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Weizmann Institute of Science Faculty of Physics |
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Contact Informat Tel : 972-8-9344204
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Current Research Interests The Standard Model (SM)
describes the forces and particles in nature. Most of us are familiar
with electrons, protons and neutrons. However, protons and neutrons are
not fundamental since they
are made of smaller constituents called quarks. The fundamental
particles include the matter constituents like electrons, neutrinos and
quarks and the force carriers like photons that carry the electromagnetic
force and the W and Z bosons that carry the weak force (which is responsible
for radioactive decay). All of these particles acquire their mass by
coupling to another particle called the Higgs boson. The heavier the
particle, its coupling to the Higgs boson is stronger. This Higgs
mechanism is the most dubious part of the SM and its confirmation is the ultimate
test of the model. Moreover, it is widely believed that the SM is a
low-energy approximation of a much more fundamental model and that it cannot
be the ultimate explanation of nature. The Higgs sector is expected to be the
most sensitive part of the SM and its
study might reveal the first hints for the nature of the theory beyond the
SM. Hence, the search for the Higgs boson, an unavoidable prediction of
the Higgs mechanism, is of utmost importance. In order to search for
the Higgs boson one needs high energy accelerators that are able to break
matter apart. The experimental high energy group of the Weizmann institute,
of which I am a member, is active with the Large
Electron-Positron (LEP) collider in the CERN
laboratory in My present research involves the search for the Higgs boson with the OPAL detector at the LEP accelerator. The Higgs boson is produced in such collisions with a probability that is inversely proportional to its mass. Therefore the heavier the Higgs boson, more energy is needed in order to break matter apart and produce it. The collision center-of-mass energy is therefore constantly upgraded in order to be sensitive to heavier Higgs bosons. Besides analyzing the existing collisions data using sophisticated statistical, data analysis and physics techniques I am also involved in evaluating Higgs discovery potentials in both the LEP machine and the prospective higher energy Next Linear Collider (NLC). Background material and references can be found in http://eilam.weizmann.ac.il/
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