Particle physics
New paths to particle dark matter
The aim of this meeting is to discuss recent developments concerning searches for dark matter, as well as relevant astrophysical issues and particle phenomenology. On Thursday 29th March there will be a Half-day Meeting (2-6 pm) to take stock of the field, while Friday 30th March will be devoted to a Workshop (9 am-4 pm) concerning both theory and experiment.
Subir Sarkar s.sarkar@physics.ox.ac.uk
UK Cherenkov Telescope Array Collaboration Meeting March 19-20
The next bi-annual meeting of UK participants in the Cherenkov Telescope Array project will take place in the Denys Wilkinson Building, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, on 19th and 20th March 2012. We will have one day of science-themed talks and one day of technical-themed talks with plenty of time for interactive discussions.
Younger members of the collaboration, and Oxford physics department members with interests in high-energy astrophysics, astroparticle physics, electronics, and telescope design and construction, are particularly encouraged to attend.
Garret Cotter garret@astro.ox.ac.uk
13 December 2011
ATLAS Higgs Update
The ATLAS(*) and the CMS experiments today presented updates on their searches for Standard Model Higgs bosons. The results, though impressive, do not yet contain enough data to make any definitive statement about the existence or otherwise of the elusive Higgs.
Both experiments have managed to constrain the possible masses of the Higgs down to a narrow range. For ATLAS that range is 116-130 GeV and for CMS it is 115-127 GeV (where a GeV is approximately the mass energy of a proton).
17 November 2011
LHCb reveals exciting hints of New Physics
The LHCb experiment this week announced at the HCP Symposium in Paris a result which, if confirmed, would most likely be the first measurement performed at the LHC at CERN that cannot be understood within the long-established Standard Model of particle physics. This will require a deeper theory of 'new physics' to explain. Oxford is a founding member of the LHCb collaboration and Oxford physicists Mat Charles and Guy Wilkinson were lead analysts in the study presented in Paris.
