Physics and Astronomy VISPA 2016 NEWSLETTER VICTORIA SUBATOMIC 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 (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 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 (SK). record the path of the charged particles. The November 2015, broadcast live and hosted By comparing the neutrino beam properties curvature of path, due to the magnetic fi eld, by comedian Seth Macfarlane. before and after their long journey across determines the charge and momentum Eight current and former VISPA members Japan, the scientifi c team studies how and the amount of ionization determines (Casey Bojechko, Andre Gaudin, Kenji neutrinos can change from one type to the particle type. The picture below shows Hamano, Anthony Hillairet, Dean Karlen, another. Prof. Karlen standing near the TPCs that are suspended in the basket that holds the Akira Konaka, Jordan Myslik, and Michael The VIPSA T2K group helped lead the near detectors within the magnet. Also Roney) are among the laureates. design, construction, and operation of

A drawing and a photo of the ND280 detector.

PAGE 4 Picture of a neutrino event recorded by the near detector.

shown is an example picture of a neutrino devastating East Japan Earthquake and T2K continues to collect data to see if anti- event recorded by the near detector. The Tsunami in March 2011. Despite that, in neutrinos behave the same way as neutrinos. green tracks show the paths of the charged 2011, the collaboration published the first If a difference is seen, this may help explain particles produced by a neutrino interacting indication of muon neutrinos transforming why the Universe is now made up of matter, in the Fine Grained Detector between the into electron neutrinos. Within a few years, despite beginning with an equal mix of first and second TPC. sufficient data was collected to make this matter and anti-matter. The experiment started operating in observation definitive, which led to the 2010 but was halted for a year due to the awarding of the Breakthrough Prize.

Dean Karlen standing near the TPCs

“...REVEALING A NEW FRONTIER BEYOND, AND POSSIBLY FAR BEYOND, THE STANDARD MODEL OF PARTICLE PHYSICS.”

PAGE 5 Flavour Physics in VISPA

The VISPA heavy flavour physics group has measurements of the tau lepton and charm member Justin Albert has recently published been involved in the BaBar Experiment quark and anything that is produced in his analysis on a search for invisible decays at SLAC over the past five years and is e+e- collisions as well as to search for new of the B0 meson—a potential signature of preparing for physics with the Belle II particles and phenomenon, such as dark a dark matter particle. The BABAR and Belle Experiment at KEK in Japan. matter particles and low mass non-standard experiments jointly published a book, The BABAR Higgs particles. Our group contributes Physics of the B-Factories, which summarizes heavily in the analysis of B meson decays the results of the two experiments up to 2014. The BABAR experiment based at the SLAC and in studies of the tau lepton, where Belle II Accelerator Center was designed to study members of our group are convenors of how the laws of physics differ for ordinary BABAR-wide analysis working groups. VISPA The Belle II experiment will look for evidence matter and anti-matter (differences referred faculty member, Michael Roney, has led of new physics at the precision frontier in to as “CP violation”). It recorded e+e- collision this large international collaboration as electron-positron collisions at a centre-of- data—including nearly 500 million pairs of BABAR Spokesperson during this period mass energy of 10.58 GeV. It will operate B mesons—between 1999 and 2008 at a of data analysis. There have been over 100 at SuperKEKB, which is an upgrade of the centre-of-mass energy of just over 10 GeV. papers published over the last five years, 3.0km circumference electron-positron The experiment discovered CP violation in including “Observation of Time Reversal collider at the KEK laboratory in Tsukuba, the B0 meson system, where a B0 meson Violation in the B0 Meson System”, which Japan. It is designed to achieve a world- is a neutrally charged particle that contains was recognized in 2012 by the UK-based record collider luminosity of 8x1035cm-2s-1. a b-quark, the second most massive quark. Institute of Physics as one of the top ten Construction is on schedule for a physics The effect was also seen by its competitor, physics stories that year. Another intriguing start in late 2018. The centre-of-mass energy the Japanese-based Belle experiment. This paper reported evidence for an excess of is selected to be just above the threshold for observation led to the awarding of the B¯→D(*)τν decays that could be a signal for producing particles containing the b-quark 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics to the theorists new physics. Related to that topic, VISPA (B-mesons) and will also produce events who predicted it. BABAR members, currently member Robert Kowalewski and a research containing pairs of tau leptons as well as over 200 authors from a dozen countries, associate published the first observation of events with particles containing the charm also use the data to make precision B→D ππℓν and B→D*ππℓν decays. VISPA quark. This facility will produce 30 times the

Belle II Detector

PAGE 6 world’s total existing data sample of these frontier measurements with B mesons, studies related to the calorimeter. During processes. With this sample, Belle II will the charm, tau, radiative return events, and the commissioning phases of the accelerator probe flavour sector of subatomic physics two‑photon physics will also be carried out. the VISPA group will provide measurements by searching for rare processes and making The VISPA Belle II team is preparing for of the thermal neutron flux and photon flux precision measurements. commissioning and data collection and has at the position of the inner radius of the Such a precision frontier facility opens an completed research and development on calorimeter. Belle II Canada is also providing exciting window on new energy scales a possible upgrade of the Belle II forward the permanent photon background beyond the reach of existing colliders, endcap calorimeter. The latter includes monitoring system, which will be provided including CERN’s Large Hadron Collider conducting test beam experiments to to the accelerator team and used to tune the (LHC), and will help explain any new determine the impact of the high radiation machine. The team also contributes to the physics that might be discovered at LHC, by environment at SuperKEKB on the endcap development of cloud computing software virtue of quantum loop corrections, which calorimeter performance. The Canadian for Belle II through VISPA member R. Sobie. are sensitive to very massive, and as yet group is contributing to the calorimeter Recent news is that in Feb. 2016 beams were undiscovered, particles. These hypothesized reconstruction software development, first stored in the SuperKEKB accelerator and particles manifest themselves in precision calibration, and commissioning of the Belle II the VISPA detectors have been collecting measurements of rare processes. They electromagnetic calorimeter. It is responsible data for this commissioning phase. also reveal themselves via the presence of for the accelerator background and shielding processes that are forbidden within our current understanding of physics. Belle II will make measurements of CP violation and VISPA graduate student, Alexandre Beaulieu, at the SuperKEKB particle collider the CKM quark mixing matrix elements with setting up instrumentation for the commissioning phase. unprecedented precision in order to search for deviations from the Standard Model and will be the most sensitive experiment to search for lepton flavour violation in tau decays. A wide variety of other precision

View of the SuperKEKB collision point in the fall of 2015. The accelerator beam line is now covered with a concrete shield. The Belle II detector can be seen in the background. Commissioning instrumentation, which includes Canadian neutron and gamma-ray detectors, is in the foreground.

PAGE 7 ARIEL AND THE ACCELERATOR PHYSICS GRADUATE PROGRAM AT VISPA

A is for Accelerator; at least for the VISPA and transport isotopes to the experimental To train the next generation of accelerator acronym! Despite the fact that accelerators areas, was approved in May 2015. The physicists, VISPA has brought together play the central role in most subatomic funding from the Federal Government the UVic physics graduate program with physics experiments, there are few graduate (through the Canada Foundation for expert accelerator physicists from TRIUMF, programs in the world that combine Innovation) and Provincial Governments for appointed as adjunct faculty. The program theoretical and experimental subatomic ARIEL totals nearly $100M. is off to an encouraging start. Two students physics with accelerator physics. Our TRIUMF is already a world-leading have completed their MSc in accelerator students have the opportunity to connect laboratory for isotope science, and ARIEL physics, and there are currently four students with all aspects of subatomic physics while will strengthen the program further by enrolled; one in the PhD program and they focus on their specific subject area for increasing the number and types of three in the MSc program. While most of their research. isotopes produced. The isotopes are used their research work is connected to the The graduate program in Accelerator for fundamental studies in nuclear physics development of ARIEL, one student is Physics developed as a consequence of UVic and nuclear astrophysics, for materials working on an accelerator project based at leadership in building the new Advanced sciences research, and for the detection CERN, in Switzerland. The appointment of Rare Isotope Laboratory (ARIEL) located and treatment of disease. Its commercial a faculty member in accelerator physics at at TRIUMF on UBC campus. As a founding partner on site at TRIUMF, Nordion, produces UVic would allow this new graduate program member of the TRIUMF laboratory, UVic 2.5 million patient doses per year. to further develop and help meet the worldwide demand for accelerator physicists. led the proposals to build a new electron Accelerators are not only found in physics accelerator and the other facilities that make laboratories. There are over 1000 accelerators up ARIEL. ARIEL phase-I was completed in sold annually, primarily for industrial and September 2014, with the first operation of medical applications, making it a $2 billion the electron accelerator. ARIEL phase-II, to industry. build the infrastructure necessary to produce

ARIEL team at TRIUMF in front of the new electron accelerator

PAGE 8 Dark Energy and ALTAIR: Experimental Particle Astrophysics in VISPA

Measurements of “dark energy,” the those photometric uncertainties: how unknown substance that is causing the precisely and accurately one can measure expansion of the Universe to accelerate, and the brightness (i.e. the magnitude) of which accounts for 75% of the total matter supernovae in bluer vs. redder optical sharply reduce photometric (and, in and energy content of the Universe, are wavelengths. Photometric calibration in the microwave spectrum, polarimetric) limited in their precision by the calibration astronomy has historically been performed uncertainties by two orders of magnitude. of the amount of light transmitted through using standard stars: stars whose magnitude In the optical spectrum, the light sources Earth’s atmosphere, and observed by and/or spectra have been calibrated via consist of thermally-controlled laser diode major telescope facilities, in the blue vs. either direct or indirect comparison with modules (presently at 440 [blue], 532 [green], the red part of the optical spectrum. UVic laboratory standards. That technique is 635, and 690 [red] nm wavelengths) output VISPA members are the founding leaders fundamentally limited to precisions of into an integrating sphere, and constantly of a CSA- and NSERC-funded 40-person order 1%, due to stellar variability and other monitored by a NIST-calibrated photodiode. international collaboration, called ALTAIR uncertainties, whereas laboratory-based ALTAIR regularly launches and performs (“Airborne Laser for Telescopic Atmospheric photometry and radiometry routinely obtain observations of its payloads: its primary fl ight Interference Reduction”), to eliminate the precisions of O(0.01%). ALTAIR is erasing this facility is in New Hampshire, and they will largest uncertainty in measurements of dark discrepancy, in order to understand the also be beginning fl ights over Mt. Hopkins in energy, as well as also a major uncertainty in nature of dark energy, via fl ights of precision- Arizona in January 2017, over Pan-STARRS in the search for gravitational waves from the calibrated light sources in light (2.5 kg) late 2017 and early 2018, and over LSST at the instants just after the Big Bang. Dark energy payloads on small high-altitude balloons end of this decade. likely has connections with the quantum above the atmosphere (and also in the next ALTAIR’s remotely-tracked small high- properties of the vacuum, and also possibly decade, via a dedicated nanosatellite). altitude balloons additionally have the with how gravity (and general relativity) ALTAIR uses the new technique of fl oating future capabilities of acting as stratospheric interfaces with quantum mechanics. in-situ-calibrated light sources above communication and observation platforms Dark energy measurements, the most astronomical observatories (such as Pan- in remote areas, e.g. stratospheric cell-phone precise of which use type Ia supernovae STARRS on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, LSST in towers for the Arctic, or shoreline, or sea-ice, to measure the expansion history of the Chile and, in the microwave spectrum, observation posts at high altitude. Universe, are limited in their precision by the South Pole Telescope in Antarctica) to

PAGE 9 The Future is Here: Research Training in VISPA

RESEARCH The future is indeed here, in the that forms the infrastructure for guise of the scientifi c and technical dealing with enormous datasets. COMPUTING IN personnel who bring their talents to Many also benefi t from interactions the VISPA research mission and gain with scientifi c and technical experts valuable expertise and experience during periods of residence at major HIGH ENERGY in the process. We have 22 current international laboratories. For example, graduate students and 14 postdoctoral a PhD student recently designed PHYSICS and research staff . Since it was the shielding around the electron- founded in 2011, VISPA has provided positron interaction region for the the environment in which 11 PhD and Belle-II experiment, which is crucial Computing is an integral part of particle 18 MSc degrees were completed and for allowing detector operation at physics research. The data samples from 20 postdoctoral fellows and research what will be the world’s highest our projects, such as ATLAS, require large staff honed the expertise they have luminosity collider. computing facilities for reconstruction and taken with them to their current The communication and people skills analysis. Our group at the University of Victoria positions. In addition, we provide early needed in a variety of career paths are is a world leader in cloud computing, high research experiences to a steady fl ow developed within the large, complex, performance storage and high speed networks of undergraduates from UVic and other global scientifi c collaborations in which for HEP research projects. universities. these researchers advance and present We are leading cloud computing projects in These young researchers are their work. Particle physics students the ATLAS and Belle II experiments. We have deployed across the full range of develop substantial expertise in the developed a distributed cloud computing VISPA projects—accelerator physics, statistical analysis of petabyte-scale system that utilizes cloud centres in Europe and particle physics, theoretical physics data sets, and in the use of machine North America including commercial clouds and high performance computing. learning; several recent graduates are such as Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure. Some acquire expertise in the VISPA using these skills in Data Science and Cloud technologies off er a new and more lab at UVic, working with experienced Finance. Former VISPA computing eff ective means of providing computation technologists in the design and specialists work for CERN, Dell and resources and our group at the University of fabrication of specialized equipment Silicon Valley startups. Of course, some Victoria is developing services that allow us to for use in the ARIEL project at TRIUMF, trainees go on to careers in basic exploit these resources. The cloud computing the ATLAS experiment at CERN, research and education; recent VISPA work has been strongly supported by NSERC, the Belle-II and T2K experiments in postdocs hold faculty positions at San CANARIE and others. Japan, and the ALTAIR project. Others Francisco State University (USA) and at The University of Victoria is home to HEPNET/ develop and deploy the high-speed the University of Bonn (Germany). Canada, which is responsible for national and networking and cloud computing international network connectivity for the entire Canadian particle physics community. HEPNET/ UVic graduate student Ewan Hill Canada manages the Canadian connection at the ATLAS experiment. to Large Hadron Collider network that links Canadian centres to other LHC centres around the world. HEPNET/Canada is also involved in network R&D and has been a member of a collaboration that has set world records for wide-area data transfer rates. The network R&D has had signifi cant involvement from network and computing industry partners. Computing in HEP has been an excellent training ground for students. For the past ten years, we have typically employed 3-6 undergraduate science and engineering students annually in this area. The students return to complete their education and use their experience to fi nd employment in wide variety of areas. In addition, many of our staff have transitioned to careers in industry in Canada and abroad.

PAGE 10 Remembering Alan Astbury and the Inaugural Astbury Lecture

An annual lecture in memory of Alan The symposium attracted colleagues Astbury was inaugurated on Monday, of Alan’s from far and wide. There were April 27, 2015. The Director General of CERN, excellent talks that reviewed Alan’s career. Dr. Rolf Heuer, graciously agreed to be the He worked on many projects. A unifying speaker. At the same time, on the Monday theme was the use of the latest and best and Tuesday a scientific symposium was technologies for accelerators, detectors and held in order to remember Alan. Both events computing. Expert speakers, many of whom were a resounding success. had worked closely with Alan, spoke to the Dr. Heuer gave a lecture on the successes state-of-the-art in the subject areas he had and aspirations of particle physics at CERN worked on. to a packed auditorium, and a satellite Information about the workshop, and auditorium with a simulcast and over photos are available at http://www.uvic. the internet by webcast. UVic President, ca/astbury/, and the talks are available Jamie Cassels, QC, opened the lecture by at https://indico.cern.ch/event/389605/ introducing Dr. Heuer to an enthusiastic timetable/#20150427. crowd. We are very grateful that Dr. Heuer There was time to chat and remember Alan. agreed to inaugurate our new lecture series. A symposium dinner was held at the Royal Alan Astbury FRS FRSC He worked with Alan on several projects Victoria Yacht Club. Alan’s wife, Kathy was and was able to show in his lecture Alan’s able to attend the inaugural lecture and the contributions to science. symposium dinner.

Prof. Rolf Dieter Heuer, CERN Director General, presenting the inaugural Astbury public lecture to a packed house in SCI B150. Dr. Heuer was introduced by University of Victoria President Jamie Cassels.

Astbury Symposium Attendees

PAGE 11 PERSPECTIVES ON NEW PHYSICS AT THE INTENSITY FRONTIER

One of the “big questions” in modern searches for dark matter and dark forces in Victoria. The format of the meeting allowed physics is the identity of dark matter, driving their physics programs. In September 2014, a not only talks by the senior faculty members many new theoretical and experimental workshop held in Victoria and organized by and postdocs, but also let VISPA graduate developments. Some members of VISPA VISPA brought together about 25 scientists students (P. deNiverville, A. Fradette, (Kowalewski, Pospelov, Ritz) are behind from various institutions in Canada, United J. Pearce) share the results of their research the very early ideas of using high-intensity States and Europe. Novel theoretical ideas with others. The seamless running of the particle physics experiments to extract and new experimental strategies for probing meeting was largely due to the efforts of information about the dark matter sector. dark sectors were discussed in an informal VISPA administrator, Peggy White. Over the course of the last ten years, more atmosphere at the very inviting setting of and more experiments have been including the Grand Pacific Hotel in downtown

VISPA OFFICE: MAILING ADDRESS: Director: Dean Karlen VISPA, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Administrator: Peggy White University of Victoria, Elliott Building, room 207 PO Box 1700, STN CSC, Phone: 250-721-7736 Fax: 250-721-7752 E-Mail: [email protected] Victoria, BC, V8W 2Y2 Canada

PAGE 12