Physical Science

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2023
Wednesday, April 19th
8:50 AM

Analysis of Efficiency of Dark Photon Decay to Lepton Jets

Sree Atyam '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Malcolm Wilson-Ahlstrom '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

8:50 AM - 9:05 AM

Dark photons are useful indicators to explain important phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, namely in the context of many experiments: dark matter. Dark photons can interact with Standard Model particles through a process called kinetic mixing, which allows them to decay into Standard Model leptons, from which lepton jets are produced. The area of interest in these ... Read More

Monte Carlo Simulations of Factors Influencing Seasonal Variation of Multiple Muon Events

Ellen Guan '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

8:50 AM - 9:05 AM

In a 2015 study, particle physicists reported the first observed seasonal variation of multiple muon events in the MINOS Far and Near Detectors, where multiple muon events created by cosmic rays were observed to be more numerous in the winter than in the summer. This goes against researchers’ initial hypothesis, because it has long been measured that single muon rates ... Read More

Optimizing Trigger Selection for Detection of Doubly Charged Higgs Bosons at the LHC

Rohan Jain, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

8:50 AM - 9:05 AM

In this project, we aim to programmatically find the most efficient triggers for selecting H++ events for application in the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment. Highly efficient triggers are defined as those with high signal efficiency and low background efficiency to give as much signal and as little background as possible. The types of events analyzed were H++, Drell-Yan, and QCD. ... Read More

9:05 AM

H++ Decay Channel Efficiencies

Katie Jenks '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Claire O'Brien-Dull '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

9:05 AM - 9:20 AM

We present a study of the expected efficiencies of different three- and four-lepton decay channels of the H++ particle at the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The H++ particle is a Higgs-like scalar particle that arises in certain extensions of the Standard Model. We investigate the decay of the H++ particle in the context of the left-right ... Read More

Monte Carlo Analysis of Dark Photon Production

Dean Barrow, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

9:05 AM - 9:20 AM

At present, dark matter theories predict the presence of dark photons. Detection of dark photons could provide insights into the nature of dark matter and its interactions with ordinary matter. Monte Carlo simulations are generated to understand Dark Photon production. Thus, we report the results of various files created. Monte Carlo generation was automated to derive branching ratios for dark ... Read More

9:20 AM

A Comparison of Various Dark Photon Production Mechanisms

George Bayliss, Illinois Math and Science Academy

9:20 AM - 9:35 AM

A dark photon (ZD) is a theoretical boson in a new Abelian U(1) gauge symmetry which is predicted by various dark sector models. Dark photons originating from different models can all decay to collimated lepton jets via a process known as kinetic mixing. Production mechanisms for dark photons can vary widely but generally make use of a dark pseudoscalar. I ... Read More

Observing Hoffmeister Effects Through Floating Monolayer Isotherms

Sara Kashyap, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

9:20 AM - 9:35 AM

The Hoffmeister Series ranks ions found in salts based on their effects on protein solubility. The series ranks them from “salting in” to “salting out”, i.e. how strongly the ions cause proteins to either dissolve or precipitate. It has been believed previously that ions of the same valence will cause a similar effect, however, in fact each ion has a ... Read More

Utilizing CRAB for Limit Findings

Caroline Kowal, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

9:20 AM - 9:35 AM

In order to discover results faster, we have worked on simulating specific events through CRAB. CRAB submission to the grid allows multiple online computers to run several jobs simultaneously thus allowing for shorter turnback time. We utilize the outputs by finding limits on our data which assist with the analysis of particle events thus helping with our limit cuts on ... Read More

9:35 AM

Advanced Cold Molecule Electric Dipole Moment Experiment Automatic Laser Locking System

Pietro Stabile '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

9:35 AM - 9:50 AM

The Advanced Cold Molecule Electron (ACME) Electric Dipole Moment (EDM) experiment seeks to place a more precise upper limit on the electron EDM than its predecessors. Part of this increased precision will result from using an External Cavity Diode Laser (ECDL). The Standard Model predicts an electron EDM that is too small to measure with current precision. The experiment will ... Read More

Parametrizing Doubly Charged Higgs Invariant Mass Histograms

Surya Ninad Bhamidi '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

9:35 AM - 9:50 AM

The doubly charged Higgs boson is a beyond the standard model particle that arises in the Left-Right Symmetric Model. The invariant mass of this particle is a quantity related to the mass that is the same in every reference frame and is conserved, which makes it useful to measure. The same sign invariant mass histograms of a doubly charged Higgs ... Read More

The Effectiveness of a Localized b-Jet Veto for Improving Lepton Jet Reconstruction

Jack Morby '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

9:35 AM - 9:50 AM

Using the identification of jets originating from b quarks, we eliminate a source of background in our search for the dark photon. These “b-tagged” jets often contain lepton pairs that are similar to the decay of dark photons. A veto against these jets further isolates the dark photon signal, aiding in analysis. The extent to which efficiency changes due to ... Read More

10:05 AM

Acoustic Imaging for Nucleation events in a Scintillating Bubble Chamber Dark Matter

Atharva Gawde '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:05 AM - 10:20 AM

One of the longest-standing fundamental questions in physics is the nature of dark matter. To address this problem, the Dahl Group's goal, in collaboration with the Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) Collaboration, is to introduce and develop new nuclear recoil detection technology that combines two existing technologies: bubble chamber electron recoil rejection and liquid scintillator event-by-event energy resolution. This technique searches ... Read More

Calculating and Displaying Limits of the Doubly Charged Higgs Boson at Different Branching Ratios

Ivan Chen '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Marcus Kubon '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:05 AM - 10:20 AM

The doubly charged Higgs boson (H++/H--) is predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model. When searching for the doubly charged Higgs, we look for its decay through a distinctive signal of a same sign lepton pair, which can appear in 6 unique combinations, ignoring combinations containing tau leptons. The rate at which each of those 6 appear relative to ... Read More

Finding the Optimal ΔR Cut for Distinguishing Dark Photon Decay and Background Events

Gavin O'Malley '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:05 AM - 10:20 AM

The phenomenon of dark matter has perplexed physicists for decades, and, in an attempt to find it, some physicists hypothesize a dark sector of particles. These particles interact little with Standard Model particles and have a new force analogous to electromagnetism carried by the dark photon. If this dark photon has enough mass, then it could decay into a tightly ... Read More

10:20 AM

Automatic Histogram Generation for Multi-Channel Analyses

Dean Cianciolo '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:20 AM - 10:35 AM

Graph automation is required in physics research because physicists sometimes need to look at hundreds of plots to get the results of an analysis. The analysis framework aims to create many different types of plots in a fast to write and easy to understand structure. It performs the many steps that need to be performed to make a plot. Among ... Read More

Conformational Dynamics of Presequence Protease (PreP) and interactions with specific substrates

Gabriella Kanallakan '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:20 AM - 10:35 AM

Presequence protease (PreP) is encoded by the Pitrm1 gene which is an essential gene in mice and the defect in the Pitrm1 gene is linked to several human diseases. Presequence Protease (PreP) is a 117kDA M16C metalloprotease that cleaves presequence peptides and degrades amyloid ꞵ(Aꞵ). PreP has a C and N domain connected by a linker region together. There is ... Read More

Drell-Yan Background for Doubly Charged Higgs

Zhengyu Pan '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:20 AM - 10:35 AM

A variety of exotic models predict a doubly charged Higgs-like particle that can be pair-produced in hadronic interactions via a Drell-Yan-like mechanism. The H++ and H-- can each decay to a pair of like-sign leptons (muons or electrons in this study) with TeV-scale mass, providing a distinctive event signature. Within Monte Carlo Drell-Yan events, there is a substantial amount of ... Read More

Integration of CMSSW software into the Analysis Framework

Kevin Huang '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:20 AM - 10:35 AM

Previous versions of the codebase developed by the IMSA-CMS group have only allowed for data processing of Monte-Carlo events. The structure of the old codebase was built so that the analyzer object would receive a root file and process all events within the file. To implement the analytics of collision data within the codebase, the analyzer needed to be restructured ... Read More

10:35 AM

An Investigation of Lepton Jet Kinematics, Fakes, and Production from Dark Photons

Jesus Fileto '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:35 AM - 10:50 AM

Our current model proposes a decay mechanism of massive dark photons from the dark sector into two oppositely charged leptons. Our Higgs production mechanism produces two dark photons resulting in narrow lepton jets arising from these dark photons. Monte Carlo data is analyzed to find distinctive signatures of these lepton jets, such as transverse momenta and eta, that define their ... Read More

Unidirectional Build Architecture: Refactoring a HEP Data Analysis Codebase

Dheeran Wiggins '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:35 AM - 10:50 AM

Proposed beyond the Standard Model theories, such as various SUSY frameworks, posit the existence of non-Standard Model particles detectable in accelerator experiments through distinct event signatures. The object of our analysis concerns two such non-SM theoretical particles: the doubly charged Higgs boson (H±±), a scalar boson with Drell-Yan and vector boson fusion production mechanisms, and the dark photon (γd), a ... Read More

10:50 AM

Multivariate analysis for detecting lepton jets

Kevin Zhang '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:50 AM - 11:05 AM

Effective identification of dark photon-generated lepton jets has always been difficult to perform through standard cuts-based procedures. The possibility of solving this problem using multivariate analysis (MVA) methods has been tested. The initial list of input parameters included the total transverse momentum, azimuthal angle, pseudorapidity, number of particles, and jet width of each jet. The leading particle transverse momentum and ... Read More

Relationship between dark photon delta R and gamma

Albert Han '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Vikram Rao '24, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

10:50 AM - 11:05 AM

The dark photon is part of a dark sector beyond Standard Model theory that aims to explain dark matter. The dark photon can interact weakly with the Standard Model via kinetic mixing, allowing the dark photon to decay into leptons. These leptons form lepton jets, pairs of opposite-sign, collimated leptons, because of their relativistic boost, gamma, from the dark photon’s ... Read More

11:55 AM

Automatic Datacard Generation and Significance Estimation with Punzi Criterion for Higgs Analyses

Gautham Anne '23, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

11:55 AM - 12:20 PM

In order to perform a statistical analysis of Higgs searches, datacards are used to encode the observed and expected events after event selection to discriminate between signal and background. We developed a framework to incorporate into our analysis group’s framework to automatically generate datacards. In addition, we utilized the Higgs Combine Tool to test combining multiple generated datacards. In the ... Read More