UC Davis Particle Physics Seminars

Maxim Pospelov reviews how single effective operator approximation can break down.

Spencer Klein reviews results from the IceCube experiment.

Dave Mason gives a summary of the dark matter workshop at Fermilab.

Matthew Szydagis reviews different searches for dark matter.

Sergey Dubovsky discusses the effective field theory of long relativistic strings such as confining flux tubes in QCD. We derive the Polchinski-Strominger interaction by a calculation in static gauge. This interaction implies that a non-critical string which initially oscillates in one direction gets excited in orthogonal directions as well. In static gauge no additional term in the effective action is needed to obtain this effect. It results from a one-loop calculation using the Nambu-Goto action. Non-linearly realized Lorentz symmetry is manifest at all stages in dimensional regularization. We also explain that independent of the number of dimensions non-covariant counterterms have to be added to the action in the commonly used zeta-function regularization.

Yuri Shirman describes a simple recipe for obtaining local supersymmetry-breaking vacua in s-confining theories coupled to gauge singlets. This recipe gives rise to effective O'Raifeartaigh models in the IR, with calculable supersymmetry-breaking minima near the origin and can be applied to both vector-like and chiral theories. Since the properties of the vacuum are largely determined by superpotential terms that are non-renormalizable in the UV, it is calculable even when all dimensionless couplings are taken to be of order one. By construction, the models preserve a large subgroup of the original global symmetry. While we only study here s-confining theories, we expect our tools to be useful for inducing dynamical supersymmetry breaking in many gauge theories.

Matt Wettstein gives a brief overview of the Large Area Picosecond Photodetector (LAPPD) project, an effort to develop compact, microchannel plate (MCP) photomultiplier tubes capable of sub-millimeter, sub nanosecond spatial resolutions and with potential for scalability to large experiments. Wettstein will also discuss steps taken towards the construction of experimental LAPPD-based neutrino detectors and the potential applications for such detector systems in answering the important questions of neutrino physics.

Henrique Gomes discusses new ways to build effective theories that are Poincare invariant but the symmetry is not manifest.

Sung Park discusses the development of Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC), multi-gap RPC and Resistive Micropattern Detectors, in particle physics.

Sho Maruyama reviews Supersymmetric particle and Standard Model Higgs boson searches in high energy physics. Maruyama continues on to describe how trigger and Data Quality Monitoring system are used at the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN. The trend in trigger menu development will be discussed in detail. One of main focuses of this talk is the work that can be done by graduate students.