Annual report 2018 from SUNY, University at Buffalo (UB)

Submitted by iashvili
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University at Buffalo

Annual Report 2018

 

SUNY at Buffalo QuarkNet Center

Mentors: Profs. Ia Iashvili, Avto Kharchilava and Salvatore Rappoccio

 

 

SUNY at Buffalo (UB) has joined QuarkNet in early 2006. Mentors of the group are UB experimental High Energy Physicists (HEP), Profs. Ia Iashvili, Avto Kharchilava and Salvatore Rappoccio. The group has sponsored its 12th annual QuarkNet Summer Workshop at UB during August 21-22. This year we had 4 teachers taking part in the Workshop: two lead teachers, Larry Hiller and David McClary, who have been with the center since its inception, and two returning teachers, Thomas Kenyon and Elisa Lorenz.

 

The workshop began with dedicated, general presentations on particle physics, the CMS experiment and the LHC by Profs. Ia Iashvili and Avto Kharchilava. Prof. Iashvili also presented the latest results on the Higgs boson properties measured by the CMS and ATLAS Collaborations. Prof. Kharchilava gave talk on the latest results from the IceCube neutrino experiment and gravitational waves in the context of the Multi-Messenger Astrophysics. Other workshop activities included data taking with cosmic ray detector and operation of a cloud chamber in the HEP lab of the Department of Physics. A high school student Marysia Paradis from the Nichols HS gave talk about her summer research with Prof. Rappoccio at UB. We also exchanged ideas on how to improve preparations for the upcoming Masterclass 2019.

 

Earlier this year, on April 21st, UB QuarkNet center participated in the CMS Masterclass. Eight students from three high schools (Nichols School, Cheektowaga Central and HutchTech) were divided in four groups to analyze Z®ee/mm, W®en/mn events using CMS event display. Different groups analyzed different sets of data and compared their findings. At the end of the data analysis session, students combined results to measure relative fraction of Z events compared to W events, ratio of W+ over W–, and to check lepton universality. They have created distributions of various quantities. Students also “discovered” the Higgs boson, J/Y and ¡ resonances. Finally, students shared their findings with other participating schools. 

 

 

Photo: Summer 2018 QuarkNet Workshop at the UB Physics Department,

08/22/2018.

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