NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forums |
Organized by: Prof. Lu Lu
Events During the Week of February 1st through February 8th, 2015
Monday, February 2nd, 2015
- Faculty Candidate Seminar
- Expeditions to the Next Energy Scale
- Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Victor Gehman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Abstract: At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we have found the last critical piece of the Standard Model, the long sought for Higgs Boson. As we complete our understanding of the details of this model, there is a growing anxiety that there may be no new physics beyond the Standard Model, or that the new physics may only manifest at energies so high as to be practically unreachable. We do, however have several hints of new physics, and I will make the case that our next steps in understanding it are eminently doable. Much of these hints of new physics can be further explored with the construction of large (for varying definitions of "large") detectors deep underground. I will focus on the search for dark matter with two-phase xenon-filled time projection chambers under the guise of LUX and LZ, and briefly touch on opportunities stemming from future detectors built for long-baseline neutrino experiments. The physics program discussed here has a broad and interesting reach and will be instrumental in furthering our understanding of the Universe and guiding our expansion of the Standard Model in the years to come.
- Host: Dasu
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015
- Faculty Candidate Seminar
- It's a Marvel: LZ and the Next Era of Dark Matter Searches
- Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Kim Palladino, SLAC
- Abstract: Evidence for the existence of Dark Matter from astronomical observations abounds, while experimentalists are still in pursuit of a confirmed particle identity. We are on the brink of a new era of dark matter candidate detection for both canonical weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and a greater variety of other candidates. The LZ detector will be a liquid xenon time projection chamber designed to have world leading sensitivity to a wide range of WIMP masses. It will follow on the success of the LUX and ZEPLIN projects, but pursue a number of refinements, including a large drift field over more than a meter, requiring extensive testing in the System Test platform under construction at SLAC. The field will not stay still as a LZ result is expected, and I will also preview the exciting dark matter studies to keep one's eyes out for at this start of a new, marvelous era.
- Host: Dasu
Wednesday, February 4th, 2015
- No events scheduled
Thursday, February 5th, 2015
- No events scheduled
Friday, February 6th, 2015
- No events scheduled