Description:

“Optical Stark Effect in Two-Dimensional Semiconductors”
Trevor LaMountain

First observed in atomic and molecular systems, sub-resonant light can cause energy levels to shift with negligible absorption, allowing for optical trapping of atoms. This light-matter interaction, known as the optical Stark effect, can also be used to manipulate energy levels in solid state systems. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are atomically-thin semiconductors that possess unique electronic properties and associated optical selection rules not present in atomic systems. In this talk, I will discuss recently-developed measurement techniques that allow us to investigate novel features of the optical Stark effect in new TMDs.

“Population Determination in Particle Physics”
James Beughly

High-energy proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider result in a wide range of particle interactions. The experimentalist is often interested in a specific physics process and makes cuts on the data to isolate its contribution from the rest. However, even after cuts, the data is generally a mixture of multiple populations. In this talk, I focus on modeling and measuring this mixture in the context of two analyses: associated production of a Z boson and a J/psi meson, and the rare decay of a Higgs boson to a Z boson and a photon. In particular, I will discuss two-dimensional fit procedures and how they can improve our ability to discriminate between populations in the data.