## Tentative Schedule

### January 26

Speaker: Zsolt Fülöp, ATOMKI of Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Abstract:

The LUNA (Laboratory Underground for Nuclear Astrophysics) facility has been designed to study nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest. It is located deep underground in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy, where the 3800 m (water equivalent) thick rock cover reduces the muon flux by six orders of magnitude. Two electrostatic accelerators, with 50 and 400\,kV maximum voltage, in combination with solid and gas target setups allowed to measure the total cross sections of various radiative capture reactions within their relevant Gamow peaks. An overview will be given on recent achievements at the LUNA facility and future plans will be discussed.

### February 23

Speaker:  Jonathan McKinney, Stanford University

Title: "Observing Black Holes"

Abstract:

Black hole accretion systems are among the most powerful phenomena in the Universe and are excellent laboratories for probing and testing general relativity.  I discuss how such systems work, and I show how black hole spins can be measured using photon spectra from black hole x-ray binaries.  Such measurements are then shown to be reliable by using three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations.  I also use black hole accretion simulations to reveal how relativistic jets are launched and remain stable despite the potentially destructive magnetic kink instability and other instabilities.  Such simulations also show how observations of jets from active galactic nuclei expose the cosmological evolution of black hole spin.  I outline what advances in astrophysical theory are required to test general relativity using black hole accretion systems.

***Special start time at 2:00 PM in 705 Pupin Hall***

### March 2

Speaker: Bence Kocsis, Harvard University

Abstract:

The anticipated detection of gravitational waves (GWs) will open up a new window on the Universe in the coming decade. The GW signatures alone will provide invaluable scientific information. However, if an electromagnetic counterpart can also be identified to a GW source, it would allow  entirely new scientific opportunities to study fundamental physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. I will describe mechanisms that may produce an electromagnetic counterpart and the prospects for their detections. I will also show that the future LISA detector will provide an advance warning of supermassive black hole mergers (SMBH). Additionally, galactic nuclei also host a swarm of stellar mass compact objects that produce GW signals for Earth based detectors. I will demonstrate that stars and compact objects collectively resemble a gigantic liquid crystal, which can exhibit phase transitions. This tantalizing new finding  has important implications for GW observations.

***Special start time at 2:00 PM in 705 Pupin Hall***

### March 9

Speaker: Jason Koskinen, Penn State University

Abstract:

The January 2011 commissioning of the full DeepCore sub-array, a low-energy extension of the IceCube neutrino observatory, offers new opportunities for neutrino and Dark Matter physics in the multi-GeV energy region. The improved energy reach and multi-megaton size of DeepCore will produce one of the largest neutrino datasets ever acquired, annually containing tens of thousands of atmospheric neutrinos after oscillating over a baseline of up to one earth diameter. I will cover some IceCube-DeepCore Dark Matter results/prospects as well as prospects for muon neutrino disappearance and possibly a tau neutrino appearance measurement. Potential extensions to DeepCore designed to drive the energy reach initially down to ~1 GeV, and ultimately down to ~15 MeV, while maintaining a megaton scale size will conclude the talk.

### March 23

Speaker: Amitabh Lath, Rutgers University

Abstract:

Searches for new physics at colliders almost always require either leptons or missing energy.   But what if new physics had color, and the signature was nothing but jets due to quarks and gluons? Conventional analysis techniques might well miss a large signal of this type. I will describe an interesting new analysis technique designed to be sensitive to new physics decaying to multi-jet final states, and results from CDF.

### March 30

Speaker: Daniel Kaplan, Illinois Institute of Technology

Abstract:

Fermilab operates the world's most intense antiproton source. Newly proposed experiments can use those antiprotons either parasitically during Tevatron Collider running or after the end of the Tevatron Collider program. For example, the annihilation of 5 to 8 GeV antiprotons is expected to yield world-leading sensitivities to hyperon rare decays and CP violation. It could also provide the world's most intense source of tagged D0 mesons, and thus the best near-term opportunity to study charm mixing and, via CP violation, to search for new physics. Other precision measurements that could be made include properties of the X(3872) and the charmonium system. An experiment using a Penning trap and an atom interferometer could make the world's first measurement of the gravitational force on antimatter. These and other potential measurements using antiprotons could lead to a broad physics program at Fermilab in the post-Tevatron era.

### April 6

Speaker: Sheldon Stone, Syracuse University

Abstract:

The LHCb experiment accumulated a small sample of data in 7 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC in 2010. I will present recent measurements,including two new discoveries, our physics goals using 2011 and 2012 data,and our long term objectives.

### April 13

Speaker: Joseph Formaggio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Title: "Weighing Neutrinos"

Abstract:

Neutrino oscillation experiments performed throughout the latter half of the twentieth century have yielded valuable information about the nature of neutrino masses and mixings.  The data gathered has provided the first positive evidence for physics beyond the standard model.  As the next century begins, new neutrino experiments will provide greater insight into the properties of neutrinos.  This talk will discuss how tritium beta decay experiments can contribute to our knowledge of neutrino masses, cosmology, and physics beyond the Standard Model.  The talk will concentrate on two specific tritium beta decay experiments - KATRIN and Project 8 - and the role they will play in the near future.

### April 20

Speaker: Camillo Mariani, Columbia University

Abstract:

Neutrino experiments are now taking data or being built to measure the last unknown neutrino mixing angle, theta13. Accelerator and reactor experiments involved in this search use different experimental techniques and face distinct challenges. This talk will explain how an oscillation measurement is done and what is needed from each type of experiment for success. A golden era in the search for theta13 is about to begin and we will have results in the next 5 years. These results will determine the course of future neutrino research in particle physics.

### April 27

Speaker: Regina Caputo, Stony Brook University

Abstract:

Leptoquarks are hypothetical particles that carry both lepton and baryon number and are proposed to exist in several Grand Unification Theories  (GUTs) and technicolor models. This work reports the search for pair production of scalar leptoquarks at the ATLAS detector using an integrated luminosity of 35 pb$^{-1}$ collected from the 2010 data set. The leptoquarks decay into lepton/quark pairs giving an event topology of two high energy jets and either one high energy charged lepton and missing transverse energy or two high energy charged leptons. The background, predominantly from associated production of vector bosons with jets and top quarks, is estimated using Standard Model simulated data, normalized to observations in control regions. The number of events observed is in good agreement with these background predictions. First generation leptoquarks are excluded with a mass below 376 (319) GeV with $\beta$=1.0 (0.5) and second generation leptoquarks are excluded with a mass below 422 (362) GeV with $\beta=1.0 (0.5)$ at a 95\% confidence level.