Courses:
Falls: G6050 Particle Physics Phenomenology
Research:
I am currently primarily involved
in ATLAS, one of the experiments at CERN's LHC (in Geneva, Switzerland).
The Higgs boson discovery was a major step forward, and my focus is
on the discovery of new physics, primarily using events in which
top quarks are produced in the decays of new particles.
I am also very interested in the violation of global symmetries. I am
trying to bring together a collaboration to search for baryon number
violation through observation of neutron-anti-neutron oscillations,
and am very interested in the mu2e
experiment at Fermilab.
ATLAS
specifics: The discovery of the Higgs boson using data
collected at center of mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV represents a huge step
forward, confirming our superb understanding of electroweak physics through
the Standard Model, but is also puzzling, as in the absence of new physics the
Higgs boson mass should be much larger. The upcoming run at 13-14 TeV holds great
promise for discovery of the new physics that keeps the Higgs boson mass low.
My contributions to ATLAS are:
- Searches for New Physics: I was convener
of the Exotics group in ATLAS, and have led/contributed to many searches for new physics
where new particles decay to top quarks or Higgs bosons.
- Construction, testing and
installation of the front-end boards for the liquid Argon calorimeter
- Upgrades of the
liquid Argon calorimeter readout to improve the detector for running at higher luminosities.
- Here's a link to the activities of the Nevis
ATLAS group
In the past I also worked on the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, and on neutrino
oscillations.
GB, October 2014