Category: Special Event

Dark Matter Day 2021: SPS Dark Matter Rock Hunt (Oct. 29, 8am-3pm)

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The Society of Physics Students at SMU is hosting a “Dark Matter Particle Rock Hunt” on October 29th, 2021, from 8am-3pm (US Central Time). This event is in celebration of SMU’s Fifth Annual Dark Matter Hunt, and we look forward to seeing everyone in person this year! 

During the hours of 8am-3pm, you can join in the hunt for 26 rocks representing the 26% of our universe that is dark matter. These rocks will be spread across the entire campus in eye view, so no need to go digging around in the dirt. Visit the SMU twitter page throughout the day for tips and hints on where these rocks are located. When you find a rock, post a picture of yourself and the rock on twitter and tag the SMU twitter page (@SMUPhysics). You can then take your rock to FOSC 102 and claim your prize! 

Scenes from past SMU Dark Matter Day Rock Hunts

Students, faculty, staff, and members of the SMU community are encouraged to participate in searching for Dark Matter and learn about the importance of Dark Matter to our universe. Each dark matter particle will be labeled and accompanied by a curious fact about dark matter, based on what is known so far. If you find a rock, we encourage you to let your friends and colleagues know so they can participate as well.  

Dark Matter Day is associated each year with Halloween, and is meant to draw international attention to the search for the nature of dark matter. This remains one of the largest mysteries in modern science. Observational evidence of its qualities, especially, is essential to making progress in this subject.

SMU ATLAS Special Seminar: Dr. Sijing Zhang (IHEP Beijing)

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On Tuesday, March 9, at 9am, Dr. Sijing Zhang will present a seminar entitled “Search for an additional low mass Higgs boson in the diphoton final state with the CMS experiment”. Connecting information is available here: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1015484/

The CMS and ATLAS experiments at the LHC have announced the discovery of a Higgs boson with mass at approximately 125 GeV in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson via, notably, the γγ and ZZ to four leptons final states. However, physics beyond the SM (BSM) can also provide a Higgs boson that is compatible with the observed 125 GeV boson, as well as additional Higgs bosons, some of which could have masses below 125 GeV. This motivates the extension of the search at the LHC for the Higgs boson h1 in the diphoton final state. The H→γγγγ decay channel provides a clean final-state topology that allows the mass of a Higgs boson in the search range to be reconstructed with high precision. With 13 TeV data of 132 fb-1 integrated luminosity, a search for a new resonance decaying into two photons is performed on CMS, for the diphoton invariant mass range between 70 and 110 GeV. The expected 95% confidence level upper limits on the product of the cross-section with the branching ratio into two photons are presented.

A CMS Di-Photon event display

Special Event: SMU ATLAS Seminar featuring Dr. Lukasz Fulek (AGH University of Science and Technology)

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When: February 9, 2021 at 11am US Central Time
Where: contact Jingbo Ye or Allison Deiana for information

The SMU ATLAS group invites the department to a special seminar by Dr. Lukasz Fulek from AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland. The talk is entitled “Physics with Forward Protons at RHIC and LHC.”  It is virtual and begins at 11am US Central Time.

The presentation will be an overview of the diffractive physics at the STAR experiment at RHIC and the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The forward scattered protons, which remain intact after the proton–proton collision are detected in Roman Pot detectors, thus selecting processes proceeding mainly via exchange of a particle carrying quantum numbers of the vacuum, commonly known as the Pomeron. Particular emphasis will be placed on the measurements of the total and elastic cross sections, exclusive processes in double diffractive and charged-particle production in single diffractive dissociation processes. Finally, the predictions of various phenomenological models at the RHIC and LHC energies are discussed.

This event is organized by Prof. Jingbo Ye and Prof. Allison Deiana. For connection information, please contact them!