Faculty

NPA Seminar: Jennet Dickinson, Fermilab, "Boosted Higgs boson production via vector boson fusion with the CMS experiment"

A first search is conducted for boosted Higgs boson production via vector boson fusion in the H(bb) decay channel at the LHC proton-proton collider. The result is based on the full 13 TeV dataset collected by the CMS detector in 2016, 2017, and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1}. Jet kinematics are used to define independent regions targeting vector boson fusion (VBF) and gluon fusion (ggF) production of Higgs bosons with p_T>450 GeV.

WIDG Seminar: Sophia Hollick, Yale, "COSINE-100 and ANAIS-112 Search for WIMPs"

This prospectus carries the goal of testing the DAMA/LIBRA (DL) dark matter claim by combining two collaborations who have set forth to reproduce the DL annual modulation signature, COSINE-100 and ANAIS-112. COSINE-100’s recent modulation results support both the no modulation case and the DL modulation case. ANAIS- 112 excludes DL to 2σ. A combination of the two experiments would allow for a sensitive search from opposite sides of the world, notably, Spain and Korea.

WIDG Seminar: Mark Gonzalez, Yale, "Detectorology and its Phenomenological Applications"

Well-defined operators which are capable of describing measurements made at future null infinity in collider experiments are naturally of phenomenological interest, but they are also of great formal interest. Here we discuss the properties of these so called asymptotic detector operators, including both their formal construction in terms of light-ray operators in a conformal field theory, as well as their utility in jet substructure phenomenology.

Dissertation Defense: Tong Liu, Yale University, "Inclusive Hadron Yield Analysis in Small and Mid-sized Collision Systems at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV at STAR"

At extremely high temperature and energy density, the quarks and gluons form a novel state of matter called the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). The QGP has been widely studied via relativistic heavy ion collisions in large collision systems like Au+Au and Pb+Pb. However, whether the QGP exists in small systems like p+Au, and the dependence of QGP production on the collision system size are still open questions. One way to study the QGP properties is by using proxies of high energy partons, which are created in the initial stages of the collisions, and fragment into hadrons in the final state.

WIDG Seminar: Sierra Wilde, Yale, "Let There Be Light... in Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Detectors"

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay is a powerful tool for learning more about the properties of neutrinos and the fundamental behaviors of the universe. Liquid Xenon (LXe) time projection chambers, such as EXO-200 and nEXO, are capable of doing highly sensitive searches for this decay using enriched Xe-136. Scintillation light emitted from the Xe has previously been an underutilized tool, but has great potential for analysis and event detection. Optical simulations of EXO-200 and nEXO will be used to characterize both detectors’ responses.

NPA Seminar: Scott Kravitz, University of Texas at Austin, "Dark matter detection and beyond with crystal xenon"

I will present the crystalline xenon time projection chamber (TPC), a promising novel technology for next-generation dark matter searches. Initial tests have established that it maintains many of the benefits of the liquid xenon TPC while also effectively excluding radon, the dominant background in currently-running xenon dark matter experiments such as LZ. This offers the potential for greatly improved sensitivity to dark matter through a crystal xenon upgrade to an existing experiment.

Subscribe to RSS - Faculty