Talks About Physics

An Analysis of Charmonia with BaBar - Meson states which do not fit neatly into the Charmonium spectrum have recently been discovered by the B-Factories BaBar and Belle. I report on a search for the decay process B -> X(3872) K using Upsilon(4S) -> B B-bar decays collected with the BaBar detector at the PEP-II asymmetric energy B-Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). In addition I also present work done commissioning the Detector of Internally Reflected Cherenkov Light (DIRC) subsystem as well as installing the Limited Streamer Tubes (LST) subsystem for the BaBar detector.
(to be given 20 August 2007 to my UT Ph.D. Review Committee as a Comprehensive Exam)
Written Version

DIRC Plenary - A report on the operations and status of the DIRC since the last collaboration meeting in February.
(given 8 Jun 2007 to the BaBar Collaboration at SLAC)

DIRC Monthly Report - A report on the operations of the DIRC since the last collaboration meeting in December.
(given 24 Jan 2007 to the BaBar operations team at SLAC)

DOE Presentation 2007 - Physicists require funding and the DOE provides it. Currently, the DOE funds my work at BaBar, so I must report on how I have used their money to further our understanding of physics. (given 23 January 2007 via phone to DOE representative Randy Johnson)
I also produced a video version which it was decided not to use: Part 1 Part 2.

Study of the Hodoscopes used in testing the focussing DIRC prototype at SLAC. A second hodoscope was added for the most recent beamtest aft of the detector and startcounters and its utility is analyzed relative to the other hodoscope which precedes the detector. (given at an R&D meeting September 2006).

Cherenkov Detectors in Particle Physics - Traces the history of Cherenkov detectors from the first ideas of Seguinot and Ypsilantis to RICH detector to the CRID to ACCs to the DIRC to prototypes of future detectors. Special emphasis is given to the DIRC detector at BaBar, with which the presenter has personal experience. (given to the Spaniergruppe at UT August 2006).

BaBar's Silcon Vertex Tracker - The B-meson factory at SLAC, BaBar, has a silicon vertex tracker (SVT) closest to the interaction point. This SVT provides the necessary resolution to measure the lifetime differences of the two B mesons, which is essential for the study of CP violation. (given to the graduate particle physics class at UT April 2006).

DOE Presentation 2006 - Physicists require funding and the DOE provides for those with worthwhile projects. Currently, the DOE funds my work and so I report on how I have used their money to further our understanding of physics. (given 9 January 2006 to DOE representative Randy Johnson)

Charmonium Spectroscopy with BaBar - Potential models of the Charmonium spectrum have motivated the search for missing states at B-factories, however, discoveries there made have not always fit. This had led to much speculation about the new states. (given 16 November 2005 to the UT Particle Physics Seminar).

What is a Neutrino? - The past decade's experiments have yielded a paradigm shift in our thinking about neutrinos. The Pontecorvo matrix governing neutrino oscillations is motivated from elementary quantum mechanical considerations. (given 25 February 2005 to the UT Particle Physics Seminar).

Black Holes at the LHC - if there are "large" extra dimensions beyond our 4-dimensional spacetime, then these have the possiblity of changing the Planck mass, the scale at which gravity is of the same strength as the electroweak force. If the Planck mass is of the order 1 TeV, then the LHC will be a copious Black Hole producer. (given 20 October 2004 to the UT Particle Physics Seminar).

Nuclear Energy - a short talk on the history and possible future of nuclear power in the United States (given in a GA Tech Environmental Science class April 2001).

Chaos - an overview of the research I did as an undergraduate with Kurt Wiesenfeld calculating the Feigenbaum constant using a renormalization group approach (given to the GA Tech Senior Seminar Spring 2000).

Return to the top, or go back to my homepage.


Last Modified: 14 Aug 2007 by Bradley James Wogsland .