Experimental Elementary Particle Physics
Lawrence K. Gibbons
Associate Professor of Physics
208 Newman Lab
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
(607) 255-9931
B. A., 1985, University of Chicago. Ph.D., 1993, University of Chicago. Research Associate, University of Rochester, 1993-97. Assistant Professor, Physics, Cornell University, 1997-2004. Associate Professor, Physics, Cornell, 2004-present. Analysis Coordinator, CLEO Collaboration, 1996-97. Software Coordinator, CLEO III, 1997-2000. Member, American Physical Society.
Research Areas
CP violation, weak interactions, electroweak symmetry breaking, heavy quark physics, experimental particle physics
Current Research
My research interests have centered on the experimental study of heavy quark decay using the B mesons and D mesons produced at CESR (Cornell Electron Storage Ring.) This facility fosters an exciting program that will provide precise tests of the QCD calculation techniques that currently limit our ability to extract the weak interaction physics. All decays are reconstructed using the CLEO particle detector. My specific interests include development of sophisticated techniques to probe precisely b -> u and c-> d quark transitions, quark mixing and rare b and c quark decays, which provide us with a potential window to discover new, more fundamental, forces. CLEO and CESR are operating beautifully. My group's current analysis efforts have recently contributed to one of the world's best measurements on the strength of the b -> u quark transition, and provide some of the most accurate information for determination of the c-> d and c-> s quark transitions. These measurements contribute directly to our understanding of CP violation in the weak interaction, and are crucial inputs to indirect probes of completely new types of fundamental particles and interactions.
The Cornell HEP group’s current focus is the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The LHC will be the first collider that will allow us to probe the processes involved in electroweak symmetry breaking, the process by which electromagnetism and the weak interaction come to appear so different at our day-to-day energy scale, and by which all the particles that we know obtain their mass. The collision energies will also be large enough that we may very well produce, and observe directly, new types of fundamental particles!
I am currently involved with a team exploring reconstruction of W decays at CMS, with an eye towards improvement of the missing energy measurements at CMS methods using our "neutrino reconstruction" experience that played a key role in our quark transition measurements at CLEO. Detailed understanding of the processes involving W and Z bosons will be necessary, on the one hand, for control and subtraction of backgrounds resulting from new particles and forces. Many predictions for these new processes involve production of massive particles that escape without detection because they interact so weakly. As a result large missing energy will be a very interesting signature, and again will require detailed understanding. On the other hand, precise measurement of these processes will also enhance our basic understanding of the weak interaction.
I also lead LEPP’s software group, which focuses on design and support of the data analysis infrastructure that will enable physicists to analyze the 2 Petabytes of data expected yearly. In addition to our CMS activities, we are collaborating with computer scientists at the University of Utah on projects that can utilize and track data and scientific provenance information to allow better capture and review of the scientific process.
Recent graduates: Richard Gray, Nadia Adam, Matt Shepherd, Tom Meyer, Veronique Boisvert
Graduate Students
Aleko Khukhunaishvili