2012 Fall Graduate Colloquium Series: Kranti Gunthoti/Amanda Towry
| Date | November 16, 2012 |
| Time | 12:00 pm |
| Location | Baylor Sciences Building, Room E.125 |
| Description |
The standard model (SM) of elementary particles provides a remarkably accurate description of results from many high energy physics experiments. However, the Higgs boson in the SM, through which fundamental particles gain mass, is yet to be confirmed by experiments. I will talk on the recent discovery of a Higgs like boson with a mass near 125 GeV at the LHC CMS experiment. This result is based on proton-proton collision data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1 fb-1 and 5.3 fb-1 collected at center of mass energies of 7 TeV and 8 TeV, respectively. With more data and subsequent analysis physicists will confirm whether this newly discovered boson is SM Higgs boson or not. (Based on CMS Collaboration, Physics Letters B 716, 30–61 (2012).)
Magnetic Reconnection is now considered to be one of the most important topics studied in plasma physics today. It has long been thought that Alfen waves and the tearing mechanism have been the main drivers of secondary magnetic island generations within magnetic reconnection domains. New research by Fermo, et al., expanded from previous work by Drake, et al., propose that the actual culprit is the existence of vortices generated by the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability within reconnection environments. Fermo, et al. revisit a modeling program to study the mechanisms behind secondary magnetic island development at the electron skin depth of plasma flows. (Based on R. L. Fermo, et al., Physical Review Letters 108, 255005 (2012).)
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| Publisher | Department of Physics |
| vCal | Download this event |