Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2021 Joint Spring Meeting of the Texas Sections of APS, AAPT and Zone 13 of the SPS
Volume 66, Number 2
Thursday–Sunday, April 8–11, 2021; Virtual
Session B04: APS: Nuclear and Particle Physics-III |
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Friday, April 9, 2021 5:00PM - 5:12PM |
B04.00001: Bubble Filtration for Molten Salt Purification Keaton Brewster Large scale clean energy production is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) provide a clear solution with numerous advantages over current reactors. The Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing (NEXT) collaboration is working towards a Molten Salt Research & Test Reactor (MSR&TRx) to move this technology forward. MSRs are more efficient, safer, and provide easier access to life saving medical isotopes. An obstacle for MSR technology is maintaining clean salt to reduce corrosion in the system. NEXT is working to study several mechanical filtration methods, including using sintered filters and Helium bubbling. Mechanical filters are essential because they allow us to remove chemically non-reactive particles from the molten salt, which would not be removed through chemical filtration processes, but could collect on pipe walls, causing clogging. Helium bubbling is a process where insoluble contaminants will tend to attach to the surface of the bubble and rise to the surface, creating a foam layer of contaminants. This foam layer can be collected in a side storage container, and removed when convenient. Another benefit of bubble filtration is that it can be a continuous process. Some chemical filtration methods are done in batches and require taking salt [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 9, 2021 5:12PM - 5:24PM |
B04.00002: Muon Detection with the Cosmic Watch Muon Detector. Justin Trull Muon detection is not a necessarily new concept, and they have been studied quite extensively since their discovery in 1935. Today, significant advancements have been made when it comes to the detection of muons. High accuracy detectors have been created to observe both natural and man-made accelerator phenomena. These more modern particle detectors tend to be highly powered, large, and rather expensive; however, another form of detector has been created based on the common principles of muon detection utilizing scintillators. These are the portable muon detectors. As we continue with observations on the muon, there becomes a greater need to study the particles in more precarious situations. These situations are based on several parameters which can affect the count rate of a particle detector. Parameters such as elevation and weather patterns should be observed. This is rather difficult with an instrument that cannot travel due to size, power consumption, or both. Therefore, the use of a portable detector can be justifiable. This instrument was originally created for the purpose of short High School and Undergraduate research projects; however, modifications to the instrument can be made to explore more advanced, long-term, research projects. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 9, 2021 5:24PM - 5:36PM |
B04.00003: Search for Higgs Boson decays to long-lived scalar particles in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$TeV with the ATLAS Detector Amber Roepe Many theories beyond the SM predict the existence of new particles with a macroscopic decay length, referred to as Long-Lived Particles (LLPs). These LLPs can help us understand the difference in scale of our fundamental forces, known as the hierarchy problem. We performed a search for decays of the Higgs boson to two long-lived neutral scalar particles $a$, in which each $a$ decays to a pair of $b$ quarks. As a result of the $a$ lifetime, the $b$ quarks are displaced. Therefore, our analysis requires the use of a special reconstruction algorithm, referred to as "Large Radius Tracking" (LRT). LRT was optimized to have a very high efficiency at the expense of high fake rate and CPU consumption. It is only feasible to use this algorithm on a specially selected $\sim$10\% of the data collected. I developed an algorithm to select potential signal events for reconstruction with LRT, based on the results of the standard reconstruction. From the collection of LRT tracks, it is possible to reconstruct high-mass displaced vertices, for which there is no SM background. This is a novel search within the ATLAS experiment which provides unique sensitivity to this important signal between that of prompt searches and long-lived searches targeting decays in the calorimeter or muon spectrometer. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 9, 2021 5:36PM - 5:48PM |
B04.00004: Higgs-mediated and one-loop-mediated scattering for direct detection in a multicomponent dark matter scenario with two coexisting WIMPs Diego Cristancho Guerrero, Bailey Tallman, Sabrina Hernandez, Spencer Ellis, Drue Lubanski, Brandon Torres, Caden LaFontaine, Trevor Croteau, Roland Allen The amazing sensitivity of current direct-detection experiments has imposed stringent constraints on any theoretical dark matter candidate. In particular, the most simplistic models with supersymmetry (susy) and weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) have been disconfirmed by experiment, and this has led to increasing pessimism about their existence. But there are still quite compelling arguments for susy and WIMPs. Here we discuss a multicomponent dark matter scenario with two WIMPs – the neutralino of susy and the higgson~[1] of an extended Higgs sector. Both these particles are stable because neither can decay into a set of particles containing the other. We discuss the potential for observing this second particle, which has a mass of $\sim$75 GeV, in direct detection experiments such as LZ and Xenon nT. The most promising mechanisms for scattering are a relatively weak Higgs exchange and a four-vertex interaction with vector bosons whose coupling to quarks is represented by one-loop diagrams. [1] Reagan Thornberry, Gabriel Frohaug, Caden LaFontaine, Bailey Tallman, Alex Behne, Steven Sellers, Matthew Sadler, and Roland E. Allen, European Physical Journal Special Topics (in press). [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, April 9, 2021 5:48PM - 6:00PM |
B04.00005: Relic abundance of a new dark mattr WIMP annihilating to WW* and ZZ* Caden LaFontaine, Trevor Croteau, Brandon Torres, Bailey Tallman, Drue Lubanski, Sabrina Hernandez, Spencer Ellis, Diego Cristancho Guerrero, Roland Allen We report calculations of the annihilation cross-section for the dark matter WIMP that we have proposed, here represented by H. For annihilation to real particles, WW and ZZ, we make the approximation that the W, Z, and H masses are nearly equal ($\sim$~80-100 GeV.). We find that the total annihilation cross-section is more than an order of magnitude too large for $m_Z > m_H > m_W$, and about a factor of 2 larger still for $m_H > m_Z$. (Without this approximation, the cross-sections would be even larger.) For annihilation to one real particle and one virtual, WW* and ZZ*, we make the approximation of neglecting the masses of the fermions (which are all relatively small). If $m_H$ is well below $m_W$, the total cross-section is more than an order of magnitude too small. As the H mass approaches $m_W$ from below, however, there is resonant behavior involving the $W$ propagator, and for a mass of $\sim$ 75 GeV the cross-section has the value corresponding to the observed relic abundance. This annihilation cross-section is consistent with the limits set by observation of gamma-ray emissions from dwarf spheroidal galaxies by Fermi-LAT, and with gamma-ray emissions from the galactic center that have been interpreted as possible evidence of dark matter annihilation. [Preview Abstract] |
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