Physics From the Top: Updates from the ATLAS Experiment

Tim Andeen, University of Texas, Austin

Friday, October 2, 2020
12–1 pm

Hegeman 107-Brody Labs
In December 2018, the Large Hadron Collider completed a three-year data collection run. Since then, particle physicists on the ATLAS and CMS experiments have been analyzing the largest ever dataset of 13 TeV proton-proton collisions. What will this new dataset reveal? In this talk, we will look beyond the current theory of the building blocks of the Standard Model and discuss what motivates our search for exotic new particles. Discovering these minuscule motes of matter could have a tremendous impact on our understanding of physics as a whole: from a better grasp of the Higgs boson and electroweak symmetry breaking, to unraveling the secrets of dark matter. The new dataset contains more than 20 times the number of top quarks seen before. We will highlight several searches and measurements that capitalize on this abundance. None of these investigations are possible without the particle detectors that make up the ATLAS experiment. We will conclude with remarks on the ongoing and upcoming detector upgrades and highlight our work improving these enormous experiments that observe the ephemeral particles of our universe.
 Sponsored by: Physics Program.

For more information, call 845-752-4391, or e-mail akontos@bard.edu.

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics - Revealing the Darkest Secrets of the Universe

Friday, October 9, 2020
12–1 pm

Online Event
The 2020 Nobel prize in physics has been awarded to three physicists, Roger Penrose, Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel, for their discoveries of "the darkest secrets of the universe," - namely, the birth of black holes and the presence of a supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Bard physicists, Hal Haggard and Shuo Zhang, will present the stories behind this year's physics prize.  In the first half of the discussion, Hal Haggard will introduce Roger Penrose's theoretical work on black hole formation as a robust prediction of General Relativity. In the second half, Shuo Zhang will introduce Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel's observational work on the discovery of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U0My8E3b0lpueJlepEqDaszuOx8DS-Pg/view?usp=sharingSponsored by: Physics Program.

For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail akontos@bard.edu.

Fantastic 'Lobes' and Where to Find Them:
A Study of Early Universe Galaxy Clusters with Bent, Double-Lobed Radio Sources

Emmet Golden-Marx, Boston University

Friday, October 16, 2020
12–1 pm

Online Event
Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally-bound structures in the universe.  These cosmic megacities are made up of hundreds of galaxies, hot X-ray emitting gas, and dark matter.  Although there are large populations of well-studied, relatively nearby clusters, as we probe earlier in the universe, galaxy clusters change and evolve.  As such, understanding how these massive structures and the galaxies within them change over time is essential to understanding the evolution of the universe.  To identify distant clusters, we take advantage of energetic supermassive black holes (called Radio Active Galactic Nuclei – Radio AGNs), which are an excellent tracer of large structures in the local and early universe.  Specifically, we use a particular type of radio AGN--a bent, double lobed radio source--to identify galaxy clusters because of the link between the radio source’s appearance and the cluster’s gas.  In this talk, I will present recent findings from the COBRA survey (Clusters Occupied by Bent Radio AGN).  Specifically, I will show how we identify galaxy clusters by their populations of red elliptical galaxies and how the radio sources that we use to identify our clusters might be interacting with their host clusters to characterize the cluster’s evolutionary state.

https://bard.zoom.us/j/94181247545?pwd=YmpzREM5V2hweHk2Mlo0cUNGNCsyUT09
 Sponsored by: Physics Program.

For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail akontos@bard.edu.

A Search for Low-energy Cosmic Antiparticles as a Signature of Dark Matter – the GAPS Experiment

Chuck Hailey, Columbia University

Friday, October 23, 2020
12–1 pm

Online Event
What the universe is made of  - the stuff – is a fundamental question. And yet the origin of dark matter, which makes up > 80% of the matter in the universe, is of unknown nature. One approach to identifying dark matter is to search for cosmic antiparticles produced when dark matter annihilates or decays. But a “smoking gun” signature would be nice, so that the cosmic debris of dark matter is not confused with conventional cosmic rays. Low-energy antideuterons have long been known to represent such a “smoking gun”. The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is the only experiment optimized specifically to search for low-energy (< 0.25 GeV/n) cosmic antiprotons, antideuterons, and antihelium.  Its goals are (i) to deliver a first-time detection of cosmic antideuterons, an unambiguous signal of new physics that probes a wide array of dark matter models, or to improve upon previous antideuteron limits by two orders of magnitude,  (ii) to provide a precision antiproton spectrum in a previously unexplored energy region, permitting leading constraints on light dark matter, the best limits on primordial black hole evaporation on Galactic length scales and novel constraints on cosmic-ray propagation models, and (iii) to investigate recent AMS claims of evidence for cosmic antihelium. GAPS is a 5-year program to build the experiment and execute two ultra-long duration balloon flights from Antarctica. I will review the current status of antimatter searches for dark matter, and discuss progress on building the GAPS experiment.


https://bard.zoom.us/j/94181247545?pwd=YmpzREM5V2hweHk2Mlo0cUNGNCsyUT09Sponsored by: Physics Program.

For more information, call 845-752-4391, or e-mail akontos@bard.edu.

History of Physics

Joe Martin, Durham University

Friday, October 30, 2020
12–1 pm

Online Event
https://bard.zoom.us/j/94181247545?pwd=YmpzREM5V2hweHk2Mlo0cUNGNCsyUT09Sponsored by: Physics Program.

For more information, call 845-752-4391, or e-mail akontos@bard.edu.