Description:

"“MUonE: an Independent Measurement of  a [HLO/u]

Michael McGinnis, PhD Student, Hahn Group

The Muon g-2 anomaly, at a 4.2σ deviation from Standard Model (SM) prediction, suggests new physics, but this deviation could be a result of systematic uncertainties. The largest uncertainty concerns the leading order hadronic contribution to the SM prediction ( , as it cannot be perturbatively calculated. The two current methods to calculate it, lattice QCD and data-driven calculations, also disagree with each other significantly. The MUonE experiment was proposed to independently constrain   and shed light on the discrepancy between the different methods of calculating it. This experiment will scatter muons from the CERN M2 beam with atomic electrons in thin targets. [HLO/u} will then be extracted from the outbound scattering angles of elastic µe collisions, measured with tracking modules developed for the CMS High Luminosity LHC upgrade. In this talk, I will present an overview of the experiment and present recent efforts towards online track finding at 40 MHz for event reconstruction and selection.

“Tracking Individual Atoms in a Xenon Bath: Pb-214 Tagging in LUX-ZEPLIN”

Jacob McLaughlin, PhD Student, Dahl Group

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) has the furthest physics reach of any xenon time projection chamber (TPC) dark matter detector built to date, however Rn-222 chain Pb-214 decays still present the largest background contribution to any low energy search. While LZ provides excellent discrimination against electron recoil (ER) backgrounds, like those produced by Pb-214 decays, additional mitigation methods can further reduce Pb-214 backgrounds to help LZ achieve its ultimate WIMP sensitivity. One such mitigation could be exploitation of spatial correlations between a particular Po-218 alpha decay and its child Pb-214, separated by O(10) minute xenon flows. Convective flow in previous TPC experiments have made this method untenable, but this talk will demonstrate successful parent-child tagging of Po-218 and Pb-214 pairs separated by up to 80 minutes. Comments on how this tagging can enhance LZ's WIMP sensitivity, as well as other new avenues to expand LZ's science reach will also be presented.