Preliminary Exam |
Events During the Week of December 15th through December 22nd, 2024
Monday, December 16th, 2024
- Search for a heavy scalar resonance decaying into a boosted pair of Higgs bosons in the four tau final state
- Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
- Place: B343 Sterling
- Speaker: Trevor Nelson, Physics PhD Graduate Student
- Abstract: In recent years there has been interest in using the Higgs boson to test the limits of the standard model and to probe for new physics beyond the standard model. One technique that is used in searches for physics beyond the standard model is to look for particles that directly decay into a pair of Higgs bosons. There is an ongoing search for a heavy scalar particle with a mass in the range of 1-5 TeV which decays into a pair of boosted Higgs bosons which then decay into four tau leptons. This analysis currently utilizes a portion of Run II data obtained from sqrt(s) = 13 TeV collisions of protons in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment. I will present an overview of the progress that has been made on this analysis.
- Host: Tulika Bose
Tuesday, December 17th, 2024
- Odd Radio Circles and the Dynamics of Nonthermal Plasma
- Time: 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
- Place: B343 Sterling
- Speaker: Yiting Wang, Physics PhD Graduate Student
- Abstract: Odd Radio Circles (ORCs) are a newly discovered class of ring-like radio sources, with diameters of ∼ 1 arcminute, steep spectral indices between 0.5 and 1.7, and estimated physical radii on the order of several hundred kiloparsecs. The physical nature and origins of ORCs remain unclear. In the first project, I present results from three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations that model ORCs as synchrotron-emitting vortex rings produced by Richtmyer-Meshkov instability during shock-bubble interactions. A planar shock wave encounters a low-density bubble, leading to the formation of torus-like structures whose predicted properties align with observations of ORCs. The second project explores an alternative hypothesis that ORCs are end-on projections of late-stage evolution of radio bubbles driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets. We model AGN jets viewed along the line of sight to assess whether their emission profiles and morphologies can account for the characteristics of ORCs. In the final part of the presentation, I outline my ongoing work on radiation drag in relativistic jets. This project aims to understand how interactions with radiation fields affect the energy transfer and instability in jets dynamics.
- Host: Sebastian Heinz
Wednesday, December 18th, 2024
- No events scheduled
Thursday, December 19th, 2024
- No events scheduled
Friday, December 20th, 2024
- No events scheduled