and the race toward the "ultimate" neutrinoless double beta decay experiment
In March 1938, the italian theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana, age 31, disappears in mysterious circumstances. One year earlier, he first proposes that neutrinos may be indistinguishable from their own antiparticles. This is known today as the Majorana particle condition. If a centenarian Majorana were still alive and in good health today, he could witness how we are still trying to experimentally prove him right or wrong, and how we keep studying the far-reaching implications that Majorana neutrinos would have in particle physics and cosmology.
To date, the most promising process to probe the Majorana nature of neutrinos is neutrinoless double beta decay. In this talk, I will comment on the ingredients needed for the "ultimate" neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. I will then describe a new proposal for neutrinoless double beta decay searches: the NEXT experiment at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain. This novel detection concept is based on a Time Projection Chamber filled with high-pressure gaseous xenon, capable of measuring both the primary scintillation and the ionization signals, and with separated-function capabilities for calorimetry and tracking.
November 17
Timothy Antaya,
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center
"Compact High Field Cyclotrons"
Recent advances in superconductors, cryogenics and beam dynamics have made possible extremely compact, nearly portable cyclotrons, which in turn is rapidly enabling new uses in a host of fields, including medicine, security and basic science. The origins and properties of such accelerators will be introduced, and a number of emerging applications, all of them new, will presented and discussed.
Hosts: S. Nahn and B. Barletta
November 24
Wouter Deconinck, MIT
"The QWeak Experiment: A Search for Physics at the TeV Scale thorugh Parity-Violating Electron Scattering"
December 1
Linda Sugiyama
December 8
Steve Nahn
LHC@3.5TeV