The inference of cosmological parameters requires the construction of a likelihood function that acts as an interface between theory and observational data. Using the CMB experiment Planck as a worked example, I provide an overview of the challenges associated with the analysis of high-resolution, state of the art experiments. In particular, I will discuss the approximations necessary to make an analysis feasible in practice, the role of nuisance parameters, and tests used to assess the robustness of the results. Reviewing the most important cosmological implications of Planck, I will conclude with an outlook of what we can expect to learn from future experiments.

DarkSide-50 is a 50 kg liquid argon time project chamber, nested inside of a 30 tonne boron-loaded liquid scintillator neutron veto, which is inside a 1000 tonne water Cherenkov muon veto. Since neutrons can leave a signal identical to what is expected from WIMPs, neutrons are the most dangerous background to such an experiment. I will talk about the latest results from the DarkSide-50 detector, which recently published results from 120 days of running background free. This talk will also have a focus on the design and performance of the neutron veto system that enables the detector to remain free of neutron backgrounds by vetoing neutrons with > 99.2% efficiency.

DM-Ice is a phased program towards the first direct detection search for dark matter in the Southern Hemisphere with a quarter ton scale NaI(Tl) crystal array.  It will provide an understanding of the modulation signal reported by DAMA by running arrays at both Northern and Southern Hemisphere sites.  A first generation experiment with 17-kg of active mass, DM-Ice17, was deployed in December 2010 at a depth of 2457 m under the ice at the geographic South Pole and has concluded its 3.5-yr primary physics run.  An active R&D program is ongoing at the Boulby Underground Laboratory to investigate clean crystals and optimize detector components.  A worldwide consortium of sodium iodide experiments is now preparing two 100-kg arrays to start data taking in 2016.  I will report on the successes of the DM-Ice program and how the stage is set for definitively testing the DAMA signal anomaly.

In this talk, I will focus on the calibration system. I will present calibration related works I have been working on to improve the detector absolute efficiency and neutrino oscillation analysis. I will also present the results on neutrino oscillation parameters from an independent analysis.

After a two-year shutdown, the LHC restarted proton-proton collisions in 2015 with an increase in center-of-mass energy to 13 TeV.  I describe some early results with data from the first year of running and plans for the significantly larger datasets that we expect to collect in the coming years.

Dark matter halos surrounding galaxies are expected to contain copious substructure, in the form of gravitationally bound subhalos.  Local Group observations suggest that our Galaxy has a deficit of substructure (the Missing Satellites Problem), possibly indicating new physics in the dark sector.  I will describe how gravitational lensing may be used to measure the amount of dark substructure that exists in typical galaxy halos.  In particular, I will explain how observations by the newly commissioned ALMA observatory of dusty galaxies from CMB surveys can probe halo substructure.  I will show first results from our ALMA Cycle 2 observations, and argue that ALMA should be able to answer the Missing Satellites Problem in upcoming years.

From 2009 to 2014, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) used the SDSS telescope to obtain spectra of 1.5 million galaxies to get very accurate measurements of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) scale at redshift z ~0.5. At the same time, BOSS observed over 184 000 high redshift quasars (z>2.15) with the goal of detecting the BAO feature in the clustering of the intergalactic medium, using a technique known as the Lyman alpha forest (LyaF).

In this talk I will overview several results from the LyaF working group in BOSS, including the measurement of BAO at z=2.4 both from the auto-correlation of the LyaF (Delubac et al. 2015), and from its cross-correlation with quasars (Font-Ribera et al. 2014). From the combination of these studies we are able to measure the expansion rate of the Universe 11 billion years ago with a 2% uncertainty.

In the near future, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will increase this data set by an order of magnitude. DESI will provide an exquisite measurement of the expansion over cosmic time, while at the same time addressing other interesting questions: the sum of the mass of the neutrino species, properties of dark matter particles, tests of general relativity and the shape of the primordial power spectrum of density fluctuations.

DESI will map cosmic expansion up to redshifts of 3, anchoring
distances at low redshift to the era of past deceleration with an
order of magnitude gain in precision compared to current surveys.
DESI data will offer a stringent test of the standard model of
cosmology, with important possibilities for discovery.

The project, however, is not free from experimental challenges. I will
review the analysis efforts needed to extract the whole potential of
the BAO probe, from the optimization and calibration of the efficiency
of the redshift survey, to the characterization of the instrumental
noise in the Lyman-alpha forests.

Supersymmetry is a well motivated extension of the Standard Model of particle physics,
although its realization in nature has yet to be proven.

The main efforts at the Large Hadron Collider to probe for supersymmetry
at the electroweak mass scale focus on the so-called “prompt” signatures.
In these cases, the super-symmetric partners of the known Standard Model particles
either decay close to the production point, within the detector resolution, or
traverse the detector with no strong interaction, leaving usually a large imbalance
of momentum in the transverse plane.

In this seminar I will focus on searches for supersymmetric particles
with a significant lifetime, that could be either directly or indirectly measured.
Such particles can easily evade current constraints based on prompt signatures.

After a brief introduction on the main mechanisms leading to long-lived
particles in supersymmetric theories, I will review the experimental techniques
employed in these searches using the ATLAS detector.
I will then present an overview of the data analysis results, with a particular focus on
the most recent ones.

Charged kaon production by atmospheric neutrinos is a background in searches for the proton decay $p \rightarrow K^{+} \bar{\nu}$. Measurements of neutrino-induced $K^{+}$ production are important inputs for current and future proton decay searches at Super-K, Hyper-K and DUNE. The MINERvA neutrino-nucleus cross section experiment at Fermilab uses timing information to isolate a sample of $K^{+}$ decay-at-rest events. I will present the first differential cross section measurements for both charged- and neutral-current $K^{+}$ production by neutrinos, and discuss how these measurements can be used to constrain background predictions for proton decay. I will also show the first experimental evidence for coherent $K^{+}$ production by neutrinos.

The Indian effort to build an underground laboratory for rare processes is outlined. The flagship experiment, based on the 50 kiloton Iron Calorimeter, will measure atmospheric muon neutrinos and antineutrinos, separately, and will target the open problem of the neutrino mass hierarchy. Together with other experiments worldwide this will help address CP violation in the neutrino sector and this may help us understand why there is a preponderance of matter over anti-matter in the universe. The other experiments that are being planned are in the areas of: (1) neutrinoless double beta decay using a cryogenic bolometer of 124Sn (2) dark matter search and (3) a low energy accelerator for measuring nuclear cross sections of astrophysical interest.

The LHC energy increase from 8 TeV to 13 TeV in 2015 provided a significant increase in sensitivity for new, high mass particles. This had a large impact on the sensitivity of searches for supersymmetric squarks and gluinos even though the 2015 data sample is relatively small.  I will survey the results of these searches, discuss some of the strategy of the CMS SUSY program, and describe the methodology for three specific searches.

Neutrino oscillation experiments have demonstrated conclusively that neutrinos have mass.  In many Standard Model extensions neutrinos are favored to be Majorana fermions.  A worldwide experimental program to search for this Majorana nature of neutrinos is underway.  In this talk, I will review the status of experimental searches for Majorana neutrinos, with the focus on neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments.

I will also give a brief summary on GERDA Phase-II results that were released on June 29.

The U.S. could move boldly toward accelerating transformational accelerator research for high-energy physics. Profound questions remain to be answered in particle physics; recent discoveries reconfirm the value of continued investments. However, going beyond the present generation of high energy accelerators will require changing the capability-cost curve of accelerators, which can only happen through an aggressive, sustained, and imaginative R&D program aimed at building the future accelerators at a dramatically lower cost. Both of us were members of Department of Energy panel that recently studied the potential structure of such a research program. We participated fully in the process and approve the report. Nonetheless, our experience led us to continue and extend our analysis of the issues that will drive accelerator research aimed at future accelerators for high-energy physics with the aim of informing interested physicists from all disciplines, not just accelerator experts. Broadly, we will look at prospects for proton-proton colliders and electron-position colliders – all interlaced with our biases and (and perhaps not politically correct) opinions.

Sketched out in 1992, selected by ESA in 1996, and launched in 2009, the Planck satellite was shut off in 2013, after a measuring mission that exceeded all expectations. The Planck collaboration delivered a first set of cosmological data and results in March 21st 2013, and the full set in February 2015. Part of the data delivery is a “definitive” map of the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), its angular power spectrum together with their full statistical characterization. The 2015 delivery further include pioneering polarisation data. I’ll briefly recall salient scientific results we derived from these data. The Planck collaboration is now working towards a “legacy release” by the end of 2016 which will mark the end of the formal collaboration we set up back in the previous century. To this end, we keep improving further our control on the potential level of residual systematics in the data and in accounting for these uncertainties in the final cosmological results to further enhance the robustness and precision of the constraints posed by Planck. For instance, we announced in May an improved likelihood analysis using detailed end-to-end simulation as well as an improved constraint on the reionization optical depth by using for the first time the E-mode polarisation data from the HFI instrument. This determination fully reconciles the CMB results with other astrophysical measurements of reionization from sources at high redshift. It also gives constraints on the level of reionization at redshifts beyond that of the most distant sources (z > 10). I will further give some perspectives on what is coming next.

Earlier this year the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment completed its final dark matter search from 4850 feet below ground in the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. Between September 2014 and May 2016 the LUX detector amassed 332 live days of exposure in its hunt for dark matter, primarily in search of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), a favored dark matter candidate. Our analysis of this exposure yields improved and world-leading constraints on the interaction of WIMPs for a wide range of possible masses, placing a 90%-confidence exclusion limit on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section greater than 2.2 x 10^-46 cm^2 at 50 GeV/c^2 WIMP mass. This result includes a factor of 4 improvement over the previous LUX sensitivity to WIMP masses 100 GeV/c^2 and above. This presentation will include a discussion of changes in detector performance from the previous LUX search in 2013, a description of the “salted” data analysis approach, and a look at the frequent in-situ calibrations of the complex time-varying detector response during 20 months of operation.

The axion is a hypothetical elementary particle whose existence would explain the
baffling absence of CP violation in the strong interactions. Axions also happen to be a
compelling dark-matter candidate. Axions could comprise the
overwhelming majority of mass in the universe, yet they would be extraordinarily difficult
to detect. However, several experiments, either under construction or in operation,
would be sensitive to even the more pessimistically coupled dark-matter axions. The
Axion Dark-Matter Experiment (ADMX) is perhaps the most powerful of these experiments.
ADMX is in the DOE/NSF Generation-2 portfolio of large dark-matter experiments and is
just transitioning into data-taking. This talk reviews the capabilities and the status of ADMX.

The 38th International Conference on High Energy Physics has
just concluded in Chicago, US. New results from various areas of
high-energy particle physics, as well as neutrino physics, cosmology
and theory were presented in front of about 1400 attendees. In
particular, new results from the LHC experiments were highly
anticipated, using more than 10/fb of proton-proton collision data
collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. I will review a
selection of the results presented, focusing on the LHC experiments.

I’ll briefly review the arguments for and status of particle dark matter searches and then focus on the possibility of looking for a definitive galactic signature.  There have been several hints for WIMP dark matter over the years, most notably the DAM/LIBRE annual modulation result.  There are new efforts to study this, for instance DM-ICE.  I’ll describe the efforts and latest results then focus on prospects for a directional signal using gas Time Projection Chamber technology including the new CYGNUS global collaboration aiming to deploy targets at multiple latitudes deep underground.

KamLAND is a one-kiloton liquid scintillator-based neutrino detector and is one of the recipients of the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for its 2002 investigation of neutrino oscillations. KamLAND-Zen is the current phase of KamLAND, and it is an experiment to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136. In this talk, I will describe the KamLAND experiment and present the new results from KamLAND-Zen. I will conclude by describing the plans and future objectives of KamLAND and KamLAND-Zen.

Wojtak, Hansen and Hjorth and others have measured the long-predicted gravitational redshift of light escaping from galaxy clusters using Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. The effect is very small, corresponding to a velocity shift of only ~10 km/s in clusters with internal random motions of order 600 km/s, but the result appears to be robust and is in good agreement with general relativity predictions and possibly in conflict with some alternative theories. It was soon realised that the interpretation of this measurement is more complex than initially thought as one needs to allow for the transverse Doppler (TD) redshift. In this talk I will describe how there are actually two more rather subtle and unexpected physical effects that need to be considered in interpreting these observations; there is a `light cone’ effect that augments the TD shift, and there is a competing effect that reverses the sign of the transverse Doppler effect so that we actually observe a transverse Doppler blue-shift. I will discuss how these observations constrain gravitation theory, and along the way discuss some issues concerning the interpretation of astronomical redshifts in a broader context.

I’ll remind us all of the motivation for Supersymmetry searches at the LHC, and provide a general overview of the status of the search. Since, even after results making use of in excess of 10 fb-1 of 13 TeV data we see no significant signals, I’ll end with a discussion of how imperiled SUSY may or may not be at this point.

The discovery of the “Higgs like” particle in summer 2012 completed about fifty years of search. In short time with significantly more data we renamed it to be the Higgs particle and continued with studying its characteristic. In parallel to the precision measurements it increased the effort to look for additional Higgs like particles and Higgs related extensions to the  Standard Model. I will review some of these searches with the ATLAS and CMS experiments focusing on the recent data collected by ATLAS in LHC pp collisions at centre of mass of 13 TeV.

Abstract: 

The primordial density perturbations seen in the cosmic microwave background have collapsed under gravity to form the large-scale structure we see in the universe today. This evolution is non-linear, and therefore introduces coupling between Fourier modes that would otherwise be independent. I will present two consequences of this non-linear coupling.
Halo sample variance (arXiv:1406.3330):
Gaussian estimates for the errors in large-scale structure measurements exaggerate the scientific impact of these measurements. Non-linear evolution and finite volume effects are both significant sources of non-Gaussian covariance, which reduce the ability of power spectrum measurements to constrain cosmological parameters. I will present a joint likelihood for cluster counts, power spectrum and bispectrum, including the non-Gaussian covariances, and show that a joint analysis of these observables can reduce this “information loss”. In some cases, the resulting improvement on cosmological parameters is equivalent to doubling the survey area.
Lyman-alpha – CMB lensing bispectrum (arXiv:1607.03625):
The Lyman-alpha forest seen in the spectra of quasars is a powerful tool for constraining warm dark matter models and the neutrino masses, as well as properties of the intergalactic medium. Its use as a cosmological probe relies on modeling the connection between neutral gas and dark matter. I will present the first detection of the correlation between the Lyman-alpha forest and the cosmic microwave background, using data from BOSS and Planck. This signal quantifies the non-linear response of the neutral hydrogen to a large-scale overdensity, and thus tests our understanding of the connection between neutral gas and the dark matter.

For the past two years, the LHC has collided protons at a record-high center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. This time has provided an opportunity to search for beyond standard model particles at the TeV scale, including those predicted by supersymmetry, with unprecedented sensitivity.  I will present an overview of a generic search for strongly-produced supersymmetric particles in pp collisions in the multijet + missing transverse momentum final state. The data sample corresponds to 12.9 fb-1 recorded by the CMS experiment in 2016. I will review the theoretical and experimental motivation for this search, then describe the central challenges of the analysis, namely the data-driven measurements of the standard model backgrounds. Finally, I will summarize the results of the analysis, and look ahead to possible directions for this and similar searches in the coming years.

nEXO is a next-generation experiment designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of xenon-136 in a liquid xenon time projection chamber. Positive observation of this decay would determine the neutrino to be a Majorana particle, as well as measure the absolute neutrino mass scale. In order to greatly reduce background contributions to this search, the collaboration is developing several “barium tagging” techniques to recover and identify the decay daughter, barium-136. Barium tagging may be available for a second phase of nEXO operation, allowing for neutrino mass sensitivity beyond the inverted mass hierarchy. Tagging methods for this phase include barium-ion capture on a probe with identification by resonance ionization laser spectroscopy (RIS). An apparatus has been built to deposit barium atoms onto a surface and recover them using infrared laser desorption followed by RIS, with the resulting ions passing through a time-of-flight mass spectrometer for further identification. Recent results from this system will be presented, including those from incorporating an argon ion gun which allows for improved cleaning and preparation of the barium deposition substrate.

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment recently concluded underground operationat the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This talk will cover the full LUX search for dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) and will describe new measurements of xenon’s properties and new analysis techniques developed for further LUX science.

Abstract:

“After the discovery of Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC in 2012, a new era of studying the properties of this new particle has begun. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of Higgs boson property measurements using LHC Run 1 data, and then focus on the measurements of Higgs boson production in the four-lepton decay channel and in combination with the diphoton decay channel using 13.3 fb^-1 to 14.8 fb^-1 of Run 2 data collected at ?s=13 TeV by the ATLAS detector.”