The 46th Winter Nuclear and Particle Physics Conference will feature six plenerary style talks linked to the conference sub-themes. We are very pleased to present the speakers for this year:

Corina Andreoiu.: Experimental Nuclear Physics. "On Recent and Future Nuclear StudiesUsing High Resolution Gamma Ray Spectroscopy at TRIUMF ISAC II"

Current Research Interests:

• Nuclear Science at Subatomic Level
• Experiments with Stable and Radioactive Beams
• Nuclear Chemistry of Stars (Nuclear Astrochemistry)
• Focal plane detectors for EMMA

M.Sc. University of Bucharest (1995)

Lic. Phil. - Lund University (2000)

Ph.D. - Lund University (2002)

Currently: Assistant Professor in NUCLEAR SCIENCE, Simon Fraser University

Corina Andreoiu Abstract:

On Recent and Future Nuclear Studies Using High Resolution Gamma Ray Spectroscopy at TRIUMF ISAC II

C. Andreoiu*, on behalf of the TIGRESS collaboration
Simon Fraser University, Department of Chemistry, Burnaby, BC, Canada

     Recent development of radioactive beams and suitable detector arrays for high resolution gamma ray spectroscopy at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Physics, have attracted a lot of interest in proposing new experiments using intense accelerated radioactive beams delivered by the TRIUMF’s ISAC II facility. Many of these experiments are focused on exploring nuclei which are situated far from the valley of beta stability on either side of the proton- or the neutron drip lines, and on the path of the rp- or r-processes, respectively, that are responsible for the creation of the elements in stellar environments.
     Several successful Coulomb excitation and transfer reaction experiments using accelerated beams of neutron and/or proton rich Na and Be isotopes, the TRIUMF-ISAC Gamma-Ray Escape Suppressed Spectrometer (TIGRESS), and dedicated ancillary detectors have already been performed [1-4].
      In my talk I will focus on the most recent updates of the TRIUMF ISAC II facility, detector arrays, and recent and future experiments using high resolution gamma ray spectroscopy methods. Preliminary results on specific resonance states in 21Na [5] relevant for important region of astrophysics interest and on the halo features and structure of levels in 12Be halo nucleus [3] will be shown.
     The TIGRESS collaboration consists of a large group of students, postdoctoral fellows, professors, and scientists from Canadian and international universities and laboratories.

References
 
[1] TIGRESS Technical Progress Report, (August 2007)
[2] M.A. Schumaker et al., Phys. Rev. C 78, 044321 (2008)
[3] R. Kanungo et al., to be published, and private communication
[4] A.M. Hurst et al., submitted to Phys. Lett. B
[5] D. Jenkins, private communication

Work supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
* E-mail: corina_andreoiu@sfu.ca

Alain Bellerive: Experimental Particle Physics. From SNO to SNOLAB and connection to the LHC

Research interests include The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and investigations into new opportunities, including the development of a Time Projection Chamber for future experiments at the International Linear Collider and SNOLAB.

Ph.D.   McGill University

Currently: Associate Professor of Physics at Carleton University and Canada Research Chair in Experimental Particle Physics

Alain Bellerive Abstract:

From SNO to SNOLAB and connection to the LHC

Alain Bellerive, Carleton University

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) has conclusively shown that solar neutrinos oscillate on their way from the core of the Sun to the Earth. This groundbreaking observation was made during the first two phases of the experiment. The third phase of SNO used 40 proportional counters to enable a systematically independent check of the previous SNO measurements. The counters were filled mainly with 3He and were used to measure the number of neutrons from solar neutral current neutrino interactions with high accuracy. SNO has developed several methods to tell neutron events apart from alpha background events. This ability is crucial for the analysis of the third phase data. The most recent results from this analysis will be presented. The physics reach and goal of a combined three-phase solar analysis by SNO will also be reviewed. The remainder of the talk will be a quick overview of the physics topics coupled with the detector technologies that SNOLAB will be challenged with in the future. The new SNOLAB facility will provide infrastructure for exciting new measurements in particle astrophysics which can only be carried out in a deep ultra-low radioactivity conditions. The 2 km of over burden at the site provides 6010 meter of water equivalent of shielding from cosmic rays and offers a uniquely low background environment for the next generation of experiments exploring the frontiers of particle physics in the study of low energy solar neutrinos, neutrinoless double beta decay, dark matter, and neutrinos from Supernova explosions. Connection between SNOLAB and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will be highlighted together with discovery potential and complementarities between astro-particle and collider physics experiments.

Cliff Burgess: High Energy Particle Theory. "Extra Dimensions, Dark Energy and the Cosmological Constant Problem"

Research interests include the interface between string theory and lower-energy physics and possible observable consequences in experiments and in cosmology.

B.Sc. with a joint honours in Physics and Applied Math from the University of Waterloo.

PhD. Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Texas in Austin under the supervision of Steven Weinberg.

Postdoctoral Research: The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Currently: Joint position as Professor with McMaster University's department of Physics and Astronomy and an Associate Member at the Perimeter Institute.

He was recently awarded a prestigous Killam Fellowship by the Canada Council for the Arts to research String Cosmology, the interface between string theory and early universe cosmology.

Cliff Burgess Abstract:

Extra Dimensions, Dark Energy and the Cosmological Constant Problem

C.P. Burgess*,
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton ON, L8S 4M1, Canada.
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo ON, N2L 2Y5, Canada.

One of the most exciting things to find at the LHC would be extra dimension, but most physicists don't really believe extra dimensions are likely to be large enough to be seen there, even if they exist. I am one of the few true believers, and hope to explain in this talk why the most convincing evidence for this comes from cosmology. The argument relies on the observation that large extra dimensions provide the only known approach for reconciling the small size of the observed curvature of spacetime (as inferred from the cosmological energy density) and the energy of the vacuum (which we believe quantum fluctuations should make large). Better yet, branes in large extra dimensions can modify gravity at energies low enough to be relevant to the observed Dark Energy density, without also ruining well-constrained non-gravitational interactions at these low energies. The talk outlines the issues for nonspecialists, emphasizing how the extra-dimensional proposal is very predictive, with observable consequences for the LHC, for tests of gravity on both large and small scales (and possibly for neutrinos).

Work supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
*E-mail: cburgess@perimeterinstitute.ca

Geoffrey Grinyer: Experimental Nuclear Physics. "HIGH-PRECISION HALF-LIFE MEASUREMENTS FOR
SUPERALLOWED FERMI  BETADECAYS"

PhD. Experimental Nuclear Physics at Guelph University

Currently: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NSCL (National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory) at Michigan State University

He was recently awarded the 2007-08 Thesis Prize competition from the Division of Nuclear Physics (DNP). He will be speaking about that research work at WNPPC-09

Geoffrey Grinyer Abstract:

Click here for PDF version of Abstract.

Alysia Marino: Experimental Particle Physics.

Research interests have been focused on aspects of neutrino physics. She has worked on the solar neutrino experiments Borexino in Italy and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, as well as long base line neutrino oscillation experiments MINOS at Fermi Lab and most recently T2K in Japan.

A.B. Physics. Princeton University, 1998

Ph.D. Physics. University of California at Berkeley, 2004

Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Fermilab and then University of Toronto.

Currently: Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder

Alysia Marino Abstract:
Stay tuned.

Wolfgang Rau: Experimental Astroparticle Physics. "DARK MATTER - A MYSTERY TO SOLVE"

Current research interest is in Astroparticel Physics. Specifically he is involved in the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment, which employs low temperature detectors for the direct search for Dark Matter particles. He has also recently joined the DEAP/CLEAN Dark Matter search experiment which will be based on several tonnes of liquid Argon.

PhD from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, working in collaboration with Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg

Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley and at the Technical University in Munich, Germany.

Currently: Assistant Professor of Physics at Queen's University and Canada Research Chair in Astroparticle Physics.

Wolfgang Rau Abstract:

DARK MATTER - A MYSTERY TO SOLVE
W. Rau*
Queen’s University, Kingston ON

Since three quarters of a century we know that there is considerably more mass in the universe than we can assign to visible objects. In this talk I will go over some of the evidence for this mysterious dark matter and discuss what it might be. In the second part I will concentrate on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), one of the prime candidates to solve this mystery, and discuss the different experimental approaches to search for these particles with an emphasis on the direct WIMP search experiments with Canadian participation.

*E-mail: rau@owl.phy.queensu.ca