I'm a postdoctoral experimental high energy physicist in the Boston University Intermediate Energy Research Group, a research group of the Physics Department. I'm primarily interested in the mechanism and dynamics of electroweak symmetry breaking, and precision experimental studies of fundamental symmetries.
My PhD work was in theoretical high energy in the High Energy Theory group at BU. I studied the structure of the extended electroweak symmetries in generation non-universal Extended Technicolor models, and coupling strength limits of the pseudo-Goldstone modes of Technicolor models. My advisor was Elizabeth Simmons, who is now in the Physics Department of Michigan State University, and the Director of the Lyman Briggs School of Science.
I am currently involved in a number of precision experimental efforts at a variety of facilities around the world.
The Muon Lifetime Analysis experiment plans to measure the positive muon lifetime to 1ppm precision, a factor of 20 improvement over the world average value in 2006. The lifetime measurement is critical to the extraction of the Fermi constant, a precision input parameter to the Standard Electroweak Model. The experiment runs in the piE3 beamline of the Paul Scherrer Institut in Villigen, Switzerland, outside Zurich. We published our first physics result in 2007, with a precision of 11ppm.
I was involved in the design and implementation of the Waveform Digitizer hardware that reads out our primary signals, built the timing and control system and the clock generation and distribution network, and was involved in the development of the DAQ software and data storage systems. I am currently deeply involved in validating and analyzing our 70TB 2006 data set.
The Muon Capture experiment is measuring the capture rate of negative muons on ultrapure protium gas, with the goal of a 1% measurement. The capture rate is governed by the axial structure of the proton, as parameterized by the pseudoscalar nucleon coupling form factor, gP. A 1% measurement of the capture rate gives a few percent precision on gP; it is hoped that this new extraction of gP with resolve some long standing disagreements between past experiments. The first physics result was published in 2007. This experiment also runs at PSI.
The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon provides a stringent test of precision quantum field theoretic calculations in the Standard Model; discrepancies between measurement and theory point to undiscovered new physics lying beyond our current knowledge. Following the very successful E821 g-2 Experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Collaboration decided to form a new effort, now E969, to propose and develop a next generation experiment for the same facility, with upgraded beam, detectors, electronics, and software systems. The experiment has been approved by the laboratory, and receives very high physics support, but is currently in funding limbo.
I have been involved in the preliminary storage ring simulation studies, electronics and DAQ specification, and calorimeter prototype simulation and testing at PSI and FermiLab.
A measurable permanent electric dipole moment for a subatomic particle would be a clear and unambiguous signal for physics beyond the Standard Model. A new effort planned for the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory plans to dramatically improve the limits on the EDM of the neutron. BU is involved in simulation, the development of light guides in the cryogenic environment of the detector, and development of hardware and software for the slow control systems.
My publication list is available here.
For now, see the publications link above. I'll fix this up some day.
Like most graduate schools, the BU Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has a set of formatting rules for Doctoral theses that are firmly grounded in the state of art ... for the 19th century typewriter. The rules are also badly confused over typesetting terminology, and internally contradictory. And there's a nice person who can reject your meticulously prepared, beautifully printed manuscript if the left margin on Page iii is a 64th of an inch too big. The academic beaurocracy may someday reach the modern age, but the thesis formatting rules are likely to be the last piece to fall.
In any case, I wrote myself a pretty involved little LaTeX class to deal with all the formatting rules, and it has been used successfully by a number of people to slide through. It includes all sorts of spiffy stuff, like support for all various "lists" (acronyms, journals, figures, illustrations, etc.) glossaries and indices, CV support, pithy quotes at the beginning of each chapter, and similar dreck. The crowning is the parallel "de-uglified" mode; the library option satisfies the formatting requirements, while the default mode provides for a less traditional "won't make your eye fall out" attractive format (which, incidentally, is more compact and easy to read, and saves up to 50\% on paper).
Here's the class and support code along with my thesis which, in addition to being a seminal and critical work of theoretical physics that everyone should read, is also the archetype for this thesis class.
You should feel free to use it, but there are a few caveats:
I have had to format many problem sets and their solutions in my day, and I wrote a little class to help me out. You format both the questions and their answers together in their own environments. Then, at compile time, you can conditionally format out the solutions, allowing you to generate both question as well as question and answer sheets from the same code.
The class, and an example. Add option "nosolution" to the documentclass to eliminate the solutions.
Last modified on November 7, 2007