Month: November 2020

High Energy Physics group awarded three grants totaling over $14 million

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a woman in a helmet wearing a disposable facemask stands in front of lots of metal hardware and wires
HEP post-doc Dr. Camilla Galloni next to the CMS end cap supporting the GEM detectors that were installed this fall. The primary structure in this photo was engineered at the UW–Madison Physical Sciences Lab. The big CSC chambers were installed, upgraded and reinstalled and operated by UW physicists. The smaller GEM chambers, which are barely visible in the interstices, are being commissioned by UW–Madison physicists through the second grant mentioned in this post.

The High Energy Physics (HEP) group at UW–Madison, which broadly focuses on identifying and understanding the fundamental aspects of particles and forces in Nature, has been awarded three significant grants in 2020. The grants — two from the Department of Energy (DOE) and one from the National Science Foundation (NSF) — are awarded either directly to UW–Madison or indirectly through multi-institution international collaborations, bringing over $14 million to the department.

The first grant, $7.37 million from DOE, funds research that is expected to help physicists understand how our Universe works at its most fundamental level. At UW­–Madison, this research includes experimental and theoretical studies into topics such as using the Higgs boson as a tool for new discoveries and identifying principles of dark matter.

The grant will fund five areas of research: 1) studies of high energy proton-proton collisions; 2) studies of neutrino interactions; 3) studies of super-weak signals from galactic dark matter particles; 4) wide-area imaging surveys using powerful new telescopes; and 5) computational and mathematical methods of quantum field theory and string theory.

Sridhara Dasu is principal investigator on this DOE grant. Co-investigators include Yang Bai, Vernon Barger, Keith Bechtol, Kevin Black, Tulika Bose, Lisa Everett, Matthew Herndon, Kimberly Palladino, Brian Rebel, Gary Shiu, Jennifer Thomas (WIPAC), and Sau Lan Wu. The grant was awarded in June 2020 and provides funding through March 2023.

The other two grants awarded will provide funding for upgrades to the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) project at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The first is an NSF-funded grant for which Kevin Black is leading the UW–Madison effort to upgrade the CMS End Cap muon system upgrade. The $900,000 to the department is part of a larger multi-institutional grant through Cornell University and runs through 2025.

“The GEM detectors are novel micropattern gas detectors which can handle the high background rates expected in the end-cap muon detectors. They will enhance the triggering and reconstruction of forward muons which are expected to make significant improvements and increased acceptance to search for new particles and make precision measurements of known particles and interactions,” Black explains. “UW has a long history with CMS muon system with Prof Matt Herndon, Senior Emeritus Scientist Dick Loveless, and Senior Scientist Armando Lanaro leading to the design, construction, operation, and upgrade of the other end-cap subdetector system instrumented with Cathode Strip Chambers.”

The other CMS-specific grant is a four-year, $5.3 million DOE grant through Fermilab that will fund the CMS trigger upgrade. This funding will allow the UW–Madison CMS group to perform all aspects of the work involved in design, prototyping, qualification, production and validation of the calorimeter trigger system for the upgrade. When completed, the project is expected to result in the collection of 25 times more data than is currently possible. Sridhara Dasu is the principal investigator of this grant.

Ellen Zweibel elected AAAS Fellow

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Congrats to Astronomy and Physics professor Ellen Zweibel on her election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was elected “for distinguished contributions to quantify the role of magnetic fields in shaping the cosmos on all scales.” Read the full story about all six UW–Madison faculty who earned this honor.

Cary Forest, Jay Anderson, and John Wallace part of WARF Innovation Awards finalist team

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profile photo of Cary Forest

Each fall the WARF Innovation Awards recognize some of the best of inventions at UW-Madison.

WARF receives hundreds of new invention disclosures each year. Of these disclosures, the WARF Innovation Award finalists are considered exceptional in the following criteria:

Criteria

  • Has potential for high long-term impact
  • Presents an exciting solution to a known important problem
  • Could produce broad benefits for humankind

Cary Forest, Jay Anderson, and John Wallace are part of one of six finalists teams selected by WARF for their disclosure, “High-Energy Plasma Generator for Medical Isotope Production, Nuclear Waste Disposal & Power Generation.” Watch Video

Two Innovation Award winners will receive $10,000, split among UW inventors, and will be named at a virtual ceremony December 8. Learn more and register for the event.

See all six finalists and watch their videos at WARF’s Innovation Awards website.

Jimena González named Three Minute Thesis® finalist

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Congrats to Jimena González, a physics graduate student in Keith Bechtol’s group, who is one of nine finalists for UW–Madison’s Three Minute Thesis® competition! Watch Jimena’s video on YouTube, and check out all nine finalists’ videos at the UW–Madison 3MT® website. The videos are only available through November 29. The finals will be held on February 3, 2021.

a still from a YouTube video of Jimena giving a presentation
Jimena González presents a virtual 3MT

A better understanding of coral skeleton growth suggests ways to restore reefs

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Coral reefs are vibrant communities that host a quarter of all species in the ocean and are indirectly crucial to the survival of the rest. But they are slowly dying — some estimates say 30 to 50 percent of reefs have been lost — due to climate change.

In a new study, University of Wisconsin–Madison physicists observed reef-forming corals at the nanoscale and identified how they create their skeletons. The results provide an explanation for how corals are resistant to acidifying oceans caused by rising carbon dioxide levels and suggest that controlling water temperature, not acidity, is crucial to mitigating loss and restoring reefs.

“Coral reefs are currently threatened by climate change. It’s not in the future, it’s in the present,” says Pupa Gilbert, a physics professor at UW–Madison and senior author of the study. “How corals deposit their skeletons is fundamentally important to assess and help their survival.”

Read the Full Story | Link to the PNAS study