Student Seminar Series

Note: Recording: https://bit.ly/2YlHXub
Password: 2u$*$4+z
Speaker: Sean Foster and Sam Rosen, Boston University

When: April 23, 2020 (Thu), 12:30PM to 01:30PM (add to my calendar)
Hosted by: Eric Boyers

This event is part of the Graduate Student Council Events.

Part of the student seminar series. A recording of the meeting will be posted here after the seminar.

Sean Foster - The Muon g-2 Experiment at Fermilab

Abstract: Since the completion of the Muon g-2 experiment at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) in the early 2000s, there has been a persistent tension of 3-4 sigma between the experimental and Standard Model (SM) values of the muon magnetic anomaly. An exciting possibility is that this tension could be a hint of physics beyond the SM. In an attempt to resolve or confirm this tension in the value of the muon magnetic anomaly, the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab, which has been collecting data since 2018 and just finished its Run 3 of data collection, has set out to improve the precision of the BNL result from 540 ppb (parts-per-billion) to 140 ppb, a four-fold improvement requiring twenty times the statistics. With this improved precision, if the experimentally-determined central value remains the same, the tension would become greater than 7 sigma, a strong indication of new physics. With this ambitious goal, the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab is set to find out if this hint of physics of new physics persists or not.

In this talk, I will first describe what the muon magnetic anomaly is and provide motivation for measuring its value as both a precision test of the SM as well as a search for new physics. I will then describe the measurement technique in general and go into detail of how the experiment at Fermilab is carrying out this technique. I’ll conclude the talk with remarks about the current status of the experiment.

Sam Rosen - H. Pylori Flagella Motion

Abstract: H. Pylori is a bacteria found in the viscoelastic gastric mucin. It is able to travel through this medium by raising the pH of the mucin, allowing it to enter the stomach and cause numerous health issues such as stomach ulcers. While how H. Pylori increases the pH of mucin is well understood, how its flagella assist it in moving through mucin is not. By analyzing both H. Pylori wild-types and mutants, we hope to better understand how exactly H. Pylori moves through stomach mucin.