Past Events

Abstract: Searching for new physics beyond the standard model (BSM) has been one of the main goals of the LHC. With no new physics found in many SUSY and Exotica searches for prompt BSM particles from the LHC data, I will present a new BSM search approach that is looking for new particles with a long lifetime. The search is looking for SUSY long-lived particles that decay to photons, with the final state photon being time-delayed compared to prompt photon…

ABSTRACT: Quantum information science in the coming decade will likely be carried out on noisy devices consisting of ~100-1000 qubits that do not share full interconnectivity. In this so-called NISQ regime, variational quantum algorithms, which tackle a wide range of problems from areas such as combinatorial optimization, quantum chemistry, and high-energy physics, provide a path to practical quantum advantage. In this talk, I will present some of our recent work that explores the theory behind variational algorithms such as quantum…

Abstract:  I will talk about quantum simulation algorithms based on the light-front formulation of quantum field theory. They will range from ab initio simulations with nearly optimal resource scalings to VQE-inspired methods available for existing devices.My work is greatly inspired by the analogy, first noted by Kenneth Wilson, between the light-front formulation of QFT and quantum chemistry. The approach I develop to simulating field theory is an alternative to lattice techniques; it allows one to use methods developed for quantum…

Abstract:  Noble liquid detectors, especially liquid argon and liquid xenon time projection chambers (TPCs) have been developed and improved during the last decades. They produced the best limits in the search for one of the best motivated dark matter candidates, weakly interacting massive particles (WIPMs), in the O(10)GeV to O(10)TeV mass region. I’ll first talk about the DarkSide-50 low mass analysis which produced the best limit of 5$\times$10^{-42} cm^2 on spin-independent dark matter nuclear scattering cross section for dark matter…

Abstract:  The most sensitive searches for dark matter (DM) with mass above ~10 GeV/c2 use the dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber (LXe-TPC) technology. In the U.S., development of this technology is spearheaded by the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, with first science data coming soon. As these detectors increase in scale and sensitivity, previously negligible backgrounds become important to understand, both to prevent false discovery claims and to accurately measure the ultimate DM sensitivity of such an experiment. In this talk, I will discuss…

- Abstract:  In order to infer cosmological parameters from data of upcoming surveys like DESI, we will use summary statistics such as the power spectrum. An accurate estimate of their covariance matrix is crucial for the inference analysis. The traditional process of obtaining the covariance involves thousands of expensive mock simulations. I will present a novel analytic approach to calculate the covariance which is faster by more than four orders of magnitude. I will demonstrate the validation of our analytic approach…

Abstract: What is the nature of dark matter? What leads to the fundamental forces having such disparate strengths? Can we explain the small mass of the Higgs boson without excessive fine tuning? These outstanding questions are part of a broad motivation to continue investigating new physics scenarios beyond the Standard Model (SM). Several theoretical solutions propose an extended gauge symmetry group beyond the SM, and hence predict the existence of additional massive gauge bosons. I will discuss the latest search…