UMD High Energy Particle Physics-CMS Group Adam Zeitlin [email protected] Physics Major Science, Discovery, and the Universe The University of Maryland’s physics department is comprised of various research groups, one of which is the High Energy Particle Compact Muon Solenoid group (HEP-CMS). A model of the CMS detector made out of legos (photo taken by Adam Zeitlin) For physics majors who are thoroughly interested in high energy particle physics, such as the work done at CERN, I highly recommend contacting Dr. Sarah Eno about joining the CMS group. The atmosphere is extremely welcoming, and while it is certainly overwhelming for the first month or so, you will gain a vast amount of knowledge pertaining to particle physics that you would not obtain otherwise. The primary focus of my work was the single-photon box, which is a dark-box (meaning no external light can get in while the box is closed). A laser is connected and placed inside the box as the light source for tests, along with adjustable filter wheels. One of the main purposes of the box is for use in testing PMT’s (photomultiplier tubes) for their single- photon response energy. PMT’s output an electric signal, or voltage, when light contacts the face of the tube. In order to measure the energy per photon, the filter wheels in the single-photon box are adjusted until all light is blocked except occasional higher energy photons. Tests are sometimes run for up to multiple hours, since these single photons are so infrequent. In the end, the output of the PMT is measured, and a single-photon energy peak can be seen as around 5-10% of events, with the zero photon peak as the other 90-95% of events. This group is headed by Dr. Sarah Eno and Dr. Alberto Belloni, and has two main purposes: 1. Theorizing, constructing, and testing potential upgrades to the hardware of the CMS detector, which is at CERN as part of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). 2. Analyzing data and results from the LHC, and detectors here at UMD. Undergraduate students in the CMS group spend a large portion of time simply learning about the various tests going on, as they encompass specific areas and ideas in physics that are not covered in the undergraduate curriculum. However, within the first year students are able to take part in cutting- edge particle physics research and design. Over the summer I conducted various tests using the “single- photon box,” and took over the project recently, in place of the previous grad student who worked on it. A piece of the CMS-HCAL detector (photo courtesy of CERN’s website)

zeitlin--ada… · UMD High Energy Particle Physics-CMS Group Adam Zeitlin [email protected] Physics Major

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Page 1: UMD High Energy Particle Physics-CMS Grouppeel/SDU_Sophomores/2015Posters/zeitlin--ada… · UMD High Energy Particle Physics-CMS Group Adam Zeitlin azeitlin7@gmail.com Physics Major

UMD High Energy Particle Physics-CMS Group Adam Zeitlin [email protected] Physics Major

Science, Discovery, and the Universe

The University of Maryland’s physics department is comprised of various research

groups, one of which is the High Energy Particle Compact Muon Solenoid group (HEP-CMS).

A model of the CMS detector made out of legos (photo taken by Adam Zeitlin)

For physics majors who are thoroughly interested in high energy particle physics, such as the work done at CERN, I highly recommend contacting Dr. Sarah Eno about joining the CMS group. The atmosphere is extremely welcoming, and while it is certainly overwhelming for the first month or so, you will gain a vast amount of knowledge pertaining to particle physics that you would not obtain otherwise.

The primary focus of my work was the single-photon box, which is a dark-box (meaning no external light can get in while the box is closed). A laser is connected and placed inside the box as the light source for tests, along with adjustable filter wheels. One of the main purposes of the box is for use in testing PMT’s (photomultiplier tubes) for their single-photon response energy. PMT’s output an electric signal, or voltage, when light contacts the face of the tube. In order to measure the energy per photon, the filter wheels in the single-photon box are adjusted until all light is blocked except occasional higher energy photons. Tests are sometimes run for up to multiple hours, since these single photons are so infrequent. In the end, the output of the PMT is measured, and a single-photon energy peak can be seen as around 5-10% of events, with the zero photon peak as the other 90-95% of events.

This group is headed by Dr. Sarah Eno and Dr. Alberto Belloni, and has two main purposes: 1. Theorizing, constructing, and testing potential upgrades to the hardware of the CMS detector, which is at CERN as part of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). 2. Analyzing data and results from the LHC, and detectors here at UMD.

Undergraduate students in the CMS group spend a large portion of time simply learning about the various tests going on, as they encompass specific areas and ideas in physics that are not covered in the undergraduate curriculum. However, within the first year students are able to take part in cutting-edge particle physics research and design. Over the summer I conducted various tests using the “single-photon box,” and took over the project recently, in place of the previous grad student who worked on it. A piece of the CMS-HCAL detector

(photo courtesy of CERN’s website)