Fall 2015

September 11, 2015
General The Standard Model

The Standard Model of particle physics is oft referenced, but rarely explictly defined. In our standard introductory lecture, we come together to construct a general talk with the background in the parts of the standard model we are most interested in.


September 18, 2015
Ta-Wei Wang Open Heavy Flavor Measurement in heavy ion collisions with CMS

The study of heavy quark production may reveal critical features of the medium produced in heavy ion collisions as heavy quarks are sensitive to the transport properties of the medium and may interact differently from light quarks. Non-prompt $J/\psi$ and b jet produced in both 5.02 TeV pPb as well as 2.76 TeV PbPb collision data have been measured with the CMS detector as a function of both rapidity and transverse momentum. Fully reconstructed B mesons in pPb data were also analyzed and along with these measurements, the nuclear modification factors constructed using either a theoretically calculated pp reference or CMS pp collision data will be presented for each analysis and collision systems.


September 24, 2015
Yimin Wang Dark Photon Search in e+e- Annihilation

The  laboratory search for a possible heavy boson in dark sector is happening all over the world. In this talk, I will introduce the experiment method using e+e- annihilation in detail, especially the one that is going to happen in the Cornell Synchrotron. We are going to use 5GeV positron beam with a fixed target configuration. We will adapt the missing mass approach for separating backgrounds and searching for a signal bump.


October 2, 2015
Alex Barbieri The DNCMS Experiment

For any high-luminosity experiment the total amount of disk storage is vastly exceeded by the number of potential events. Today I will describe how a hypothetical experiment might handle their triggering system to reduce the amount of data storage to a manageable level using a tiered hardware system coupled with interesting algorithms.


October 9, 2015
Ran Bi Pseudorapidity distribution of charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV

The pseudorapidity distribution of charged hadrons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV is measured using a data sample obtained with the CMS detector, operated at zero magnetic field, at the CERN LHC. The yield of primary charged long-lived hadrons produced in inelastic pp collisions is determined in the central region of the CMS pixel detector using both hit pairs and reconstructed tracks. The result is compared to predictions from Monte Carlo event generators and to similar measurements made at lower collision energies.


October 16, 2015
Becky Russell Track reconstruction for the OLYMPUS experiment

The aim of the OLYMPUS experiment is to precisely measure the ratio of the electron-proton to positron-proton elastic scattering cross sections at a large range of angles for an initial lepton energy of 2 GeV. For each scattering event, the outgoing proton and lepton tracks must be reconstructed in a way that has as little bias with respect to the lepton species as possible. The main OLYMPUS spectrometer consisted of a toroidal magnet with two large drift chamber sectors, on each side of the target, backed by time-of-flight scintillator bars. The data from the 954 drift chamber sense wires and 72 time-of-flight PMTs is combined to reproduce the scattering vertex, angles, and momenta for each track. This process is complicated in the experiment by noise, inefficiencies, position


October 23, 2015
Marjon Moulai MeV-Scale Neutron Detection with MITPC

MITPC is a directional MeV-scale neutron detector used to characterize neutron backgrounds at neutrino experiments. The detector is a gas-based time projection chamber. It has completed runs at the reactor-based neutrino oscillation experiment Double Chooz, and is currently installed on the Booster Neutrino Beamline at Fermilab. I will present results from the runs at Double Chooz, new tests performed on the MIT prototype, and plans for the next run at Fermilab, to begin this fall.


October 30, 2015
Tom Boettcher Searching for the proton’s intrinsic charm at LHCb

First proposed over thirty years ago, the existence of a nonperturbative charm component of the proton’s wave function remains unclear. If present, this intrinsic charm content would result in a valence-like contribution to the charm quark parton distribution function. The LHCb detector’s unique kinematic reach gives it access to observables that are particularly sensitive to this effect. In this talk, I will discuss the theoretical motivation for intrinsic charm, why measuring it is important, and how LHCb will search for evidence of it in Run 2 of the LHC.


November 13, 2015
Alex Leder Part III Practice

A part III practice talk with time spent preparing the speaker.


November 20, 2015
Spencer Tomarken Part III Practice

A part III practice talk with time spent preparing the speaker.


December 4, 2015
Yunjie Yang Measuring Neutron-Proton Radiative Capture Cross Sections at Sub-MeV Energies

Neutron proton radiative capture reaction is the first reaction in the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) reaction chain. The cross section of this reaction is an important input into BBN cosmology predictions. However, current direct measurements of this reaction in the BBN relevant energy range are scarce and inconsistent. In this talk, I will introduce an experimental attempt to measure the cross sections of this reaction at BBN relevant energies using the 7-MV Van de Graaff accelerator facility at the University of Kentucky. Preliminary results will also be presented.


December 11, 2015
Brian Henderson The Light and Dark Sides of GDML

Geometry Description Markup Language (GDML) is a powerful way of implementing geometries that is compatible with both ROOT and Geant4, allowing simulation and analysis with identical geometry in both frameworks. The language is XML-based and automatically interfaces with the Geant4 geometry hierarchy, the ROOT TGeoManager, as well as the ROOT TEveManager event display framework. I'll present the basics of GDML, as well as advanced features that will awaken within you a new force for your detector analyses.