Experimental High-Energy Physics at Nevis
The overall goal of the Nevis particle physics program is to
address many of the key open issues in our understanding of the
fundamental forces and properties of matter.
The purpose of high-energy particle physics (as opposed to high-energy
nuclear physics) is to understand the
properties and states of the basic building blocks of matter.
What
follows is an overview of the particle physics experiments in which
Nevis currently participates. Note that the list of physics results
is necessarily incomplete, since each is a rich source of new
information about the structure of matter.
Consult the web sites of
the individual experiments for more information; some additional
descriptions can be found on the Nevis REU research
groups page.
Current Experiments
ATLAS
experiment at LHC in
CERN. The
Nevis participation in
USATLAS centers on the
Liquid Argon Calorimeter and the pixel
detector.
High-Energy Proton-Proton Collider
(center-of-mass energy = 14 TeV)
- Search for the Higgs boson
- The physics of top and bottom quarks
- The search for new physics beyond the Standard Model, including supersymmetry
Gustaaf Brooijmans
Katherine Copic
Thomas Gadfort
Andrew Haas
Emlyn Hughes
John Parsons
Francesco Spano
P. Michael Tuts
Lidija Zivkovic
BooNE
Booster Neutrino Oscillation Experiment
(E = 500 MeV at 500 meters)
MiniBooNE
- Search for
neutrino oscillations using neutrinos and antineutrinos from the Fermilab Booster neutrino beam.
- tests of CP and CPT violation in the neutrino sector;
- search for sterile neutrinos and other exotic physics associated with neutrinos;
- precise measurements of neutrino cross sections for (quasi-)elastic and single pion production in the 1 GeV region.
Michael Shaevitz
SciBooNE
- precise measurements of neutrino interactions in 1 GeV region;
- combined neutrino oscillation search using SciBooNE and MiniBooNE
- Group is involved in measuring the K+ flux together with the nue contamination in the Booster neutrino beam and inclusive CC neutrino cross section.
Camillo Mariani
Michael Shaevitz
MicroBooNE
- investigations of neutrino oscillations with reduced backgrounds and improved particle identification
- definitive study of the MiniBooNE low-energy electron neutrino excess
- R&D project for a Liquid argon detector;
- precise measurements of neutrino-Argon cross section in the 1 GeV region;
Group is involved in development and production of the digitizing and data organizing electronics
- Contribution to the simulation and event reconstruction software
Leslie Camilleri
Camillo Mariani
William Seligman
Michael Shaevitz
Double Chooz
- two detector reactor neutrino experiment to measure theta-13 through the search for anti-electron neutrino disappearance;
- sensitivity to a neutrino mixing angle theta-13, at the level of sin2 2-theta_13 greater than 0.025;
- initial sensitivity at 0.05 level with one year of single detector data.
- Group is involved in development and production of the Outer Veto readout electronics and data acquisition software, in calculation of the Double Chooz sensitivity under different conditions and in estimation of the backgrounds.
Leslie Camilleri
Camillo Mariani
Michael Shaevitz
Ebubble - R&D into a cryogenic noble fluid tracker
Detection of proton-proton fusion reaction neutrinos in the
sun. (99.75% of the total neutrino flux with E<420keV)
- Solar Neutrino physics - testing the Standard Solar Model,
understanding the low-energy (vacuum dominated) neutrino
oscillation phenomenon
- Electronic Detection: the mechanism of electron avalanche gain,
charge collection, electrode structure, signal formation and noise
measurements
- Cryogenic and Mechanical Design
- Optical Measurements: imaging tracks of electron bubbles and their
transitions by fluorescence or photo-ionization
William Willis
Raphael Galea
D0 experiment at
Fermilab
Proton-Proton Collider
(center-of-mass energy = 2 TeV)
- The discovery of the top quark
- The physics of the bottom quark
- The mass of the W boson
- QCD measurements
- Searches for new physics
Gustaaf Brooijmans
Thomas Gadfort
Andrew Haas
Sabine Lammers
Michael Mulhearn
John Parsons
P. Michael Tuts
Lidija Zivkovic
Older research projects conducted at Nevis
Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargue, Argentina
Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays
(1016 - 1020 eV)
- Measure the energy spectrum of cosmic rays to the
highest energy possible, > 1020 eV
- Measure the cosmic ray composition as a function of energy
- Search for sources of ultra-high-energy comic rays
Brian Connolly
Michael Prouza
Stefan Westerhoff
HiRes
Fly's Eye experiment in Utah
Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays
(1016 - 1020 eV)
- Measure the energy spectrum of cosmic rays to the
highest energy possible, > 1020 eV
- Measure the cosmic ray composition as a function of energy
- Search for sources of ultra-high-energy comic rays
John Boyer
Brian Connolly
Bruce Knapp
Eric Mannel
Michal Seman
Stefan Westerhoff
Neutrino Factory/Muon Collider
20-50 GeV muon storage ring producing 1020-1021 neutrinos per year
- Neutrino oscillations
- CP violation in the lepton sector
- Origin of quark and lepton flavors
Janet Conrad
Raphael Galea
Michael Shaevitz
NuTeV fixed-target experiment
Neutrino-Nucleon Scattering
(20 to 600 GeV)
- Electroweak measurements (the Weinberg angle)
- Quark and gluon structure of the proton, including the strange and charm seas
- The mass of the charm quark
Janet Conrad
Zelimir Djurcic
Camillo Mariani
Michael Shaevitz
ZEUS experiment at
HERA in
DESY (Germany)
Electron-Proton Collider
(27.5 GeV electons x 920 GeV protons)
- Study of the proton structure (quark and gluon densities)
- Study of high energy diffraction
- Tests of QCD via exclusive vector meson production
- Tests of QCD in jets, hadronic final states
- Tests of Electroweak Theory at High Q2
- Search for new forces/new particles
Allen Caldwell
William Schmidke
Frank Sciulli