Physics Department Summer Lectures 2019

3 Jun 2019, 08:00 → 9 Aug 2019, 18:00 US/Eastern

Small Seminar Room (Physics Dept Bldg 510)

The Physics Department Summer Lecture series introduces the latest research in nuclear and particle physics being pursued at Brookhaven Lab at a level appropriate for advanced undergraduate STEM students and beginning graduate students.  The series will include lectures on the Standard Model of particle physics, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), current and future nuclear and particle physics experiments and introductory cosmology.  The lectures will cover both theoretical concepts  as well as detector technologies and the latest experimental and computational techniques. 

Friday, 7 June

12:30 → 13:45 Visible and Invisible Clues for New Physics

In this presentation, we will briefly describe the main elements of the Standard Model of particle physics. This theory, together with General Relativity, provides a precise description of a vast array of experimental and observational data, from microscopic to astronomical scales. However, solid empirical evidence and conceptual clues lead us to expect that this "standard" picture is incomplete. We will discuss some of the key reasons for this expectation.

Speaker: Hooman Davoudiasl (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

SULI-lecture-2019-Davoudiasl.pdf

Tuesday, 11 June

12:30 → 13:45 The Anomalous Magnetic Moment of the Muon and the Standard Model of Particle Physics

At the end of this lecture, you will know:
What is anomalous about the magnetic moment of the muon?
What is the magnetic moment of the muon ?
What is the muon ?
Why Bohr said “Anyone who thinks they understand Quantum Mechanics, and is not deeply disturbed by it, doesn’t understand Quantum Mechanics.”
What the Standard Model Theorists have to fear from the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.

Speaker: Bill Morse (BNL)

Anomalous Magnetic Moment of the Muon.pdf

Friday, 14 June

00:30 → 01:45 The Little Neutral One

In the past 50 years, the study of neutrinos, the lightest, yet most abundant of the known elementary particles has revealed cracks in the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Could neutrinos explain the matter anti-matter asymmetry in our Universe? To answer these questions we need to better understand the properties of these elusive polymorphs. I will present a brief history of the neutrino, what we have learnt so far about it, and what we hope to learn in the next couple of decades from some of the most ambitious experiments in particle physics.

Speaker: Mary Bishai (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

bnl_summer_2019_1.pdf

Tuesday, 18 June

00:30 → 01:45 Basics of Neutrino Interactions in Matter

I will review the basics of neutrino interactions in matter with
emphasis on  calculations of cross sections and rates.  The lecture will provide introduction to the physics of weak interactions.

Speaker: Milind Diwan (BNL)

diwan-nu-basics-interactions2.pdf

Friday, 21 June

12:30 → 13:45 Search for a new particle in the decay of the Higgs boson

In this talk, I will discuss the search strategies that led to the discovery of the Higgs boson. Then, I will focus on the usage of the Higgs boson as a portal to “new physics”. I will conclude with dark sector states as a possibility for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.

Speaker: Ketevi Adikle Assamagan (BNL)

Ketevi-BNL-June-2019.pptx

Tuesday, 25 June

12:30 → 13:45 The Really Big Picture: Cosmology in the 21st Century

Starting from a very basic level we review how to describe
the standard Big Bang model of an expanding universe.
We discuss the connection between expansion dynamics
and different types of matter and energy densities, and
focus on the evidence for the accelerated expansion of
our Universe driven by dark energy.  Different schools of
observation and measurement will be mentioned and we
conclude with possible projections for our (very) long-term future.

Speaker: Paul Stankus (Brookhaven National Lab)

Intro Cosmology June 2019 Updated.key

Intro Cosmology June 2019 Updated.pdf

Friday, 28 June

12:30 → 13:45 Using Gravitational Lensing to measure Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe

Gravitational lensing is the bending of the path of light near massive bodies. Mass produces a curvature of space time, and light follows a curved path that is calculable using the General Theory of Relativity. I will discuss how the
lensing effect is used to measure the amount of Dark Matter in galaxies and in the universe as a whole. I will also discuss how we use lensing to measure the properties of the mysterious Dark Energy that is driving the accelerated expansion of our universe.

Speaker: Erin Sheldon (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

2019-06-28-suli.pdf

Tuesday, 2 July

12:30 → 13:45 Astronomical CCDs and light-sensitive sensors for fast imaging

I will review how the state-of-the-art sensors developed for
astronomical applications can precisely measure the positions and shapes of
billions of galaxies. The talk will focus on the camera and sensors for the
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and will discuss limitations on the
achievable precision coming from the instrumentation. I will also discuss
light sensitive sensors which can be used for fast imaging of single photons
in QIS and other applications.

Speaker: Andrei Nomerotski (BNL)

NomerotskiSULIstudents20190702.pptx

Tuesday, 9 July

12:30 → 13:45 Silicon Detectors for Particle and Nuclear Physics

Silicon technology is approximately 70 years old but thousands of years by the multitude of researchers that have
been dedicated to R&D; the well-established microelectronic industry is based on it. Being that the silicon
is sensitive to photons (from infrared to X-rays, passing through visible light and ultraviolet) and to
charged particles, we can leverage the microelectronic technology to make sensors out of silicon. Silicon
sensors are used in a variety of applications including scientific experiments (High Energy Physics,
Astrophysics, Photon Science, etc) as well as industrial and commercial use (cameras, etc). The basic
structure is the p-n junction across which a voltage is applied. When an ionizing event occurs (a photon or
a charged-particle interacting with silicon), a short current pulse (~ few ns) is generated and detected by
the read-out electronics. There are many kinds of silicon sensors and each one must be tailored according
to the specific application. We’ll give an overview of the state of the silicon technology and its
different applications.

Speaker: Gabriele Giacomini (BNL)

SiliconDetectors.pdf

Friday, 12 July

12:30 → 13:45 A golden age in physics, an overview of what the... is going on in the RHIC tunnel

I will give a general introduction to the modern theory of "strong" interactions, which involve quarks and gluons.  At about a trillion degrees, these form a Quark-Gluon Plasma, which we believe is created in the collisions of heavy ions at very high energies, such as at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider here at Brookhaven.  I also make extensive comments about the sociology of the field, especially the phenomenon of "As everyone who is anyone knows..."

Speaker: rob pisarski (bnl)

GoldenAge_June19.pdf

Tuesday, 16 July

12:30 → 13:45 Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) as a many-body theory: An existential tale in four acts.

QCD, our nearly perfect  theory of the strong interaction, is also
deeply profound because all phenomena are emergent features of the many-body
dynamics of the 
quark and gluon fields and the vacuum of the theory. This talk on many-body
QCD is organized as a play in four acts:
i) Origins, mysteries, symmetries
ii) The power and the glory of QCD
iii) Surprises from boiling the QCD vacuum in heavy-ion collisions: 
    a) why the world's hottest fluid, albeit also being its most viscous,
flows with almost no resistance
    b) a possible unexpected universality between the hottest and coldest
fluids on earth
    c) What magnetar strength magnetic fields created in heavy-ion
collisions may reveal about the topology of the QCD vacuum
iv) Looking ahead to the Electron-Ion Collider: what the ultimate IMAX
experience may reveal of QCD's mysteries

Speaker: Raju Venugopalan (BNL)

BNL_student-lecture.pdf

BNL_student-lecture.pptx

Friday, 19 July

12:30 → 13:45 Introduction to Statistics in High-Energy Physics

In this lecture, I will introduce some basic statistical concepts commonly used in the data analysis of high-energy physics experiments.  I will review the basic procedure in setting confidence intervals. Some advanced topics in data unfolding, selection of test statistics, and usage of linear algebra in reducing computation will be touched upon.

Speaker: Xin Qian (BNL)

Introduction_Stat_in Particle_Physics.pptx

Tuesday, 23 July

12:30 → 13:45 Searching for and understanding the quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions

Lattice-QCD predicts the occurrence of a phase transition above a critical temperature from ordinary nuclear matter to a new state of matter, usually referred to as the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), in which partons are relevant degrees of freedom. One primary goal of the heavy-ion physics is to create and study the properties of the QGP created in these collisions. The last couple of decades have seen tremendous progresses in understanding the QGP, thanks to the successful operation of dedicated experiments at the RHIC and the LHC. In this lecture, I will discuss the detectors designed for heavy-ion physics, and how an experimentalist turns electronic signal into physics results. Future direction of heavy-ion experiments will also be discussed.

Speaker: Rongrong Ma (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

2019_RM_BNLLecture.pdf

Friday, 26 July

12:30 → 13:45 From Raw Data to Physics Results

Modern nuclear and particle physics experiments generate huge amounts of data that need to be calibrated, processed and analysed so that we can extract and publish physics results. In this talk I will describe the journey of data, from the bits that leave the detectors through its transformation into well-understood physics objects that are analysed by physicists all over the world. We will look in particular at how this exabyte scale problem requires computing and software solutions that operate on a global scale, and take a look at the challenges that still lie ahead of us.

Speaker: Paul Laycock (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Raw2Physics_LectureBNL.pdf

Tuesday, 30 July

11:30 → 13:00 Celebration

A catered luncheon for lecturers and participants including deserts and soft drinks.