| BABAR is an experiment at the PEP-II Asymmetric B Factory at SLAC, the premier facility for the study of heavy quark and heavy lepton physics. In the summer of 2001, BABAR published the first measurement of a CP-violating asymmetry in B meson decay, providing a new, uniquely sensitive test of the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. Ongoing detailed studies of heavy quark decays provide perhaps the best short term opportunity to unearth effects indicative of physics beyond the Standard Model. Information about BABAR can be found at http://www.hep.caltech.edu/~babar/. Studies are also beginning towards SuperB, a next generation experiment with substantially improved capabilities. There are openings for graduate students for thesis research, as well as for undergraduates for part term research projects during the academic year or the summer. For more information, contact Professor David Hitlin at hitlin@hep.caltech.edu or Professor Frank Porter fcp@hep.caltech.edu. |
| CMS - is an experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (the LHC) in Geneva, that is nearing completion and will start taking data in the Summer of 2007, studying proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV. The leap in energy, the high intensity of the LHC and CMS' ability to cleanly identify and precisely measure photons, electrons and muons are expected to lead to a new round of discoveries on the nature of matter and the fundamental interactions. CMS will search for the Higgs particles thought to be responsible for mass in the universe, for supersymmetry, subconstituents of quarks and leptons, and other exotic new phenomena such as evidence for extra spatial dimensions. Caltech leads the search for the Higgs particles in the mass range favored by precision measurements of electroweak phenomena at lower energies, using the distinctive decay of the Higgs to two photons, and is active in several other areas of data analysis searching for new physics processes including TeV-scale graviton decay, and CP violation in the Higgs sector. Graduate students in the group, as well as undergraduates working part time, are active in data analysis as well as in the preparation, calibration and commissioning of the detector, with a focus on the precision electromagnetic calorimeter, and in the near future will take part in the first data taking. Information about CMS and the LHC can be found at http://cmsdoc.cern.ch and http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc. For more information on research opportunities with the CMS group, contact Professor Harvey Newman at newman@hep.caltech.edu |
| MINOS - MINOS, The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search experiment, utilizes protons from the Fermilab Main Injector to produce a high-energy, high intensity neutrino beam (NuMI) aimed in the direction of the Soudan underground laboratory located in northern Minnesota. The experiment has been taking data and studying neutrino oscillations for the last two years. Its first results on atmospheric neutrino oscillations were recently published, and it is about to release its first results on oscillations after a year of data-taking with 1020 protons on target. The MINOS iron spectrometer and plastic scintillator detectors (5.4 kTons at Soudan and 1 kTon at Fermilab), based on a design originated at Caltech, are used to study the oscillations in detail and determine the participation in the oscillations of different neutrino flavors, and to compare the neutrino interactions before and after the 730 km "flight" to Soudan. The group has central roles in the ongoing data acquisition of the experiment, the study of atmospheric neutrinos, electron neutrino interactions searching for subdominant oscillations between electron and tau neutrinos, and most recently antineutrino interactions and the search for neutrino-antineutrino oscillations, as well as R&D aimed at substantially increasing the proton beam (and thus the neutrino beam) intensity. Members of the MINOS group also are active in developing the next-generation NOvA experiment, a 30 kTon totally active scintillation detector with a sensitivity to electron-tau neutrino oscillations estimated to be 20 times greater than current-generation experiments, as well as a water-based scintillator detector prototype aimed at developing the following generation of megaton detectors for neutrinos and ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. Opportunities for graduate students and undergraduates with this group cover the full range from detector R&D, to MINOS detector operation and data analysis, in the newly blossoming field of neutrino properties and interactions beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Information about MINOS and NOvA can be found at http://www-numi.fnal.gov and http://www-nova.fnal.gov. For more information on research opportunities with this group, contact Professor Harvey Newman at newman@hep.caltech.edu |
|
Caltech Home & Search Physics, Math & Astronomy Graduate Study & Research |
© California Institute of Technology |