2016 VISPA Newsletter
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Physics and Astronomy VISPA 2016 NEWSLETTER VICTORIA SUBATOMIC PHYSICS AND ACCELERATOR RESEARCH CENTRE Photo credit: CERN ATLAS candidate event for the production of a Higgs boson decaying into two Z bosons that each decay into a muon-antimuon pair. In this issue: ATLAS and the Higgs Discovery ......2 ARIEL and the Accelerator Physics The Future is Here: Research Graduate Program at VISPA ..........8 Training in VISPA. .10 VISPA members of T2K awarded 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Dark Energy and ALTAIR: Experimental Remembering Alan Astbury and Fundamental Physics ................4 Particle Astrophysics in VISPA ........9 the Inaugural Astbury Lecture ......11 Flavour Physics in VISPA ..............6 Research Computing in High Perspectives on New Physics Energy Physics. .10 at the Intensity Frontier .............12 MEMBER LIST FACULTY Name Research Area Justin Albert Experimental particle and astroparticle physics Dean Karlen Experimental particle physics ATLAS and the Higgs Discovery Richard Keeler Experimental particle physics Pavel Kovtun Theoretical physics Robert Kowalewski Experimental particle physics The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory is the highest energy particle Michel Lefebvre Experimental particle physics collider in operation. The ATLAS detector is one of two multipurpose detectors Robert McPherson Experimental particle physics designed to record high energy collisions at the LHC. The UVic ATLAS group has been Maxim Pospelov Theoretical physics Adam Ritz Theoretical physics a member of the ATLAS Collaboration since its foundation in 1992, and contributed J. Michael Roney Experimental particle physics to the design and construction of the ATLAS detector. The LHC started operation in Randy Sobie Experimental particle physics 2010 with proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV centre of mass energy; the energy was EMERITUS FACULTY increased to 8 TeV in 2012. The excellent performance of the ATLAS detector and the Name Research Area quality of the data recorded provided a rich program of physics measurements and George Beer Experimental particle physics Art Olin Experimental particle physics searches, culminating in the discovery of the Standard Model Higgs boson in July Charles Picciotto Theoretical physics 2012. The Higgs boson was the last piece of the Standard Model to be discovered, Lyle Robertson Experimental particle physics and is intimately related to the origin of the mass of fundamental particles; the Nobel ADJUNCT FACULTY Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs for their Name Research Area theoretical prediction of the related mechanism, and ATLAS members were awarded Yu-Chiu Chao Accelerator physics Cornelia Hoehr Accelerator physics the European Physical Society 2013 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize, with the Akira Konaka Experimental particle physics citation: “The ATLAS and CMS collaboration, for the discovery of a Higgs boson, as Shane Koscielniak Accelerator physics predicted by the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism”. Bob Laxdal Accelerator physics Lia Merminga Accelerator physics The UVic team has been very active in many aspects of the ATLAS program for David Morrissey Theoretical physics nearly 25 years; the Higgs particle discovery is an amazing reward for all the efforts Isabel Trigger Experimental particle physics in making the ATLAS detector a reality. The Higgs boson discovery was celebrated at STAFF UVic with a public lecture in March 2013 as a UVic 50th Anniversary Signature Event; Name Paul Birney the lecture was introduced by Alan Astbury and given by Michel Lefebvre to over Kevin Casteels 500 people in attendance. Roy Langstaff Colin Leavett-Brown Mark Lenckowski Michael Paterson Paul Poffenberger Rolf Seuster Peggy White View of the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter during installation at CERN, showing the copper POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS absorbers. Photo taken by VISPA member Roy Langstaff. Name Research Group Chien-Yi Chen Theory Kenji Hamano ATLAS Anthony Hillairet T2K Stefan Janiszewski Theory Emma Kuwertz ATLAS Ian Nugent BaBar Aleksey Sibidanov Belle-II Monica Trovatelli ATLAS Manuela Venturi ATLAS GRADUATE STUDENTS Name Research Group Alexandre Beaulieu B-physics Marla Cervantes Smith Accelerator Justin Chiu ATLAS Claire David ATLAS Sam DeJong B-physics Patrick deNiverville Theory Alison Elliot ATLAS Anthony Fradette Theory Meisam Ghasemi ATLAS Juan Hernandez Theory Ewan Hill ATLAS Paul Kovacs ALTAIR Tony Kwan ATLAS Matt LeBlanc ATLAS Matthias Le Dall Theory Ruochuan Liu Theory Savino Longo B-physics Fernando Maldonado Accelerator Kayla McLean ATLAS Jordan Myslik T2K Graeme Niedermayer ATLAS Nicolas Savard Accelerator Doug Storey Accelerator Photo credit: CERN Nafisa Tasneem B-physics PAGE 2 Since 2015, the LHC provides proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, allowing new searches and improved measurements. The UVic team of nearly 30 scientists is composed of graduate and undergraduate students, research associates, faculty, and affiliated research personnel. Current activities include the analysis of proton-proton collision data ranging from Standard Model precision Photo credit: CERN measurements to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model; the operation Visit of Global Affairs Minister Stephane Dion to CERN in March 2016. To his right is VISPA member, and of the ATLAS detector, in particular the lead ATLAS Deputy Spokesperson, Rob McPherson. Third from the right is VISPA member Isabel Trigger, and - liquid argon sampling calorimeter, aspects fifth from the right is former UVic PhD student, and now Carleton U Professor, Manuella Vincter. of the event trigger system, and reception at CERN of new ATLAS muon detectors made 3000 scientists. Tasks include data taking area; about 20 students spend a day at in Canada; networking and computing, operations and physics working group UVic with scientists learning about particle including novel use of cloud computing; convenor-ships. At the top management physics and analyzing real data collected by and research and development for upgrades level, Rob McPherson (IPP) is ATLAS Deputy ATLAS. The event continues to be a success! of the liquid argon calorimeter electronics. Spokesperson since March 2015, and is now Last year’s data revealed a slight excess of The latter is in preparation for the planned located at CERN. events with a di-photon invariant mass of increase of the LHC beam luminosity over Members of the UVic ATLAS team regularly about 750 GeV. We are looking forward the next 20 years. make public presentations. In addition, each to the collection of more proton-proton Members of the UVic ATLAS team are spring since 2012 an outreach event, the collisions at 13 TeV in 2016. This excess may involved in the management of the ATLAS Masterclass, is offered to grade 11 and turn out to be a statistical fluctuation and ATLAS Collaboration, composed of over 12 high school students from the Victoria disappear, or it may be confirmed! UVic graduate students Claire David (top) and Matt LeBlanc (bottom) at the ATLAS experiment. Photo credit: CERN Photo ATLAS candidate event for the production of a Higgs boson decaying into two Z bosons that each decay into a muon-antimuon pair. The muons were detected by muon chambers (green and blue), while the central part of the detector mainly recorded soft hadronic activity. The top left inset shows the distribution of proton-proton collision vertices, with the one responsible for the Higgs boson production identified by the muon lines. The right inset is a view of the event in the plane transverse to the beam line. PAGE 3 VISPA MEMBERS OF T2K AWARDED 2016 BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE IN FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS VISPA members, participating in the T2K The T2K experiment investigates the nature the near detectors. The ND280 detector experiment, share in the 2016 Breakthrough of neutrinos and the way in which they is in an underground hall, in line with Prize in Fundamental Physics. The change their identity from one type to the SK detector, and is housed within a prize, presented by the Breakthrough another. Neutrinos are ghost-like particles large magnet originally built for the UA1 Prize Foundation, was awarded “for produced in radioactive decays and they can experiment. A drawing and a photo of the the fundamental discovery of neutrino pass through walls or even the entire earth detector half open are shown below. oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, without being stopped. The VISPA group leads the Time Projection and possibly far beyond, the standard model The experiment produces a beam of one Chambers (TPCs) project, which accurately of particle physics”. The prize is valued at kind of neutrinos at the J-PARC accelerator measures charged particles produced by 3 million USD, and is shared with four other laboratory in Tokai, on the east coast of neutrino interactions in the detector— international experimental collaborations Japan. The neutrino beam is directed determining their momentum, charge studying neutrino oscillation: The Daya Bay, towards the Super Kamiokande detector, and type. The TPCs are full of a gas that is KamLAND, SNO, and Super-Kamiokande almost 300 km away, in Kamioka, as ionized when particles pass through. The scientifi c collaborations. The award was illustrated below. A tiny fraction of the trail of ionization electrons is drifted towards presented at a lavish ceremony at the NASA neutrinos interact at the near detector sensitive readout modules, in order to Ames Research Centre in California, in complex (ND280) and at the far detector