Seminars-iihe December 2023

seminars-iihe@listserv.vub.be

2 participants
2 discussions

IIHE seminar Dec 13: Prof. Matthew Citron (Searching for millicharged signatures of the dark sector)
by Steven Lowette 13 Dec '23

13 Dec '23

Dear all, Coupled to the milliQan workshop that will run next week in the lab Mon-Wed, we will have an invited seminar from Prof. Matthew Citron: "Searching for millicharged signatures of the dark sector" on Wed Dec 13 at 14h30 in the Neutrino room (G.0.20). *Note the unusual day and location!* Abstract and short bio are below; the event's agenda can be found here: https://indico.iihe.ac.be/event/1897/ Kind regards, Steven. ----- Abstract: Hidden sector models of dark matter are the focus of a large number of searches at the LHC and beyond. An underexplored signature of such theories is the production of particles with a small fractional electric charge. These "millicharged particles" may be produced copiously at facilities such as the LHC. However, due to their very small energy depositions, general purpose detectors are blind to them. I will show how this blind spot can be closed through the use of dedicated detectors that consist of several layers of long scintillator bars, paired with high-gain, low-noise photomultiplier tubes. In this talk I will cover results from the milliQan demonstrator, which ran very successfully at the LHC, the ongoing Run 3 milliQan experiment, as well as plans for the forward FORMOSA detector for the HL-LHC. Finally, I will discuss complementary experiments at high intensity facilities. Bio: Dr Matthew Citron has been an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at UC Davis since 2023. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London where he worked on searches for supersymmetry with the CMS detector at the LHC. He then took a Postdoc appointment at UC Santa Barbara where he worked on searches for long-lived signatures of new physics. At UC Davis his research focusses on searches for exotic signatures of dark sectors using both the general purpose CMS detector as well as constructing and operating dedicated detectors at the LHC and beyond. -- Steven Lowette https://cern.ch/lowette/ -- Prof. Steven Lowette Vrije Universiteit Brussel https://cern.ch/lowette/

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IIHE seminar Dec 8: Prof. Vitor de Souza (The Cherenkov Telescope Array)
by Steven Lowette 08 Dec '23

08 Dec '23

Dear all, On Dec 8 we will have a seminar from Prof. Vitor de Souza: "The Cherenkov Telescope Array" at 14h30 in the Sacton seminar room (G.1.03) Abstract and short bio are below; the event's agenda can be found here: https://indico.iihe.ac.be/event/1896/ Kind regards, Steven. ----- Abstract: The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory is the next generation ground-based telescope array to study very-high-energy electromagnetic radiation from the Universe. CTA will open a new era in this energy domain with its superior performance with respect to the current generation. In this talk, I will present the most important aspects of the very wide science case of CTA and I'll review fundamentals of the imaging Cherenkov approach. The prospects for the possible discoveries will be presented, with focus on the legacy surveys and on the fundamental astrophysics and physics to be targeted by the CTA Observatory. Our view of the very-high-energy sky is about to change dramatically, CTA will open a new era in our understanding of the highest energetic phenomena in the Universe and in this talk I will discuss some of the expected scientific output. Short Bio: Prof. de Souza earned his Bachelor in Physics in 1997, Master's in 2000 and PhD in 2004 at the University of Campinas, Brazil. He was a visiting researcher during his graduate studies at the University of Leeds, Great Britain and the University of Adelaide, Australia. He then was a post-doc at the Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics at the University of São Paulo, Brazil from 2004 until 2007. He held a researcher position at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany during 2007 and 2008 and is Professor in Astroparticle Physics at the University of São Paulo since 2008. He is member of the Pierre Auger Observatory and the CTA Observatory, chair of the Consortium Board of CTA, member of the Director Board of Latin-America Council for Physics, coordinator of the Astronomy Panel of FAPESP, and co-chair of the Department of Physics and Interdisciplinary Science of IFSC/USP. -- Steven Lowette https://cern.ch/lowette/

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Seminars-iihe December 2023