Physics (Internal)

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Research Interests:

Muon capture and experiments

My research focuses on Muon data and experiments. In the past I have done research involving the Muon at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermilab and at the Paul Scherrer Institut. In addition, I am working on a new Muon to Electron Conversion experiment. This experiment is one of the flagship experiments in the future Fermilab program. It currently has CD0 level (initial) approval at the DOE and is in the process of obtaining CD1 status (funding for a full detailed engineering design).

Selected Publications:

“Detailed Report of MuLan measurement of the positive muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant”, V. Tishchenko et al. The MuLan Collaboration, Phys. Rev. D, 87:5, 2013

“Measurement of Muon Capture on the Proton to 1% Precision and Determination of the Pseudoscalar Coupling gp”, V. A. Andreev et al. (MuCap Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 (2013) 012504.

“Measurement of the Positive Muon Lifetime and Determination of the Fermi Constant to Part-per-Million Precision”, D. M. Webber et al. (MuLan Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 041803, 2011.

“Improved Limit on the Muon Electric Dipole Moment”, G. Bennett et al. The Muon g-2 Collaboration, Phys. Rev. D 80:052008, 2009.

“Search for Lorentz and CPT Violation Effects in Muon Spin Precession”, G. Bennett et al. The Muon g-2 Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Letters, 100:091602, 2008.

For a full list of publications, please see the attached CV.

Education:

• BA - Harvard College 1978
• PhD - Harvard University 1989

Biography:

My name is Rob Carey and I am a recovering high energy physicist. When I was younger, I worked on collider physics at the Fermilab Tevatron (CDF). For the last 22 years I've been working on high energy experiments at low energy (Muon g-2, MuLan). I'm the adviser to Photon, the local chapter of the Society of Physics Students.

Honors/Awards:

• Boston University Neu Family Teaching Award (2001)

Medium Energy Precision Physics. Looking to fill out a game? Will play most with little provocation soccer, football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, frisbee, 4-square, Capture the Flag, sardines. Also chess, Stratego, Risk, Crisis as needed ...

In the news:

• Rob Carey promoted to Full Professor
• How Strong is the Weak Nuclear Force?

Research Descriptions:

MuCap

Paul Scherrer Institut: Precision measurement of muon capture on ultra-pure protium. Best ever determination of g_p, the pseudoscalar coupling constant of the weak interactions. Final results expected in summer 2011.

Muon (g-2) project at Fermilab

This experiment will upgrade of BNL E821. Boston University physicists are playing a leading role. The goal is a factor of four improvement on the precision on the muon anomalous magnetic moment, which will require 21 times the data, approximately 200 million analyzed events, and a factor of three improvement in the systematic errors. The goal is to clarify whether the evidence obtained at Brookhaven is a signal of New Physics entering at the loop level, or a statistical fluctuation.

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MuSun

A high precision measurement of muon capture on deuterium at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Villigen, Switzerland. Test of chiral perturbation theory. Will serve as input to the standard solar model. Production run planned for summer 2011.

Neutrinoless Muon to Electron Conversion

The goal of the Mu2e experiment (pronounced 'mew to ee') is to measure the rate of a muon converting into an electron with no accompanying neutrinos to a precision 10000 times better than previous experiments. Such a violation of charged lepton flavor conservation has never been seen by charged leptons such as muons and electrons. It has already been seen for neutral leptons, neutrinos, in the form of neutrino oscillations. A positive signal is a sure sign of new physics. Mu2e is one of the flagship experiments in the future Fermilab program. The Mu2e experiment is now under construction in the new building at Fermilab on the Muon Campus.