Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014
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Have a safe day!

Thursday, Jan. 23

8 a.m. to 2:20 p.m.
Fermilab PAC Meeting - One West

1 p.m.
LHC Physics Center Topic of the Week Seminar - WH2NE
Speaker: Felix Yu, Fermilab
Title: Measuring CP Violation in h → τ+τ- at Colliders

1 p.m.
Computing Techniques Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Oliver Gutsche, Fermilab
Title: Computing: From Data to Physics — A Non-Expert Overview from the Scientist Point of View

2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar (NOTE LOCATION) - WH3NE
Speaker: Joseph Bramante, University of Notre Dame
Title: Exploring Dark Interactions by Destroying Neutron Stars with Dark Black Holes

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

Friday, Jan. 24

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Tae Min Hong, University of Pennsylvania
Title: VBF Higgs at ATLAS

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Secon Level 3

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Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Thursday, Jan. 23

- Breakfast: Canadian bacon, egg and cheese Texas toast
- Breakfast: sausage gravy omelet
- Chopped-barbecue-pork sandwich
- Smart cuisine: finger-lickin' baked chicken
- Mom's meatloaf
- Eggplant parmesan panino
- Greek chicken salad
- Meatball and orzo soup
- Chef's choice soup
- Assorted pizza by the slice

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Friday, Jan. 24
Dinner
Closed

Saturday, Jan. 25
Dinner
- Corn chowder
- Pork tenderloin
- Bourbon-walnut sweet potato mash
- Sautéed Brussels sprouts
- Pecan rum cake

Wednesday, Jan. 29
Lunch
- Ziti with sausage, onions and fennel
- Mixed green salad
- White-chocolate raspberry cheesecake

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Undergraduate women in physics visit Fermilab

Fermilab docent Toni Mueller shows students a model of a beamline. The Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics coordinators offered participants a tour of Fermilab or Argonne. Photo: Amanda Solliday

Seventy female college students in hard hats descended into the MINOS cavern, walked through the Tevatron tunnel and explored the Linac beamline as part of the Midwest Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics Friday, Jan. 17.

"The first time I toured Fermilab, it wasn't what I was expecting at all, even after two years of college-level physics," said Savannah Thais, a senior physics major at The University of Chicago. "I had no idea what it was like to do science all day, every day."

Thais attended the 2013 conference and this year volunteered for the local organizing committee. She hopes participants will see the scientists and engineers at national laboratories as potential role models. The conference organizers also aim to provide female physics students a chance to connect with each other.

"Many times, especially at smaller colleges and universities, there are not many women in physics departments. You might be the only girl in your classes," Thais said. "So we hope the participants can meet other female undergrads who share some of the same goals as they do."

Sahar Jalal, a senior math and physics double major at Grinnell College, says she enjoys learning about the large-scale research projects.

"I didn't know there were so many international collaborations at Fermilab," Jalal said during lunch at Wilson Hall.

In between tour stops, 28 Fermilab scientists, engineers, science writers and docents met with students over the noon meal.

The Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics rotate each year to different sites nationwide. The University of Chicago hosted this year's Midwest conference, partnering with other area universities and institutions.

The location allowed organizers to offer a Fermilab tour for the first time. The 250 Midwest participants could also choose to visit Argonne, while students at the other regional conferences visited Berkeley, Brookhaven and Livermore national laboratories.

Particle physicists play a particularly active role in the conferences, said Kevin Pitts, a physics professor at the University of Illinois. He notes the two national co-chairs and three Midwest organizing committee members work in particle physics.

Sam Zeller, a Fermilab staff scientist on the local committee, welcomed the chance to offer young scientists a glimpse into the life of a researcher.

"Seeing a national laboratory was a big thing for me as an undergraduate," Zeller said. "It made me think about physics as a career, so it's nice to give that opportunity back to the next generation of students."

Amanda Solliday

Photo of the Day

Good-looking redhead

A red-bellied woodpecker pecks at a tree in the woods near Site 38. Photo: Sue Quarto
Milestone

Steve Helis retires Friday

Steve Helis

Steve Helis, Technical Division electronics technician, will retire after working at Fermilab for 32 years. His last day is Friday, Jan. 24.

As a member of the Test and Instrumentation Department, Helis designed, constructed, tested and repaired various electronics used to test magnets and radio-frequency acceleration cavities.

Helis looks forward to family time after retiring, traveling and spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren. He also plans to dedicate time to his passions — gardening, making model trains, and building World War II ships and armor.

A coffee-and-cake reception will be held for Helis tomorrow from 2-3 p.m. on the main floor of the Industrial Center Building.

In the News

New school focusing on science, technology, math taking shape

From Chicago Tribune, Jan. 14, 2014

Exposed steel beams and cinder block walls suggest slow progress toward construction of a new science and technology elementary school on Aurora's west side.

But officials with the John C. Dunham STEM Partnership School at Aurora University say work is progressing just fine despite recent extreme cold weather and that the school will open on time in August.

Behind the scenes, the trailblazing project enters a key phase this month as four local school boards take up proposals to help fund and establish criteria for its student body and teaching staff when the school comes to life this August.

Officials from the districts, Aurora University and the John C. Dunham fund held a joint meeting last week to update progress.

Read more

Frontier Science Result: DZero

Top quark production cross sections

This analysis selects double top quark events that decay into four quark jets, an electron or muon, and a neutrino. After collecting a pure signal sample (the red part of the plot), the production properties of these events are extracted, including the cross section versus the top-antitop mass.

Disponible en español

It is now almost 20 years since the top quark was discovered in 1995 through the joint efforts of the CDF and DZero collaborations. As more data have been collected and new techniques developed, the properties of this most massive quark have been measured with increasing precision. Now, about two years since the last proton-antiproton collisions at the Tevatron, the DZero collaboration is releasing its final state-of-the-art results on a range of top quark measurements. This week we take a look at a new publication covering differential cross section measurements of top-antitop (double top) production.

At the Tevatron, top quarks are mainly produced in quark-antiquark pairs through the annihilation of two lighter quarks from the original proton and antiproton. This process is well understood in the Standard Model, which predicts both how often such events occur and their properties. However, there are many other models in which these characteristics change, and so analyzing the production of double top events is an important and sensitive way of searching for evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model.

The cross section of a process is a measure of its probability of occurring for particular collision conditions. If this is determined as a function of some parameter, such as the momentum of the top quark, then it is called a differential cross section. Such measurements are challenging, requiring precise knowledge of the number of initial proton-antiproton collisions. Furthermore, the measured distributions need to be corrected to account for the detector efficiency for recording and reconstructing these events, as well as for the experimental resolution, in a process called unfolding.

For this analysis, one of the top quarks must produce a final state of three quark jets, at least one of which must correspond to a bottom quark. The second top quark must produce another bottom quark jet, an electron or muon, and an undetected neutrino, which carries away some energy from the system. This complicated final state, with six distinct objects to be identified and reconstructed, requires information from all parts of the DZero detector and takes advantage of the mature and well-tested particle identification algorithms.

The final results include the double top cross section as a function of the top quark transverse momentum and rapidity (effectively the direction of the quark with respect to the initial proton beam). The results agree with the predictions of the Standard Model and are the most precise to date. Since cross sections depend on both the type and energy of the colliding particles, these results will remain uniquely relevant for many years to come.

Mark Williams

Andreas Jung of Fermilab was the primary analyzer for this measurement.
The year 2013 saw 12 DZero graduate students complete their Ph.D.s, representing all six physics sub-groups within the collaboration. Our congratulations and best wishes go to all these newly minted doctors as they start the next stage of their careers, whether staying at DZero or moving elsewhere.
Announcements

Today's New Announcements

Family Science Days in Chicago - Feb. 15-16

Fermilab PAC meeting - through Jan. 24

Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Fermilab Arts Series - Jan. 25

Chicago Brass Quintet - Fermilab Gallery Chamber Series - Jan. 26

Earned Value Management course offered Jan. 28, 29

Power Writing Workshops - Jan. 30

C2ST talk: The Nature of Nano 2 - Jan. 30

ICFA Neutrino Panel town meeting - Jan. 30-31

NALWO crepe cooking demo - Feb. 3

DreamWeaver CS6: levels 1 and 2 - Feb. 3-4

Free introductory yoga classes - Feb. 3, 6

Interpersonal Communication Skills - Feb. 26

2014 standard mileage reimbursement rate

Fermi Singers invites new members

Abri Credit Union member appreciation

Free weekly Tai Chi Easy, Integral Tai Chi/Qigong classes

Scottish country dancing meets Tuesday evenings at Kuhn Barn

International folk dancing meets Thursday evenings at Kuhn Barn

10 percent employee discount at North Aurora Dental Associates