HE Seminar
Speaker: Michael Mulhearn
Title:Symmetry and the Search for New Particles
Abstract:Broken symmetries provide clues for discoveries. More than one hundred years ago, electric and magnetic forces were unified into one electromagnetic interaction with a broken symmetry: there is only electric charge, but no magnetic charge. This is a clue that there might be new fundamental particles with magnetic charge waiting to be discovered. More recently, the unification of electromagnetism with the nuclear weak force into one electroweak interaction revealed yet another broken symmetry: the electromagnetic boson (photon) is massless, while the weak boson (W and Z) are massive. One explanation for this broken symmetry introduces a new fundamental particle, the Higgs boson, which has not been discovered. We will explore how the Fermilab Tevatron collider is used as a tool to hunt for new fundamental particles, by examining recent searches for a magnetic monopole and the Higgs boson.
Host:
Room: 416
