Friday Flyer - April 17, 2020
Spotlight on the Big Analysis of Muons in CMS Masterclass
As you know from previous issues of FF, many folks have been working on the Big Analysis of Muons in CMS (BAMC) masterclass for remote learning at home. On Wednesday, CMS physicist Ketino Kaadze of Kansas State University gave the masterlcass talk on the Standard Model and CMS with about 180 students and teachers in attendance via Zoom webinar. Missed it? View the recording.
Well, today is the big day.
Some student groups began the data analysis early, but most went for it today at the official start time of 11:00 U.S. Central Time. The masterclass videoconference was also in webinar form, moderated by physicists Allison Hall of Fermilab, David Martinez of South Dakota School of Mines and Techology, and Sudhir Malik of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. There were 172 participants!
Things just seemed to go well with BAMC. CIMA performed well and the results looked good. Feedback so far is positive. Rebecca Jaronski of the Virginia Tech center sent an email after the data abalysis but before the videoconference, saying, "Thanks for arranging BAMC - it's such a great opportunity and the kids loved it, and are excited to see the total results in a bit!"
Interested in the results of all that data analysis? Take a look at the BAMC graphics page, which has a map of participating institutes, student mass plots, and official plots from CMS.
News from QuarkNet Central
Mentors and teachers at each QuarkNet center will decide whether and how they can meet this summer. Also, centers may want us to retool QuarkNet National Workshops such as Neutrino Data Workshop for remote online participation. If your center needs to change plans, postpone the workshop, or move it online, or has any request that might help, please let Spencer, Shane, or Ken know. We can work it out.
Now that BAMC is over, we are looking ahead to new projects to support of teachers. We have some idea—stay tuned!—but are also open to suggestions from mentors and teachers. Contact a QuarkNet staff member!
Physics Experiment Roundup
The physics world is abuzz with a new result from the T2K experiment, which sends a neutrino beam from the J-PARC accelerator in Tokai, Japan, to the famous Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector. The release via Interactions says, "T2K Results Restrict Possible Values of Neutrino CP Phase." In short, T2K is detecting a possible asymmetry between muon neutrinos and anitmuon neutrinos in the experiment, meaning we may have another important clue to the matter-antimatter problem. T2K measures neutrino oscillations and it appears, as explained in ars technica, that neutrinos and antineutrinos osciillate a little differently.
Turning to applications, we have reports that Princeton University particle physicists have designed a simplified ventilator for COVID-19 patients while CERN laser technology is used for telecommunications.
Resources
Don Lincoln has launched a new series of videos called "Subatomic Stories." The first video, Introduction to Quarks and the Cosmos, was released last week and now, this week, we have the second installment, simply titled Quarks. Speaking of videos and T2K, here is a video about T2K.
Fermilab News has put together a guide to particle physics at home. It is one of several recent additions to the QuarkNet Resources for Teaching Physics Online site.
APS is offering a free virtual lecture tomorrow, Saturday, April 18, by the Event Horizon Telescope scientist Sheperd Doeleman titled Seeing the Unseeable: Capturing an Image of a Black Hole.
Just for Fun
Department of theoretical something: PhD Comics went ahead and discovered a new field. If you look carefully, you might find what looks like a Higgs potential and, even more interesting, a variation on Rolling with Rutherford.
Department of not-quite-physics: the periodic table, with haiku. Hat tip to Marge Bardeen!
Department of anti-fun: Here in northern Indiana, we observed not a CP violation, but a violation of the Rules of Spingtime. It is not the first we've seen of this phenomenon, either. Maybe the last for this season? Maybe?
QuarkNet Staff:
Mark Adams: adams@fnal.gov
Ken Cecire: kcecire@nd.edu
Spencer Pasero: spasero@fnal.gov
Shane Wood: swood5@nd.edu