Events at Physics |
Events on Friday, April 15th, 2011
- Phenomenology Seminar
- Theory/Phenomenology Seminar
- CP Violation in Bs Mixing in the MSSM and Beyond
- Time: 2:30 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Wolfgang Altmannshofer, Fermilab
- Abstract: Recently there has been considerable progress in the experimental determination of the Bs mixing phase. Data from the Tevatron seem to point towards large CP violation in Bs mixing at the level of 3 sigma above the tiny SM prediction. I will briefly review the current experimental status and then discuss if and how large CP violation in Bs mixing can be accommodated for in various supersymmetric models, including the MSSM with Minimal Flavor Violation and supersymmetric flavor models that show representative flavor structures in the soft SUSY breaking terms.
- Host: Maike Trenkel
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Searching for Inflation from the South Pole with CMB Polarimetry
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
- Speaker: John Kovac, Harvard University
- Abstract: Inflation predicts a cosmic gravitational-wave background (CGB), the amplitude of which measures the inflationary energy scale. The CGB in turn produces a faint but unique signature in the 'B-mode' polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). BICEP1, the first experiment specifically designed to search for this signature, began observing from the South Pole in early 2006. It has produced the highest sensitivity measurements yet made of CMB polarization at the ~2 degree angular scales where the inflationary signal is expected to peak. Follow-on experiments BICEP2 and the Keck Array have now improved sensitivity dramatically are currently testing models of inflation at the GUT scale. At smaller angular scales, measurements of B-modes from gravitational lensing promise a sensitive probe of the Dark Energy equation of state, the sum of neutrino masses, and improved constraints on inflation. This decade will see intensified efforts to probe a rich array of fundamental physics through CMB polarization.
- Host: Karle