PhD Defenses

PHYSICS DISSERTATION DEFENSE: Nicole Hartman

Date
Thu October 27th 2022, 2:00 - 3:00pm
Location
PAB 102/103

When built, the MAGIS-100 atom interferometer will be the largest in the world. But it's still missing a key component: a detailed camera. Stanford University

Ph.D. Candidate:  Nicole Hartman

Research Advisor: 
Michael Kagan and Su Dong 

Date: October 27th, 2022
Time:
2 PM

Location: PAB 102/103


Zoom Link:  
https://stanford.zoom.us/j/92874318892

Zoom Password: email nickswan [at] stanford.edu (nickswan[at]stanford[dot]edu) for password



Title: 
A search for non-resonant di-Higgs production in the four b-quark final state with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: 
The Standard Model (SM) characterizes the fundamental building blocks of nature, with its experimental characterization culminating with the discovery of the Higgs boson a decade ago. While subsequent Higgs measurements have thus far confirmed the SM predictions, a critical test for our understanding of electroweak symmetry breaking is to study the shape of the Higgs potential by measuring the Higgs self-coupling — which can be probed by searching for events with two Higgs bosons (HH).  This talk presents a search for HH production with each Higgs subsequently decaying into two b-quarks. The extremely small predicted HH signal, coupled with a complex background that cannot be effectively simulated, makes this analysis an ideal test bed for machine learning applications.  This talk will also present the developments in novel algorithms for b-quark jet identification and background estimation that build on recent advancements in machine learning and have been crucial to the HH analysis.