Spring 2017

Search for Dark Matter Production in Boosted Z Events with the CMS Detector A search for new physics in events with a Z boson produced in association with large missing transverse momentum with the CMS experiment at the LHC is presented. This search is interpreted in a simplified model with a spin-1 dark matter mediator and in a model with a standard model Higgs-like scalar particle, each produced in association with the Z boson and decaying invisibly. The search is based on the summer 2016 data sample of proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energy 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 12.9/fb.

Kalman filters are algorithms prominent in particle tracking, but also have wide ranging applications outside of particle physics. They aim to estimate the state of a system by combining noisy measurements and approximate evolution equations. Although their derivation is a mathematical jungle, I will try to give a big picture motivation of why they are so popular.

aANDA and P2 are both medium energy experiments planned to run in Germany. This talk will focus on the current work being done by a grad student on the project. rks form the basis of deep learning, that is now being used to drive cars, win Go, and perform physics analyses. But why and how do they work? In this talk I'll go over some simple examples to demystify the voodoo behind neural networks, as well as review some cutting edge applications in deep learning.

Hadron colliders present numerous challenges and opportunities to B physicists. In this talk I'll discuss why we'd do something as inconvenient as studying b hadron decays at the LHC. I'll also discuss how LHCb triggers on these decays in such a harsh, messy environment.

KDE estimation in multiple dimensions presents a unique problem of kernel selection. As such, the interdimesional relative scale and correct kernel function must be derived experimentally. A systematic study of all reasonable possibilities (linear, quadratic, gaussian, etc) is presented along with there applicability to a variety of test cases and a gradient descent method of choosing scales. This data driven choice of parameters can improve pdf performance by entire percentage points.

The use of machine learning techniques has become commonplace in our field of experimental particle and nuclear physics. However, skepticism and reservation among physicists towards such techniques are not uncommon either. I will first try to argue that, conceptually, these techniques are nothing foreign to us and the real barrier is probably just the languages we use to talk about them. Afterwards, I will show some interesting applications of machine learning techniques in our field, such as the auto-generation of jet images and anomaly detection in LHC superconducting magnets.

Deep learning techniques are increasingly being used for data analysis tasks in high energy physics. In this talk, I will discuss the particular implementation of such techniques in a forthcoming analysis by the MicroBooNE collaboration. I will begin by introducing the MicroBooNE experiment and motivating our analysis, which is a search for a possible excess of low-energy electron neutrino events. I will provide an overview of the various steps in the analysis and the algorithms we are using at each step. Finally, I will discuss some of the ways we are planning to address the systematic uncertainties associated with deep learning.

Less than 5 percent of the Universe is composed of atoms and other particles that we understand, while the remainder composed of mysterious dark matter and dark energy. While dark matter has been detected in the astrophysical sense, we are interested in a particle physics understanding of dark matter. If certain dark matter particles annihilated in the Milky Way, we could detect the decay products and use them to learn about the dark matter that produced them. GAPS will search for dark matter signatures in cosmic rays using a novel technique for particle identification.

Want to know who will win UCL 2017? Want to know if you should buy a PS4 or Nintendo Switch? Want to know the best place for ramen in Boston? Hmm.. I will not talk about any of them. Instead, I will discuss the measurement of open heavy flavor mesons in heavy ion collisions with CMS detector. I will focus on the background and results rather than the analysis techniques in details.

Coherent neutrino scattering is an expected neutrino interaction, but has never been detected due to the low recoil energies associated with the process. In this talk I will motivate the search and examine the technology that will allow the Ricochet experiment to detect coherent neutrino scattering. I will then discuss Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations and show how they can be applied to study the sensitivity of the Ricochet experiment. Finally, I will present recent results demonstrating the feasibility of performing the Ricochet experiment at the Double Chooz reactor.

Topic: J/psi production

The dispute between Geocentrism and Heliocentrism is believed as a representative aspect of the Renaissance era. It shows not only the progress of science philosophy but also the necessity of separating science from religious believes. However, Nicolaus Copernicus had his work DÄ“ revolutionibus orbium coelestium published the day after his death. Giordano Bruno, a supporter for Heliocentrism, was executed in the Campo de' Fiori. These facts also imply that Catholic churches played a negative role in the proceeding of science. Was it actually the case that most people were blind-folded by Catholic believes and rest of them chose to remain in silence? Or are there more facts lying behind the whole story that cannot be summarized by merely the buzzword "science v.s. religion"?

A fifth force of nature sounds more like a deus ex machina in a science fiction plot than it does serious physics. However, there have been a number of theories and experimental anomalies, both past and present, that have pointed towards the existence of a force beyond the Standard Model. I will briefly overview the history of some of these searches and discuss current dark matter paradigms that predict a fifth force, with an overview of the DarkLight experiment.